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Web App Hacking
Web application or web apps are the interface of a website to the Internet. Many of them are so poorly designed that it is relatively easy to take control or deface these sites. Many of the Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla have been shown to be bug riddled. Even when these are patched, these CMS's have a multitude of plug-ins that are often poorly designed.
In this series, we will first familiarize you with Web Technologies and terminology, then look at strategies of hacking web apps, then examine how to find vulnerabilities and then how to exploit them.
The tutorials in this series include;
1. Web Application Technologies, Part 1
2. Web App Hacking Overview and Strategy for Beginners
12. OS Command Injection
14. Using dirb to Find Hidden Directories
15. Using Wikto to Find Web App Vulnerabilities
16. Using TIDOS as a Comprehensive Web App Vulnerability Assessment
17. Local File Inclusion (LFI) Attack
18. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
19. Burp Suite:Bypassing Weak Input Authentication
20. Burp Suite: Testing for Persistent XSS
21. Burp Suite: Remote File Inclusion (RFI)
22. Burp Suite: XXE | <urn:uuid:a5f2c250-8502-4842-9c1c-63812a1e81f7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.hackers-arise.com/web-app-hacking | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337595.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005073953-20221005103953-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.837019 | 280 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Quantifying natural phenomena was all the rage among early 17th century scientists. As they grappled with measuring heat and cold, several came up with the thermoscope. This thin-necked flask was warmed between the hands and inverted over a dish of water; the water level rose in the flask in relation to the temperature of the air inside it.
The bulb thermometer is a direct descendant of the thermoscope and is based on the principle that a liquid expands when heated. The liquid in the bulb, usually mercury, rises into a thin tube as it warms up. While this genre is the most popular, other types of thermometers, including electrical and bimetallic, have since been developed. Electrical ones measure the resistance of a material, such as nickel wire, and convert that measurement into a temperature reading. Bimetallic thermometers, found in ovens and backyards, are made of two strips of different metals that are bonded together. The metals expand at different rates when heated, making the strip bend. The amount it bends is used to measure temperature.
German physicist Daniel Fahrenheit was the first to create a numerical scale for measuring temperatures that became standard. In 1714, Fahrenheit mixed snow and salt, stuck a thermometer in, noted how high the mercury rose and labeled that point zero. Then he boiled mercury, stuck the thermometer in again and called that point 600. He marked off even spaces between the points, thus securing his place in history.
Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius created a more practical scale in 1742. He labeled the freezing and boiling points of water 100 degrees and zero degrees respectively. (The scale was later inverted so that zero became the freezing point.) Celsius is now the standard scale in the sciences and in most countries–generally those that embrace the metric system. | <urn:uuid:7d55f09f-5d8a-4a4f-830a-3c8dc9a721d2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cio.com/article/266814/enterprise-software-early-technologies-the-thermometer.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337853.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006155805-20221006185805-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.957357 | 370 | 4.21875 | 4 |
Ransomware is a form of malware stealthily implanted on a victim’s device by an attacker with the intent of obtaining some valuable asset from the victim. Typically, the ransomware encrypts the user’s files or locks the user out of the device with a message showing how to contact the hacker or pay a ransom. Depending on the complexity of the algorithm with which the ransomware was designed, the malicious software can go as far as attacking network devices connected to the infected device.
The Growth of Ransomware Sophistication
Since the first ransomware attack in 1989, these malicious programs have grown in sophistication – attacking and taking ransom of high-value targets, including government networks, airports, hospitals, and so on. The advancement in cryptography, which goes hand in hand with encryption, has paved the way for this financially motivated cybercrime to thrive.
Cybercriminals can now develop sophisticated encryption technologies and receive payment via cryptocurrency, thereby making financial tracking a bit more complicated. According to Europol in 2018, ransomware rose over the last decade to become the most significant malware threat in the world.
COVID-19: An Opportunity for Ransomware Attacks
2020 will be one peculiar year to go down in history – undoubtedly due to the outbreak of the Nobel COVID-19 virus, which changed the way we live. The pandemic affected lives, properties, and even the economies of nations. People had to start working and schooling from home to limit the spread of the disease. Asides from the relative convenience this might pose, it also allowed cybercriminals to strike.
Hospitals and remote workers were the worst hit by this wave of attack as the former, having a more critical task of managing the health crisis, paid little attention to its IT infrastructure, leading to infiltration. Remote workers, on the other hand, obviously having to use networks that aren’t as secure as the ones in the workplace gave rise to an increase in ransomware attacks. Another factor that caused the surge in ransomware attacks during this period is the panic and chaos caused by the virus itself.
Ransomware Programs that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic
The panic, which was mostly fueled by the reports of COVID-19’s infection rate and ultimately, the lockdown, led users to lower their guard down. Every application or website purported to be dispensing information concerning the virus got attractive to everyone. Unfortunately, some of these platforms possess harmful content that users do not know of till they get infected.
One of the newest ransomware in this category – the “Vicious Panda” campaign, was targeted at the public sector in Mongolia. This malware exploited a virus in the Microsoft Office Word, which, when infused into a system, grants the attacker remote access to be able to perpetrate their attacks.
A mobile app, dubbed to be the official COVID-19 tracer application provided by Health Canada, was shrouded with new ransomware called CryCryptor. This ransomware encrypts the user’s files and leaves a file through which the victim can reach out to the attacker to negotiate a release.
Fortunately, a decryption tool was soon developed for those who fell victim to the attack. Above all, ransomware software behaves the same way, and there are multiple ways to detect Covid-19 related ransomware attacks. The targets and manner in which these attacks are orchestrated speak volumes already.
Essential Ways to Stay Safe from Ransomware Attacks
Due to these many vulnerabilities, is it essential that both corporations and individuals take specific measures to stay safe from a ransomware attack. Discussed below are some of these measures:
- Avoid Untrusted Emails and Websites: Emails and phishing websites have always been the primary source of attack over the years. Through social engineering and unsolicited mails, attackers can plant malicious programs to download and execute while an email or webpage is opened. To curb this, it is recommended that users ignore emails that have an unfamiliar subject name or which have gone to spam.
- Employ the Use of Security Software: For corporations and individuals, it is always a good rule of thumb to have security software such as an antimalware software, firewall, and encryption mechanism to scan and remove any malware, prevent unauthorized network access and encrypt files, so they are useless to anyone who intercepts data as they travel through the network.
- Avoid Giving out personal data: The malicious use of a person’s data has gone beyond the usual theft from a financial account. These days, details as little as cache and cookies which we allow on websites we visit, give way for our Internet activity to be monitored. A person’s Internet activity can reveal so much more about the person, and ultimately, it can be used to attack the person or gain access to an external network. | <urn:uuid:ed98fb82-d78d-4a32-98e4-92fb4b99af5a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://coruzant.com/security/covid-19-the-driver-behind-ransomware-attacks-in-2020/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.94769 | 979 | 3.28125 | 3 |
By: Microtek Learning
Feb. 06, 2021
Last Updated On: Apr. 01, 2022
Cybersecurity is a rapid-paced, incredibly dynamic field with a vast range of specialties to opt from, allowing you to work anywhere in the globe. During the past few decades, breaches are mounting at a rapid pace and companies have been scramblling to hit upon new cybersecurity talent to aid combat the rising cyberthreats to businesses. As a result, there is an exponential demand for people in cybersecurity to help defend against this growing threat.
According to Mashable, the top cybersecurity industry, the global cybersecurity market may hit $170 billion by 2020 and has come out as the most fascinating industries to work in. Even, a 2018 report by ISC(2) predicts there are more or less 3 million openings globally. Moreover, U.S. Department of Labor reports that jobs in this field are estimated to grow 13 percent from 2016 to 2026, adding up 557,100 new jobs exclusively in the USA alone.
Cyber security is the state or practice of protecting and defending servers, computers, mobile devices, electronic systems, data, and programs from any type of malicious cyberattack. Cyberattacks are an evolving threat to enterprises, employees, businesses, and consumers. They may be designed to destroy or access sensitive info or data or to extort money. The term Cyber security is also known as electronic information security or information technology security.
Finding the right career path in this specialized filed or industry is not always an easy task. While many understand they want to go into the field straight after college, mostly work in software engineering or IT before exploring a specialized profession in the industry.
Building a great career in cybersecurity takes determination, perseverance, a hyper-alertness of the changing technology and threat landscape, and a keenness to continuously learn new skills. Whether you would like to become a cybersecurity analyst, a white-hat hacker, or something else, there are uncountable roles within cybersecurity to fit your career goals. Even if you aren’t interested to work a full-time cybersecurity job, there are so many other technologist positions like network architect and software engineer progressively demand some level of cybersecurity skills & know-how.
So, whether you are trying to kick start your occupation in the cybersecurity sector, looking to boost up your skills or shift into a completely new role, you should realize which roles your comforts align best with. After that, consider the path that will help out you get there.
In order to kick start your career in cybersecurity and land your dream job, there are some common steps you can take to ensure the route to success.
Whatever path you select, education is important. Pursuing a degree in cybersecurity is the first and foremost step toward starting a career in this in-demand and lucrative field. Earning a degree in the field of Information security, you will get plentiful options to build a career. After earning an undergraduate degree and adding up some experience in the field, a master’s degree in cybersecurity leadership and operations or IT is the next step toward growing your career opportunities
However, if you are pursuing the engineering route in cybersecurity, you must start with an undergraduate degree in engineering and afterward get specific experience in cybersecurity either through a master’s degree in cybersecurity engineering or through direct experience, or both.
One of the prime reasons for building your career in cybersecurity is that Industry analyst Cybersecurity Ventures estimated that cyber threat or crime will cost USD6 trillion yearly by 2021 globally. In such a distressed landscape, where plentiful jobs remain vacant due to the pool of unqualified applicants, those with a cybersecurity degree have a massive advantage. Even salaries are high due to the urgent demand and the lack of supply.
A recent study by McAfee projects that organizations rate certifications and experience over qualifications like degrees. Even, numerous organizations are willing to cover the employee’s costs to obtain a certification. The most prestigious of all certifications is the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and (ISC2) International Information Systems Security Certifications Consortium. This certificate is comprehensive, counting several areas of cybersecurity.
Other entry-level certifications cover Certified Secure Computer User (CSCU) and Certified Encryption Specialist (ECES)
As per a survey by Business News Daily, some of the best cybersecurity certifications a professional to pursue comprise:
Once you have gained some experience and certifications in cybersecurity field under your belt, you can progress your profession by grabbing advanced certifications offered by bodies such as:
The CISM credential was mainly introduced by the ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) in 2003. In addition to the CISM (Certified Information Security Manager), ISACA offers a plethora of certifications to security professionals in cyber security. Other credentials or certifications worth considering include:
The bottom line is, always look for the ways you so that you can augment your skills with continuing studies, whether in the form of certifications or extra experience credits.
Experience, degrees, and certifications are all useful things to start with but networking is crucial too. Meeting similar minded people and making connections is a great way to get your foot in this field. Conferences are great places to build knowledge and networks. There are several organizations, both informal and formal, that bring information security professionals together. Here are some to check out:
Besides, there are various cybersecurity experts you can follow online and learn from. Some thought leaders you follow on Twitter, for example, @briankrebs , @schneierblog, @lennyzeltser, @robertMLee, @hacks4pancakes.
Use readily-obtainable resources related to cybersecirity to boost your knowledge quickly. To defend something from cyber attack or threat, you should have a good grasp of how it works. To prevent network attacks or intrusions you must gain extra knowledge about network architecture, system architecture, and programming basics. Therefore before you push yourself too deeply into security stuff, make sure you know the technology.
Beyond the huge number of websites with free cybersecurity resources, there are specialist cyber security books, big annual events and conferences like DEF CON, Black Hat, and RSA, and a host of local, smaller events that are a great networking opportunity. Social media such as Stackexchange Reddit, or the major groups on Facebook, Twitter that has endless guides and tips, you can keep track of job opportunities and hot topics.
The cybersecurity industry is constantly growing because the cyberthreats we face are always changing. Information Security engineers are becoming increasingly expensive to hire and tough to find. By 2021, there could be around 3.5 million vacant positions in the cybersecurity sectors. So, if you are curious about getting started in cybersecurity, don’t let your background or education determine your career path. With proper certification and skills, you can easily be a part of the cybersecurity arena and hack your way towards a growing future.
“The five most efficient cyber defenders are: Anticipation, Education, Detection, Reaction, and Resilience. Do remember: "Cybersecurity is much more than an IT topic.” Stephane Nappo
If you’re looking for the easiest ways to level-up your skill-set, check out our career guide, and see where you can go. | <urn:uuid:21dde647-6e9c-4d3c-ae90-d8e6a0c99719> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.microteklearning.com/blog/how-to-build-a-career-in-cybersecurity/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335004.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927100008-20220927130008-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.937649 | 1,511 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Location Intelligence has been important for human endeavors for centuries. With modern advances in Information Technology, Location Intelligence can be achieved by commercial businesses with the use of Geographic Information Systems. A Geographic Information System (or GIS) is a relational database technology that enables both analysis and visualization of geographic, demographic, and other types of geospatial data.
The technology was first introduced in the 1970s and has evolved to provide scientists, engineers, and business analysts with a means by which to analyze their data through a customizable map and graphical user interface.
While all levels of government, military, engineering & scientific consultants, and academic organizations have been successfully using GIS for a variety of applications, commercial businesses have been slow to adopt the technology in order to provide better Location Intelligence for their Business Intelligence operations.
This online training course provides an overview of GIS software with the goal of demonstrating how to use the technology to build Location Intelligence.
This course is geared towards:
BA-04 Location Intelligence and Geographic Information Systems
Click –here- to download a more detailed outline of this course.
This exam tests knowledge and understanding of basic concepts, principles, and terminology of location intelligence and geographic information systems.
Number of Questions: 20
Time Limit: 40 Minutes
Passing Score: 70%
Once you pass the exam, you will receive a Certificate of Education documenting that you have demonstrated mastery of the topic. Further, the exam counts towards
Certified Information Management Professional (CIMP) designation in the Business Intelligence & Analytics track.
We recommend that you take detailed notes and review the course material multiple times before taking this exam.
Click here to learn more about CIMP exams. | <urn:uuid:7238f2f1-95c5-4f95-80e0-abc0b50bfcc3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ecm.elearningcurve.com/Location_Intelligence_p/ba-04-a.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337339.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002181356-20221002211356-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.903552 | 345 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)
Cloud computing has increased computational processing power and decreased the costs of data storage. Consequently, artificial intelligence and machine learning are fast becoming an everyday reality. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of technologies to learn and adapt to environmental stimuli. Machine Learning (ML) lets systems make enhanced predictions from AI-focused learned experiences. Without being explicitly programmed, machine learning is a subset of AI that can help transform your business by experiences learned. With the exponential growth in data, traditional analysis methods have become increasingly incapable of handling growing data volume. Machine learning can be valuable for an organization seeking to bring about a digital transformation.
Transform your Business with Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Services
With your clearly defined business objectives, Arbour Group can use AI and ML to drive processes at scale and help make informed business transformation decisions. This may include but is not limited to:
- AI Model Development
- Machine Learning
- Natural Language Processing
Machine learning can analyze much more data than a human-led process in a superior manner, and can potentially help streamline and expedite several digital processes. Machine learning can discover various relations in your datasets that present new revenue opportunities. In addition to faster processing, analytics and economies of scale are other advantages to taking a streamlined digital transformation approach.
If you would like more information regarding Arbour Group’s AI and Machine Learning Services, contact us today!
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Compliance Services
Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, is the capability of computers and machines to think and adapt to their environment. Machine Learning, also known as ML, is an artificial intelligence implementation that allows computer systems to learn from experience to make improved predictions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) compliance is simplifying the process of meeting regulations by monitoring and proactively addressing compliance requirements with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are our new reality as cloud computing has impacted the increase in computational processing power and with corresponding decreases in the cost of data storage. Due to the growth in data, traditional methods of analysis have become increasingly incapable of handling this data volume. Instead, cognitive capabilities—including machine learning, data mining, and natural language processing are replacing traditional analytics and being utilized against massive data sets to help find indicators of known and unknown risks.
As a result of these capabilities, Health Care and Life Sciences industries are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop new and innovative technologies and solutions to meet market needs. Many of these either must obtain regulatory approval or have the software solution be uniquely validated to meet market requirements.
Arbour Group’s Artificial Intelligence Services
At Arbour Group, whether it is assessing AI and ML solutions, designing Compliance Models, implementing Predictive Compliance Models, or the Application of AI models for Risks Management, we can help you achieve your goals of artificial intelligence and machine learning regulatory compliance through our digital compliance services. Your compliance programs move beyond sampling and spot checks to analyze the full universe of monitoring activities with our capabilities. As knowledge bases become more robust with compliance rules and learning algorithms become more advanced, we expect AI to become more integrated into the compliance monitoring regimen.
For more information on Arbour Group’s Artificial Intelligence Services, contact us today!
Arbour Group has provided us with competent validation project leadership that has enabled us to complete projects in a timely and cost effective manner.
The use of Arbour’s validation product greatly facilitated the process.
The regulatory assistance provided by Arbour Group has enabled us to enhance our compliance profile with life sciences customers.
Their Managed Services for software development and quality assurance play a key role in controlling business risk and reducing costs.
Arbour Group provided effective validation services to us and were a valuable part of the overall success of our company-wide ERP implementation.
Their integration into our multi-phase ERP roll out was seamless and assured us of comprehensive regulatory compliance. | <urn:uuid:d84dc077-618b-4d53-a67b-9f52aaf60296> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.arbourgroup.com/services/digital-compliance-services/artificial-intelligence-ai-compliance-services/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337339.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002181356-20221002211356-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.928534 | 812 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The term ‘hacking’ is currently mentioned on a daily basis in media reports but what are hackers actually capable of?
Businesses have become accustomed to a constant influx of new technological devices, however they are not always ready to stop and ask the question “Could this device expose me or my business to the threat of a hack?” Typically when discussing hacks, most will assume that devices capable of being hacked are computers, laptops, tablets or mobile phones, but trust us, you’ll be surprised as to exactly what devices can be hacked. Our cyber security experts are aware of or have even been involved in investigation cases where the following devices have been successfully attacked:
- Coffee machines
- Heating devices
- Medical implants
The common denominator for all of the above is their Internet connectivity.
Technical experts have successfully demonstrated an attack on a Wi-Fi enabled coffee machine that facilitated access to the whole of the owner’s wireless network, with the original attack providing the authorisation in terms of gaining access into a computer network.
Envisage the scenario where an attacker is able to take control of your Internet enabled central heating system and upload Ransomware onto the device. They could then have the ability to override your control of the heating, preventing the boiler from working and demanding a ransom to restore control back to you. Would you want to spend the winter period in your house where you could not control your heating?
What is hacking?
Hacking is the exploitation of known vulnerabilities in Internet connected servers and devices using widely available tools and techniques. In October 2016, over 142m records were reportedly leaked, this included:
- 58m subscriber details from MBS Systems
- 43m customer details from website builder Weebly
- Cyber-attack on ticketing platform RedBus
- Credit card breach at Hutton Hotel chain
- Credit card breach at the US Republiccan Party website
- DDOS attack on DYN (DNS) affecting Twitter, Spotify & others
What motivates hackers?
The process of locating vulnerabilities and performing a hack can be very time consuming and costly for hackers. Not to mention that it also involves the sacrifice of any moral compass. Therefore, to perform these hacks, there must be an incentive for these hackers and there is – in abundance. | <urn:uuid:07a018f4-1ce9-490a-9994-efc9800270aa> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.intaforensics.com/2017/02/16/hacking-and-prevention-guide/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337339.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002181356-20221002211356-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.947497 | 483 | 2.75 | 3 |
In its annual environmental report, US technology giant Apple has detailed the various steps it takes to ensure its data centers are relatively environmentally friendly.
Apple’s data centers are 100 percent renewably powered - this is achieved primarily through power purchase agreements, but the company also uses direct access solar arrays, local micro-hydro projects, biomass facilities and more.
How Apple keeps its data centers clean
The Environmental Responsibility Report covering fiscal 2016 explains what it has done for each of its data centers:
Maiden, North Carolina
- Between 60 and 100 percent of the Maiden data center’s energy use is generated by two 20MW solar arrays, an 18MW solar array, and 10MW of biogas fuel cells.
- Apple partnered with local utility Duke Energy to build five solar projects, with a combined peak capacity of 20MW.
- The data center uses outside air cooling, with a waterside economizer switching on at night and during the colder months of the year. This, combined with water storage, allows for chillers to be turned off most of the time.
- Energy is sourced primarily from wind farms in California, acquired directly from the wholesale market through the state’s Direct Access program. Wide availability of wind power has meant that the facility has been powered by 100 percent renewable energy since 2013.
- After the 130MW California Flats solar project in Monterey County comes online later this year, Apple will supply power from the solar field directly to the Newark data center as well as other Apple facilities in the state.
- The data center’s energy needs are partially met by two “micro-hydro projects” that are powered by local irrigation canals. The projects generate 12 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy per year.
- Apple has signed a “long-term purchase agreement” with Cypress Creek Renewables to buy energy from a 50MW portfolio of six solar arrays in Oregon.
- The company signed a 200MW power purchase agreement with a new Oregon wind farm, the Montague Wind Power Project. The first wind project established by Apple itself, it will produce more than 560 million kWh of renewable energy a year. The Montague Wind Power Project is expected to come online by the end of 2018.
- Finally, Apple has signed a power purchase agreement with the 56MW Solar Star Oregon II PV array, which is located “just a few miles” from the data center. When it comes online at the end of 2016, the site will produce 140 million kWh of renewable energy a year.
- Nevada’s energy industry is highly regulated (see: Switch’s suit against NV Energy), so “Nevada did not offer a simple solution for us to create new renewable energy projects dedicated to [the] data center,” Apple said. As a result, Apple turned to NV Energy to develop the Fort Churchill Solar PV project.
- Apple said that it “designed, financed, and constructed the project,” although the actual designer was SunPower. NV Energy operates Fort Churchill and directs all the renewable energy it produces to the Apple campus. A 20MW array with an annual production capacity of over 43 million kWh, it uses photovoltaic panels with curved mirrors that concentrate sunlight.
- At the end of 2016, a second solar array, the 50MW Boulder II project, came online in Nevada. Apple said it was made possible due to collaboration with NV Energy and the Nevada utility commission, creating a “green energy option open to all commercial customers that does not require the customer to fund project development up front.” Apple added: “We’re proud that another Nevada data center operator has also used the new green energy option, twice.”
- The new option has been used to establish Techren Solar, a 200MW solar array project announced earlier this year. Set to produce 540 million kWh of power, it should come online by the end of 2018.
- Apple partnered with local utility, the Salt River Project, to build a 50MW solar array called Bonnybrooke. Operational since October 2016, it produces over 147 million kWh of energy a year, “which more than fully matches the energy used by the data center.”
- The data center is still under construction, but the facility is expected to run on 100 percent renewable energy.
- Located near one of Denmark’s largest electrical substations, it won’t require back-up generators.
- The facility will capture excess heat and use it for local district heating.
- Apple is partnering with Aarhus University (Viborg campus) to co-develop an agricultural waste biomass project. “Methane from the biomass digester reaction will be used to create renewable electricity for our data center,” the company said. The agricultural waste will mostly come from local farms, which will benefit from the byproduct of the digester, nutrient-rich fertilizer.
- This data center is still under construction - in fact, it has been repeatedly delayed due to local disputes. If and when it opens, the facility will also be fully powered by 100 percent renewable energy (primarily through power purchase agreements).
- The facility will be cooled by natural ventilation, rather than mechanical air-conditioning.
- Due to Ireland’s abundance of coastal waters, Apple has partnered with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to support new ways of capturing wave energy and converting it into renewable electricity.
- As part of this agreement, Apple “supports a new wave energy technology” from SeaPower, which was tested near the location of the upcoming data center in Galway Bay last October. SeaPower says that its 1.5MW Power Take-off systems will be located at least 4 or 5 kilometers offshore.
- In addition to its own data centers Apple uses third-party colocation facilities, but it says that it includes those in its renewable energy goals. “Over 99 percent of our power for colocation facilities is matched with renewable energy generated within the same state or NERC region for facilities in the United States, or within the same country for those around the world,” Apple said.
- The company added that it worked with one of its main suppliers of colocation services to provide renewable energy solutions to all of its customers.
- “We also use third-party computing services to support some of our on-demand cloud storage-based services,” Apple said. While it has never confirmed which providers it uses, it is thought that Apple turned to Google Cloud Platform in March 2016 for the majority of its cloud needs, with some services reliant on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
- Google expects to achieve the goal of being powered by 100 percent renewable energy later this year.
The dirty bit
Of course, no matter how many solar arrays are built, data centers do occasionally need to turn to diesel-powered emergency back-up generators to keep things going. In a footnote, Apple revealed how much diesel it used over the course of the year - a total of 261,580 gallons. | <urn:uuid:28f0b53c-e971-4f56-87ae-921ed216602a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/sun-wind-and-sea-apple-details-data-center-renewable-energy-initiatives/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336674.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001132802-20221001162802-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.943595 | 1,502 | 2.625 | 3 |
It seems like a strange question, but consider how much energy is consumed by blockchain, and in particular, Bitcoin. According to recent reports by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, Bitcoin consumed about 0.55% of the world’s electricity production in 2021. That’s approximately the same amount of electricity as Malaysia consumed. This is also seven times more energy than Google consumed in 2021.
IDC stated in its Revelations in the Global DataSphere report, July 2021, that “Only 10% of the Global DataSphere is unique in any given year, the rest is replicated/consumed.” A Carnegie Mellon University study concluded that the energy cost of data transfer and storage is about 7 kWh per gigabyte in the cloud, which in itself can be significantly less than that of a traditional on-premises data center.
But what can we do about this? After all, data is valuable, and being able to access, interpret it, and measure it, is essential to all organizations; we can’t just delete it.
Also, we are on an exponential curve in terms of data volumes, and much of it is unstructured and thus harder to interpret. Another IDC statistic is that between 2020 and 2025 there will be a 400% increase in worldwide data volume (from 44 zettabytes to 175 zettabytes).
Clearly, we need to better address how and where data should be stored (or not) to avoid unnecessary copies.
A Logical Solution
Data virtualization is an ideal technology to assist here. The aim of data virtualization is quite literally to reduce/eliminate the replication of data and its cost. It also aims to optimize query execution to reduce the compute requirements. That might not sound important from a sustainability viewpoint, however optimized queries consume less compute, which, in turn, means that you are consuming less energy.
A logical data fabric, powered by data virtualization, also helps you to organize your data in less energy-consuming ways. One of the key features of a logical data fabric is query acceleration. Query acceleration can help in optimizing the ingress and egress of data as well as optimizing the required compute cycles, for two main benefits. The first is about a higher speed of execution, making sure the results are returned in near real time. The second, and less obvious one, is about a reduction in energy, by optimizing the query execution, which in turn optimizes the energy costs associated with data transfer.
The Way Forward
My recommendation would be to review your data and understand how much of it is unique. How much is replicated? Where is your data stored? Can you store it in a more environmentally friendly manner? If you leverage a more sustainable solution by adopting data virtualization, you can not only save energy, but do so while improving the power of your data as well as the bottom line. | <urn:uuid:ac0bdfbd-49a7-4cec-8848-2487634b7b13> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.datavirtualizationblog.com/how-green-your-data/?utm_source=Denodo&utm_medium=DV-Blog | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336674.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001132802-20221001162802-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.9572 | 592 | 2.875 | 3 |
When we talk about data management, the natural stopping point for any conversation is “data wiping”. Despite that, people often get wrapped up in the glitz and glamour of data management, synchronization, and other pit stops along the way without actually understanding what data wiping is at a base level.
That’s a shame – data wiping, although it might seem like a boring topic, is actually as important as it is fascinating. In this piece, we’re going to discuss data wiping, what it actually is, and how it works. We’ll highlight a few pieces of technology that can make data wiping more effective, efficient, and complete, and explain why it’s such an important thing to do.
What is Data Wiping?
To put it simply, data wiping is simply the act of removing data from a medium. That’s simple enough, right? It’s like erasing a VHS tape (for those of us old enough to remember those) or deleting content on an SD card or USB drive.
That’s the simple answer, but it’s an incomplete one. The better question to ask would be “what is proper, effective data wiping?” To answer that question, we need to talk a little bit about how data is written to a drive.
When data is written to a physical drive, the metal platters inside the hard drive encode the data in binary 1’s and 0’s. This magnetic medium of data storage works great, as it has good longevity, doesn’t degrade very quickly, and has good dependability.
These qualities come at a cost, though – because the data is written in this way, data leaves a trail. This trail can be exploited, and with the proper technique, even deleted data can be retrieved.
Think of it this way. Imagine a wall being spray painted with graffiti, and left for a week. A cleaner comes out to clean the paint off the wall. Even with the paint washed away, it still leaves a “space” underneath the paint where grime and dirt didn’t adhere. Even though the graffiti is gone, the message is still there, waiting to be read.
Data works in exactly the same way. Modern systems don’t really “delete your data”, despite their statements of “deleting”. What they actually do is look up where your data starts and ends, and then removes the chunks of data referencing these points. By doing this, they can “delete” the data, marking it unneeded, allowing you to write over the data set at any time.
This might speed up your system and make deleting quick, but you’re not actually deleting anything. Deleted data may still lurk on your computer, and with the proper tools and techniques, this data can be retrieved. Just like the graffiti on the wall, evidence is left behind.
Data wiping then, at least effective data wiping, not only gets rid of the data, but gets rid of all the vestiges of the data down to their “spaces” underneath.
How Does Data Wiping Work?
So now that we know what the problem is, how does effective data wiping do what it does?
Again, let’s go back to that graffiti analogy. It’s not that we want to get the paint off the wall – it’s a nuisance, sure, but the paint isn’t the main issue. What we really want to do is get rid of the message off the wall. It might be offensive, it might be revealing, it can really be anything, but at the end of the day, we want the message to be unreadable.
Therein lies the problem, of course. We know if we just pressure wash the wall, we’re going to leave behind that “space” underneath, the clean space that betrays the content of the message we’re trying to remove. With that in mind, what can we actually do?
We do have on solution, and it’s a quite effective one. Keep in mind that we’re not trying to remove the medium – in this case, the paint – but rather the message. With this in mind, we can very easily paint over the graffiti in our own paint.
By painting out a section on top of the offending content, and letting it dry, we can basically use that space underneath to our advantage. When we go to wash off the new paint, we’re left with a huge space underneath, sure – but it’s one that covers the original message, and gives us a bright, new, clean space to work with.
We’ll end up with a big square empty space, but that’s fine, because the end goal is to remove the message, not necessarily the medium the message was made in.
This is the principle behind data wiping. When we wipe data, we take a look at the sum total of 1’s and 0’s, and we blank them – sometimes multiple times. We replace all those numbers with straight 0’s, straight 1’s, and more straight 0’s, over and over. This not only removes the data, it permanently removes any record of the data having existed.
Why This is Important
It’s important to keep in mind that this data signature that’s left behind, this empty space, is very dangerous. We tend to think of “recovering data” as a complicated thing best left to techies and hackers, but in reality, it takes very little specific skill to recover data.
The scary part is that this barrier to recovery is decreasing by the day as new programs are released allowing for “one click” data recovery. These solutions are designed to enable a user to run an application and recover all the data hidden on a hard drive with ease. While these solutions are great when data is accidentally deleted, when we’re trying to delete it, it’s a very bad thing indeed.
Imagine all of your most intimate secrets, your tax forms, your kids’ pictures, your school projects, or your secret company development roadmaps – all of them are exposed unless you properly wipe your data.
When discussing issues of security, what we’re really talking about is your exposure and vulnerability. Every company and individual has an “exposure surface” that indicates how threatened they are by data exposure. The less data is exposed, the lower your exposure surface, and thus threat. The more data is exposed, the greater your exposure surface, and thus threat.
Using proper data wiping minimizes this exposure, securing businesses from external threats and corporate espionage, individuals from exposure of personal data, and more. The name of the game is to protect your data – and if you’re not properly wiping, your data can be protected by the best anti-virus and security software in the world, and you’d still be just as vulnerable as if you had nothing.
Clarabyte Data Wiping
Clarabyte is a highly effective and secure wiping tool that you can use today to completely and irreversibly erase this data. Because Clarabyte conforms to the major international standards for data destruction, you can be assured that data is completely wiped away, not simply “unmarked” and exposed for easy recovery.
By using a variety of patterns for overwriting and deleting data, Clarabyte can ensure complete and irreversible data wiping for almost any situation. Wiping data when selling a computer, eliminating personal files or documents, even giving new life to old electronics by clearing clutter and mess – all of this can be had with the Clarabyte Data Wiping solution.
For businesses, Clarabyte offers world-class data wiping that conforms with international standards and restrictions, protecting businesses and individuals from legal and ethical concerns due to confidentiality of customer information.
Finally, for individuals, Clarabyte offers peace of mind, knowing full well that your data is not only securely deleted, it’s permanently deleted, prohibiting criminals and others from accessing anything they’re not supposed to.
Your data is your personal self on the internet – don’t put it at risk! | <urn:uuid:1471a5f5-21cb-45c2-b191-27daf5a1faab> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://clarabyte.com/blog/data-wiping-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337480.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004054641-20221004084641-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.93371 | 1,734 | 3.234375 | 3 |
After major cyberattacks on the Colonial Pipeline and on meat supplier JBS, the idea of allowing companies to launch cyberattacks back at cyber criminals was proposed. This prompted a hot debate amongst government and industry leaders on the feasibility and risks of adopting a retaliatory stance.
The idea of hacking back is very tempting. It’s human nature to want justice when you’ve been wronged. However, while hack back is gaining traction as a hot topic with some legal minds and policymakers, this approach is shortsighted and very likely to have unintended consequences. Here are some reasons why retaliating against cyberattacks is a bad idea and what organizations should do instead to stay ahead of adversaries.
The dangers of hacking back
While the FBI’s partial recovery of the ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline showed that cybercriminals are not untouchable, launching cyber-attacks against them still carries enormous risks. From inadvertently targeting innocent bystander’s devices to escalating a cyber conflict – a lot can go wrong. The fact is, attribution is very difficult to accomplish, especially when it comes to advanced or highly sophisticated adversaries.
Even businesses with significant resources will find it difficult or even impossible to attribute cybercrime activities successfully and accurately. Attempting to hack back an adversary could have geopolitical implications that go well beyond the scope of the individual business and with the possibility of false-flag operations, a counterattack can spark a wider cyberwar.
Furthermore, these attacks will be purely retaliatory and the chances of getting data back are slim, so there is little to be gained. Allowing companies to openly retaliate will only normalize and rationalize the activity currently on display by bad actors, which will inevitably lead to escalation. Hacking back should be left for the government, while businesses can play a supporting role in cooperating with security guidelines and instructions, which was how the FBI succeeded against the DarkSide hacker group.
What companies should do instead
Since businesses cannot go on the offensive, they must double down on their defenses. Investing in a proactive cyber defense is a far better use of a business’s critical IT and security operations resources. Improving cyber hygiene through patch and configuration processes is the most effective way to reduce risk and exposure to attackers. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time for the average organization to fix critical vulnerabilities.
Cybercriminals can exploit vulnerabilities in just seven days so organizations must be actively looking and remediating these vulnerabilities. Adopting a 24/72 threshold can be a good way to maintain urgency, which means fixing zero-day vulnerabilities within 24 hours and critical vulnerabilities in 72 hours.
With speed being the critical factor, incorporating automation technologies can help assist security teams in streamlining the patching and configuration process. By lowering their attack surface with proper cyber hygiene, remaining vigilant to new emerging vulnerabilities, and working with the authorities is the best course of action for businesses.
The best defense is not offense
Ransomware and cyberattacks will only increase in frequency and sophistication – unfortunately, threatening cybercriminals with retaliation is not feasible for companies. The dangers far outweigh the benefits and the threat of escalation has far greater consequences for businesses and for our country.
Maintaining cyber hygiene by patching vulnerabilities and leveraging automation tools will help lower the chances of a breach happening. Instead of allowing companies to let loose and hack back, the government should continue to bolster the nation’s security infrastructure and guide businesses to a better security posture. | <urn:uuid:a59221d5-a6b9-4f22-b322-06b4452beede> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/08/31/why-companies-should-never-hack-back/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337480.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004054641-20221004084641-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.940762 | 703 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are used for monitoring and controlling industrial processes at the supervisory level. Usually, these systems make it possible to manage networks by collecting and analyzing real-time data from remote locations. Sites where human presence is not practical.
Examples of companies that deploy SCADA systems include water and waste control, oil and gas refining, transportation, energy and telecom.
SCADA systems involve many components. Some of the SCADA monitoring equipment and elements are:
Remote terminal units (RTUs)
Master station or HMI software
These components perform the following functions:
network data communication
Advanced SCADA systems support control functions. SCADA control functions are what enable a system to automatically respond to certain situations with a programmed response. Sensors cannot generate or interpret communications protocols.
Remote Telemetry Units (RTUs) along the network interpret the information from these sensors. And translate it into a language the master can understand.
SCADA Control is a core component of a SCADA Monitoring System
The master can utilize the information it receives from various inputs to enact control relays at the RTU level. This means that whenever a user-specified combination of alarms occur, the RTU will automatically respond with a SCADA control relay that has been programmed into the system. It will secure the network by responding to the Change-of-State (COS) event indicated by the alarm.
A Change of State (COS) Alarm list displays all new events that happen in your network, including alarm points that go into an alarm state and alarm points that are cleared. If your alarm master supports both kinds of view, you have the quickest and most accurate picture of your network's current status.
In other words, a control relay output allows you to remotely activate virtually any piece of equipment at your remote sites.
Derived Controls provide for instant reactions of the monitoring system in the event that user-specified alarm combinations occur. For example, if two individual alarms occurred at a single site, indicating that there was a power failure and a battery failure, a Derived Control would be activated, powering on a back-up generator.
So, with derived controls, you can apply rule sets to incoming alarms to control complex automatic responses to emergencies. There are two types of derived controls: echo and formula.
An echo derived control creates a one-to-one relationship in which a particular alarm input is echoed by a relay. For example, if your alarm monitoring device senses that a tower light has gone out, you can have a backup light automatically turned on in seconds.
A formula derived control monitors multiple alarm inputs. As well as evaluates them by a user-defined formula to determine if a relay should be activated. Derived control formulas use Boolean operators to specify under what conditions relays should be activated. Our generator failure example might be written like this:
If ( (generator=down) AND (battery=bad) )
then ( (page=technician) AND (backupGen=start) )
This is just a basic example, but it gives you an idea of the power of derived controls. And this power is easily expanded, because derived control formulas can themselves be used as terms in larger derived control formulas. Using derived controls, extremely complex and intelligent responses to emergencies can be completely automated.
Derived controls can trigger a control relay latch on a NetGuardian RTU - or an SNMP GET command to any SNMP device.
SCADA controls prevent the interruption of mission-critical operations. Even when a network operator is unavailable to manually respond to an alarm notification.
Lesser monitoring systems do not provide SCADA control functions. They simply allow for monitoring of a network. Operators using these types of systems must manually respond to individual alarms. This can be time consuming and very inefficient when dealing with complex processes at multiple sites.
This is why it is critical for operators to look for RTUs that can support both discrete and analog alarms, as well as control relays, when deploying a SCADA system. RTU devices, such as the NetGuardian 832A, are capable of all of these functions. Which eliminates inefficiencies by responding to alarms with control relays.
The NetGuardian 832A can support up to 32 discrete alarms, as well as 8 analog alarms and 8 controls. With a large capacity such as this, operators can create controls to respond to numerous alarm combinations along their network. While easily accommodating additional devices as their network expands.
To see additional information related to a SCADA Manual, please visit the SCADA Monitoring page.
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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:259109d7-4ee5-49d1-a8e4-3d2d8e17a0e3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://dpstele.com/scada/control.php | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337631.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005140739-20221005170739-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.906939 | 1,074 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Direct‑write printing is a relatively recent digital printing method that uses a computer controlled translation stage, which moves an ink nozzle to form 2D or 3D materials. As there are clear advantages to the direct‑write techniques, there has been a great deal of interest in these printing methods for a wide variety of applications. Only recently have security printing applications emerged using this technology. In this article, Jeevan Meruga et al. demonstrate the direct-write printing on pharmaceutical tablets, paper documents and historical artefacts.
The direct‑write technology is about 15 years old, and uses a computer controlled translation stage, which moves an ink nozzle to form 2D or 3D materials.1 Some of the attributes of direct‑write techniques include ink/materials flexibility, low cost and the ability to produce complex architectures on a wide variety of substrates.2, 3, 4 There has been a great deal of interest in these methods for a wide variety of applications, including printed electronics and biomedicine,1, 2, 4 but only recently the technology is emerging in security printing applications. The inks that are used can either be downconverting or upconverting inks.First, a number of ink properties are discussed, and then direct‑write printing of simple to complex security features is demonstrated on pharmaceutical tablets, paper documents and historical artefacts using a wide range of security‑based inks. The experimental procedure is discussed at the end of this article.
Downconverting inks are invisible until they are exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light where they will fluoresce and emit a wavelength (colour) in the visible part of the optical spectrum. As this wavelength is at a lower frequency than the UV light source, downconversion is taking place.5
Characterisation of the downconverting ink
Figure 1a shows the red fluorescein powder produced from the synthetic process mentioned in the experimen-tal procedure at the end of this article. When mixed in a 1:1 (v/v) methanol:water solvent, the dye appeared yellow‑green, as shown in Figure 1b, and fluoresces bright green under long‑wavelength UV excitation as shown in Figure 1c. The fluorescein excitation and emission spectra were recorded to determine the excitation and emission maxima at 448 nm and 519 nm, respectively. The excitation‑emission maxima are similar to the values reported by Bennett (2001) (excitation at 480 nm and emission peak at 525 nm),6 with the deviation likely due to variations in the solvent nature.
A quick response (QR) code (size 4×4 mm and thick-ness ~1 µm) was printed on an ibuprofen tablet with the fluorescein ink using the aerosol jet printer. The printed QR code was covert under ambient lighting, as shown in Figure 2a, but luminesced green when excited with long‑wavelength UV light (see Figure 2b). The luminescent QR code was readable with a smartphone QR reader app used to directly open a desired webpage URL. Approximately 0.1 mL of ink is consumed in printing a QR code of 4×4 mm size.
Masked fluorescein ink
Another approach to produce covert/semi‑covert print-ing on pharmaceutics was tested by printing a visible design on a pharmaceutical tablet using a coloured ink combined with a downconverting ink. For demonstration purposes, blue food colouring was used. Blue food colouring does not fluoresce under long‑wavelength UV irradiation, but the addition of fluorescein to the ink produces a fluorescent signature under the UV light.
To evaluate this approach, blue food colouring combined with fluorescein ink was printed onto a Motrin tablet as shown in Figure 3a. A QR code with the same dimen-sions mentioned earlier was printed on the tablet. These inks are highly fluorescent on Motrin tablets because of the white colour of tablets which mostly reflects all light. The print on the tablet shows no sign of fluorescent properties under ambient light (see Figure 3a), but is highly fluorescent under long‑wave UV light (see Figure 3b). Indeed, the mixed blue food colouring/fluorescein ink printed on the Motrin tablet is more fluorescent relative to the fluorescein ink printed on the Ibuprofen tablet.
We attribute the difference in brightness to the reflectance properties of the tablet. QR codes that change colour under UV may be applied as a security feature in track‑and‑trace applications of consumer goods.7
This research demonstrates that the fluorescein ink can be printed as an overt/covert security feature on pharmaceutical tablets, capsules and many other edibles.
Optically variable silver ink with embedded security features
A 1.8×1.8 cm square pattern was printed on a business card with optically variable silver ink. The ink compo-sition is 1 wt% of silver nanoparticles (NPs) and poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) in 90:10 v/v toluene/methyl benzoate solution. The silver NPs printed on the substrate undergo a spontaneous phase‑separation from the PMMA during solvent evaporation. The small size of the NPs, coupled with their non‑polar capping agent allows this phase separation resulting in the formation of a thin film of silver NPs on top of the PMMA film. The thin silver film gives the printing an optically variable nature. The print appears brownish in colour when viewed perpendicular to the plane of printing and reflects like a (bluish) mirror when viewed at an acute angle. The silver NPs that remained in the PMMA layer appear as brown and the silver NPs film on the surface of the PMMA gives the mirror effect.8
A QR code (size 1.5×1.5 cm) was printed on the optically variable silver pattern with ink comprised of 70:30 v/v toluene/methyl benzoate. The toluene/methyl benzoate solution dissolves the surface silver NPs (responsible for the OV nature) back into the PMMA layer, resulting in a QR code pattern that is visible and readable using a smartphone app when viewed at acute angles, as shown in Figure 4.
The business card shown in Figure 4 was laminated to protect the optically variable QR code. This offers multiple levels of security by embedding the QR codes, microtexts, macrotexts or logos of the optically variable patterns. The OV silver ink patterns that are embedded with additional security features, can be used on critical documents, such as passports, identity cards and credit cards.
Upconverting inks are invisible until they are exposed to IR (infrared) light where they will fluoresce and emit a wavelength (colour) in the visible part of the optical spectrum. As this wavelength is at a higher frequency than the IR light source, upconversion (UC) is taking place.5
UCNP inks on a variety of substrates
UCNP inks (upconversion nanoparticles) were printed on a variety of substrates including a Bayer aspirin tablet and a turkey feather. The upconverted images were excited using a NIR laser and are shown in Figure 5. These images help display the flexibility that direct‑write printing offers. The turkey feather was chosen as a substrate to demonstrate the robustness of the ink formulation and printing technique. Images in Figure 5a and 5b follow the previous discussion con-cerning the need for track-and-trace of pharmaceuticals.
RGB UCNP ink CIE comparison with established models
The colours of the RGB UCNP inks can be quantitatively characterised using the 1931 CIE chromaticity diagram. A multicolour QR code that displays the word ‘Keesing’ when scanned with a smartphone is shown in Figure 6a. The CIE coordinates of RGB UC colours in Figure 6a were obtained from a corrected emission spectrum using a three‑standard observer function. The CIE colour space shown in Figure 6b compares the colours that can be covered with RGB UCNP inks to other established models such as Adobe and sRGB (standard RGB colour space used in monitors by HP and Microsoft). This shows the number of colours that can be produced using different combinations of RGB UC inks compared with well‑established colour models. This enables the printing of security features that are difficult to counter-feit,9 for example multicoloured covert QR codes for high payload capacity and enhanced security.10
The research demonstrates that the RGB UCNP inks can be printed as covert security features on many substrates including security documents, such as banknotes and passports, and historical artefacts, such as paintings.
Edible downconverting inks
Materials: Sodium hydroxide (reagent grade), concen-trated sulphuric acid and methanol (HPLC grade) were obtained from Fisher Scientific. Resorcinol and phthalic anhydride were obtained from Acros Organic. Great Value brand blue food colouring (F&C Blue 1) was used.
Fluorescein synthesis: Fluorescein synthesis was based on a condensation reaction reported by Adolf Von Baeyer (1871).11, 12 Fluorescein for printing on pharmaceutics was of interest for its relatively covert and non‑toxic nature. Fluorescein ink comprised of a 1.5 mM solution of fluorescein in 1:1 (v/v) methanol:water was prepared.7 Masking of fluorescein’s colour: Inks were prepared using blue food colouring dyes to mask the fluorescein’s yellow colour in order to increase the security. A solution comprised of 20% (w/v) blue food colouring in water was prepared. Two drops of the blue food colouring were added per mL of the 1.5 mM fluorescein solution.7 Optically variable (OV) ‑ silver nanoparticle inks: OV inks were formulated by adding 1 wt% of decanoic acid capped silver nanoparticles (NPs) (approximately 4 nm in size) and 1 wt% of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to the 90:10 v/v toluene/methyl benzoate solution.2 The synthesis of the silver NPs was discussed in detail by Ankireddy et al.13 Red, green and blue (RGB) upconverting nanoparticle (UCNP) inks: Nanoparticles that upconvert near infrared excitation to visible red, green and blue luminescence were synthesised. Upconversion (UC) inks were formulated by adding 0.5 wt% green, 5 wt% blue, and 6 wt% red UCNPs, respectively, and 1 wt% PMMA to a solvent of 90:10 v/v toluene/methyl benzoate. The synthesis of UCNPs and the ink formulations are explained in detail in references.9, 14‑17 Equipment: All down‑converting samples were viewed under 365 nm excitation from a handheld UV lamp (UVP). All UC samples were viewed under 980 nm excitation supplied by a diode laser system (Opto Engine LLC MDL‑H‑980). The visible spectra of the OV patterns were obtained using a VSC® 6000/HS desktop video spectral comparator. The images were captured photographically using a Nikon D3000 digital SLR with an AF‑S DX Micro‑NIKKOR 40 mm f/2.8G Macro Lens with a UV/IR filter.
General printing procedure using a direct‑write, aerosol jet printer
The fluorescein inks, masked fluorescein inks, OV silver inks and UC inks were printed on a variety of substrates using the direct‑write, aerosol jet printer. For all the inks, different AutoCAD patterns that act as tool paths for the printer were designed. Ink (1‑2 mL) was added to a glass vial, atomised, delivered to the nozzle of the printer, and deposited on the substrate. Printer para-meters were controlled using the software interface to produce line widths as small as 25 µm. High‑resolution patterns were achieved by optimising the printing parameters of the printer. The substrates used include a) an Equate® 200 mg ibuprofen tablet, b) a Motrin® PM tablet, c) a Bayer aspirin tablet, d) a plain paper business card, e) high bond paper and f) a turkey feather.
A variety of innovative security printing applications using direct‑write printing have been demonstrated. Specifically, fluorescein ink formulation, masking of the fluorescein ink, OV silver ink and RGB UCNP inks were used to print security features.
It was demonstrated that the edible fluorescein ink can serve as overt/covert ink that produces security features, for example, QR codes loaded with information about the manufacturer, expiration date and the potential side effects of that individual tablet or capsule. Also, masking the fluorescein patterns with food colour can be used as a technique to convert the overt patterns to semi‑overt/covert security features.
The OV silver inks patterns can be embedded with additional security features, such as QR codes, logos and microtext. These security features can be used on passports, identity cards and credit cards.
The RGB UCNP inks that were used can be printed on important security documents including banknotes, identity cards and passports. Precise amounts of the RGB UCNP ink combinations were used to get a particu-lar colour in the CIE chromaticity mapping, which is very hard to replicate, and adds an additional layer of security. The direct‑write printing of the RGB UCNP features can also be printed on non‑conventional surfaces, such as feathers and other artefacts.
In summary, these results show the flexibility and potential of direct‑write printing in developing a wide range of security printing applications. We believe that the proposed materials and methods have the potential for adoption by the document security industry.
This material is based upon work supported by
the National Science Foundation/EPSCoR Grant No. 0903804/REU, and by the state of South Dakota. Additional support was provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Cooperative Agreement Number: NNX10AN34A). Instruments used for TEM and XRD measurements were obtained through NSF grants CHE 0840507 and CHE 0722632.
1 Hon, K., Li, L. & Hutchings, I. (2008). Direct writing technology – advances and developments. CIRP Annals‑Manufacturing Technology, Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 601‑620.
2 Meruga, J.M. (2013). Security printing using multi‑colored upconverting nanoparticle inks. PhD Dissertation, South Dakota School for Mines & Technology.
3 Lewis, J.A. (2006). Direct ink writing of 3D functional materials. Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 16, No. 17, pp. 2193‑2204.
4 Pique, A. & Chrisey, D.B. (2001). Direct‑write technologies for rapid prototyping applications: sensors, electronics, and integrated power sources, Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
5 http://www.conceptek.com/experience.php. Accessed on
17 April 2015.
6 Bennett, T.J. (2001). Fundamentals of fluorescein angio-graphy – Characteristics of fluorescein. Current Concepts in Ophthalmology. Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthalmology, Vol 9.
7 Kern, J. (2013). Synthesis of a unique fluorescent material to print onto medications for use in the anti‑counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals. REU project, South Dakota State University.
8 Petersen, J., Meruga, J.M., Randle, J.S., Cross, W.M. &
Kellar. J.J. (2014). Hansen solubility parameters of surfactant capped silver nanoparticles for ink and printing technologies. Submitted for publication in Langmuir on 25 July 2014.
9 Cross, W.M., Meruga, J.M., Blumenthal, T., Ankireddy, K., Petersen, J., Baride, A., May, P.S. & Kellar, J.J. (2014). Nanoparticle‑based inks for security printing applications. Optical Document Security Conference, Reconnaissance International.
10 Meruga, J.M., Nesson, C., Kellar, J.J., Crawford, G., Baride, A., May, P.S., Cross, W.M. & Hoover, R. (2014). Multi‑layered covert QR codes for increased capacity and security. Accepted for publication in International Journal of Computers and Applications.
11 Baeyer, A. (1871). Berichte der deutschen chemischen gesellschaft. 4, 555.
12 Berlman, I. (2012). Handbook of fluorescence spectra of aromatic molecules, Elsevier.
13 Ankireddy, K., Vunnam, S., Kellar, J. & Cross, W.M. (2013). Highly conductive short chain carboxylic acid encapsulated silver nanoparticle based inks for direct write technology applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 572‑579.
14 Meruga, J.M., Baride, A., Cross, W.M., Kellar, J.J. & May, P.S. (2014). Red‑green‑blue printing using luminescence‑ upconversion inks. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 2, No. 12, pp. 2221‑2227.
15 Meruga, J.M., Cross, W.M., May, P.S., Luu, Q.N., Crawford, G. & Kellar, J.J. (2012). Security printing of covert quick response codes using upconverting nanoparticle inks. Nanotechnology. Vol. 23, No. 39, pp. 395201‑395209.
16 Blumenthal, T., Meruga, J.M., May, P.S., Kellar, J.J.,
Cross, W.M., Ankireddy, K., Vunnam, S & Luu, Q.N. (2012). Patterned direct write and screen printing of NIR‑to‑visible upconverting inks for security applications. Nanotechnology. Vol. 23, No. 18, pp. 185305‑185312.
17 Cross, W.M., Blumenthal, T., Kellar, J.J., May, P.S., Meruga, J.M. & Luu, Q.N. (2012). Rare‑earth doped nanoparticles in security printing applications. MRS Proceedings, Vol. 1471. | <urn:uuid:1ad27e3a-5fa6-4582-82a1-2e9499e53dc4> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://platform.keesingtechnologies.com/direct-write-printing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337889.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006222634-20221007012634-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.89567 | 4,038 | 2.84375 | 3 |
When was the last time you got spam email? Even with a good anti-spam filter in place, junk emails still can come through. Imagine that one day, as you scan your inbox, one message seems to stand out. It appears as though this mail is from your current bank; “Your account has been compromised, please download our form to confirm your identity”. You download the form and upon reading through it quickly realize it is a scam. Whew, good thing you didn’t send it in – disaster avoided right? Wrong. You’ve been infected with ransomware. So what is ransomware and what did you do wrong? This article will explain how ransomware affects you and how to stay protected.
What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a complex piece of malware that can block the victim from accessing their files. The only way to regain access is to pay a ransom fee. Unfortunately, simply paying the fee does not guarantee that your files will be unlocked. In the case they actually are unlocked, there’s no saying when they will encrypt them again.
There are two main types of ransomware:
This type of ransomware is designed to let your system continue running, but completely block access to any system files. It uses encryption algorithms that can only be decrypted when the victim pays for the decryption key.
This type will just lock the victim out of their system altogether. The victim’s files are not encrypted, but all access to them is cut off. In this case, the victim will have to pay the attacker to unlock their computer.
Origins and Operations of Ransomware
Believe it or not, the first ransomware attack was back in 1989. Known as the “AIDS Trojan”, it spread via the floppy disk which, once inserted into a computer, would hide it’s payload on the hard drive and would only encrypt file names, along with a popup that blamed the encryption on an expired license key. To get the decryption key, you would then have to send a ransom of roughly $190 to a PO box in Panama.
Obviously the times have changed a lot since the days of the floppy disk but unfortunately, the cyber threats are keeping pace with our advancing world of technology. With the creation of bitcoin and the evolution of encryption algorithms, ransomware has matured from a minor act of cyber vandalism to a mature money-making illegal global business. In 2017, 6 in 10 malware payloads were ransomware. You can tell from these numbers that the creators of ransomware are completely remorseless.
How Do Ransomware Threats Spread?
At its core, these cybercriminals are looking for the easiest way they can reach as many people as possible and then infect their systems. The number of styles that these criminals use to spread ransomware is continually changing and growing. However, there are some styles that are more effective than others.
You have most likely already come into contact with some of these attacks as one of the most common methods used is spam email campaigns. These emails are automated and are sent out to anyone and everyone. These emails will contain a malicious link or file attachment, that when clicked will deliver a security exploit to create a backdoor inside the victims PC.
Another popular method used is self-propagation, where each infected computer will spread it to another. The most famous version of this style is the WannaCry attack. WannaCry used an exploit kit that scanned a user’s PC looking for a certain vulnerability, then it launched a ransomware attack that targeted it. As of May 24, 2017, this infection has affected over 200,000 victims in 150 countries and it continues to spread.
How Can I Protect Myself?
Most cybercriminals know how easy it is to lure users into clicking the links sent out in an email. From subject lines like “Confirm your purchase” or “Unpaid invoice” or “Suspicious activity on your account, please confirm your info” are all designed to trick you into engaging with them.
The best thing you can do in the case of a suspicious email is to analyze every section of it. From the text in the subject line to each word in a file attachment or link, you can never be too cautious. Aside from emails, there are many precautions you can take to protect yourself in the event you do get a cyber infection.
- Regularly backup your files and computer to an external drive. It’s important that you do not leave the external drive connected to your computer. Many ransomware programs will encrypt files on it as well.
- Stay away from suspicious websites that could contain malware downloads or offer seemingly free programs that contain hidden malware content.
- Don’t cheap out in your anti-virus protection. Use a proper protection program and keep it up to date.
- Don’t skip your operating system’s updates. Many of these system updates include new protection methods to resist a cyber attack
If an entire business operation runs from their own local PCs or servers, the stakes are high. Should they do get hit by ransomware, their entire system can come crashing down. With operations like hospitals and other large corporations getting hit by ransomware attacks, is there any hope that an SMB can stay protected or withstand an attack?
The Cloud9 Solution
If you are having difficulty determining which type of security protection is right for you, why not let an experienced professional work with you to ensure that your security is robust, efficient and cos-effective.
Cloud9 offers many variations of security consulting such as all of which are designed to fulfill your security needs and most important; give you peace of mind. If you have had any breaches in the past, the Cloud9 team can investigate and determine what went wrong and how to prevent it from reoccurring.
With our Private Cloud services, you can also rest easy knowing that all of our services are leading-edge technologies found in modern private cloud networks of today.
Contact Cloud9 today to request a quote for a solution that is designed to perfectly fit your infrastructure. | <urn:uuid:c200f379-8362-47b7-bcd0-0982c5c721c7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.c9s.ca/blog/stay-protected-from-ransomware | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335304.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929034214-20220929064214-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.957096 | 1,266 | 2.75 | 3 |
Modern software development relies on open source libraries, even for those applications that are sold commercially and aren’t open source. However, developers may not always be aware how these components are introducing vulnerabilities into their code.
Seven in 10 applications use at least one open source library with a security flaw, which makes those applications vulnerable, Veracode said in its latest State of Software Security: Open Source Edition report. The report analyzed 351,000 unique open source libraries across Veracode’s platform database of 85,000 applications. A single flaw in one library can cascade to all applications using that component. The security debt becomes even higher when the vulnerable component is not called directly by the application, but by some other library.
“An application’s attack surface is not limited to its own code and the code of explicitly included libraries, because those libraries have their own dependencies,” said Chris Eng, Veracode’s chief research officer.
In most cases, the vulnerable libraries wind up in the applications indirectly, as 47 percent of the open source libraries with at least one vulnerability were “transitive” dependencies, Veracode said. Transitive dependencies refers to situations where a library relies on code from other libraries. A developer may explicitly include only one library, but if that library includes another, and that one also pulls in code from yet another library, the code the developer is writing winds up having three dependencies, not just one. As applications get more complex, the number of dependencies the developer has to manage grows pretty quickly.
"An application that picks up most of its dependencies via second, third, or even greater degrees of separation from a developer's explicit instruction increases the difficulty of managing those dependencies," the report said.
This is why it is harder for developers to stay on top of making sure they are using the most up-to-date versions of open source libraries. They can keep track of the ones they are using directly, but they often have to trust that the upstream library maintainers are managing the other dependencies.
"All of this imported code represents functionality that your developers did not author, but becomes code you have to manage," the report said.
Vulnerable And Outdated
Veracode’s findings echo the recent Open Source Security and Risk Analysis report from Synopsys which found that 99 percent of codebases contain at least some open source code and 75 percent used at least one vulnerable open source component. Synopsys found that 49 percent of codebases it analyzed had at least one component with a high-risk vulnerability. Synopsys audited 1,253 applications and assessed open source codebases from 20,000 sources for the OSSRA.
About 90 percent of applications used at least one open source component that was out-of-date by four or more years, or was abandoned, with at least two years of no development activity, Synopsys found. Out-of-date or abandoned components are even more likely to have unfixed security vulnerabilities.
The average application included 445 open source components, Synopsys found—which was far higher than the average number of components reported by Veracode. In an average application, 70 percent of the codebase was open source. Both reports agreed that applications are using a lot of open source components.
"The 2020 OSSRA report highlights how organizations continue to struggle to effectively track and manage their open source risk,” said Tim Mackey, principal security strategist of the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Center. “Maintaining an accurate inventory of third-party software components, including open source dependencies, and keeping it up to date is a key starting point to address application risk on multiple levels.”
The OSSRA, like Veracode’s State of Software Security report, looked at both open source and commercial applications that incorporate open source components. Synopsys also found that some open source components were widely used. For example, 55 percent of applications analyzed by Synopsys used jQuery, 40 percent used Bootstrap, 31 percent used Font Awesome, and 30 percent used Lodash.
Packages "implementing trivial functionality [ms converts time into milliseconds] can have flaws, and may exist deep in a dependency tree," Veracode said.
Even if the developer knows to use the most recent version of the libraries, if any of the other libraries included in the application pull code from older versions of these two components, the denial of service issues becomes part of the application.
Swift has the highest density of flaws, but has an overall low percentage of flawed libraries, Veracode found. Go, on the other hand, has a high percentage of libraries with flaws but has low density, meaning the individual library has an overall low number of flaws.
The typical PHP applications doesn’t import a lot of libraries, an average of 34 components, but a greater share of PHP libraries have at least one security vulnerability. PHP has more flawed libraries and a high density of flaws (but not as high as Swift), meaning the individual library also has a lot of flaws. Including any given PHP library has a greater than 50 percent of chance of introducing a security flaw into the code, Veracode found.
Types of Vulnerabilities
Veracode mapped the vulnerabilities in the open source libraries against the Top 10 list of software vulnerabilities maintained by the Open Web Application Security Project to determine if some types of vulnerabilities were more prevalent in open source components than others. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), insecure deserialization, and broken access control vulnerabilities made up "a substantial portion" of the flaws in open source components. Veracode found that 29.1 percent of the libraries had at least one cross-site scripting flaw, 23.5 percent had insecure deserialization issues, and 20.3 percent had problems with broken access control.
The language differences were evident here, as well, as more than 40 percent of PHP libraries had cross-site scripting issues. PHP also had more broken access control and authentication problems than in any other language.
Insecure deserialization issues were common only in PHP and Java libraries, and broken access control flaws were bigger problems for .NET and Go libraries than XSS. While XSS issues were prevalent across all languages, they posed less of a problem than insecure deserialization and broken access control because most XSS issues were not exploitable.
Synopsys also had similar findings, noting that of the ten most common vulnerabilities it identified in open source components, four did not have a CVE assigned. The top three most common vulnerabilities were found in 37 percent of the applications analyzed. The fourth most common was the first one with a CVE (CVE-2019-11358), and is a vulnerability in jQuery.
Update Those Libraries
Most, or 74 percent, of the applications with vulnerable libraries can be fixed by just updating the libraries, Veracode said. In fact, 71 percent of the applications would even need a major update since a minor version update would fix the issues.
Most of the libraries with vulnerabilities from the Top 10 list also have updates available, as did 91 percent of flaws with public proof of concept exploits already have a fix available. Considering that attackers continue to target older vulnerabilities to attack systems, updating these components could significantly reduce the attack surface.
"Open source software gives companies tremendous advantages, but there's no free lunch here, and all code must be managed to avoid your own contributions — whether open or closed source in nature — from exposing your users to vulnerabilities," Veracode stated in the report. | <urn:uuid:fe14e30f-5195-4e32-a528-a1372b50b5ae> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://duo.com/decipher/most-applications-contain-vulnerable-open-source-libraries | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336921.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001195125-20221001225125-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.953766 | 1,990 | 2.8125 | 3 |
HTTP PUT flood is a layer 7 DDoS attack that targets web servers and applications.
Layer 7 is the application layer of the OSI model. The HTTP protocol – is an Internet protocol which is the basis of browser-based Internet requests, and is commonly used to send form contents over the Internet or to load web pages.
HTTP PUT floods are designed to overwhelm web servers’ resources by continuously requesting single or multiple URL’s from many sources attacking machines, which simulate an HTTP clients, such as web browsers (Though the attack analyzed here, does not use browser emulation).
An HTTP PUT Flood consists of PUT requests. Unlike other HTTP floods that may include other request methods such as POST, DELETE, GET, etc.
When the server’s limits of concurrent connections are reached, the server can no longer respond to legitimate requests from other clients attempting to PUT, causing a denial of service.
HTTP PUT flood attacks use standard URL requests, hence it may be quite challenging to differentiate from valid traffic. Traditional rate-based volumetric detection is ineffective in detecting HTTP PUT flood attacks since traffic volume in HTTP PUT floods is often under detection thresholds. However, HTTP PUT flood uses the less common PUT method. As such, it may be beneficial to review network traffic carefully when witnessing many such incoming requests.
To send an HTTP PUT request client establishes a TCP connection. Before sending an HTTP PUT request a TCP connection between a client and a server is established, using 3-Way Handshake (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK), seen in packets 96,138,139 in Image 1. The HTTP request will be in a PSH, ACK packet.
Image 1 – Example of TCP connection
An attacker (IP 10.128.0.2) sends HTTP/1.1 PUT requests, while the target responds with HTTP/1.1 405 Method Not Allowed as seen in Image 2.
While in this flow we see an HTTP/1.1 405 Method Not Allowed response, that might change depending on the web server settings.
Image 2 – Example of HTTP packets exchange between an attacker and a target:
The capture analyzed is around 3.5 seconds long while it contains an average of 81 PPS (packets per second), with an average traffic rate of 0.08 Mbps (considered low, the attack you are analyzing could be significantly higher).
Image 3 – HTTP Flood stats
Analysis of HTTP PUT Flood in WireShark – Filters
“http” filter – Will show all http related packets.
“http.request.method == PUT” – Will show HTTP PUT requests.
It will be important to review the user agent and other HTTP header structures as well as the timing of each request to understand the attack underway.
Download example PCAP of HTTP PUT Flood attack
*Note: IP’s have been randomized to ensure privacy.Download | <urn:uuid:ab377f60-1fb4-4b30-b5c6-7e7ff7a1b0e1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://kb.mazebolt.com/knowledgebase/http-put-flood/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337398.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003035124-20221003065124-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.891839 | 620 | 2.84375 | 3 |
COVID-19 made us wear a mask to protect ourselves in public. At the same junction, data obfuscation is a process of hiding or concealing private or confidential data to maintain the data’s secrecy.
Data obfuscation is also known as data masking, data anonymization, or pseudonymization. The method includes replacing the original data with some other form of operational data such as characters or different symbolic data types. It turns more fruitful in the situation where third-party data sharing is involved.
Data obfuscation or data masking plays a vital role in production environments. It is essential to secure the real data and shield over confidential information, including social security numbers, credit card numbers, and personal identification details. In networks like a cloud production environment, the goal is to obstruct attackers’ entry from accessing any of this personal information.
Data obfuscation techniques
Substitution includes replacing the original data with equivalent or similar forms of fake data with an identical format and business logic. In such cases, even if the data is stolen or leaked, the attacker will only catch hold of fake imaginary information that will be of no use for him.
Thus, the substitution technique can successfully create a lure or bait that makes an attacker think that he has successfully hijacked the data, but in actual it is nothing but just the fake data.
Working of the shuffling method is similar to substitution. Organizations substitute original data with some other authentic data but will shuffle the order of the data in which it is entered.
- Masking out
To mask any information is to cover the original information with false data to keep the data private. Masking out any data is an effective means of hiding sensitive information as the fake data is made to look so realistic. It can be best used in testing, application, development, or any other personal training data to present the data set without revealing confidential data.
The mask-out technique makes more sense when sensitive information needs to be printed on paper or displayed on a screen. One of the best examples is to mask a credit card number like 4929750040105421 into 49XX-XXXX-XXXX-5421.
Masking out the credit card number will make the data appear unrecognizable for attackers. As the credit card owner holds the account details, he can easily map the masked data to the actual credit card number.
Encrypting any form of data can help it to store or transfer it securely. While the information is in an encrypted state, it restricts the user from making any changes or analyzing it.
Data obfuscation through encryption typically makes use of cryptography, where users portray the information with additional code. Only an authorized recipient can separate the hidden or evaluate the information. This is why the term ‘crypt’ is used, and the decoding of the data is performed using another code called a cryptographic key.
Substituting some data with a value that holds no meaning is called tokenization. Only those users who have the right token (or key) can access the data and transform the value back to its original form and retain the information back to its original state. Credit card payment processors often use this method to mask customers’ credit card numbers.
Need for data obfuscation
Following are some of the key reasons why organizations need to adapt data obfuscation methods:
- Third-party intervention – Sharing personal information, payment card information, or even health details to any third party can be dangerous. It involves double risk – exposing important data of organizations to violations of regulations and standards. The other is an increase in the number of people who can access the data without acknowledging the organization.
- The authenticity of the data – Operating personal accounts on organization devices may expose the user data to employees, employers, or others. Various business processes such as testing, development, analytics, and reporting need not necessarily process real or personal data. Obfuscating data at this point can help organizations maintain the business process and eliminate the risks.
- Maintaining compliance – Data obfuscation helps various organizations maintain regulatory requirements, such as the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR). It also helps larger bodies to stay away from paying a hefty amount for data breaches.
Data obfuscation can also benefit regulated industries that protect personally identifiable information (PII) from exposure. It draws a line on revealing only the required information to specific users, thus handling failure to comply with standards.
Automating data obfuscation with third-party tools can help organizations easily execute the activity. Some of the readily available tools include Data Masking and Subsetting, Microsoft SQL Server Data Masking, and IBM InfoSphere Optim Data Privacy. It can turn beneficial, especially for those corporate bodies who do not have a team dedicatedly working for security issues.
Implementing data obfuscation can be challenging while taking into account security and compliance benefits. Moreover, users need to ensure that the changed data remains integral that demands careful processing. Reverting the data to its original form also requires defined particular steps with reverse-engineering knowledge. | <urn:uuid:dca174b0-9bf0-42ff-a695-beaf9eb1ce52> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.itsecuritydemand.com/insights/security/knowing-all-about-data-obfuscation/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337398.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003035124-20221003065124-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.906661 | 1,045 | 3.65625 | 4 |
I’ve seen and heard many people from different organizations talking about data governance. Some work with it, some have heard about it, but they are all impacted by it or the lack of it. So what is Data Governance?
There are plenty of definitions out, but before presenting you others, I would like to walk you through mine:
Data Governance is a discipline which provides the necessary policies, processes, standards, roles and responsibilities needed to ensure that data is managed as an asset.
So what does that mean exactly? It means that if you need to improve data quality, ensure information security, enable master data management, etc. you need to have a solid foundation tying all these practices together and defining and enabling the processes, tools, and resources needed to make these practices successful. Even simpler? Data governance provides the necessary guidance to manage your data as an asset.
Now let’s look at other definitions out there.
- Data Governance Institute:
Data Governance is a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods.
The exercise of authority, control, and shared decision-making (planning, monitoring, and enforcement) over the management of data assets.
The practice of organizing and implementing policies, procedures and standards for the effective use of an organization’s structured/unstructured information assets.
The exercise and enforcement of decision-making authority over the management of data assets and the performance of data functions.
Do you want to become the MacGyver of Data Governance? These are the 10 things you should do.
Data governance is a process to ensure data meets precise standards and business rules as it is entered into a system. Data governance enables businesses to exert control over the management of data assets. This process encompasses the people, process, and technology that is required to ensure that data is fit for its intended purpose.
Data governance encompasses the strategies and technologies used to make sure business data stays in compliance with regulations and corporate policies.
Data governance is a quality control discipline for adding new rigor and discipline to the process of managing, using, improving and protecting organizational information.
- DGPO 2014 Board Members (George Firican, Davida Berger, Michele Koch, Sal Passariello, Erin Kieffner):
A discipline that provides clear-cut policies; procedures; standards; roles; responsibilities; and accountabilities to ensure that data is well-managed as an enterprise resource.
- IQ International (Joh Ladlay, Danette McGilvray, Anne-Marie Smith and Gwen Thomas):
The organization and implementation of policies, procedures, structure, roles, and responsibilities that outline and enforce rules of engagement, decision rights, and accountabilities of the effective management of information assets.
There are indeed a lot more Data Governance definitions which I haven’t posted, most of these being self-serving from other organizations with solutions geared towards data management practices and trying to adapt their own definition towards one of their products. In the end, having so many definitions out there creates confusion, but it also leaves room for your own organization to adopt which ever one fits your needs, purpose, and overall culture.
Do you have your own Data Governance definition? | <urn:uuid:4a345748-9754-47cd-b53e-7172dba4579e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.lightsondata.com/what-is-data-governance/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337504.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004121345-20221004151345-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.930853 | 720 | 2.75 | 3 |
What is it and how does MVNO work?
Thanks to new business models in telecommunications, new companies have emerged that allow managing technologies for mobile telephony. One of them are MVNOs or mobile virtual operators. They are operators that have developed under various approaches of competitiveness and quality, offering new telecommunication services and using access networks of large companies with their own network.
Definition and concept of MVNO
These companies do not have the same commitments or the same legal obligations, so their operating expense is lower, which allows them to offer services to customers with higher benefits and more competitive prices. Similarly, there are MVNO operators that have their own technical departments, and that also make their own SIM cards, enjoying greater flexibility as network
How does a mobile virtual operator work?
MVNOs work through mobile operators that purchase large services and data packages from a provider, and market them with a value proposition, satisfying the needs of a group of users and taking advantage of the differential obtained through the acquisition of large volumes of consumption.
Mobile virtual operators can be classified into 4 large groups:
- Distributors of MVNO brands: network owners facilitate the products and services they can offer.
- Full MVNO: has access to the company’s infrastructure, offering any type of service.
- Light MVNO: offers equipment billing and sales services.
- MVNO Enablers: offer business opportunity for the search for customers.
While MVNOs are a commercial figure found in various countries, in Spain, where the first licenses were granted in January 2001, there are two types of telephone operator companies: operators with their own network and mobile virtual operators, who have access to the system thanks to the regulation of the country itself. Among the main operators in Spain with their own network for mobile phone networks there are: Movistar, Vodafone, Orange or MásMóvil, among others.
Similarly, among the virtual mobile operators that work without their own network in Spain, there are: Amena, Lowi, Jazztel or Yoigo, among others.
Why a MVNO?
MVNOs can have high flexibility to offer new products and services. They were originally created to expand the capacity of MNOs (mobile network operators) by offering simple and direct telecommunications services. Some MVNOs have gradually reached considerable sizes, but their size and flexibility also allows them to meet the needs of niche markets: the SME market, the tourism market, the “ethnic” market (calls to countries of origin), cooperatives, etc.
Today, most European countries (and many other countries in the world) have implemented the MVNO model. In approximately 20 years of existence, it has proven to be an extraordinary tool for entrepreneurs and innovative brands.
JSC Ingenium is an international benchmark as a Network Infrastructure provider. Its technology is specially designed for MVNOs and currently has operational deployments in 15 countries and serves more than 40 Mobile Operators, including both Network and Virtual Operators. | <urn:uuid:45c4f546-65ef-48b1-bb55-2a7f1139eb8c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://jscingenium.com/en/glossary/what-is-it-and-how-does-mvno-work/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.96728 | 624 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Despite today’s increased threat landscape and heightened global awareness of hacking and data breaches, password behaviors remain largely unchanged.
Data from a survey conducted by Lab42 shows that 91 percent of people know that using the same password for multiple accounts is a security risk, yet 59 percent continue to use the same password. As a result, individuals’ behavior in creating, changing and managing passwords in both their professional and personal lives is slow to match the rapid evolution of cybersecurity threats.
Global cyber threats skyrocket but password behaviors unchanged
Password behaviors remain largely unchanged from the same study conducted two years ago — translating to some risky behaviors. 53 percent report not changing passwords in the past 12 months despite a breach in the news. And while 91 percent know that using the same password for multiple accounts is a security risk, 59 percent mostly or always use the same password.
Fear of forgetfulness = Number one reason for password reuse
Not only do most respondents (58 percent) use the same password for multiple accounts, but many continue to use that password as long as possible — until required by IT to update or if impacted by a security incident. The fear of forgetfulness was the number one reason for reuse (61 percent), followed by wanting to know and be in control of all of their passwords (50 percent).
Attention IT: Password behaviors same at work and home
The majority of respondents (79 percent) report having between one and 20 online accounts for work and personal use. When it comes to password creation, nearly half (47 percent) say there is no difference in passwords created for these accounts. Only 19 percent create more secure passwords for work and 38 percent never reuse the same password between work and personal, which means that 62 percent do.
Type a personalities take passwords more seriously
Respondents who identify as Type A personalities are more likely than Type B personalities to stay on top of password security: 77 percent put a lot of thought into password creation, compared to 67 percent of Type B. And Type A users consider themselves informed about password best practices (76 percent) over Type B users (68 percent).
Security-conscious thinking doesn’t translate to action
The data showed several contradictions, with respondents saying one thing and in turn, doing another. 72 percent say they feel informed on password best practices, but 64 percent of those say having a password that’s easy to remember is most important. Similarly, 91 percent recognize that using the same or similar passwords for multiple logins is a security risk, yet 58 percent mostly or always use the same password or variation of the same password.
“The cyber threats facing consumers and businesses are becoming more targeted and successful, yet there remains a clear disconnect in users’ password beliefs and their willingness to take action,” said Sandor Palfy, CTO of Identity and Access Management at LogMeIn. “Individuals seem to understand password best practices, but often exhibit password behaviors that can expose their information to threat actors. Taking a few simple steps to improve how you manage passwords can lead to increased safety for online accounts whether personal or professional.” | <urn:uuid:039c856f-562d-4da4-91b9-023e8204fccc> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2018/05/03/password-behaviors/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.930093 | 634 | 2.84375 | 3 |
One of those terms that get bounced around a lot, in discussions of malware is whether that threat is “in the wild.” But what does that actually mean? If your thoughts go to Jaques Cousteau or Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, you’re on the right track. It’s meant to differentiate from malware that has affected real people’s machines and threats that only exist “in the zoo”: that is to say, only in research labs.
In the Beginning
Once upon a time, there was an independent organization that was called the Wildlist, which produced a report by the same name. Every month, a list was compiled of all the viruses (not Trojans yet) that had been reported to their list of reporters. The Wildlist reporters were trusted researchers from around the industry – not just from AV vendors, but also from companies that had a good view into what was affecting corporate as well as home users.
To make the “main list,” a threat had to be reported at least two times to two separate reporters. Reporters would note how many times viruses were reported to them, and in what countries, for every threat they encountered more than once. They would take and replicate the virus samples to verify that they were valid infections (and so that the sample would be in a neutral, standard file without user-info attached, if possible). Then they would send this collection in every month. The idea is that this would create a fairly representative list of what was affecting users.
There were plenty of threats that did not make the main list because they were not reported twice. These would be noted on the Extended Wildlist. But you’ll note, this did not include everything a reporter received only once. The list was not meant to be exhaustive because there are always plenty of cases of infections that exist only on someone’s machine that was stored in some far-off corner, with a virus that was last prevalent ten years ago. There is no way of saying conclusively that a virus only exists “in the zoo” – the idea was to report those things that people were more likely to run across.
The Present Tense
Many years later, the malware world has changed quite a bit. Trojans used to be something that people quibbled about including in anti-virus products (because they’re not viruses, see…). Now Trojans make up the bulk of files detected by those same products (even though most folks still usually refer to them as anti-virus products, rather than anti-malware products). The tactics of malware writers has changed so that thousands of new variants are pumped out for many major malware families. Speed and stealth are the order of the day, not prevalence. The overwhelming numbers of malware samples that are found every day, particularly for Windows and Android, have made gathering such a list effectively impossible.
That doesn’t mean the information about threats affecting real people is any less valuable than it was 10 or 20 years ago. But now it’s less official, and more reflective of whether a threat has or likely could affect a large number of customers. We still get some threats that are “zoo threats,” especially in Mac-land where overall prevalence is low enough that people are still interested in creating “proof of concept” threats to show that it can be done. We report in each malware alert whether we have seen evidence that this threat is affecting real customers or if it is not yet known to be in the wild. This way you can determine how urgently you need to prepare yourself or if you should just update your virus definitions as normal. | <urn:uuid:91193847-d61b-4079-b2e3-1a9349a5948b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/what-does-in-the-wild-mean-when-talking-about-malware/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.983327 | 763 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Just in time for Earth Day celebrations, a major independent research group has named the Department of Defense a leader in energy conservation.
“The department is doing more than sounding an alarm; it has enacted energy goals and is inventing, testing and deploying new technologies and alternative fuels to meet those goals,” Phyllis Cuttino, director of Pew Charitable Trusts’ climate and energy programs, said during a conference call to announce the program’s new report on military use and conservation of energy.
According to Cuttino, DoD accounts for 80 percent of the U.S. government’s energy consumption, which amounts to 330,000 barrels of oil and 3.8 billion kilowatts of electricity per day for more than 500 major military installations. However, she said, the department is working to meet its stated goal of having one-fourth of its energy come from renewable sources by 2025.
The report, “Reenergizing America’s Defense: How the Armed Forces Are Stepping Forward to Combat Climate Change and Improve U.S. Energy Posture,” details how the department and military services are progressing toward that goal. Amanda J. Dory, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy; Navy Secretary Ray Mabus; and John W. Warner, a former Navy secretary, were involved in the report and the conference call.
The decreasing reliance on fossil fuels “will make us better warfighters,” Mabus said, by reducing dependence on oil from volatile nations, and by freeing up warfighters from delivering as much fuel and reducing the high-risk of attacks on convoys that carry it.
In Afghanistan, troops are using solar-powered water purification systems to decrease the use of fossil fuels and the need to haul water, Mabus said. Marines there are using things such as spray-on insulation to keep tents warm in winter and cool in summer, and Marines at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia are testing alternative fuels and other products to reduce the need to ship fuel to Afghanistan, he said.
Additional examples of how the Navy is going green include developing a carrier strike group that will run completely on alternative fuels; powering the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake by geothermal sources; and commissioning the USS Makin Island, a large-deck amphibious ship propelled by both gas and electric engines.
Dory said the Air Force also is also testing biofuels on its A-10 Thunderbolt II and expects to have the Air Force Academy off the public electrical grid by 2012. In addition, Army officials in North Carolina, Washington state and Hawaii are working on transportation patterns to reduce single-occupancy vehicles, she said.
“Everywhere you go, you see that the American GI is figuring out how to save energy,” Warner said. “Every base in the country has a plan to save energy. This whole Defense Department is mobilized and thinking green and I salute their efforts.” | <urn:uuid:8661c0ec-1885-4497-aed1-7c927b9a1c88> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://executivegov.com/2010/04/dod-a-green-winner-says-report/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335059.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927225413-20220928015413-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.960215 | 610 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Happy Independence Day from Your Friends at GoCertify
Today is Independence Day here in the United States. It's a federal holiday, so the offices of GoCertify are closed until Thursday. Independence Day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. This event energized and crystallized American resistance to British rule, which had already erupted into war on April 18, 1775.
We'll return to our regular schedule of operations tomorrow. Until then, why not enjoy this Independence Day-themed quiz about Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence?
1) How many siblings did Thomas Jefferson have?
2) How many books did Thomas Jefferson own in 1814?
3) How many hours per day did Thomas Jefferson study while attending College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.?
4) How many children were born to Thomas Jefferson and his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton?
5) Why did Thomas Jefferson leave his newly established colonial capitol of Richmond while serving as governor of Virginia in 1781?
6) Where was Thomas Jefferson when the French Revolution began with the Storming of the Bastille in 1789?
7) How did Thomas Jefferson secure communication between himself and Washington, D.C., while serving in France?
8) How did Thomas Jefferson arrive for his first inauguration as president?
9) What was Thomas Jefferson's initial offer to Napoleon during the negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase?
10) When did Thomas Jefferson die?
1) Nine. Thomas Jefferson was the third of 10 children born to Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph Jefferson.
2) More than 6,400. An avowed and lifelong lover of the written word, in 1814 Jefferson sold more than 6,000 books to the Library of Congress, which had been burned earlier that year by British troops invading Washington, D.C., in the War of 1812. Jefferson was paid $23,950 for the books.
3) Fifteen, but only during his second year. In his first year of school, Jefferson frequently spent money, attended parties, and danced. Ashamed by the time and money squandered by the end of that year, he applied himself to his studies thereafter with much greater rigor and graduated after just two years.
4) Six. Though Thomas and Martha had six children, only two lived to adulthood, all of the others dying before reaching age 4. Martha Wayles Jefferson also died young, at age 33, after just 10 years of marriage. At his wife's request, Jefferson never remarried.
5) Jefferson was escaping a British invasion commanded in part by General Benedict Arnold. He remained on the run throughout the rest of his one-year term as governor.
6) On July 14, 1789, Jefferson was in Paris, serving as U.S. minister (or ambassador) to France. Prior to the seminal attack on the Bastille, Jefferson had met frequently with leading revolutionary the Marquis de Lafayette.
7) Jefferson created a device, called the wheel cypher or Jefferson disk, to write encrypted messages, after noticing that his mail was frequently opened and read by French agents.
8) Jefferson arrived alone, riding on horseback, and stabled his own horse before proceeding to the inaugural service.
9) Jefferson initially offered Napoleon $10 million for 40,000 square miles of territory. Needing more funds and eager to relieve himself of an unmanageable burden, Napoleon eventually asked for $15 million, but increased the amount of the land being sold to 827,987 square miles.
10) Jefferson died at age 83 on July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. | <urn:uuid:15e36e6a-4b37-4e85-a721-da6229332c36> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.gocertify.com/articles/happy-independence-day-from-your-friends-at-gocertify | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335326.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929065206-20220929095206-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.975179 | 774 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Making Quantum Computing Useful
(Axios) New research shows how quantum computing can be used effectively on real-world problems.
Researchers from the quantum computing company D-Wave and Google demonstrated that D-Wave’s system could simulate a programmable quantum magnetic system more than 3 million times faster than corresponding classical methods. “This isn’t some made-up example that is only designed to showcase the DNA of a quantum computer,” says Andrew King, director of performance research at D-Wave.
Why it matters: The problem the study tackles — which has its roots in research that won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2016 — is taken from the real world, albeit the highly complex real world of exotic matter.
The research also demonstrated one of the advantages of quantum computing: its ability to more accurately simulate reality, which will be useful for material sciences and optimization problems in logistics. | <urn:uuid:bc891a85-4046-4114-a483-492e6d7099e7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.insidequantumtechnology.com/news-archive/making-quantum-computing-useful/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335491.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930145518-20220930175518-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.923194 | 183 | 3.75 | 4 |
Secure Shell, or Secure Socket Shell — commonly abbreviated as SSH — is a secure network protocol that allows users to securely authenticate to remote devices. SSH leverages a pair of SSH keys to encrypt communication with a remote system. The key pair is cryptographic in nature and made up of a public and private key. The keys work in tandem to provide authentication between the client and the remote system.
SSH keys grant users access to critical systems such as cloud and on-premise servers and network devices. Typically, these are systems that should only be accessed by authorized users, and no one else. Proper management of these keys is therefore essential to ensure that the SSH keys are in the right hands and used in accordance with the best security practices.
Before we proceed further, let us draw a distinction between public and private keys.
Private and Public SSH Keys
As the name suggests, the private key is only meant for the person who created it, and therefore strictly resides on the client system. It allows users to securely authenticate with the remote server, and should always be kept secret and never disclosed to anyone. In the wrong hands, the private key could be compromised and malicious users can use it to breach your systems. We cannot emphasize this enough: the private key should never be revealed to anyone else.
On the other hand, the public key can be freely shared with any server you wish to connect to without compromising your identity. It is used for encrypting data exchanged between the server and the client. The private key decrypts the messages sent from the remote server and a connection is established. On the remote system, the public key is saved in the
Let’s now switch gears and check out how SSH authentication works.
How SSH Authentication Works
SSH authentication is broadly categorized into two types: password-based and public key authentication.
1. Password-based authentication
In password-based authentication, the client sends an authentication request to the server which includes the encrypted username and password for the remote server. Upon receipt, the server decrypts the request and validates the credentials in plain text. Once verified, the client is notified of the authentication outcome.
2. Public key authentication
Public key authentication — also known as asymmetric encryption — uses a cryptographic key pair which comprises a private and public key on the client system. After generating the SSH key pair, both the public and private keys are saved on the client. The client then copies the public key to the remote server. So, how does the authentication really work?
During authentication, the client system sends an authentication request to the remote server which includes a public key. The remote server then receives the request and checks if the public key matches the one copied to it. If the key is valid and matches the one on the server, the server then creates a secret message and encrypts it with the public key from the client. The message is then sent back to the client whereupon the private key decrypts the message. Because this is asymmetric encryption, only the client system can decrypt the message with the private key. Once the message is decrypted, the server acknowledges it and the authentication is successful.
Public key authentication is the more preferred authentication of the two. It is more convenient and secure than password-based authentication — and for good reasons. SSH keys are complex and difficult to crack thanks to the strong encryption algorithms used. In addition, only the user with the private key can access the remote system.
When public key authentication is enabled, password authentication should be turned off so that only the private key alone can be used to authenticate with the remote system.
How to Generate an SSH Key Pair
To leverage public key authentication, the first step is to generate the SSH key pair. To do so, launch your terminal on the client and run the following command:
$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
-t flag specifies the type of the SSH key to be created. In this case, the RSA key pair. There are two possible values of RSA: “
rsa1” for RSA version 1 and “
rsa” for RSA version 2. Since the first option is now deprecated and considered weak, here we are going with the latter which is considerably stronger.
Specify the location that you wish to save the key pair. Typically, the default path is the user’s home directory or simply the
~/.ssh folder (for example,
/user/home/.ssh). If you wish to save the keys in this location, simply press “ENTER.”
Next, you will be required to provide a passphrase (optional). This adds an extra layer of security in the rare event that a hacker gets a hold of the key. You can leave it blank or specify a key phrase that will be required on each login attempt. To leave it blank, just hit “ENTER.”
To confirm the keypair has been successfully generated, list the contents of the
$ ls -l ~/.ssh
id_rsa is the private key which, as mentioned, should be kept top-secret on the client system to prevent potential compromise.
id_rsa.pub is the public key that can be freely shared with the server you intend to connect to.
Once the SSH keys are generated, the next step is to copy the public key to the remote server. You can achieve this using the simple
$ ssh-copy-id [email protected]
Provide the remote server’s password and hit “ENTER” to copy the public key. You should get an acknowledgment from the remote server that the key was successfully added. The public key is saved to the
~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote system.
The next time you attempt to log in, the SSH-key challenge response will take place and you will be automatically logged in without password authentication. This is what is popularly known as SSH passwordless authentication since authentication is fully reliant on the SSH-key pair.
$ ssh remote-server-ip
How to Manage SSH Keys
Given how critical SSH keys are in granting access to highly sensitive and mission-critical systems, having full visibility of your keys is essential to ensure they are in the right hands. Lack of proper SSH management can leave the organization susceptible to insider attacks orchestrated by disgruntled employees, or even external attacks where hackers steal the SSH keys and have a foothold of your resources. It could also lead to non-compliance by industry regulations such as PCI DSS and HIPAA.
We will take a high-level approach to the best practices you can implement to effectively manage your organization’s SSH keys and protect valuable business assets.
1. Use an SSH key manager to automate the handling of SSH keys
The initial step in proper management of SSH keys is to take an inventory of the existing keys in your network and consolidate them in a central database. Doing this manually is a daunting and time-consuming task which is often prone to errors. An SSH manager helps you to automatically discover SSH keys within your IT environment and determine which systems they have access to.
Automation alleviates the cumbersome task of manually combing through each system in search of the keys. Further, a key manager helps identify orphaned SSH or idle SSH keys. Orphaned keys are public keys whose private keys’ whereabouts are unknown.
Ideally, you do not need to add on another point solution to your already complex IT environment in order to automate SSH key management. A good cloud directory platform can be leveraged instead to gain visibility and control of who has access to what IT resource, no matter where they exist.
2. Apply the principle of least privilege when using SSH keys
The concept of least privilege in this case implies that only authorized users should be granted access to SSH keys. To enforce this, you need to generate keys and associate them with the authorized users’ accounts. In addition, best practices also recommends the removal of old keys every time an employee exits your organization, which leads us to the next point.
3. Remove idle and orphaned SSH keys
Unaudited keys including forgotten, idle, and orphaned keys can be used as backdoors by hackers or disgruntled employees to gain access and sabotage your IT resources. As a systems administrator, this is something you clearly don’t want to risk.
It’s prudent, therefore, to implement policies that ensure SSH keys associated with employees who have off-boarded are purged — much the same way you would disable email accounts of employees leaving the company. Otherwise, you will have old and orphaned keys lying around that can be exploited by unauthorized parties for nefarious reasons.
The best SSH key lifecycle automation tool will be tied directly to a comprehensive identity and access management solution. This allows IT admins to securely manage users, systems, and access privileges from a single place, and automate employee offboarding with ease.
4. Use different keys for different users and environments
Good SSH key management demands that you have unique SSH keys for specific users and IT environments or servers. For example, SSH keys assigned to IT administrators with access to production servers should be different from those assigned to developers who should only have access to the staging server. It’s not hard to imagine what the outcome could be if a malicious user accessed the SSH keys of a user in one environment who also happens to use the same keys to access several other IT systems.
5. Periodically rotate your SSH keys
As your IT team grows over time and different members take on different projects, constant changes in access privileges become the norm. These constant changes can present vulnerabilities to your infrastructure when users access keys that should be a reserve for other users or left behind by off-boarded users.
To minimize such risk, it’s always recommended to periodically rotate SSH keys. The cycle of rotation may vary from one organization to another and according to your organization’s audit policies. During SSH key rotation, new keys are generated to replace the old ones. Along the way, idle keys are also purged. By doing so, the chances of your systems being compromised are minimized to the lowest possible margin.
6. Enforce strict SSH key management policies
Your SSH key management strategy is only as effective as the policies you have put in place to ensure the safety of the SSH keys and that they are in the right hands. Policies that merely appear on paper count for nothing. It behooves you, as the system administrator, to enforce strict policies that govern the usage of SSH keys and ensure accountability by those handling them.
Formulate policies that outline everyone’s roles and how the keys will be used — or shared — and secured while in their possession. Most importantly, ensure that the policies are followed and enforced.
SSH keys provide a more secure and convenient way of authenticating to remote systems compared to the traditional username/password authentication approach. However, for this authentication to continue to provide secure access to your resources, stringent management of the SSH keys is required, along with sound policies that ensure proper visibility of all the keys, what authorization each key has, and who gets to use which keys.
SSH key management has historically been challenging, due to the sheer number of SSH keys and the types of access many organizations must manage. Fortunately, hassle-free SSH key management can be a reality in today’s IT world thanks to the JumpCloud Directory Platform.
At the core of any access request is a secure, verified user identity with the correct permissions for accessing the desired resource, whether it’s a virtualized Linux desktop or an Amazon EC2 instance. By unifying identity, access, and device management into a consolidated, cloud-based console, sysadmins using JumpCloud can reap the benefits of simplified workflows, robust security controls, and comprehensive visibility into their IT environments. JumpCloud’s management capabilities expand beyond SSH and Linux management, to SAML, LDAP, RADIUS, Mac, Windows, and more to effectively meet the demands of your modern IT needs.
Ready to test our open-protocol, vendor-agnostic directory platform with SSH support for yourself? Sign up for JumpCloud Free today, no credit card required, and start managing your first 10 users and 10 devices for free as long as you need until you scale to more. | <urn:uuid:baa54cce-03a2-45a9-96aa-fa1f506704e2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://jumpcloud.com/blog/how-to-manage-ssh-keys-linux | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336978.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001230322-20221002020322-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.914299 | 2,569 | 3.828125 | 4 |
AML indeed has been the buzzword for the past 3 decades, but before combating money laundering i.e., going “anti” let’s understand what money laundering is. The origin of the term money laundering takes us back to the years of World War 1 & 2 when the illicit revenue generated by financial crimes was on an extreme rise. Since then and even today, most of us choose to safeguard our money in bank deposits or mutual funds / shares. But storing cash at home in huge amounts is not a viable option neither for a common man nor for a fraudster especially when the source is illegal. Bank is a secure option but comes with many potential risks from a fraudster’s perspective. So soon they started businesses with low capital investment like laundry, carwash, small scale casinos where the cash transactions involved appeared legit. Hence the term “laundering” which simply means involving proceedings of fraud or criminal activities into active financial processes. These financial processes being authentic and regulated yield in “legit” money at the end of the transaction pipeline.
Money Laundering involves 3 stages, Placement, Layering and Integration. Placement involves getting cash which is the outcome of a financial crime into a financial body. Now, one won’t walk with a truckload of money into the bank as large denominations would attract many. Hence such dirty money enters banks in the form of small denominations as cash on bills of restaurants, hotels, bars, casinos, vending machine companies etc. This phase is usually missed by law enforcement bodies as most of the things involved appear as legit. Layering as the second step requires the fraudster to make multiple transactions involving multiple entities on various fronts. Thus, the placed and layered illegal money becomes very complicated to identify as probable proceedings of fraud. In the final stage of Integration, the money enters the economy as white i.e., legit. Someday this money even assimilates as an asset for the launderer himself or for someone else, in any case a success for the black hats involved. In simpler words money laundering is the practice of turning “bad” money into “legitimate” money.
Here’s an example to understand the 3 most usual stages involved in money laundering:
- Placement: Fraudster deposits cash into a bank account, purchases property / goods.
- Layering: Some of it is wire transferred out of the country to run shell companies.
- Integration: Property / goods get sold, profit is wire transferred, retained earnings of companies are wired in and reinvested into something else which is legal.
Due to the complex nature of Wire / Transfer / ACH payment templates, it becomes a nightmare to identify transactions in the above scenario as fraudulent, as by default they tend to appear as legitimate ones. A red flag in this scenario is missing / mismatched information provided by fraudsters at the time customer onboarding / KYC to be done by the bank. The sole purpose of bank accounts involved here is to act as channels to transfer funds.
Money laundering is a global issue hence a unified effort is required to combat it. It poses a risk to the citizens as an increase in taxes, crime rate and monopoly in small businesses. It also comes with other moral, reputational and financial risks like penalties, criminal charges etc. Hence combating money laundering is a three-way handshake between Law Enforcement (DOJ), Regulatory Bodies like SEC (Securities and Exchange Council) and Financial Institutions like FATF (Financial Action Task Force), OFAC, FinCEN. All of these publish content on AML on a regular basis which is publicly available. This content consists of case studies, possible scenarios, and Red Flags! Banks and Credit Unions are expected to have an AML compliance program and work in tandem with these regulatory institutes. These institutes use a format to record fraud which is ‘SAR: Suspicious Activities Report’.
Let’s have a look at a few red flags appeared through case studies collected over years:
- Large number of small-valued transactions i.e. Structuring
- Sudden large activity in dormant account
- Incomplete information submitted / gathered as a part of KYC
- Money mule schemes
- Trade based money laundering
- Shell / Shelf companies
- Exaggerated Donations
- Credit / Debit card payment fraud
- Gold Smuggling
- Money Service Businesses
There are various challenges involved in detecting fraud due to geographical limitations, currency / denomination differences etc. A common challenge is as in a transaction where sender ‘A’ sends $50,000 to receiver ‘B’, if ‘B’ is the customer of bank ‘C’, then in transactional data records of ‘C’ there’s no complete information available of sender ‘A’. Same is the case the other way round. The point here being, insufficient data, data accessibility, variety in sources, data asymmetry and continuously evolving regulations and policies are the few challenges involved in detecting financial fraud.
What is Ellicium banking on, to help financial institutes detect fraud?
- Machine Learning
- Rule based algorithms
- KYC Scorecard
- Outlier Detection
- Red Flags Library
- Prerequisite for SAR
Senior Analytics professional | <urn:uuid:31b03b49-8387-4960-8463-dc6d913f3b05> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ellicium.com/blog/anti-money-laundering/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337516.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004152839-20221004182839-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.928011 | 1,115 | 2.875 | 3 |
It’s no secret that the electromagnetic spectrum is short on elbow room, as the number of devices and services that tap into the range of frequencies that accommodate wireless transmissions continues to grow.
The number of mobile phone users worldwide is approaching 5 billion, according to Statistica. Devices connected to the ballooning "internet of things" are expected to total more than 30 billion by next year and, like cell phones, continue to grow, topping 75 billion by 2025. Add to that satellites for things like GPS, surveillance, weather observations, bandwidth for aircraft communications, emergency response, ground transportation and scads of other other uses, and it’s easy to see that demand is threatening to overwhelm supply.
The spectrum is what it is — the government can’t make more of it. And bandwidth has already been pretty well sliced and diced into designated uses; a look at just the U.S. frequency allocations makes an NFL coach’s mad-scientist play chart look like a bingo card. So the Federal Communications Commission, the Defense Department and others have made a priority of better efficiency in using the spectrum and are looking to employ artificial intelligence technologies to make it happen.
Increasing efficiency will rely in large part of finding ways for organizations — both private and public — to better share spectrum, which can be a dicey concept in an environment where every user feels they ought to have prominence. But the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the FCC and the Navy recently demonstrated a way that AI systems — in this case, deep-learning algorithms — can make sharing spectrum a lot easier.
A Puzzle with Moving Pieces
NIST researchers focused on a 150-megahertz (MHz)-wide slice of the spectrum pie that is of interest to both military and commercial users — the 3.5 Gigahertz (3.5 GHz) Band, also known as the Innovation Band. The Navy has dibs on the frequencies for offshore radar operations, but the FCC’s Citizen Broadband Radio Service rules allow commercial use when the Navy doesn’t need it. Long-term evolution (LTE) providers like AT&T, Google, Qualcomm and Verizon, among others, want to use the band because it can provide better coverage and data rates in areas where service has been weak. The trick is to quickly identify when it’s time for commercial users to clear out and notify them to allow for a seamless transition.
Working with the FCC and Navy, NIST showed that its deep-learning algorithms worked far better than existing methods at detecting when offshore radars are in operation, an important step in making this type of spectrum sharing a reality. The researchers’ study was reported in the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking journal.
“This will be the first time that commercial broadband users share spectrum dynamically with government users, and if it works, the FCC may allocate other currently protected radio-frequency bands for shared use,” Michael Souryal, lead for the spectrum sharing support project within NIST’s Communications Technology Laboratory, said in a NIST release. “More spectrum sharing could provide less-congested wireless channels for densely populated areas and more reliable connections for advanced communications needs such as 5G wireless and internet of things applications.”
The automated detectors currently used to identify radar signals by detecting energy increases in the spectrum aren’t always accurate, NIST said. They sometimes mistake other RF signals for radar or simply miss the radar signals altogether, which can lead to confusion. In its study, NIST found that three of the eight deep-learning algorithms it tested were significantly better than the automated detectors at picking up radar signals.
NIST said its next step is to improve performance by training the AI detectors with higher-resolution, more-detailed radar data. The results also can offer a model for other spectrum-sharing efforts to follow.
Machines Taking the Point
Limits of the RF spectrum have been known for about as long as there have been radios, and managing availability has always been a Rubik’s Cube type of challenge. The American Association of Advancement of Science, for instance, complained about radio astronomers being squeezed out of available radio bands — in 1959. More recently, problems with frequency conflicts have emerged in places such as Iraq, where Marine units found that jamming signals they used for preventing improvised explosive devices from going off also took out their own communications with a convoy.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which regulates government use of the spectrum, last April launched the Spectrum Sharing Innovation Test-Bed, a five-year pilot program to explore increased spectrum sharing among federal and non-federal users.
Efforts to employ AI to make better use of the available spectrum include programs such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2), which DARPA bills as “the world’s first collaborative machine-intelligence competition to overcome spectrum scarcity.”
In the competition, which kicked off in 2016, participants employ machine learning to find the most efficient ways to use the spectrum adroitly, in what DARPA describes as the fluid environments of the battlefield, where demands for spectrum can shift from day to day or moment to moment. At SC2’s second preliminary event in December, which involved 15 teams competing across 105 matches, machine intelligence took a leap forward, just as it did in NIST’s tests. "For the first time, we saw autonomous collaboration outperform the status quo for spectrum management," Paul Tilghman, the DARPA program manager leading SC2, said at the event.
Six teams came away with $750,000 in prize money, and all 15 are eligible to compete in SC2’s grand finale, which will be held at the three-day MWC19 telecommunications show in Los Angeles, where top prizes of $2 million, $1 million and $750,000 will be awarded.
As more wireless devices and services pile onto the relative pinhead of the electromagnetic spectrum, the ability to share space for divergent purposes will become increasingly important. AI systems that can discover more efficient ways to share could be the key to providing priority signals with a clear channel whenever needed. | <urn:uuid:64d8eba1-bdba-4949-a19d-4124dac37e67> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://governmentciomedia.com/how-ai-could-enable-spectrum-frequency-multitasking | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337516.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004152839-20221004182839-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.944898 | 1,282 | 2.703125 | 3 |
When performing internal tests on a company’s network, one of the top priorities is compromising Windows workstations and servers. This is made much easier when local administrator accounts have the same password on multiple machines.
Sharing local account passwords allows pass-the-hash attacks that can move laterally between hosts. Once an attacker has administrator access on a single machine, it is possible to dump hashes (with open source tools such as https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket/blob/master/examples/secretsdump.py) and use those to authenticate to any other machine that has the same local account password.
In a made-up scenario, let’s say that Carve finds an old server (doesn’t even need to be joined to the domain) that is vulnerable to an exploit that lets us take it over. We can run
secretsdump.py and retrieve a hash for
353A8D7F7E6A06C71746D2E49C2FD8A7. Now we can write a script to authenticate to every single other Windows machine on the network with that hash, which will succeed on every machine with the same Administrator password. In some engagements we can use this simple technique to compromise hundreds of computers.
There is a straightforward way to solve this issue: set a unique local admin password on every machine. Microsoft has developed a tool that automates that process: Local Administrator Password Solution, or LAPS (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46899). LAPS stores local administrator passwords in Active Directory and can automatically generate and rotate passwords for the entire domain. | <urn:uuid:69ab1b79-e63e-47cc-89d6-86d9c946063e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://carvesystems.com/news/in-praise-of-laps/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338001.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007080917-20221007110917-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.861699 | 362 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Fire is a massive safety concern, especially in large areas with combustible ‘elements’, such as charging units, waste and battery storage areas. Often these areas are unmanned at all times, and traditional monitoring methods do not always see a fire in time. The speed at which a fire can take hold is frightening, and so the earlier a warning is given, the better the outcome. Thermal technology is coming down in price and is being used increasingly to detect abnormal heat rises, effectively offering a fire prevention solution, rather than a fire reaction one.
A serious problem smoulders
According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) the US suffers an annual average of 1.3 million fires resulting in 3,190 civilian deaths, 16,225 civilian injuries, $14.7 billion in direct property loss. It is a great concern to industry too, especially in large buildings with combustible or electronic contents, like warehouses, fulfillment centers, dispatch centers, and datacenters. Even battery charging stations are higher risk, with Lithium-ion batteries being a particular concern.
Existing methods of detection can prove useful, but have limitations with regard to verification and warning time. Smoke detectors will give an alarm when they detect smoke in the air. However, this is only after the fire has already started. The same applies to air sampling devices, which tests the particulates in the air, although these can usually detect smoke before a smoke detector.
Optical cameras are also used, but they can only give a warning when flames are visible – in other words, when the fire has already started.
Monitoring temperature before flame
Thermal imagery can give warnings at an earlier stage of a fire. Because this technology monitors the temperature, rather than the output of a fire (smoke, flame, etc.), it can flag a potential issue before it happens. If thermal sensors detect abnormal temperatures, operators can investigate further and take action to avert the fire itself.
Cameras can be positioned at certain points around a site to monitor it all, or used to focus on particular risk points, like a waste dump, or an electric charging station. Solution designers use thermal technology successfully in a number of scenarios, including recycling centers, forests, and warehouses.
Verification avoids false alarms
Many fire systems use different types of sensor in combination, and thermal technology adds extra value by verifying other alerts. For example, it can double-check the temperature of an area where a smoke alarm has sounded. Thermal cameras can also provide support for those checking the alert location. With the use of a bi-spectrum camera, operators in the control center can see if the person checking the alert is in the same place as that alert, reducing the chance of error and missing a potential fire risk.
The technology also comes in useful for planning and risk assessment. It can show potential ‘hot spots’ in a building by monitoring it over time. These can then form part of risk mitigation – to pay particular attention to those areas for fire prevention activities and evacuation plans, for example.
When there are people in an area, preventing fire becomes even more important. Injuries can be averted, even lives saved, if they get the proper warning in time to act – whether to put out a fire or evacuate. Thermal camera ranges (e.g. Hikvision’s HeatPro series) have models linked directly to sirens or strobe lights. These can give a general warning in the area of the camera, as well as an alert to the system operator.
Installation design flexibility
Lower cost thermal cameras, like HeatPro, can also provide great flexibility in building a bespoke system for a site. A number of different detection distance options in the cameras provide different fields of view. This means that installers can find the right combination to meet the needs of the space they need to protect. Hikvision also has a Thermal Design Tool – software to guide installers on the best way to place the cameras in an area.
Franck Carette, Product manager Europe Security & Safety Thermal Products at Hikvision, says: “The fact the thermal technology has come down in price means that it’s now a much more sensible fire prevention option from an economic perspective. With the introduction of our latest model, this makes even more sense, since this has a much larger field of view. This means installers need to put in fewer cameras to cover the same area as before.”
The maxim ‘prevention is better than cure’ resonates well in the world of fire safety. Fires cause massive damage, and can even be responsible for grave injury or death. However, if a fire risk can be identified early enough, a fire can be successfully managed, or avoided altogether. Thermal technology can provide that extra bit of time that makes the difference between containment and disaster. | <urn:uuid:2476966d-e036-47af-93cb-913079db796a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.isrmag.com/hikvision-heatpro-thermal-camera-a-preventive-tool-for-fire-safety/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338001.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007080917-20221007110917-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.927974 | 994 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Researchers from MIT have developed an AI tool for determining the stress a material is under through analysing images.
The pesky laws of physics have been used by engineers for centuries to work out – using complex equations – the stresses the materials they’re working with are being put under. It’s a time-consuming but vital task to prevent structural failures which could be costly at best or cause loss of life at worst.
“Many generations of mathematicians and engineers have written down these equations and then figured out how to solve them on computers,” says Markus Buehler, the McAfee Professor of Engineering, director of the Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics, and one of the paper’s co-authors.
“But it’s still a tough problem. It’s very expensive — it can take days, weeks, or even months to run some simulations. So, we thought: Let’s teach an AI to do this problem for you.”
By employing computer vision, the AI tool developed by MIT’s researchers can generate estimates of material stresses in real-time.
A Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) was used for the breakthrough. The network was trained using thousands of paired images—one showing the material’s internal microstructure when subjected to mechanical forces, and the other labelled with colour-coded stress and strain values.
Using game theory, the GAN is able to determine the relationships between the material’s appearance and the stresses it’s being put under.
“From a picture, the computer is able to predict all those forces: the deformations, the stresses, and so forth,” Buehler adds.
Even more impressively, the AI can recreate issues like cracks developing in a material that can have a major impact on how it reacts to forces.
Once trained, the neural network can run on consumer-grade computer processors. This makes the AI accessible in the field and enables inspections to be carried out with just a photo.
You can find a full copy of the paper here.
Interested in hearing industry leaders discuss subjects like this? Attend the co-located 5G Expo, IoT Tech Expo, Blockchain Expo, AI & Big Data Expo, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo World Series with upcoming events in Silicon Valley, London, and Amsterdam. | <urn:uuid:a1f29d9f-520b-42c6-bfe3-891dc37dbcbb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/2021/04/22/mit-researchers-developer-ai-calculate-material-stress-using-images/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334528.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925101046-20220925131046-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.926634 | 489 | 3.84375 | 4 |
What may be said about this BISAMWARE Ransomware virus
BISAMWARE Ransomware is a file-encrypting malware, known as ransomware in short. You You probably never encountered it before, and to figure out what it does might be an especially nasty experience. You will not be able to access your data if ransomware has locked them, for which powerful encryption algorithms are used.
File encrypting malware is categorized as a very harmful threat because decrypting data may be impossible. You will also be offered to buy a decryption tool for a certain amount of money, but this option is not suggested for a couple of reasons. First of all, paying will not ensure file decryption. Don’t forget who you’re dealing with, and don’t expect crooks to bother to assist you with your files when they have the option of just taking your money. The future activities of these criminals would also be financed by that money. It is already supposed that data encrypting malicious software did billions worth of damage to businesses in 2017, and that’s an estimation only. Crooks also realize that they can make easy money, and the more victims give into the demands, the more attractive ransomware becomes to those kinds of people. Investing the money that is requested of you into some kind of backup might be a wiser option because you would not need to worry about data loss again. You can then just terminate BISAMWARE Ransomware virus and recover data from where you are storing them. If you did not know what ransomware is, you may not know how it managed to get into your system, in which case you should carefully read the below paragraph.
How does BISAMWARE Ransomware spread
Frequently, ransomware spreads via spam emails, exploit kits and malicious downloads. Because users tend to be rather careless when dealing with emails and downloading files, it is often not necessary for those spreading data encoding malware to use more sophisticated ways. That does not mean that distributors don’t use more sophisticated ways at all, however. All hackers have to do is attach an infected file to an email, write a plausible text, and pretend to be from a legitimate company/organization. You’ll commonly come across topics about money in those emails, because people are more likely to fall for those types of topics. It’s somewhat often that you will see big names like Amazon used, for example, if Amazon sent an email with a receipt for a purchase that the person did not make, he/she wouldn’t hesitate with opening the file attached. So as to guard yourself from this, there are certain things you ought to do when dealing with emails. It’s very important that you check whether you are familiar with the sender before opening the file attached. If the sender turns out to be someone you know, do not rush to open the file, first carefully check the email address. Obvious grammar mistakes are also a sign. Another common characteristic is your name not used in the greeting, if a real company/sender were to email you, they would definitely use your name instead of a general greeting, like Customer or Member. Weak spots on your computer Vulnerable software may also be used as a pathway to you system. Software has vulnerabilities that could be used to infect a computer but they’re often patched by vendors. Unfortunately, as proven by the WannaCry ransomware, not all users install updates, for one reason or another. It’s crucial that you install those patches because if a weak spot is serious enough, it may be used by malware. If you don’t want to be disturbed with updates, they may be set up to install automatically.
What does BISAMWARE Ransomware do
Your files will be encrypted by ransomware as soon as it gets into your computer. Even if what happened was not clear from the beginning, you will certainly know something is not right when your files cannot be accessed. You’ll know which files have been affected because an unusual extension will be attached to them. In a lot of cases, file decryption might impossible because the encryption algorithms used in encryption might be very difficult, if not impossible to decipher. If you are still not sure what is going on, the ransom note will describe everything. What crooks will encourage you do is use their paid decryption program, and warn that you could damage your files if another method was used. If the note doesn’t state the amount you need to pay, you will be asked to send them an email to set the price, so what you pay depends on how valuable your files are. Just as we discussed above, we do not encourage giving into the requests. Only think about giving into the demands when everything else fails. Maybe you have simply forgotten that you’ve backed up your files. Or, if luck is on your side, a free decryption software may be available. There are some malware specialists who are able to crack the ransomware, therefore they might create a free utility. Before you make a decision to pay, search for a decryptor. A wiser purchase would be backup. And if backup is an option, data restoring ought to be carried out after you fix BISAMWARE Ransomware virus, if it’s still present on your system. Do your best to avoid ransomware in the future and one of the ways to do that is to become aware of how it might get into your computer. At the very least, don’t open email attachments randomly, keep your software up-to-date, and only download from legitimate sources.
Ways to delete BISAMWARE Ransomware
If the ransomware still remains, you will need to get an anti-malware tool to terminate it. When trying to manually fix BISAMWARE Ransomware virus you could bring about further damage if you’re not computer-savvy. A malware removal tool would be the suggested option in this case. These kinds of programs are made with the intention of detecting or even blocking these types of infections. Once you have installed the malware removal program of your choice, simply execute a scan of your tool and if the threat is identified, authorize it to remove it. Keep in mind that, a malware removal utility is not able to help you with. Once your device has been cleaned, you ought to be able to return to normal computer use.
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Step 1. Delete BISAMWARE Ransomware using Safe Mode with Networking.
Remove BISAMWARE Ransomware from Windows 7/Windows Vista/Windows XP
- Click on Start and select Shutdown.
- Choose Restart and click OK.
- Start tapping F8 when your PC starts loading.
- Under Advanced Boot Options, choose Safe Mode with Networking.
- Open your browser and download the anti-malware utility.
- Use the utility to remove BISAMWARE Ransomware
Remove BISAMWARE Ransomware from Windows 8/Windows 10
- On the Windows login screen, press the Power button.
- Tap and hold Shift and select Restart.
- Go to Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Start Settings.
- Choose Enable Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking under Startup Settings.
- Click Restart.
- Open your web browser and download the malware remover.
- Use the software to delete BISAMWARE Ransomware
Step 2. Restore Your Files using System Restore
Delete BISAMWARE Ransomware from Windows 7/Windows Vista/Windows XP
- Click Start and choose Shutdown.
- Select Restart and OK
- When your PC starts loading, press F8 repeatedly to open Advanced Boot Options
- Choose Command Prompt from the list.
- Type in cd restore and tap Enter.
- Type in rstrui.exe and press Enter.
- Click Next in the new window and select the restore point prior to the infection.
- Click Next again and click Yes to begin the system restore.
Delete BISAMWARE Ransomware from Windows 8/Windows 10
- Click the Power button on the Windows login screen.
- Press and hold Shift and click Restart.
- Choose Troubleshoot and go to Advanced options.
- Select Command Prompt and click Restart.
- In Command Prompt, input cd restore and tap Enter.
- Type in rstrui.exe and tap Enter again.
- Click Next in the new System Restore window.
- Choose the restore point prior to the infection.
- Click Next and then click Yes to restore your system.
2-remove-virus.com is not sponsored, owned, affiliated, or linked to malware developers or distributors that are referenced in this article. The article does not promote or endorse any type of malware. We aim at providing useful information that will help computer users to detect and eliminate the unwanted malicious programs from their computers. This can be done manually by following the instructions presented in the article or automatically by implementing the suggested anti-malware tools.
The article is only meant to be used for educational purposes. If you follow the instructions given in the article, you agree to be contracted by the disclaimer. We do not guarantee that the artcile will present you with a solution that removes the malign threats completely. Malware changes constantly, which is why, in some cases, it may be difficult to clean the computer fully by using only the manual removal instructions. | <urn:uuid:c977093a-8de6-4829-915c-0103f5b4ce47> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.2-remove-virus.com/bisamware-ransomware-removal/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335350.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929100506-20220929130506-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.920543 | 2,218 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Bede O’Neil, Strategic & International Account Director, at Plextek explores the murky world of underwater crime and how technology can help fight against it.
The press recently reported that Spanish police had seized several underwater drones – unmanned submersibles – built to smuggle drugs across the sea from Morocco. This seems to be the first capture of its kind and has increased international awareness of underwater crime. With intensified land and air surveillance techniques at country borders, it is increasingly hard for drug and human traffickers to conduct business. It is more technically difficult to monitor the sea than either land or air and is an obvious step for traffickers who are being pressured away from usual routes.
Authorities tasked to monitor our seaways are not behind the times. For many years there have been solutions that can detect the location of moving assets in water, from icebergs to submarines, while the RNLI has already used drones to find people lost at sea. At Plextek, we have been designing subsystem technologies for use within the underwater space for over 20 years and as the design authority for a marine deployed RF telemetry subsystem are aware of the challenges of wide area maritime search and detection. However, the seizure of underwater drug drones signals a new, smaller and more covert threat.
It is suggested that a key element of the authorities’ toolkit to combat this increasingly technology-driven illegal activity would be a suite of deployed autonomous sensors designed to be low cost, enduring and covert. These remote sensors alerting on detection of localised platform activity.
In addition to unmanned submersibles, there could be a discovered asset, like a haul of drugs, that is stored stationary underwater for a period of time. In this instance, police need to know the exact moment smugglers arrive back to collect the drugs. For this scenario, a sensor system provides the basis for a highly cost-effective covert surveillance capability. The concept involves the deployment of low Size Weight Power and Cost (SWaP-C) node fitted to the underwater asset. If disturbed and brought to the surface, the beacon relays its position to enable tracking of the removed asset. This technology is in its early stages, but with underwater smuggling becoming more prevalent, wider rollout is anticipated.
What are the challenges with designing monitoring devices for underwater environments?
There are significant challenges when designing a solution for a marine environment, including:
There are plenty of security-based projects in the marine space. For example, Plextek is delivering the design and high-volume manufacture of a critical element of an E-Passport solution. This consists of an advanced military grade hybrid TETRA-LTE GPS smart tracker device that provides life-saving features for rescue teams during emergencies. The intelligence-driven marine unit has been designed to ensure highly resilient and secure communications with seamless operation, whilst also facilitating a high level of tamper resistance, power efficiency and a robust marine enclosure, enabling full environmental protection under extreme conditions (ATLAS Telecom and Plextek Prepare Next-Generation UAE Coastal Protection Solution | Plextek). This is one of many examples of innovative electronic solutions being translated into marine environments.
By Bede O’Neil, Strategic & International Account Director, Plextek
For more information, visit: www.plextek.com | <urn:uuid:1edab0d3-b94d-4317-9452-554713ca4240> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://internationalsecurityjournal.com/drug-underwater-drones-plextek/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=drug-underwater-drones-plextek | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.928225 | 664 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Paul Grist explains how Machine Learning can help teachers and improve student outcomes
copyright by www.fenews.co.uk
Paul Grist, Head of Education, International, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Future of Apprenticeships This week (14-18 Sept) is Artificial Intelligence (#AI) and Machine Learning (#ML) Week @AWS_Edu, Head of Education, Paul Grist explains how Machine Learning can help teachers and improve student outcomes.
The COVID-19 crisis has forced millions of teachers around the world to rapidly learn how to use technology to effectively support student learning and assessment, stay connected with their students, experiment with teaching models, and reduce the workload so they can focus on teaching.
There are many promising solutions that are helping teachers become more effective, including new technologies such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and optimised workflows. For example, Revisely is an education company that helps teachers give better feedback on students’ writing assignments, such as essays and papers. It saves teachers time by offering built-in comment sets and doing a plagiarism check on student work, among other features. In addition, teachers can track the performance of students on all assignments throughout their learning journey.
Another useful aspect of Revisely is that its platform allows teachers to outsource correction work to specialised professionals, including retired teachers and teachers in training. In many countries with shortages in the number of teachers, this can help schools and universities fill the gaps.
This platform is being implemented by an international team in Spain and the Netherlands and counts customers such as Iddink/Sanoma and the University of Utrecht. The platform is used by over 200,000 users and is scaling across Europe.
Technology is changing the way people learn
Proctor Exam is another tool that enables learners to take exams no matter where they are around the world. The solution simulates an in-person proctoring environment. While initially used mostly for distance learning, it is now being widely adopted in traditional and hybrid learning scenarios in Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Canada. Proctor Exam verifies the identity of the students taking the exams and monitors them whilst taking the exam to guarantee identity. […] | <urn:uuid:5435c4c7-e45e-4760-8e99-3e13291e1999> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://swisscognitive.ch/2020/09/15/how-can-machine-learning-help-the-teaching-profession/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.950337 | 457 | 2.75 | 3 |
Academics disclosed a security vulnerability in Bluetooth that could potentially allow an attacker to spoof a remotely paired device, exposing over a billion of modern devices to hackers.
The attacks, dubbed Bluetooth Impersonation AttackS or BIAS, concern Bluetooth Classic, which supports Basic Rate (BR) and Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) for wireless data transfer between devices.
“The Bluetooth specification contains vulnerabilities enabling to perform impersonation attacks during secure connection establishment,” the researchers outlined in the paper. “Such vulnerabilities include the lack of mandatory mutual authentication, overly permissive role switching, and an authentication procedure downgrade.”
Given the widespread impact of the vulnerability, the researchers said they responsibly disclosed the findings to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the organization that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards, in December 2019.
For BIAS to be successful, an attacking device would need to be within the wireless range of a vulnerable Bluetooth device that has previously established a BR/EDR connection with another Bluetooth device whose address is known to the attacker.
The flaw stems from how two previously paired devices handle the long term key, also known as link key, that’s used to mutually authenticate the devices and activate a secure connection between them.
The attacker, then, can exploit the bug to request a connection to a vulnerable device by forging the other end’s Bluetooth address, and vice versa, thus spoofing the identity and gaining full access to another device without actually possessing the long term pairing key that was used to establish a connection.
Put differently, the attack allows a bad actor to impersonate the address of a device previously paired with the target device.
Devices Not Updated Since December 2019 Affected
With most standard-compliant Bluetooth devices impacted by the vulnerability, the researchers said they tested the attack against as many as 30 devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, headphones, and single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi. All the devices were found to be vulnerable to BIAS attacks.
The Bluetooth SIG said it’s updating the Bluetooth Core Specification to “avoid a downgrade of secure connections to legacy encryption,” which lets the attacker initiate “a master-slave role switch to place itself into the master role and become the authentication initiator.”
In addition to urging companies to apply the necessary patches, the organization is recommending Bluetooth users to install the latest updates from device and operating system manufacturers.
“The BIAS attacks are the first uncovering issues related to Bluetooth’s secure connection establishment authentication procedures, adversarial role switches, and Secure Connections downgrades,” the research team concluded. “The BIAS attacks are stealthy, as Bluetooth secure connection establishment does not require user interaction.” | <urn:uuid:dffbffce-5708-4532-9185-b20bdd13d012> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.infosec4tc.com/2020/05/23/millions-of-devices-are-exposed-to-hackers-by-new-bluetooth-vulnerability/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.936705 | 567 | 2.9375 | 3 |
With the changing landscape of technology and data, the role of a database administrator (DBA) continues to evolve. The biggest concern of DBAs is whether this change will affect their importance in a positive way or will Big Data wipe out their significance?
To many, Big Data opens more challenging opportunities but with a new focus on the role. The fact that someone needs to administer and take care of the valuable data will make a DBA stay in the game for good. As more organizations maintain and store massive amounts of data, a DBA’s role becomes more important in efficiently handling data and ensuring its security and integrity.
Despite an ever-increasing amount of data to be maintained, the challenge is that the organizations don’t increase the number of DBA to administer the data. The DBA is therefore overwhelmed, and they end up doing a lot more than they used to handle.
In another scenario, some companies are outsourcing DBA works, leaving no room for a DBA in the organizational structure. This situation becomes another concern for a database administrator.
However, many more businesses recognize the importance of having a DBA to perform not just the traditional administration duties but also data management, including data integration.
Modern data architecture offers many opportunities for DBAs to expand their role in the company. Administrators can perform other “exciting” opportunities in Big Data, and new skill areas are emerging in this arena. These include being a Hadoop platform administrator. Understanding data processing in Hadoop and integrating it with existing data sources are invaluable skills to develop in the Big Data environment. Another focus area for the Big Data DBA is learning how to set up an R environment as well as understanding all the R scripting and advanced analytics scripts.
Data integration is a fundamental skill of a DBA. In Big Data, this becomes a more essential function because there’s always a need to connect to different data sources. Developing a service for diverse data sources is a valuable asset for Big Data projects.
There are massive opportunities for DBAs according to Gwen Shapira, a senior database administrator at Pythian, a data infrastructure management company. In this era of Big Data, the DBAs are more recognized and regarded, said Shapira in an interview with Enterprise Apps Today. In the past, database administrators were acknowledged only when the database stopped working. Now, business leaders see them play a significant role in the organization.
By enhancing their Big Data skills and learning new technologies and tools needed to manage Big Data, DBAs will have a strong foundation for bringing their role to a higher level. With an open mind and analytical capability, they will be able to embrace the changes in the industry and use Big Data to their advantage.
In the end, database administrators have a choice. Either they face the challenge and play a more significant role in the Big Data arena and take their career to the next level or be content in playing the traditional technical and administrative role.
Photo by Christoph Scholz. | <urn:uuid:14495f83-f407-4a71-9846-c13ae6651053> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://fourcornerstone.com/top-concerns-database-administrators-big-data/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337415.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003101805-20221003131805-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.937237 | 615 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Microsoft challenges Google with Project Adam artificial intelligence
Microsoft developed AI can tell its Alsatian from its Shih Tzu.
A team of Microsoft Research engineers developed an artificial intelligence system that claims to have beaten Google in tests for accuracy.
Project Adam is Microsoft's attempt at building deep neural networks more effectively. It said the system is built using commodity hardware and is very good at telling breeds of dog apart.
The inspiration for Project Adam was a project carried out by Google in 2012, which used 16,000 machines to teach itself to identify cat pictures from YouTube.
The engineers said the project was 50 times faster than current image recognition systems and twice as accurate. It also uses 30 times fewer machines to carry out the task.
Project Adam is capable of distinguishing between different dog breeds even if two breeds are the same colour and virtually identical. It does this be scanning parts of an image that do not match when it looks it up in its large dataset.
"The machine-learning models we have trained in the past have been very tiny, especially in comparison to the size of our brain in terms of connections between neurons," said Trishul Chilimbi, one of the Microsoft researchers who lead the Project Adam effort. "What the Google work had indicated is that if you train a larger model on more data, you do better on hard AI [artificial intelligence] tasks like image classification."
The project used 14 million images from ImageNet, an image database divided into 22,000 categories. According to Microsoft, the aim of Project Adam is to move computers beyond being simple number crunchers to teaching them to be pattern recognisers.
"Marrying these two things together will open a new world of applications that we couldn't imagine doing otherwise," said Chilimbi.
"Imagine if you could help blind people see by pointing a cell phone at a scene and having it describe the scene to them. We could do things like take a photograph of food we're eating and have it provide us with nutritional information. We can use that to make smarter choices."
Chilimbi said how the deep neural networks inside Project Adam work is still very much a mystery.
"How does a DNN, where all you're presenting it is an image, and you're saying, This is a Pembroke Welsh corgi'how does it figure out how to decompose the image into these levels of features?" he said.
"There's no instruction that we provide for that. You just have training algorithms saying, This is the image, this is the label.' It automatically figures out these hierarchical features. That's still a deep, mysterious, not well understood process. But then, nature has had several million years to work her magic in shaping the brain, so it shouldn't be surprising that we will need time to slowly unravel the mysteries."
Microsoft said the project is still in its early stages and looks unlikely to be released to the public. However, some of the technology could eventually find its way into its Bing search engine.
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The NHS Test & Trace scheme is already being exploited by cybercriminals, with a new smishing (SMS-phishing) attack telling citizens that they have been in contact with someone who has COVID-19. An example of the text message is below. These kinds of fake text messages typically include a link to a malicious site, or will ask the receiver to share personal information that could then be used to commit identity fraud.
Be warned that text messages like this one are already in circulation as the track & trace service launches. They are not genuine and anyone going to that website link will be asked to submit personal information that will then be used by fraudsters. pic.twitter.com/P11vyuPVmr
— Stuart Fuller (@theballisround) May 28, 2020
NHS has written specific guidelines on how they will contact people in the Test & Trace scheme, which can be found here. | <urn:uuid:662af5ae-f3d3-406a-9464-0acca3c316a6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/expert-insight-on-covid-19-test-trace-sms-phishing-attack/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334579.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925132046-20220925162046-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.953092 | 189 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Low-code application development platforms have been gaining momentum in recent years, with many conversations centering around how they can supplant traditional programming for many enterprise apps. While this is true, the hype around low-code has led to some perception that low-code exists in order to replace traditional coding. In practice, however, businesses can often get considerable value out of low-code when they mix and match the emerging methodology with more traditional programming. Generally speaking, organizations can do this by:
These are just a couple of ways to use low-code and traditional programming in tandem with one another. What is key to keep in mind here, however, is that they both touch on the micro and macro levels of development. For specific projects, organizations can use low-code and manual coding side by side in order to help developers spend most of their time on unique and complex functions while the low-code platform lets them create the core app quickly and easily. At the macro level, on the other hand, blending low-code and traditional programming can help organizations maximize their internal development resources. Either way, finding success blending the two methodologies hinges on understanding where they diverge. With that in mind, let's look at some of the core differences between-low code and programming.
The initial decisions within a development project set the tone for the entire initiative. In particular, organizations determining app requirements must carefully consider what operating system they want to focus on in the development project. This is one area where low-code platforms and traditional programming are especially different.
Traditional programming: Most programming languages are designed for specific use environments, meaning they will function very differently on various operating systems. As a result, organizations that want to prioritize an iOS user base may choose a vastly differently language than for Windows. This issue is even further muddled when considering different device formats, as each operating system will present slightly different considerations between desktop and mobile computing systems.
In most cases, organizations will need to support multiple operating systems and device ecosystems with their apps, so they may need to use more neutral languages and write separate code for the parts of the app that require unique functionality. Either way, there is a great deal of work to be done duplicating core functions across different operating system environments, putting a huge manual coding burden on development teams.
Low-code platforms: The visual interfaces that allow for drag-and-drop development in a low-code platform are backed by pre-built modules designed to work in a variety of operating system environments. While the specifics here can vary depending on whether you simply select different modules to perform the same task depending on the operating system or if one module will work across ecosystems, the result is simple. It is much easier to quickly adapt an app to different operating systems and devices using low-code platforms.
"Low-code platforms simplify and streamline the entire app rollout process."
While this may seem like something that could limit functionality to fairly simple apps, leading platforms have pushed forward into allowing for native app development using low-code tools. When it comes to adapting to device and operating system diversity, low-code has a major edge. In fact, an Information Age report detailing the rise of low code emphasized that the need for faster deployment across different environments, initially in web development, fueled the rise of low-code strategies in the app world.
App deployment is traditionally an extremely complex process, with each line of code needing to be tested in a lab environment before rolling the solution into production. From there, multiple instances of the app need to be put in place and trials must be run to ensure they work properly in the specific configuration. The incredible variety in the programming creates inherent complexity and makes it extremely time-consuming to get apps into production.
With a low-code platform, the pre-built modules are tested for functionality prior to their release into the platform. Furthermore, the actual development environment resides in a cloud ecosystem that also covers the production environment that will host the app, allowing for much simpler deployment and testing. Information Age likened what low-code platforms offer to what content management systems do in the web world - they use a visual interface for tried-and-true functions to simplify and streamline the entire app rollout process.
Like the operating system decision, using a traditional programming setup creates a variety of maintenance and updating challenges that organizations must contend with. If technical requirements for hardware change a year after your app is released, new code is necessary. If users want a feature added to the system, you'll have to get the programmers to work. If the data center configuration causes something in the code to act differently, manual changes become necessary. Over time, apps become legacy solutions as operating systems evolve, and special attention becomes necessary to keep the apps running smoothly.
All of this goes away with low-code platforms because the modular components of the visual development interface are managed in the backend by the platform provider, freeing organizations to focus on the design of the app and make small, quick tweaks as necessary over time.
All of this conversation has made low-code platforms seem vastly superior to traditional programming. In some ways, they are. A Software Improvement Group report explained that low-code platforms take many old ideas to improve development and refine them into a groundbreaking system that offers considerable potential. However, the flexibility and freedom of traditional programming shouldn't be overlooked. Businesses that value what their developers have to offer can use low-code platforms to maximize their internal development resources by streamlining most app creation processes, freeing the skilled programmers to create the nuanced code they specialize in.
In the end, low-code vs. programming isn't an either/or decision, it's an opportunity to use two strategies in tandem to drive innovation.
Appian is the unified platform for change. We accelerate customers’ businesses by discovering, designing, and automating their most important processes. The Appian Low-Code Platform combines the key capabilities needed to get work done faster, Process Mining + Workflow + Automation, in a unified low-code platform. Appian is open, enterprise-grade, and trusted by industry leaders. | <urn:uuid:abf69faf-ad14-4b83-b8c0-6057f455b3e8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://appian.com/blog/2017/low-code-vs-programming-it-isnt-an-eitheror-decision.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335355.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929131813-20220929161813-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.943459 | 1,241 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The Future of the Internet
The internet has become part of the daily lives of millions and millions of users. In fact, most of us would have a difficult time going through our days without it. We use it to communicate, research things, play games, watch sports, movies and home-made videos, handle our finances, babysit our kids and pets, shopping, food delivery, and more.
It is interesting that other than email, none of the ways we currently use the internet were considered when the original developers came up with the idea of creating an international network for communicating with others. At the time they were interested in creating an electronic version of the post office. What it has become is a way for us to interact with others at many different levels.
However, there are some concerns with the current architecture of the internet in that those services that require low-latency or high bandwidth cannot be guaranteed. The requirements of current and future applications need a deterministic and consistent network connection between end-points to deliver the applications both residential and business customers desire. For example;
• Virtual reality requires 25 Mbps or greater throughput while maintaining a motion-to-photon latency of less than 20 ms
• Industrial applications e.g. machine to machine or sensors to vehicles require between 25 μs and 10 ms
• Tactile (haptic) applications require approximately 1 ms
• Vehicular networks require between 500 μs and 5 ms latency
The internet as we know it today has no guarantee of packet delivery, let alone the deterministic latency required by bleeding edge applications.
So then, what does the internet need to look like for future applications? First, let’s start with the applications themselves. New media has large bandwidth requirements and requires changes from Mbps to Gbps to Tbps. Services need high-precision timing support, deterministic delivery, and best-guaranteed services. The networks themselves need to cross not only the planet, but space as well, as well as being federated and trustable.
New media e.g. holograms could potentially use up to 19.1 Gigapixels which requires approximately 1 Tbps throughput. A hologram the size of the average human (77 x 20 inches) uses around 4.6 Tbps.
When it comes to video, we are seeing a shift from quantitative to qualitative digital information. Comparatively…
A leitmotif comes onto the scene as we review the network performance requirements of the next internet: latency and jitter.
So why do latency and jitter matter? Simply put, time is money and money is time. For example, a 1 second slowdown per web page could cost Amazon $1.6B in sales a year. On Wall Street, a millisecond delay could cost $100M per year. In virtual and augmented reality, a latency of >= 20 ms results in dizziness. These examples do not begin to address the requirements of future technologies like remote surgery, cloud PLC or intelligent transportation systems. Part of our challenge is a better understanding of what the requirements of future applications will be and how we can manage it at the network layer.
Now is the time to get involved and have input into the definition and creation of the future internet
We need a new way to handle the requirements of time-sensitive current and future applications. Today’s networks are designed for best effort traffic and depend on statistical multiplexing to scale the networks interfaces. The dilemma is that statistical multiplexing is not sufficient to meet the needs of these applications. We need a new way of handling packet delivery in absolute time. We need new user-network interfaces (UNI), reservation signaling (RSVP), new forwarding paradigm, an intrinsic self-monitoring and correcting OAM, a business agreement between the interconnection providers and a business model towards monetizing the network end-to-end to fairly distribute the payments for traffic transit.
New Communications for a New Internet
We have many protocols available today that can assist in minimizing jitter and latency, but there are few technologies for determining the end-to-end flow of packets at an application level that crosses multiple providers and reports back to assist in working through a financial model for payment. We need a way of modeling packets transiting multiple networks in order to better understand the impact of a network based on application packet determinism.
Today’s switches likely cannot handle the latency and jitter requirements of tomorrows applications. We need new silicon for switches that can understand the new protocols and have the performance necessary for new requirements. Today’s routers may have the ability to differentiate services to the level required, but without a better understanding of what those requirements are it is difficult to determine if changes will be required.
We have not even begun to discuss the possibility of a future network paradigm including NTN’s (Non-Terrestrial Networks), i.e. networks that extend into space.
A brief summary of today’s network versus the future state of the new internet.
There is much work to be done if we want to get ahead of the future requirements of the internet. A number of working groups are beginning discussions on these topics and more. Now is the time to get involved and have input into the definition and creation of the future internet | <urn:uuid:acbd475d-932b-48bc-a224-6f07855e75ea> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://networking.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/the-future-of-the-internet-nid-27776-cid-9.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335355.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929131813-20220929161813-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.936177 | 1,084 | 3.109375 | 3 |
FAA noted there’s no proof these unmanned aircraft have caused accidents.
Drones can deliver pizza and packages, but it’s illegal to fly them near aircraft under U.S. law. Yet, the Federal Aviation Administration logged 1,274 reports of “possible” drone sightings to air traffic control between February to September of 2016, a 46 percent increase from the same period the year prior, the agency said last week.
The reports come from pilots, air traffic controllers, law enforcement and the general public.
The trend may seem scary but the FAA was quick to note there’s no proof these unmanned aircraft have caused accidents.
“Every investigation has found the reported collisions were either birds, impact with other items such as wires and posts, or structural failure not related to colliding with an unmanned aircraft,” FAA said.
The culprits (or victims) of collisions are often animals. There were 169,856 reports of civil aircraft hitting animals between 1990 and 2015, causing damages and lost revenue of $731 million. Birds accounted for more than 96 percent of the cases, but a host of other animals including box turtles, bats and foxes were also struck by aircraft.
Earlier this month, an American Airlines jet struck a deer while taking off from Charlotte, North Carolina, causing the plane to leak fuel. The plane made an emergency landing at the same airport.
While fewer than 10 percent of the cases of animal strikes logged by FAA in the 25-year period caused damage, a bird in the engine is nothing to laugh off, because it can disable an engine.
In 1960, an Eastern Airlines jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Boston’s Logan airport, after ingesting a flock of starlings into its engines. Sixty-two of the 72 people aboard were killed.
Perhaps most famously, pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger safely landed a U.S. Air jet on the Hudson River in New York flying into a flock of Canada geese, which damaged the plane’s engines, shortly after leaving LaGuardia Airport. All 155 passengers survived.
Noting that bird strikes are still common, The Associated Press recently reported 70,000 birds around New York’s airports have been killed since 2009—using guns, pyrotechnics and traps—all in the name of passenger safety. | <urn:uuid:a1675c08-1310-46b2-b9c5-d27f183cbff6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2017/02/there-were-46-more-potential-near-misses-between-us-planes-and-drones/135727/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335355.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929131813-20220929161813-00747.warc.gz | en | 0.959957 | 491 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Graphical display is a complex process that takes a lot of different units. One of these hardware units is the GPU. Fully understanding this item and its many benefits in your display devices is crucial to spotting problems with them and getting them repaired quickly and efficiently.
What Are GPUs?
To better understand what GPUs are, it’s best to understand what they do. GPU stands for “graphic processing unit”, and they help to create quicker, more accurate, and easier to view images in a computing environment.
They basically manipulate and alter computer memory to create a quicker output for computer graphics and imaging processing software. Think of them as a video card, but one that works with large blocks of data in parallel manners in order to accelerate display and make it more effective.
How Long Have They Been Used?
GPUs have been in use since the 1970s, particularly in various arcade machines. These early units were very crude and designed to handle only a fraction of what a modern unit can display. Modern graphical GPU items were implemented with advanced computers, particularly the early mouse and keyboard-driven computers of Microsoft and Apple.
They have continually expanded to be used in mobile phones and even game consoles. Without them, it would be impossible to get the high-quality graphics and display possibilities inherent in modern televisions. They have truly changed the way that images are displayed on screens, making them a crucial part of the modern entertainment age.
As of 2017, GPUs are still being manipulated in a variety of useful ways. Typically, they are increased in speed with each generation while simultaneously becoming smaller. The idea is to create GPUs that are nearly nano-size in order to not only increase the computing power of the average graphic processor, but to shrink the average size of the computer required to run it.
What Problems Occur In These Units?
GPU units don’t typically suffer from a variety of serious problems, but there are moments when they might struggle to run properly or even fail to implement. For example, some GPUs will have a limitation on how much data can be used at one time. Going over this limit will slow down its operation and cause fuzzy or clouded graphics.
Another common problem that could plague these units is individual part failure. While not built out of very many materials, a slight flaw (such as a break in a plastic casing) could cause the unit to spark and put it as serious risk of burning out. This doesn’t mean it will literally catch on fire, but it could suffer from problematic operation or completely fail.
Can They Be Fixed?
When a GPU unit fails, there’s not much that can be done to fix it. While it is possible to fix the small individual parts that make up the average GPU, this is often more expensive than simply replacing one. Purchasing a new GPU will typically cost a few hundred dollars or more, depending on the type you use and the system that you are using it with.
Symptoms of a failing GPU include display problems, fuzzy images, difficulty with sound syncing, and unstable image display. These problems will increase in intensity as the problem gets worse, making it important to check them regularly to ensure that complete failure isn’t on the horizon. When a unit completely fails, getting it replaced will be the best option. If you suspect a GPU in your machine might be failing, be sure to take it to your local computer repair shop in San Marcos to see if it needs replacing, or if your issue is being caused by another source. | <urn:uuid:86516de1-b21b-4267-b8e0-428f041e97eb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://mytekrescue.com/understanding-nature-gpu-units/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334596.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925193816-20220925223816-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.951748 | 722 | 3.328125 | 3 |
People who find themselves obese could also be at an elevated threat for extra extreme COVID-19. Now, some researchers say that SARS-CoV-2 instantly targets fats tissue and the immune cells discovered there.
Scientists took fats tissue samples and uncovered them to coronavirus within the lab. They discovered that mature fats cells and fats tissue macrophages, a kind of immune cell, have been mobile targets for the virus. The crew additionally took lung, kidney, coronary heart, and fats tissue from COVID-19 affected person post-mortem samples and evaluated every tissue for viral RNA. They discovered the virus in all tissues, however the charges of detection have been highest in lung, adopted by fats, coronary heart, then kidney tissues. The brand new findings have been launched as a non-peer-reviewed preprint on October 25, but when the analysis holds up, it’d assist to elucidate how physique fats composition influences COVID-19 outcomes.
If fats tissues are extra susceptible than different tissues, it’s believable that will worsen the entire physique’s immune response to COVID-19, as a result of “no matter occurs in fats doesn’t keep in fats,” Philipp Scherer, a scientist who research fats cells at UT Southwestern Medical Heart in Dallas who was not concerned within the analysis, instructed The New York Times. “It impacts the neighboring tissues as effectively.”
For the reason that pandemic started, dozens of research have documented that sufferers with weight problems have tended to fare worse than their lower-weight counterparts. A meta-analysis printed in Obesity Reviews in August reported that, out of 399,000 topics throughout 1733 research, individuals with weight problems have been 113 p.c extra doubtless than individuals of “wholesome” weight to be hospitalized after SARS-CoV-2 an infection. They have been additionally 74 p.c extra prone to be admitted to the ICU, and 48 p.c extra prone to die.
Whereas the preprinted examine does take a look at fats tissue’s response to SARS-CoV-2 in lab samples, it nonetheless doesn’t present how fats impacts particular person human our bodies of their response to COVID-19. Analyses on post-mortem samples and research just like the one in Weight problems Opinions equally take a look at the statistics in cohorts, reasonably than how the virus interacts with residing immune methods. So whereas a hyperlink between extreme COVID-19 and weight problems might exist, we nonetheless don’t know what precisely that connection is, and whether or not extra physique fats truly predisposes you to extreme illness.
Sadly, people who find themselves obese are sometimes excluded from scientific trials, and so successfully treating sufferers might be troublesome. Some information counsel that such sufferers require larger doses of anticoagulants, Scott Kahan, an weight problems medication doctor who directs the Nationwide Heart for Weight and Wellness, instructed Science. However as a result of information on sufferers with weight problems typically doesn’t exist, physicians don’t have clear steerage on precisely how one can alter therapy regiments. He added that COVID-19 therapy trials ought to embody individuals with excessive BMIs wherever potential.
The authors of the preprint additionally theorized that weight problems may contribute to lengthy COVID, as fats tissue could possibly be performing as a reservoir for viral an infection, however additional examine is required. | <urn:uuid:aa1efea8-09f8-43ca-9cb4-82378c0cf322> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://dimkts.com/covid-19-can-attack-fat-cells-but-its-still-not-clear-what-that-means/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335530.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001035148-20221001065148-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.948424 | 718 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The Everyday Dictionary of Law
The Everyday Dictionary of Law provides legal vocabulary currently in use in common law jurisdictions such as most notably, in the United States. The dictionary is compiled specifically for commercial and intellectual property law practitioners, which provides simple definitions and meanings in American English, for legal terms (including Latin terms) used in formal correspondence, court proceedings, and motion practice as well as common language words that are frequently used in the same. It is a simple reference guide for attorneys, paralegals as well as casual readers who need to check the meaning of a particular legal term in due course of their work.
The information provided by Carthaginian Ventures Private Limited d/b/a Copperpod IP (“we,” “us” or “our”) on this site is for general informational purposes only. All information on the website is provided in good faith, however, we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on the site. Under no circumstance shall we have any liability to you for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the site or reliance on any information provided on the site. Your use and and reliance on any information on the site constitutes your understanding, acceptance and agreement of these terms and conditions.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. The Declaration acknowledges the equal human rights of indigenous peoples against cultural discrimination and seeks to promote mutual respect and harmonious relations between the indigenous peoples and States.
In relation to traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources, Article 31.1 states that: “[i]ndigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.” Article 31.2 further provides that “[i]n conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights.” On traditional medicine, Article 24 provides that “[i]ndigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals.” | <urn:uuid:15538c68-2bac-497d-a87f-87a4aa66c822> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.copperpodip.com/dictionary/united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335530.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001035148-20221001065148-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.927415 | 562 | 2.515625 | 3 |
As the world continues to adopt more sophisticated forms of technology, AI and Machine Learning are playing an increasingly important role in technology strategy.
According to IDC, AI-related revenue increased by 12.3% in 2020, reaching more than $150 billion worldwide. This growth illustrates just how valuable AI and Machine Learning are becoming in driving the current round of digital transformation.
Hyperautomation uses Machine Learning and AI to increasingly automate processes and aid human workers. It leverages advanced tools and combines them to create a significantly more efficient and agile work environment. According to Gartner, hyperautomation was one of the 2020’s top 10 strategic technology trends.
Hyperautomation enables organizations to adapt to unforeseen and changing circumstances. The challenges presented by the Coronavirus pandemic meant that there was a boost in adoption in 2020. Hyperautomation allows businesses to adapt to sudden changes and exceptional circumstances more quickly.
It allows businesses and their workforce to boost efficiency as more complex tasks can be automated. Professionals are able to concentrate on more strategically and creatively based tasks as hyperautomation creates a ‘digital workforce’. This can take responsibility for analyzing data and making decisions, as well as discovering new and improved processes and automation opportunities.
As cybercriminals’ techniques for infiltrating organizations’ systems become more sophisticated, it is becoming more challenging for cybersecurity developers to stay one step ahead. This means they are increasingly relying on AI and Machine Learning to help identify threats.
An example of how AI and Machine Learning can help organizations defend themselves against cyberattacks is Natural Language Processing. By scanning articles about cyber attacks, AI-powered systems can select and store keywords and phrases. By ‘reading’ and deciphering language that is useful to the end-user and their objectives, AI and Machine Learning can gather important information more quickly.
By utilizing AI-powered cybersecurity tools, businesses can collect large amounts of data from sources such as their websites and communication networks. With access to this data, these tools can monitor and analyze patterns. Any threatening activity or potential data breaches can quickly be identified.
Internet of Things
Machine Learning and AI are inherently interwoven with the Internet of Things (IoT), the ecosystem of everyday objects being connected to the internet, such as heating systems and kitchen items. Research firm, Transforma Insights, has forecasted that the global IoT market will grow to 24.1 billion devices in 2030. In turn, this will generate $1.5 trillion in revenue.
Monitoring the behavior and patterns of a building’s environment means that any anomalies in the data will be addressed quickly. For example, if there is a change in temperature, the heating system will automatically be adjusted. This means that money will not be wasted on unnecessary heating in homes and offices leading to increased energy efficiency.
Additionally, according to research firm IHS Markit, AI systems have the ability to identify intruders after learning the behavior of a building’s inhabitants. This means that the growing influence of Machine Learning and AI is giving rise to more sustainable and secure ‘smart homes’.
Machine Learning and AI’s influence is growing as we become more reliant upon technology in both our homes and our workplaces. The automated monitoring and deciphering of data result in significant benefits to our efficiency, adaptability and security in numerous areas of society.
If you are an employer looking for AI or Machine Learning workforce solutions get in touch with us to see how we can help deliver your strategy. | <urn:uuid:882b1a4d-1966-4cc1-b5a0-feb23b61128a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://k2partnering.com/airobotics/ai-machine-learning-the-driving-force-behind-digital-transformation/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337537.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005042446-20221005072446-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.935382 | 734 | 2.828125 | 3 |
“The robotics that support human life on Mars will be an entirely new class of robots,” Whittaker said.
President Obama announced Tuesday that the White House’s goal is to send humans back and forth to Mars by the 2030s “with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time.”
“The robots will be up to it by that time frame,” Whittaker said. “There’s a clear sense of what’s called for and we’re going to come through.”
The robots that are on Mars for exploration purposes will have to be updated in order to perceive, plan, and process to solve problems in space.
“They have to be compatible with humans,” Whittaker said.
Whittaker is an expert in field robotics, which includes any robots that deal with physical jobs, such as cleaning up nuclear accidents, mining, and exploring outer space. Whittaker said that each subset of field robotics has its own unique factors, but most of the time the robots have factors in common with one another.
Whittaker will talk about his research and the ability for humans to live in space during a panel discussion at the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Whittaker said that when people think of space travel, robots are a given and no longer a dream of the future.
“That’s a big thing in its own right,” Whittaker said. “There actually was a day when robots were fantasy and science fiction and we had to find a way to make it real.”
The robots will also have to operate when humans aren’t on Mars to keep the facilities preserved and running. The robots will be responsible for excavating, shaping soil, shielding from radiation, mining for needed materials, generating power, and supplying transportation, according to Whittaker.
“What matters now are these new roles and capabilities that can fulfill them,” Whittaker said.
Whittaker said the market on Earth for robots that can perform these tasks will drive the innovation needed for robots that will operate in space in the near future.
“Could it be done? Absolutely,” Whittaker said. “Will it be done? Absolutely.” | <urn:uuid:71590dd4-8314-4c48-a611-20e75c8c7cf0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://origin.meritalk.com/articles/robots-will-be-ready-to-support-human-life-in-space-by-2030s/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337836.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006124156-20221006154156-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.960293 | 487 | 2.59375 | 3 |
What is their Expectation?
Do you ever have a conversation where someone asks you to do something, you appear to understand, you perform the task and feedback is not at all what the other person was expecting? For those of you who immediately answered “never”, share your secrets with the rest of us!
Pay attention to all the details. As we move faster every day, we tend to skim or skip some of those little details. This can lead to misunderstanding expectations and sometimes you find yourself in a who is right and who is wrong discussion. Go back, understand and reach a mutually agreed definition and keep moving forward together.
Understanding expectations can sometimes be difficult. All the information is not necessarily shared. You do not ask enough questions and you may make some presumptions along the way.
A good practice is to repeat the request in your own words. Follow up with a summary of the discussion with action items. More times than not, someone will miss something either at the time of discussion or in their summary. This helps to set and understand each others’ expectations.
When an expectation is not realistic, it is up to the other person to acknowledge this and to help set a realistic expectation. Effective communication is the key here. In some cases, the demand will be to meet the expectation while in most cases you can both reach a more realistic one. The alternative right decision may be to just walk away if it remains an unrealistic expectation. This is okay in some cases.
We tend to say yes and nod our heads often to show we understand and we are listening. Ask more questions to ensure you dive deeper into the expectation. This will give you a better understanding and provide you with more information.
It usually takes three to five questions to get to the full scope of some expectations. To truly be effective, asking more questions will help.
What are you doing to understand and to set realistic expectations? | <urn:uuid:cd037487-a6aa-42ac-808b-fe4412e3b7d1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.alphakor.com/blogs/communication/understanding-expectations/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338280.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007210452-20221008000452-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.950142 | 405 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The purpose of this Types of Cybersecurity Guide is to provide a simple framework for integrating cybersecurity activities and give a brief overview of the security controls that should be exercised.
Cybercrime is a growing concern in the digital environment. Most smaller companies do not have their own cyber security teams and cybercriminals who seek financial or business benefits are likely to target these smaller and more vulnerable targets.
This Types of Cybersecurity Guide contains the different types of cybersecurity and their safeguards. We have compiled a list of 12 cybersecurity themes, along with basic and advanced recommendations that will help protect against data breaches and cyber-attacks.
12 Types of Cybersecurity / Cybersecurity Themes:
ENGAGE TOP MANAGEMENT
Involving top management in the project is essential to creating a sustainable training strategy throughout the organization.
- Designate an information security officer.
- Identify your ICT risk and protect your business for the future.
- Comply with legal and regulatory requirements regarding privacy, data processing and security.
- Be aware of cyber threats and vulnerabilities on your networks.
- Make sure the information security officer is an independent agent who is not part of the IT department.
- Clearly define the objectives of system and network monitoring.
- Identify the legal consequences of a data leak, a network failure, etc.
- Periodically conduct a risk and security audit. Communicate the results and the action plan to management.
DEVELOP A SECURITY POLICY AND A CODE OF CONDUCT
This is a set of rules, laws, and practices that must be followed in the workplace. It is based on existing risks and aimed at making management and employees more accountable for the prevention of security incidents.
- Create and apply procedures for the arrival and departure of users (staff, trainees, etc.).
- Describe roles and responsibilities for security (physical, personnel).
- Develop and distribute a code of conduct for the use of computing resources.
- Schedule and run security audits.
- Create a classification scheme and traceability of sensitive information.
- Introduce the notions of “need to know”, “least privilege” and “segregation of duties” into your corporate policies and processes.
- Publish a responsible disclosure policy.
- Store sensitive documents in locked cabinets.
- Destroy sensitive documents with a shredder.
- At the end of the work day, destroy the documents left on the printer.
- Apply Locked Print if available.
- Develop a concept and training plan for cybersecurity.
SENSITIZE YOUR WORKERS TO CYBER RISKS
Workers are the weakest link in the information security chain. Make your internal and external employees aware of information security risks. Make sure they understand your messages and test their knowledge. They will be your first line of defense in case of attack.
- Inform your users to your code of conduct. Regularly remind users of the importance of safe behavior.
- Regularly remind users that information should be considered sensitive and handled in a manner that respects the rules of privacy protection.
- Inform users about how to recognize phishing (e-mail fraud) and how to react.
- Inform accounting staff about the phenomenon of “CEO fraud” and provide for control procedures in connection with the execution of payments.
- Integrate knowledge and respect of the code of conduct into staff evaluation.
- Periodically evaluate user awareness and responsiveness.
MANAGE YOUR IMPORTANT COMPUTER RESOURCES
It is obvious that securing important data is a central issue for all businesses today. There are multiple threats to information systems and most company systems contain crucial private information.
- Inform about the importance of all equipment and software licenses.
- Keep a detailed and up-to-date map of all your networks and interconnections.
- Use a configuration management tool (or at least one tool such as Microsoft MMC, etc.).
- Define a basic security configuration.
- Make sure that Service Level Agreements and other Agreements have security clauses.
- Implement a change control process.
- Implement a uniform level of security for all your networks.
- Regularly audit all configurations (including servers, firewalls, and network components).
UPDATE ALL PROGRAMS
Updates play an important role in protecting your devices as they can fix errors or fix security vulnerabilities. They also give you access to the latest software features and design improvements.
Take the example of an antivirus: An antivirus is software that can fight against computer attacks, malware, and for the security of your device (computer or smartphone). This software must be regularly updated because new computer viruses are constantly being created.
- Introduce an internal culture of the “patch” (workstations, mobile devices, servers, network components, etc.).
- Perform security updates of all software as soon as possible.
- Automate the update process and audit its effectiveness.
- Set up a test and reference environment for new patches.
- Update all third-party software, such as browsers and plugins.
- Perform a full backup for the servers before the update and create emergency repair disks after the update.
INSTALL ANTIVIRUS PROTECTION
This is a crucial step to protect your personal data!
Your computer or device contains a lot of files and data about you. This includes photos and text documents (pay slips, taxes, scans, etc.). It also includes your browsing data.
This data can be used to exploit certain sensitive data that could lead to the theft of your digital identity. Examples of this include spoofing your identity using your private information including your phone number, email, photos, etc.). This spoofing may be used to harm you financially or harm your reputation.
Viruses spread to both computers and smartphones (iOS or Android). They also can affect tablets and other devices.
It is necessary to ensure that all of your devices are protected by antivirus software.
- Antivirus software is installed on all workstations and servers.
- Antivirus updates are automatically done.
- Users know how antivirus software alerts you of a viral infection.
- All virus alerts are analyzed by an ICT expert.
- Antivirus software is installed on all mobile devices.
- Antivirus is regularly tested using the EICAR test.
SAVE ALL INFORMATION
Your company’s employees exchange sensitive documents internally and externally on a daily basis. For legal, strategic, and security reasons, your data must be regularly backed up. It is prudent to engage a solution provider for your backup strategy. A trusted provider can ensure that your data is backed up and can assist with restoring data.
Data security is not just about adopting a backup solution. You should establish a data backup policy within your organization and establish procedures that must be followed by all employees.
- Back up your important data daily.
- Host your backup solutions on your own servers or in the cloud.
- Back up backups offline and in a separate location (if possible, away from their source).
- Backups are stored in a vault or in a secure data center.
- Periodic restore tests are performed to evaluate the quality of backups.
- Encrypt data stored in the cloud.
MANAGE ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTERS AND NETWORKS
In the workplace, all computers connected to a server can be considered to be part of the network. You are responsible for the security of this vast system and you must defend the network against intruders. You must also ensure the integrity of data on computers inside the network.
Maintaining the physical security of your computing environment is essential to protecting your systems. Any system that is connected and left unattended is vulnerable to unauthorized access.
The areas around the computer and the computer hardware must be physically protected from intruders and unauthorized access.
You must also prevent unauthorized connection to a system or network by assigning a password or connection control. All accounts on a system must be password protected. While a password is a simple authentication mechanism, it protects the entire network from intruders. A strong password will protect against brute force attacks.
- Change all default passwords.
- Nobody has administrator privileges for daily tasks.
- Keep a limited and up-to-date list of system administrator accounts.
- Passwords must be at least 10 characters long (a combination of character types) and must be changed periodically or whenever there is a suspicion of compromise.
- Use only individual accounts and never share your passwords.
- Disable unused accounts immediately.
- Make authentication and password rules mandatory.
- Rights and privileges are managed by user groups.
- Users are only allowed to access the information they need to perform their missions.
- Detect and block unused accounts; Use multi-factor authentication.
- Block access to the Internet from accounts with administrator rights.
- Detect irregular access to information and systems (delays, applications, data, etc.).
- Frequently audit the central directory (Active Directory or LDAP directory).
- Limit worker access with a badge system and create multiple security zones.
- Save all visits.
- Organize office cleaning during working hours or under permanent supervision.
SECURE WORKSTATIONS AND MOBILE DEVICES
The number of threats on smartphones continues to grow. Android devices are especially targeted by hackers. All users are at risk and business users are heavily targeted.
The business workstation is also a common target for computer attacks. Implementing simple and quick tips for protecting your employees’ workstations is one of the most important steps you can take to secure your infrastructure.
Poorly protected workstations are a vulnerability that hackers look to exploit to gain personal data. Workstations can also become gateways for attacks on more sensitive systems within the company. There are some simple steps to apply to guard against these risks.
- Workstations and unused mobile devices are locked automatically.
- Laptops, smartphones and tablets are never left unattended.
- Disable the “Autorun” function of external media.
- Store or copy all data on a server or NAS (Network Area Storage).
- Discarded hard drives, media and printers containing data are physically destroyed.
- Prohibit connection of personal devices to the organization’s information system.
- Encrypt hard drives on laptops.
- Sensitive or confidential data is transmitted only in encrypted form.
- Technically prevent the connection of unregistered portable media.
- Data stored in the cloud is encrypted (eg BoxCryptor).
- The guarantees offered by the cloud provider correspond to the criticality level of the stored information.
- External media players such as USB sticks are checked for viruses before they are connected to a computer.
SECURING SERVERS AND NETWORK COMPONENTS
The security measures to be taken to secure a server depend on the services that it runs, the level of confidentiality of the data it contains, and the risks involved.
System administrators or network administrators are responsible for the preparation, installation, and maintenance of the servers. The role of a system administrator does not stop with the installation and configuration of machines. This person also holds a key role in network security over the long term.
The more connected a company is, the more vulnerable it is. New communication or sharing technologies (e-mail, mobility, video conferencing, online tools) have become part of our daily lives. These technologies also generate new challenges for the security of your business.
- Change all default passwords and disable unused accounts.
- Protect Wi-Fi with WPA2 encryption.
- Close unused ports and services.
- Avoid remote connection to servers.
- Use secure applications and protocols.
- Security logs on servers and firewalls are kept for a period of at least 1 month.
- The public Wi-Fi network is separate from the corporate network.
- Security logs are kept for a period of at least 6 months Protect enterprise Wi-Fi by WPA2.
- Enterprise with a system
- Reinforce all systems according to the supplier’s recommendations.
- Use a network (logically) separate from the user’s network for server administration.
- Evaluate all events and alerts for servers, firewalls and network components.
- An alert-based analysis and alerting system for detecting malicious behavior (SIEM).
- An IDS / IPS system (Intrusion Detection / Prevention System) monitors all communications.
- Physical access to servers and network components is limited to a minimum number of people.
- All physical access to servers and network components is logged.
- Perform intrusion tests and vulnerability scans.
SECURE REMOTE ACCESS
Mobile staff, adoption of cloud applications, and expanded network access for consultants and business partners are blurring the boundaries of the traditional network security perimeter. Organizations must deploy remote access security solutions in order to keep data secure when employees are inside and outside of the office.
When enterprise resources are dispersed across local, cloud, and virtual applications, it is critical to have a central management point from which uniform access controls will be defined and enforced to ensure security and optimal transparency.
- Remote access should be closed automatically when idle for a period of time.
- Limit remote access to what is strictly necessary.
- All connections to the corporate network are secure and encrypted.
- Only allow Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections from endpoints.
- Strong authentication is used when connecting from outside public networks.
- Remote access is limited to the IP addresses of the providers and the necessary regions.
HAVE A PLAN FOR CONTINUITY OF ACTIVITIES AND AN INCIDENT MANAGEMENT PLAN
This is the set of measures aimed at ensuring, under various crisis scenarios (including in the face of extreme shocks), the maintenance of services essential to the business. A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) includes risk analysis to deal with multiple scenarios. It can be an IT problem, a data breach attack, a natural disaster on a site, a fire, or another scenario.
The business continuity plan provides for the maintenance of the company’s essential services such as the work of certain services on a fallback site. It also provides for the planned recovery of activities.
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is essential for any sector when there is a risk of disruption of critical activities that may lead to economic losses or to reputation losses of the company.
Responding correctly to scenarios, including sending a clear and precise alert using a crisis management system, can increase credibility among employees and customers.
The management and control of risks associated with a change is essential to ensure the sustainability of a company.
It is necessary to carry out one or more crisis risk analyzes:
Analysis of the repercussions on the operations: in the context of a crisis scenario, what are the activities, the processes essential to the durability of the company?
IT risk analysis: Is the use of IT essential to the smooth running of the business? In case of affirmation, what impacts should we expect to face?
Chemical, Flood or Fire Risk Analysis: Does the company have a hazardous substance that can ignite? Is it located in a flood risk zone? Is it surrounded by other companies equipped with dangerous substances? A disaster can be caused by the proximity of other risks of internal or external origin.
- Have an incident management plan to respond to an incident
- Have a business continuity plan to preserve the business
- All workers must know the point of contact to report an incident
- Distribute and update contact point information (internal and external contacts, management and technical contacts, etc.)
- Report all incidents to the management
- Evaluate and test these plans annually.
- Evaluate the advisability of insurance against incidents of
- Install emergency devices for utility services (electricity, telephone, Internet, etc.).
Cybercrime is growing at a fast pace and more and more businesses are being targeted. In the United States, nearly 44% of small businesses have been victims of a cyberattack and the number continues to increase each year. This crime could cost more than $ 2 billion in 2019. This is four times more than in 2015.
Developing a strong, multi-layered security strategy using each of the 12 types of cybersecurity that we outlined can save a business.
Continuous training of employees and the implementation of security technologies will provide the first line of defense and significantly reduce the number of security breaches.
Finally, a reliable backup and recovery solution will be the second and most important layer that gives businesses the ability to reboot quickly in the event of a major incident.
THIS TYPES OF CYBERSECURITY GUIDE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED BY TECHNICAL EXPERT HICHAM, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH “cyberexperts.com“. IT IS BASED ON CONTRIBUTIONS AND BEST PRACTICES IN ORDER TO HAVE A ROBUST DEFENSE AND FACE THE DIGITAL THREAT.
Note: The information provided on this types of cybersecurity guide is exclusive of a general nature and do not intend to take into consideration any particular situation. | <urn:uuid:eb22fff4-dfe8-46d3-b1f6-411e4b8c4e14> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://cyberexperts.com/types-of-cybersecurity/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030331677.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924151538-20220924181538-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.883069 | 3,720 | 2.875 | 3 |
Something old, something new
Many VoIP handsets and softphones use SIP signaling to register with a server and place or receive calls through a proxy. During calls, voice is digitized, encoded, compressed, and transported by RTP messages between calling and called parties (SIP user agents). Those SIP and RTP messages are exchanged over IP networks—hence the moniker Voice over IP.
Right from the get-go, this architecture inherits the same old vulnerabilities that can plague any networked application. Within the public switched telephone network, systems are trusted and insulated from outsiders. But in many VoIP deployments, user agents live outside the trusted network, requiring SIP and RTP to traverse unknown and potentially hostile territory. Furthermore, when converged IP networks support both data and VoIP, SIP user agents and servers may be readily accessible to other LAN hosts.
This exposure makes SIP and RTP vulnerable to network-borne attacks. For example, a hacker can flood a SIP server or proxy with REGISTER or INVITE messages, or flood a SIP client with RTP sessions, exhausting resources and making VoIP service unavailable. Or he can extract a caller’s identity from SIP messages to steal service or impersonate an authorized user. Unless RTP is encrypted (for example, by SRTP), a hacker can easily capture and reconstruct voice payload for the purposes of call eavesdropping or replay. SIP calls can also be redirected, hijacked, degraded, or disrupted altogether.
While these attack details are specific to SIP and RTP, the underlying methodologies are familiar and common to most clear-text TCP/IP protocols. As such, existing network security measures can be used to help mitigate them. For example, firewalls can protect SIP servers and applications from Denial of Service floods, while LAN authentication methods like 802.1X can deter impersonation. Extensions are often necessary to satisfy VoIP-specific demands—for example, firewalls must process RTP without undue latency or jitter, while intrusion prevention systems need SIP attack signatures. To learn more, see VOIP security appliances by Sipera, SecureLogix, and Ingate.
Uncovering SIP code vulnerabilities
While some security vulnerabilities are caused by using weakly authenticated, unencrypted protocols, others are introduced during VoIP product development.
For example, when the Oulu University Secure Programming Group (OUSPG) tested INVITE message processing by SIP agents and proxies, just one of nine implementations survived this relatively basic exercise. This “fuzzing” test sent 4,527 crafted messages to representative SIP implementations, looking for buffer overflows, unhandled exceptions, and unexpected behavior. Failure impacts ranged from unexpected system behavior and denial of service to arbitrary code execution on the system under test.
Although the affected implementations have since been patched (see CERT Advisory CA-2003-06), this test demonstrates the likelihood of code flaws in newly released VoIP products and the importance of applying available patches. Fuzzing (i.e., functional testing) finds many of these problems during product development, but consumers can verify robustness using open source tools like SIPp or the OUSPG PROTOS SIP tester (now a commercial test tool, Codenomicon).
SIP registrar/proxy servers are not the only devices that should be tested for security bugs. Applications and handsets/phones also deserve plenty of scrutiny. For example:
- A vulnerability in certain versions of Asterisk lets remote attackers access the SIP channel driver using a specially crafted “From” header (see Asterisk Advisory).
- A verification flaw lets attackers use the Vonage Motorola Phone Adapter VT 2142-VD to send spoofed INVITE messages (CERT Advisory 2007-5791).
- A flaw the snom 320 SIP Phone could let a remote attacker use this desk phone to place arbitrary phone calls (X-Force Advisory 41171).
- Even a bug-free softphone on a host without OS patches or anti-virus signatures could be infected by malware that sends voice spam (SPIT), like this proof-of-concept IRC-VOIP bot.
These examples illustrate a range of potential flaws and consequences. The bottom line: diligent patching is a must for every system in your VoIP deployment. Public databases that can be monitored for relevant security advisories include:
Eliminating configuration weaknesses
The final battlefront against SIP attacks—and the one over which you probably have the most control—is secure network and system configuration.
For example, several of the aforementioned security advisories recommend the use of ingress, egress, and broadcast traffic filters to block SIP messages sent to/from systems that should not do so. In networks that use VLANs to compartmentalize VoIP traffic, switches and access points should be configured to avoid VoIP hopping. The premise here is simple: the fewer systems that are exposed to SIP, the lower the risk of falling victim to SIP-based attacks.
Many VoIP servers and user agents are easily compromised as the result of basic configuration mistakes like failure to disable risky services or change default passwords. VoIP phones tend to be particularly vulnerable to mis-configuration because (a) they aren’t managed like ordinary desktop computers and (b) their debug and admin interfaces are frequently hidden or not well advertised to end users. For example:
- The Cisco 7920 VOIP phone contains an open UDP port used for remote debugging that can expose sensitive information (WVE-2006-0009).
- The Hitachi IP5000 VOIP phone uses a hard-coded password that enables remote configuration viewing and modification (WVE-2006-0010).
- The UTStarcom F1000 VOIP phone accepts Telnet connections using a default login that facilitates unauthorized configuration access (WVE-2006-0015).
These three vulnerabilities must be addressed through patching or workarounds (e.g., blocking Telnet or debug traffic). However, many VoIP phones have configurable ports, passwords, and wireless keys that should be changed to prevent unauthorized access. Devices that run softphones also require hardening, using the same techniques commonly applied to any Internet-connected host.
Better safe than sorry
SIP deployments need not fall victim to these common attack vectors. The trick is to proactively identify and eliminate security holes before hackers get a chance to exploit them. Start your vulnerability assessment with conventional network security tools like port scanners and application banner grabs. But don’t stop there—pursue SIP-specific tests that can uncover the vulnerabilities described here and many others.
And keep your eyes peeled on VoIPplanet.com, as, over the coming months, we will follow up this article with one on free tools for mitigating SIP vulnerabilities and another on commercial solutions.
This article was first published on EnterpriseVoIPPlanet.com. | <urn:uuid:9f30af14-6c46-4f39-aa21-640f9fed473e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.datamation.com/networks/voip-security-sip%EF%BF%BDversatile-but-vulnerable/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030331677.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924151538-20220924181538-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.885772 | 1,432 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Today, personally identifiable information (PII) is everywhere on the internet. It’s inserted on websites whenever you signup to join a mailing list, create a social media or email account, or place an order online. Generally, the more complex the transaction is, the more personally identifiable information you’re asked to place online.
That’s all fine and good. But what happens to your personal data after you click “sign up,” “get started,” or “submit order”? In the U.S. this type of sensitive information has a precise name – PII – but regulations protecting PII are less clear.
What Is the Best Example of Personally Identifiable Information?
The most common types of PII are a person’s full name, social security number, and date of birth. These pieces of information may not seem sensitive, but used together by the wrong person, they are enough to do serious damage.
One hot topic these days is the malicious use of PII found on COVID-19 vaccination cards. As it became trendy to share the good news of getting inoculated on social media, hackers started stealing that information to commit fraud. And yet the only real PII shown on the card is the person’s first and last name, and DOB.
On the corporate level, breached PII opens the organization and individual to risks including stolen identity, unauthorized access to financial accounts, fraudulent credit card activity, and having information shared or sold on the dark web.
Personally Identifiable Information – Examples
Personally identifiable information can comprise one or more of any of the following things: Names,
Credit card numbers,
Social Security numbers,
Answers to personally selected security questions,
ID and photo ID cards,
Bank account information,
Social media usernames,
Personal photographs labeled with tags.
What Is the Difference Between PII and PHI?
PII is more general, while PHI is more specific. PHI stands for protected health information. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, it is a type of personally identifiable information that includes information about a person’s past, present, or future health status, payment for healthcare, or medical treatment.
What Information does HIPAA Not Protect?
HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules only apply to PHI, therefore HIPAA regulations do not protect personally identifiable information in the more general definition. According to the HIPAA Journal, PHI only related to patient information, health insurance customers, or members of health plans. It does not include regular PII that might be found in educational records or employment contracts, without the addition of health information.
What Regulations Protect PII? – Compliance Requirements
There is no single federal law governing the protection of PII. Unlike the transmission and storage of PHI, which is strictly regulated by HIPAA, PII is subject to a mix of industry-specific regulations, as well as various state and national laws. Including those listed below:
- FTC Act – Enforces Privacy and Data Security on the federal level related to unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent trade practices that involve the collection, use, processing and disclosure of personally identifiable data.
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) – Is a national law governing the use and handling of PII by financial institutions.
- FISMA – is a federal law that requires federal agencies to develop, document, and implement an information security and protection program.
- Californian Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – Protects the right of consumers in California to know about the personal information that businesses collect about them, opt out of data disclosure to third parties, and delete their personal information.
- Massachusetts Data Protection Act – Requires businesses in the Commonwealth to develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information security program.
Regulations, application to data, and compliance requirements can be complex and unclear in the environment. In fact, in recent years, there has been increasing pressure for adopting a nation-wide data privacy law similar to GDPR enforced in the EU.
How Can Personally Identifiable Information Be Protected?
It’s important to remember that personally identifiable information stored online is a target for hackers. Today’s hackers are knowledgeable and sophisticated.
From a liability perspective, protecting personally identifiable information is not only the responsibility of regulatory bodies or the organizations that handle it. Instead, it involves ‘shared responsibility’ between regulators, organizations, and individuals.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a solid framework for protecting PII. The Guide to Protecting the Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information published within NIST SP 800-122 in 2010 lays out a risk-based strategy to safeguarding data. It goes a step further than FISMA, recommending security controls and response plan items in case there is a breach of PII.
Top PII Security Controls
Understanding that any company that collects personally identifiable information about customers, clients, and/or website visitors and stores it online must work to keep it secure. This is true whether the data is stored on a company server or with a third-party service provider in the cloud.
Protecting personally identifiable information means keeping on top of the most current security threats and adjusting your stored data’s security settings as necessary. With new security threats popping up daily, this is really a full-time job. Your organization should develop a comprehensive framework and implement regular reviews to prevent data loss and data breaches. Here are some of the top 20 best practices to protect PII:
Keeping data secure can cost a company a lot of money, and use a significant amount of company resources. Even if you prefer to keep this job in-house despite the strain, it pays to consult with an external personal data security specialist. An assessor can provide training on the best way to manage current security threats in your industry and environment and identify new ones as they arise.
Data Protection Starts Now
It is important to protect the personally identifiable information your company collects and handles, whether it is on your company’s own server or in the cloud. Keeping this data secure is important to the continuing operation and legal protection of your company.
I.S. Partners, LLC is a professional auditing firm ready to assist your company in evaluating measures aimed at protecting personally identifiable information. With penetration testing, vulnerability scans, plus a wide range of compliance assessments, our team will make sure your company stays on top of new and emerging security threats. Contact our office to get started. | <urn:uuid:29287a44-5072-4a78-b57a-5549a049c016> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ispartnersllc.com/blog/protecting-personally-identifiable-information/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334992.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927064738-20220927094738-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.897449 | 1,366 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Producing digestible data to drive more effective decision-making means getting both technology and policies on the same page, a new study shows.
Quality data and advanced analytics software cannot guarantee that governments make effective data-driven decisions, new research finds.
In “Towards Data-Driven Decision-Making in Government: Identifying Opportunities and Challenges for Data Use and Analytics,” researchers from the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany (CTG UAlbany) found that agencies also need organizational capabilities to ensure they make the best use of data for and evidence-based policy.
Even though many agencies have embraced data-driven decision making in recent years, not enough studies demonstrate the challenges associated with implementation, UAlbany researcher Yongjin Choi said.
Choi and his team explored a state Division of Water's data usage and analytic practices. During a prototype project, DOW adopted advanced information technologies to collect and analyze data on environmental challenges from harmful algal blooms.
Partnering with the state’s Department of Health and CTG UAlbany, DOW attempted to develop efficient data management practices, suggest governance models and identify better analytical practices as it collected water chemistry and water permit data and developed several databases to manage the data.
The CTG UAlbany team found that while DOW was able to leverage its data for broad planning and designing environmental interventions, it was only used as another source of information for routine decisions.
One challenge was that incompatible and non-interoperable data collection systems and different versions of software and data formatting variations made it unusually time consuming to produce evidence. Plus, the complex questions the water sampling was supposed to answer were beyond the capabilities of the department's legacy technology. The agency struggled to move off its old platform because it needed to analyze long-term trends. Public-sector procurement practices also hindered the agency's ability to adopt modern tools and technologies.
Finally, when the analysis presented to the nonscientific community, the findings did not have the intended impact because they contained too much scientific complexity.
The researchers found nine determinants that could help or harm an agency’s ability to improve its data-driven decision-making:
- Data quality and coverage, compatibility and interoperability.
- IT systems and software and analytical techniques.
- Organizational cooperation and culture.
- Institutional policies for privacy and procurement.
The report suggested that agencies can remedy data analysis problems by having organizational buy-in at each level. This would mean a department leverages all available resources to not only improve analytical capabilities, but also to expand the scope of evidence collection for decision-making.
"Overall, the findings imply that either quality data or advanced analytic techniques alone do not guarantee effective [data-driven decision-making]," the researchers wrote. "Organizational and institutional support is also needed for successful implementation."
NEXT STORY: Missouri maps COVID in wastewater | <urn:uuid:60e92587-3d31-4113-bcbf-f41a957a6a23> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://gcn.com/data-analytics/2022/02/why-data-driven-decision-making-harder-it-looks/362154/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335573.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001070422-20221001100422-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.929832 | 603 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Spear phishing attacks are the latest technique used by computer hackers to gain access to secure enterprise networks. Unlike common phishing attacks which target millions of users, spear phishing attack is focused on one end-user or an organization at a time, and typically asks for login IDs and passwords.
Spear phishing is time-consuming attack which requires computer hackers study the target company and gather as much information as possible on the structure of the company and its personnel from public available sources such as articles, company web site and telephone inquires.
After a successful spear phishing attack, the attacker installs malicious software that gathers and extracts sensitive private and corporate data, often sold to third parties or used for identity theft.
“With spear phishing attacks growing in number, employees receiving seemingly legitimate email requesting sensitive data should validate the request with the sender,” said Ted Green, CEO of SpamStopsHere. “More often than not, a potential corporate tragedy can be avoided by simply picking up the phone. Employee education is the most effective weapon in thwarting spear phishing attacks.”
The sharp rise in spear phishing attacks – have increased 10-fold since January 2005 – caused security directors to adapt new security strategies and evaluate their existing security program and protocols. Companies are even required to launch faux attacks on their employees to examine their reactions. | <urn:uuid:7f27142a-a451-49bf-bdbc-ad061752825d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://it-observer.com/rise-spear-phishing-attacks-businesses.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335573.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001070422-20221001100422-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.953999 | 276 | 2.75 | 3 |
In This Article:
- What is Email Spoofing?
- How Does Email Spoofing Work?
- How Do Hackers Create Spoof Emails?
- The Dangers and Risks of Email Spoofing
- How To Identify Spoofed Emails
- How To Prevent Becoming the Victim of Email Spoofing
What is Email Spoofing?
First used in the 1970s, email spoofing is a hacking technique used in phishing attacks as well as by spammers. Spoofed emails appear that they’re from a reputable or familiar source, misrepresenting the actual sender. (Spammers were the first to take advantage of email’s inadequate protocols.)
As the name suggests, a spoof email is a fake email. (The word “spoof” means deception, trickery, or fraud.) The purpose of a spoof email is to convince the recipient that the email they have received is from a party they know and trust when, in fact, it is not.
Typically, the fake sender in a spoofed email will appear to be a person or entity (like a bank) that the recipient recognizes. Therein lies the problem; the recipient, thinking the email is legitimate, clicks on a malicious link in the spoofed email.
Just one click on one malicious link is all it takes to open a Pandora’s Box of problems that can lead to the loss of sensitive data and, in many cases, loss of financial assets as well. Why? Because clicking the link opens malware that’s attached to the spoof email. Also, because the recipient, thinking the email is genuine, provides their sensitive data like account numbers, passwords, and so forth.
A hacker can then use that data to access their account(s), records, files, and more. They can steal corporate data, for example, as well as drain a bank account, take over a website, or hack a YouTube channel. The worst part? The recipient gives them the data they need without a fight because they think the email is legitimate.
How Does Email Spoofing Work?
The way email spoofing works is by exploiting the recipient’s trust. The hacker’s goal is to make the recipient believe that they have received an email from a trusted source, like a friend, colleague, vendor, or brand.
Email spoofing works like this; When a hacker wishes to launch an email spoofing attack, they create forged (fake) email headers. These phony email headers display a false sender address when they are received. The message in the spoof email is also 100% fake, although in many cases, it looks legitimate because of logos, colors, and even fonts.
A perfect example of this is a spoof email that appears to have come from a bank, Bank of America. The email header will have the words “Bank of America,” and the body of the message will typically have the Band of America LOGO, colors, and so forth.
In most cases, the spoof email will have a message that, to the recipient, is very alarming. For example, it will say something to the effect that “Fraud has been detected on your Bank of America credit card. Please click the link below to ensure that your Bank Of America credit card isn’t canceled and your banking privileges suspended.”
If the spoof email successfully fools the recipient, they will click the link, enter their password, and put in any other credentials the spoof email asks. Once they do, the hacker now has everything they need to enter their account, use it, drain it, change data like names and addresses, and much more. In short, they get complete control of that account and can do anything with it they wish.
How Do Hackers Create Spoof Emails?
If you’re wondering how hackers and spammers can keep creating spoof emails and stealing money and data, you can thank inadequate email protocols that have been in place since the 1970s.
You see, with email clients like Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, and others, when a user sends someone (or a group of people) a new email message, the sender’s address is automatically entered.
The problem, however, is that the sender’s address can be changed so that, when it arrives in an email inbox, the address that appears is a different address from the actual sender (i.e., the hacker). Even worse, using basic internet scripts in any language they choose, hackers can program their outgoing messages to use whatever sender address they like. (They can even do this if the sender address they use doesn’t exist.)
Adding to the problem is that outgoing email servers cannot determine whether a sender’s address is legitimate or a spoof, so they don’t do anything to stop spoof emails from being sent out to unwary recipients.
The Dangers and Risks of Email Spoofing
While email spoofing may sound rather silly, the damage it can cause is by no means a joke. Not only can an email spoof be used to steal data and funds, but they are also used to deliver malicious software (malware) onto an unwary user’s devices, including PCs, laptops, cellular phones, etc.
When an employee of an organization opens a spoof email, the same malware can infect the entire organization’s computer system, from where it can cause untold damage, loss, and theft. Below are a few of the biggest dangers email spoofing poses to an individual and an organization.
Your Data, Funds, and Property Can Be Stolen
As an individual, getting hacked by a spoof email can be financially disastrous (as mentioned above). However, a hacker using spoof emails can also infiltrate into a person’s private life. In many cases, they will gain access to details like friends and family members, financial records, online services that you use, and much more.
When they have this information, it makes it much easier for a hacker to impersonate you and, by doing so, communicate with your friends, family, and colleagues as if they were you. At that point, the damage they can do to both your private and public life can be catastrophic.
Your Identity Can Be Hacked
Identity theft is a massive, worldwide problem that, in many cases, starts with a hacker or scammer’s spoofing email campaign. If you click their fake link and give them your data without knowing it, they can start creating accounts in your name.
Your Reputation Can be Severely Damaged
Often, a person realizes that they have been spoofed when friends, family, and colleagues start complaining about all the spam they are receiving out of the blue. In some instances, this can cause you some embarrassment, but in severe cases, it may lead to a reputation that’s severely damaged.
You Become an Unwitting Hacker Accomplice
When you unintentionally click on a spoof email and send it to others, you help hackers and spammers spread their malware far and wide. Through you, they can plant malicious software into other computers and devices, embed harmful links in more spoof emails, and even place ransomware on other devices.
If introduced into the computer systems where you work, malicious software can cause even more significant problems. For example, the infamous Emotet “Trojan Horse,” known as the “world’s most dangerous malware,” could infect every computer or device of every person who receives the spoof email that you’ve forwarded.
How To Identify Spoofed Emails
Below are several tips that you can use to determine if an email you have received is a spoof email.
Ensure that the “From” email address matches the name of the person or entity who supposedly sent it. (Remember that it might look authentic at first glance.)
Ensure that the “Reply-To” header also matches the sender’s source. If the sender (or website) in the Reply-To header doesn’t match the person or entity sending the email, it’s likely a spoof.
Check the Return-Path to ensure that the email in the header and the Return Path are precisely the same.
How To Prevent Becoming the Victim of Email Spoofing
Sadly, protecting yourself and those in your private and public circle from spoofing emails is a full-time job and requires you always to be vigilant. Below are a few tips to help you do that:
• Never, ever click on a link to a website from an email asking you to authenticate information. Instead, open another browser window and type in the official web domain so that you can go directly to the site itself for authentication.
Always be suspicious of emails with improper spelling or grammar. Most organizations, and websites, don’t send anything out to customers with grammar and spelling errors.
• Utilizing network security tools. Microsoft’s Outlook 365 Advanced Threat Protection will scan for malicious links/phishing attempts within emails that are being sent to your inbox. Consider exploring other email services to protect your business.
• Ongoing cybersecurity training for your staff. This will help educate your staff on spotting spoofed emails.
• Don’t accept emails promising that you will get rich, inherit money, or otherwise promise a financial windfall. (The only fall you’ll see is your economic downfall.)
• To check the contents of an email message, copy and paste it into your favorite search engine. If it’s been used before, chances are it’s been reported and published online already.
• If you receive an email from an unknown sender, don’t open any attachments, no matter who it might be. Delete the email immediately without clicking on anything.
Email spoofing is a problem that’s been around for decades and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon. In short, constant vigilance is needed to prevent becoming a victim of this malicious and destructive type of hacking. | <urn:uuid:0ed22b85-614e-4121-bf04-e03b2f784492> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ascendantusa.com/2021/09/28/what-is-email-spoofing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337338.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002150039-20221002180039-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.934867 | 2,091 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Data science vs. machine learning (ML) is one of the most talked-about topics in the technology world. The first one represents a broad, interdisciplinary field that tackles large amounts of data and processing power to gain insights. The second one is about feeding a computer algorithm an immense amount of data to start analyzing and making data-driven decisions based on that information.
To uncover the difference between data science and machine learning, let’s look at them separately and compare them with artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics.
“Are data science and machine learning the same thing?” is one of the most searched topics. Unfortunately, though these two terms often appear together, they aren’t synonymous.
In today’s rapidly digitizing world, massive amounts of information are created. You must have heard that data is the new oil, mustn’t you? It’s one of the most valuable assets. So, it’s no wonder that this treasured resource lies at the roots of the long-term success of a business.
Each day, the amount of data produced makes up 2.5 quintillion bytes. According to Statista, global data creation will account for over 180 zettabytes by 2025. On average, Google processes over 40,000 searches per second, or 3.5 billion searches each day.
On the other hand, ML enables computers to learn autonomously from the wealth of available information. The value of the global ML market was $8 billion in 2021 and is expected to make up $117 billion by 2027. In 2020, the ML-as-a-service (MLaaS) Market was valued at $1.60 billion and was anticipated to account for $12.10 billion by 2026.
In 1962, American mathematician and statistician John Tukey talked about a field that today resembles modern data science.
This is a field of applied mathematics and statistics. It brings into play a scientific approach to extract meaningful information and insights and predict future patterns and behaviors from data. Also, this field studies how to formulate research questions, gather information, store it, pre-process it for analysis, analyze it, and present the research results in reports and visualizations.
This technology field uses various modeling techniques such as ML algorithms, statistical methods, and mathematical analysis. Namely, it deals with handling the information, cleansing or cleaning it, and understanding its patterns. It can be raw, structured, and unstructured data. Data cleaning is the process of fixing or deleting inaccurate, corrupted, wrongly formatted, duplicate, or incomplete data within datasets.
This field is applicable in more than one industry, including finance, professional services, and information technology. For example, businesses rely on this field to unveil deeper insights that can help them make smarter business decisions, better understand customers, increase security, analyze company finances, and predict future market trends.
It’s estimated that the Global Data Science Platform Market will make up $81.43 billion by 2027.
Arthur Samuel used the term “machine learning” in 1959. Samuel was an American IBMer and pioneer in computer gaming and artificial intelligence.
Machine learning represents a subfield of data science. It’s one of the areas of artificial intelligence and one of the branches of computer science. More specifically, ML is at the core of AI.
ML is the study of computer algorithms (e.g., neural networks) that learn by analyzing available databases. Think of an algorithm as a set of instructions applied to solve a problem or accomplish a task.
ML is based on the concept that a computer program can learn, analyze, and adapt to new data without human intervention. The main methods used are called supervised and unsupervised learning methods. They help create a functional model or program by autonomously testing multiple solutions and determining the best fit for the problem.
Deep learning, or deep neural learning, represents a subset of ML. It’s based on neural networks to analyze different factors with a structure like the human neural system.
ML engineers manage the complexities of using algorithms and mathematical concepts.
The application of ML is found in all types of industries, including manufacturing, retail, healthcare, life sciences, travel, hospitality, financial services, media, security, energy, feedstock, and utilities. It can help companies unlock the value of corporate and customer information to make the right business decisions. For instance, image recognition is a well-known example of ML.
When discussing data science vs. machine learning, many say it is good to compare them to determine which one is better.
Both are important. These two fields depend on each other: data is indispensable, and ML technologies have become an integral part of almost all industries.
This is another interesting question concerning the issue of data science vs. machine learning.
The field of AI research dates back to a workshop at Dartmouth College in 1956. The idea of AI is older than computing itself. AI studies ways to enable machines to think, learn, and solve problems as human brains do. . E.g., AI also explores ways to build meaningful conversational interactions with people.
ML has a narrower scope: it’s a part of AI. ML is about techniques that data scientists use to feed machines information. AI makes computers simulate human intelligence.
These three fields are critical to analytics, and other enterprise uses. Namely, the future of performance marketing and customer acquisition counts on AI and ML. With the predictive analytics software, you can input your data and generate scorecards, risk assessment models, or other models based on your specific needs. These needs may include fraud and risk detection, ad tracking, and product recommendations.
Data analytics studies how to collect, process, and interpret information. For example, large companies use this field to gather information about their clients and take data-driven steps to build competitive products and services. Moreover, it helps classify audiences based on different demographic groups, analyze their attitudes, and gain a more specific and accurate picture of public opinion.
Data science is broader, while data analytics is more specific. The first one aims to unveil insights and figure out patterns from large datasets to ask the right questions. Moreover, it’s focused on predicting the future by revolving around and estimating the unknown. On the other hand, data analytics aims to find answers and gain insights into existing questions by exploring new perspectives.
Machine learning refers to techniques that data scientists use to allow machines to gain new information without being specifically programmed to do so. Instead, ML engineers create algorithms and programs that help computers with this learning process.
The fields of data science and machine learning are closely related. They’re shaping the future together with data analytics and artificial intelligence. However, they come with different functionalities and pursue other goals.
The former is a field of deep study of information to extract valuable insights from data. The latter is a part of artificial intelligence and a subfield of data science. It enables machines to learn from past information and automatically perform tasks without being explicitly programmed. | <urn:uuid:00e844d4-b16d-48fc-b164-d0909d78f5e8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://plat.ai/blog/data-science-vs-machine-learning-heres-the-difference/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337446.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003231906-20221004021906-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.925954 | 1,453 | 2.953125 | 3 |
June 3, 2022
What Is Cloud Backup and How Does It Work?
Cloud backup is a popular method of off-site data storage that is primarily aimed at protecting information. Over time, cloud backup has proven itself as a highly efficient alternative to traditional backup strategies.
More and more organizations are now choosing cloud-based platforms rather than building a physical DR (disaster recovery) site, due to cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and on-demand scalability that these solutions provide. Cloud backup, if properly organized and executed, can become an invaluable component of your DR process.
To explain what the cloud backup strategy entails and what has led to its success, an understanding of its basic principles must first be developed.
What Is the “Cloud”?
Cloud (also known as “cloud computing”) refers to the on-demand delivery of computing resources and services over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. Essentially, the “cloud” represents a shared pool of various resources and services used for storing, managing, and processing data that can be accessed via the web. Cloud computing allows you to eliminate the unnecessary costs associated with building and maintaining on-premises IT infrastructure.
What Is Cloud Storage?
Cloud storage is a model of data storage in which the data can be accessed, managed, and stored in a remote cloud server via the Internet. Cloud storage is maintained and supported by a cloud storage provider responsible for keeping the user’s data available and accessible at any time.
Generally, cloud storage systems share the following characteristics:
- The cloud storage provider is fully responsible for the back-end support and maintenance of the application.
- Cloud environments function on a self-service basis, meaning that the user can get direct access to cloud-based resources and enjoy the built-in services without involving the service provider.
- Cloud environments are elastic. Thus, they can be scaled up or down depending on the customer’s needs.
- Cloud-based resources can be accessed over the Internet at any time.
- One cloud environment can be shared by multiple users with the help of a multi-tenant model.
- The cloud storage provider monitors and calculates each user’s resource use, meaning that you only pay for what you use in a given period of time.
Types of Cloud Storage
The following types of cloud storage can be differentiated.
- Public cloud storage is essentially a multi-tenant storage environment mostly used for storing unstructured and less sensitive data. Public cloud storage functions as a global data center where computing resources can be stored and accessed by the general public over the Internet. The top public cloud storage vendors include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, the Google Cloud platform, etc.
- Private cloud storage is a cloud environment used by one organization exclusively and usually managed via internal resources or by a third-party vendor. Private clouds are designed for organizations that require full data control, customization, and high-level security. The top vendors of private cloud storage are VMware, Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), OpenStack, etc.
- Hybrid cloud storage represents a combination of public and private cloud storage to form a comprehensive system. In this case, critical data is stored in the private cloud, while less sensitive data is transferred to public cloud storage. To achieve maximum efficiency in a virtual environment, the services of both public and private cloud providers are used.
The main features of cloud storage systems are presented below.
What Is Cloud Backup?
Cloud backup (also known as online backup) is a type of data backup whereby a copy of the data is sent over a secure proprietary or public network to a cloud-based server. Cloud computing services are usually provided by a third-party vendor who sets the service fee based on scalability, bandwidth, or number of users. Cloud data backup can be set up to run on demand, thus ensuring minimal data loss. The data is then available from various access points and can be shared among multiple cloud users.
How Does Cloud Backup Work?
Basically, the backup process entails copying data at the production site and transferring it to a remote storage system where it can be easily accessed for DR purposes. Many organizations choose cloud backup solutions for this purpose due to their high flexibility, easy deployment, and on-demand scalability.
To set up a cloud backup process, take the following steps:
- Purchase your cloud backup service.
- Install the software within your IT system.
- Choose which files, folders, and applications to back up.
Once the configuration is complete, your cloud backup system is ready for use. Most cloud backup providers allow you to set a backup schedule, operate with backup files, control allocated bandwidth, and add new files if needed. Once you have customized your cloud backup service, you no longer have to worry about the backup process. All data will be backed up automatically and continuously, requiring minimal input on your part.
Cloud Storage vs. Cloud Backup
The concepts of cloud storage and cloud backup are often confused, with the terms being (mistakenly) used interchangeably. To determine which services you need, you should understand what differentiates one from the other.
Cloud storage is typically created in addition to the primary physical storage, and it is mainly used for backing up sensitive data. Thus, you should determine which data is the most critical and then transfer the copies of that data to a cloud-based environment for storage. If you accidentally delete a file from the production site, its copy will still be present in your cloud storage, since the file in the cloud exists separately from the main system and it is not affected by the changes at the production site.
Cloud backup is the process of backing up specific data and storing it in a cloud storage system (usually owned/maintained by an online backup provider). With cloud backup, you can synchronize data at the production site and in the cloud, meaning that any changes in the original data will be reflected in its cloud version. Cloud backup is also used to store full copies of the data you protect. The cloud backup service constantly scans your virtual infrastructure in order to find any changes and updates the cloud environment accordingly.
The cloud backup service is primarily used for ensuring data recovery in case of a DR event. A cloud storage system serves as a remote site for storing data which can be shared by many users and accessed over the Internet at any time. Cloud storage systems can be used to store cloud backups.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Backup
- There has been a marked increase in the use of cloud backup services as of late, primarily due to the benefits cloud backup offers. The following list outlines some of the advantages of installing a cloud-based backup solution in your virtual environment:
- Cost-effectiveness. The market of cloud backup services is huge. Thus, you should not have any trouble finding a solution that suits your environment for a reasonable price, based on your business needs and the volume of backup data.
- Keeping data off-site provides an advanced level of security and data protection. If disaster strikes, your primary site might get damaged or even destroyed without any chance of recovery, taking business-critical data with it. Storing copies of this data in the cloud can serve as a guarantee of data safety in case of a disaster.
- On-demand access. Cloud storage can be accessed from any geographical region at any time, as long as you have internet connection. Thus, if there is an issue, you can solve the problem through your laptop or smartphone (saving you a trip back to the office).
- The backup process is completely automatic. You only need to configure which files should be backed up and how often the backup jobs should run. After that, computer files are backed up to the cloud automatically and continuously, according to your set schedule.
- The cloud can be easily scaled up or down depending on data volume. If your organization expands, its virtual infrastructure might be upgraded by adding storage, memory, or processing power (scaling up). In traditional environments, this might require considerable expenses. Over time, those computing services might no longer be needed. With a cloud-based system, the customer can ask the service provider to reduce the amount of disk space, memory, or processors allocated to them (scaling down). Thus, unnecessary costs can be cut.
- Customer-friendly use. Third-party cloud storage is managed and maintained by a service provider, which takes the burden off organizations and allows them to focus on what they do best – their business services and operations.
Despite these advantages, the following downsides are associated with cloud backup services:
- Since critical data is stored in a cloud supported by a third party, you should be completely certain that your chosen service provider can be trusted. Unreliable cloud providers introduce the risk of data corruption. If you cannot find a well-reputed cloud service provider, it may be more advisable to build a remote DR location with physical infrastructure.
- Bandwidth and latency. Data transfer is highly dependent on network connectivity and the distance between sites. To ensure that your data is transferred smoothly and quickly from the production site to the cloud backup storage, you need sufficient bandwidth to enable advanced network functionality.
- Security risks. Files in the cloud can be accessed and shared by many users, which increases the risk of unauthorized access to your data. Moreover, data can be hacked or stolen. Make sure that the cloud backup service you use can encode your data with robust encryption technology.
Cloud Backup in NAKIVO Backup & Replication
In the modern business world, data protection should be one of the top priorities of any organization. Businesses are now expected to operate and provide services to their customers without interruption. Regular review and optimization of your organization’s data protection strategies ensures that your data can be securely restored in case of disaster. A special feature of NAKIVO Backup & Replication - VM backup to cloud - allows you to create VM backups or VM backup copies stored in the cloud.
Technology behind VM backup to cloud
A VM backup represents a point-in-time copy of a VM that is stored in the Backup Repository. A backup repository is basically a destination designated for data storage. NAKIVO Backup & Replication allows you to send VM backups or their copies to private/public clouds, such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure. In NAKIVO Backup & Replication, a backup job is performed as follows:
- The product automatically creates temporary snapshots of the source VMs.
- The data that was changed (since the last backup) is identified and sent to the backup repository.
- The temporary snapshots created in the process are removed.
However, backups can also get lost or damaged as a result of unexpected events. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, you can run backup copy jobs, which allow you to create and manage copies of your VMware, Hyper-V, or AWS EC2 backups. Creating copies of critical backups serves as an additional level of data protection.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication enables you to copy backups from one backup repository to another, without touching the source hosts or VMs. This decreases backup time and reduces network load. The process is entirely automatic, meaning that you are only required to create and set up a backup copy job. After the initial configuration, your secondary backup repository is automatically updated with all backups and recovery points from the primary backup repository.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication includes an automated backup verification feature, which reads backups at the block level, compares the data written to the backup repository with the data from the source VM, then checks whether the data on both sites is identical and can be recovered in case of a disaster.
How to perform cloud backup with NAKIVO Backup & Replication
Storing VM backups in the Amazon or Azure clouds guarantees that in case your production center fails, mission-critical data remains protected. The following excerpt provides guidelines on how NAKIVO Backup & Replication can be integrated with various cloud providers.
Integrating with Amazon Cloud
NAKIVO Backup & Replication can be integrated with AWS, providing a fast and cost-effective offsite backup destination. Amazon EC2 integration works as follows:
- Register with AWS and obtain your AWS Security Credentials.
- Start an Amazon cloud integration. The Director:
- Creates a new EC2 instance in the selected region.
- Installs a Transporter into the created instance.
- Attaches and configures the Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), which is a block-level storage used with EC2 instances.
- Creates a backup repository.
- Create and run backups to Amazon cloud.
Integrating with Azure Cloud
NAKIVO Backup & Replication can also be integrated with Microsoft Azure. To do so, follow the steps below:
- Deploy an Azure VM with one of the supported operating systems.
- Attach and mount a new disk to the Azure VM that will be used for storing backups.
- Upload and install a Transporter on the Azure VM.
- Add the Transporter to the product configuration
- Create a backuprepository in the attached and mounted disk.
- Create and run backup jobs.
Integrating with other clouds
NAKIVO Backup & Replication can also be integrated with other cloud platforms, whether public or private. To integrate NAKIVO Backup & Replication with any type of cloud, follow the steps below:
- Make sure your cloud platform supports running VMs (instances).
- Install a Director and Transporter in your production datacenter.
- Create a VM in the cloud.
- Install an additional Transporter on the VM running in the cloud.
- Verify that the Director and Transporter at your datacenter can connect to the new Transporter.
- Attach a sufficient amount of storage to the cloud Transporter. Configure and mount the storage so that it can be implemented by the cloud Transporter as a file system.
- Create a backup repository in the cloud using the cloud Transporter.
- Create a backup job to back up your VMs to the backup repository in the cloud.
The following diagram represents how the process of cloud backup is executed.
Features of VM backup to cloud
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a flexible and reliable solution that allows you to configure backup jobs of any complexity based on your needs and priorities. To achieve the maximum level of efficiency, NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides the following features:
Backup jobs in NAKIVO Backup & Replication are forever-incremental by default. Running full backups can take a long time. Incremental backups make for significantly shorter and quicker backup jobs. NAKIVO Backup & Replication relies on VMware CBT (Changed Block Tracking) and Hyper-V RCT (Resilient Change Tracking) to execute incremental VM backup. The initial backup is full, but all consequent backups identify which data has been altered since the previous backup and save only the changed data in the backup repository.
Swap files essentially function as additional “virtual memory” intended for storing data that is not used by the computer RAM. Swap files are dynamic, meaning that they change depending on the system conditions. Thus, during backup jobs, swap files would logically be included in all increments and significantly decrease the amount of available space. NAKIVO Backup & Replication automatically excludes swap files and partitions, ensuring that storage space is saved for important data and that the speed of backup jobs is improved.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides block-level deduplication, meaning that VM backups are automatically deduplicated at the block level across the backup repository. Only unique blocks of data are saved. Moreover, these deduplicated blocks are then compressed to significantly increase your storage space (see below).
In NAKIVO Backup & Replication, the size of each data block is reduced through automatic compression. Thus, backups occupy even less storage space and quick data transfer can be achieved. Three levels of compression are available: fast, medium, or best. The “fast” compression level saves less space, but ensures improved CPU performance and faster job completion. The “best” setting optimizes for the highest level of data compression, which allows you to save more space but means that your data protection jobs could take longer.
VM backup jobs are generally performed using VMware Guest OS Quiescing. NAKIVO Backup & Replication ensures that all VM backups are executed in the application-aware mode, meaning that data in various applications, such as Active Directory, SQL, Microsoft Exchange, and SharePoint, is transactionally consistent.
- Advanced backup retention policy
NAKIVO Backup & Replication lets you store up to 1,000 recovery points per VM backup. To optimize the backup process, the product has adopted a Grandfather-Father-Son retention policy which entails retaining backups on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. This ensures that you can always roll back to a suitable point if need be.
Previously, object recovery was possible only if you recovered an entire VM from its backup. NAKIVO Backup & Replication allows to instantly recover specific files or application objects directly from VM backups in a few clicks as well as whole VMs. You can even browse, search for, or download particular files directly from any compressed and deduplicated VM backup.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides an exclusive Self-Backup feature, which ensures that the product protects not only VMs and application data, but also all of its own settings you have configured. This includes all jobs, inventory, logs, repositories, etc. Self-Backup operations are run daily, with Self-Backups stored in backup repositories for five days. In case of a disaster, Self-Backup allows you to dramatically reduce the time spent on restoring system settings.
Installing an effective cloud-based backup solution ensures that your data is constantly protected, can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and can be rapidly recovered in case of a disaster. With cloud backup technology, you can easily customize your virtual environment to comply with any needs of your organization without incurring extra costs, as you only pay for what you use.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a reliable and customer-friendly VM backup solution that includes a set of advanced features to increase backup performance, enable on-demand scalability, and improve recovery speed, saving you time as well as money. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, you no longer have to worry about maintenance and support of your cloud environment. The backup process runs automatically after initial configuration and the solution can be integrated with any private or public cloud.
Download the full-featured free trial of NAKIVO Backup & Replication to test the solution’s cloud backup functionality in your virtual environment! | <urn:uuid:53018cce-3d4e-411f-94ae-00cc1bf7ad00> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.nakivo.com/blog/introduction-cloud-backup/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030333455.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924182740-20220924212740-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.915967 | 3,922 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Water. Air. Oil. For decades, these types of resources have been considered the world’s most valuable. But as technology becomes more pervasive in every aspect of our work and personal lives, another resource has emerged that is equally important – if not more so: data.
The world’s dependence upon data is primarily driven by Internet Content Providers (ICPs) like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Tencent – companies that generate revenue through online sales, financial transaction fees, paid advertising, cloud services and a host of other business lines.
The phenomenal growth in data can also be attributed to device proliferation. There were 14 billion connected things in use worldwide in 2019. By 2021, that number is expected to increase to 25 billion.
This explosion of data also has fueled growth in data centers, which are expected to grow by $28.4 billion by 2023, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 17% from 2019. | <urn:uuid:f166feef-1a73-4d19-9aa1-d407c4926035> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://direct.datacenterdynamics.com/en/whitepapers/data-center-tomorrow/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.955833 | 197 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Fighter jets cost the Air Force and other military branches tens of millions of dollars each. NASA space missions can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Those agencies need to ensure that they are using reliable machines and systems, especially if they are needed for war zones or critical missions to Mars.
Thanks to digital twin technology, they can. Digital twins combine numerous technologies to create full-scale digital versions of real-world objects and processes, which can help agencies determine their performance and when they might break down. That, in turn, improves reliability and saves costs.
“Using exact duplicates to manage complex systems dates back to NASA’s moon missions of the 1960s and 1970s,” SAS Analytics notes in a post on its website. “NASA used mirrored systems, the precursor of digital twins, to rescue the Apollo 13 mission when it ran into trouble. Nearly 50 years later, digital twin technology helps NASA understand and manage the operation of machines that are moving through the vast reaches of our solar system.”
What Is a Digital Twin?
Mark Vitale, a specialist leader with Deloitte Consulting’s federal practice who specializes in advanced manufacturing and supply chains, says digital twins are a virtual representation of a physical product or manufacturing process and the performance of that part, asset or process in the real world.
Put a simply, a digital twin is a digital or virtual model of a real-world object that replicates its performance, allowing the creator of the digital twin to determine where the asset — a jet engine, a turbine, a vehicle, etc. — performs well and where it performs poorly.
Digital twins allow agencies to understand what the product or process is designed to do, how to build it from an initial production standpoint, and how to maintain it over its lifecycle, says Vitale.
Digital twins use “real-time data and other sources to enable learning, reasoning, and dynamically recalibrating for improved decision making,” as Matthew Mikell , a product marketing leader for Watson IoT at IBM, and Jen Clark, an IBM Internet of Things blog writer, note in a blog post.
At bottom, Mikell and Clark note, digital twins are complex virtual models that are “the exact counterpart (or twin) of a physical thing. The ‘thing’ could be a car, a tunnel, a bridge, or even a jet engine. Connected sensors on the physical asset collect data that can be mapped onto the virtual model. Anyone looking at the digital twin can now see crucial information about how the physical thing is doing out there in the real world.”
How Government Agencies Can Create a Digital Twin
Typically, digital twins start out as a 3D computer-aided design model, Vitale says. That design may be modified over time as the product is produced. “You’re taking a digital representation of the production process and the product as it moves through the production process, so you’ve got an as-designed model, an as-built model and then, ultimately, an as-maintained model,” he says. The digital twin can record those modifications over time so that government agencies can maintain consistency over an asset’s lifeycle, he adds.
A number of technologies make that possible, Vitale notes. They include sensors that are placed on the asset, which then feed data to an Internet of Things platform and the underlying network technology needed to support the IoT platform.
A key component of the digital twin architecture is the “digital thread,” which Deloitte defines as a “single, seamless strand of data that stretches from product requirement to product retirement,” Vitale says.
The digital thread is where the digital twin lives, Vitale says, and the backbone for that is usually product lifecycle management software. Federal agencies can also use manufacturing execution software. The digital thread can also include the IoT platform, CAD tools and predictive analytics tools, according to Vitale.
Predictive analytics tools would require some amount of machine learning to build the virtual understanding of the physical product. That data is collected through multiphysics modeling tools, which create mathematical representations of systems and parts.
The Benefits of Digital Twins
There are numerous benefits to digital twin technology. Digital twins enable predictive analytics and predictive maintenance of assets, Vitale says, potentially allowing agencies to predict failures before they occur. That’s especially valuable for weapons systems, probes or other technologies that are past their expected retirement date.
Digital twins reduce product defects, either by enabling agencies to design a more reliable product or asset from the start, according to Vitale, or by determining how an asset performs over the course of its lifecycle and making improvements.
Digital twin tools can also help agencies cut initial production costs by designing a more efficient manufacturing process. The tools can also help cut future maintenance costs by making products more reliable, Vitale notes.
In a technical white paper on digital twin technology, two government scientists note that digital twins integrate sensor data along with maintenance history and fleet data obtained via data mining and text mining.
The paper is written by Edward Glaessgen, assistant branch chief of the durability, damage tolerance and reliability branch at the NASA Langley Research Center; and David Stargel, deputy chief scientist at 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory.
By combining all of this information, they write, the digital twin “continuously forecasts the health of the vehicle or system, the remaining useful life and the probability of mission success.”
Digital twins can also predict how a system will respond “to safety critical events and uncover previously unknown issues before they become critical by comparing predicted and actual responses.”
Digital Twin Examples
The value of digital twin technology is available to any organization that has a highly complex and highly engineered piece of equipment, Vitale says. That includes NASA and the Defense Department, he notes.
The Air Force has embraced the digital thread concept to improve its acquisition process and performance of weapons systems.
“Though Digital Thread appears to be a complex, abstract concept at the surface, the benefits to the Air Force at all stages — from initial product design to manufacturing, operation and sustainment of aircraft and weapons systems by the warfighter — are enormous,” an Air Force release notes. “Streamlined resolutions of weapon system performance issues, identification of system maintenance needs and management of risk are just a few benefits to the field,” according to Brench Boden, technical lead in the Air Force manufacturing technology division, materials and manufacturing directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory.
NASA uses digital twin technology to develop new recommendations, roadmaps and next-generation vehicles and aircraft, according to Forbes.
“The ultimate vision for the digital twin is to create, test and build our equipment in a virtual environment,” John Vickers, NASA’s leading manufacturing expert and manager of NASA’s National Center for Advanced Manufacturing, tells Forbes.
“Only when we get it to where it performs to our requirements do we physically manufacture it,” he adds. “We then want that physical build to tie back to its digital twin through sensors so that the digital twin contains all the information that we could have by inspecting the physical build.” | <urn:uuid:6a65626f-3301-44cb-8612-df6ab9179db0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2019/01/digital-twin-technology-what-digital-twin-and-how-can-agencies-use-it-perfcon | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.923847 | 1,504 | 3.453125 | 3 |
What is Sound Masking?
Sound Masking is intentionally engineered ambient noise designed to reduce the intelligibility of nearby speaking.
Offices today have more open space, shared work areas, uninsulated partitioned walls, glass surfaces, low-walled cubicles, and exposed ceilings. While these designs are great for collaboration and present a fresh modern feel, they often eliminate materials that block or absorb sounds, such as acoustical ceilings and carpet tiles. Once these are gone, you are left with acoustical challenges that can negatively affect your work environment and infringe on speech privacy. | <urn:uuid:b1b335d8-c383-4a33-a616-6b9f987c5a4c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.intellisystems.com/structured-cabling/sound-masking/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.950762 | 120 | 2.6875 | 3 |
How do we make independent IoT technologies work together to make communities, cities and regions truly smart? How do we achieve the goal of autonomous decision making, enhancing the functionality of IoT technology? The answer is data analysis, and the solutions being developed to not only enable machines to make faster decisions, but also making them context aware, improving the decisions they take.
Despite the hype, the full potential of IoT has not yet been fully realized. While the necessary sensors and monitors have been around for decades, the shift has recently been made possible due to the processing power now available for full-scale data analytics.
According to some estimates, writes Chloe Green for Information Age, spending on IoT will reach nearly one and a half billion dollars by 2019, more or less double the seven hundred million spent in 2015. This huge jump in investment is due to the lowered threshold from cheaper, more practical and – this is key – more powerful devices.
While things have become smart in general, the IoT is beginning to prove its power in some areas. As well as its traditional strongholds of determining weather patterns and traffic sensors, it is making big waves in agriculture and food production, as well as industries like healthcare. The next step for IoT is to band these isolated schemes into coherent communities, although in reality this needs more work to determine how and what is ultimately shared.
Furthermore, to really make IoT a widespread feature of our lives, machines and devices will need to become capable of making decisions autonomously. This will depend entirely on their ability to derive context through machine learning. One widely accepted architecture for making these fast, context-aware decisions is the Lambda Architecture – as explained by Jim Walsh in his Nasscom blog.
The basic concept is that two layers of analytics are involved in the rapid decision making. The batch layer is responsible for traditional big-data analytics. This is generally done on a scheduled basis, hence the name ‘batch,’ although it may happen frequently. This is needed for complex tasks over large data sets. However it is unsuitable for the rapid decision making we need to support the IoT.
This is where the second ‘speed layer’ comes in. This is responsible for rapid decision making. This operates only on the most recent, relevant results and – since it uses the most recent data available from the detailed batch processing – can still make fast decisions that are based on deep context.
If this kind of context-aware, fast decision-making approach can be extended and further matured, it can allow for the full scale of IoT’s true promise. Industry could better manage resources and the collected data can lead to more efficient preventative maintenance schedules. Cities can become truly smart, replacing the current, isolated systems that predominate.
All of this, though, relies on the context that allows machines and devices to infer meaning from streams of data coming from disparate and unrelated systems. A common language, ideally, needs to be settled upon to unleash the huge potential of IoT to operate efficiently and without the need for extensive human intervention.
- The increasing use of IoT is being driven by processors now powerful enough to better analyze data
- The next age of IoT will see current independent technologies working together
- Autonomous decision making for IoT is the ultimate goal
- This will require data analysis that is even more powerful – and machines that are context aware
Big Data and related technologies – from data warehousing to analytics and business intelligence (BI) – are transforming the business world. Big Data is not simply big: Gartner defines it as “high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets.” Managing these assets to generate the fourth “V” – value – is a challenge. Many excellent solutions are on the market, but they must be matched to specific needs. At GRT Corporation our focus is on providing value to the business customer. | <urn:uuid:f6039de3-b2f7-4e7e-8a21-2d06b9d9a52e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.grtcorp.com/content/smart-and-context-aware-iot-true-potential/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335004.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927100008-20220927130008-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.951905 | 797 | 2.921875 | 3 |
AI in Airport Video Surveillance
According to data collected by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), an estimate of 1.45 billion people traveled in 2019, and it estimates that the number will rise to the north of 2 billion in 2020. With the number of travelers increasing, airports are under enormous pressure to ensure that passengers are processed and screened both securely and safely. Since the turn of the new millennium, due in part to the number of people choosing to travel and in response to the subsequent emerging threats, airports worldwide have significantly increased security and surveillance measures, primarily through the implementation of advanced video surveillance technology. AI-powered cameras and machines are operating as virtual security guards in airports around the world. In fact, in the opinion of the multinational information technology company, SITA, almost 80% of the air transport industry is planning to implement artificial intelligence technology by 2021. It is expected that this will improve security, which could mean a more secure traveling experience for the traveler.
Artificial intelligence is defined as the intelligence demonstrated by machines enabling them to perform human-like tasks, such as facial and speech recognition, decision-making, and the translation of languages. Research into AI is conducted to create technology that allows machines to function effectively and intelligently. Advancements in artificial intelligence are accomplished through the use of training datasets. Datasets are a collection of data. In the case of AI, datasets are used to teach the machine to recognize things: this works by providing the system with a set of labeled photographs and videos. For example, if researchers want to train it to differentiate different breeds of dogs, they would need a large inventory of images of all the different dog breeds with labels. Similarly, for it to recognize normal behavior and distinguish it from abnormal behavior, pictures would have to be provided with both labels and context. AI systems improve as more information is added into them; by combining large amounts of data with intelligent algorithms, the machine can learn from patterns it observes and revamps automatically through experience.
AI-powered analytics are training computers to monitor surveillance cameras. Here’s a look at how artificial intelligence is being utilized in airport video surveillance:
- They can detect when luggage has abandoned and can identify by whom.
- The facial identification feature serves to identify individuals who are on a no-fly list.
- They are capable of recognizing when people remain within specific areas for longer than a defined time.
- The use of cameras as a virtual tripwire triggers an alarm when a passenger enters an unauthorized zone.
- The system detects any camera tampering attempts, and this includes covering, redirecting, or spraying the device.
- They can send alerts to airport authorities when a person is moving in “the wrong direction” within a designated area.
The Future of Artificial Intelligence
The future of AI- analytics is bright. Researchers are currently working on not just training computers to monitor human behavior but also to comprehend human life and interactions. Here are what AI-camera systems have in store for aviation security.
- Passenger Identification: AI technology has made the process of passenger identification quick and easy for airport officials through the use of self-service check-in systems and facial recognition, which is currently being used to scan travelers as they go through customs. Advancements in AI technology could eventually lead to a system through which travelers are identified without having to present a boarding pass, as fingerprinting and retinal scans are expected to become increasingly popular for security purposes at airports.
- Detecting Suspicious Behavior: Although it is relatively cheap to gather video surveillance, it remains expensive to monitor and analyze that data. At the moment, humans are responsible for detecting potential threatening behavior in passengers, which leaves a lot of room for error because their performance is influenced by many factors, such as mood and emotions. But with artificial intelligence, the detection of threats will be consistent and reliable and quicker as technology like this can process large quantities of people; this is because the machines will be able to provide a thorough screening of passengers by collecting their data from predictive analytics, behavior tracking, and pattern recognition and by checking their booking and travel history. And even from data gathered from their social media accounts.
- Detect Dangerous Items: AI-powered technology can automate the process of baggage and passenger screening. By utilizing such techniques, belongings that currently need to be scanned separately, such as cell phones and laptops, will be left in passenger luggage while they move through security checkpoints. They can also detect weapons hidden in baggage and beneath clothing as well. Machine learning techniques can be used to detect metallic and non-metallic weapons such as firearms, knives, and all types of explosives, including plastic devices, on a person; and this is possible through the AI-powered computed tomography (CT) scanners’ ability to produce 3-Dimensional images of an individual’s body, then analyze the photos to search for any items that don’t belong on it. Cameras equipped with this type of technology can be positioned outside of airport terminals so that threats can be detected before they have even entered the airport.
- Maintenance Prediction: Airports are exploiting the technological advancements being made by launching several initiatives aimed at boosting the reliability of aircraft maintenance. They have plans to implement AI technology to anticipate potential problems with aircraft maintenance, through its ability to collect and store data. The technology’s predictive maintenance analytics will make aircraft maintenance easier by alerting the crew on how often and when it should be done.
- Improve Customer Service: AI is being used to assist customers in the airport. Airlines companies are also using AI systems to help their customers gain access to answers to frequently asked questions, as well as provide accurate information on the status of a flight. These systems not only benefit the customer, but they are also simultaneously reducing the operational and labor costs of airline companies.
Consequences of Artificial Intelligence in Cameras
Here are five problems that AI surveillance will cause:
- Uneasiness: The rise of AI-powered surveillance will lead to an environment where people are always self-conscious and anxious, wondering what constitutes as normal behavior and adjusting their actions as not to trigger alarms, out of fear of being stopped by a security guard or placed on a watch list; this will be a consequence of the cameras that will be continuously scrutinizing every move made and continually making judgments as to whether the behavior is normal and whether the authorities should be notified.
- Privacy Invasion: Any behavior or physical trait that a machine learns to recognize it can also remember and report; this means that every surveillance camera will be a digital checkpoint, that utilizes facial recognition to capture people’s identities, associations, and locations. And this type of surveillance possesses a considerable threat to a person’s privacy.
- Deceptive AI Cameras: One primary concern over the use of these technologies is their accuracy; AI cameras could potentially incorporate analytics that is untested or deceptive. With the demand for advanced surveillance systems being at an all-time high, there is a possibility that some systems being sold will not work as advertised. Analytics that are inaccurate, if authorities give them credence, can lead to passengers being falsely identified as a threat. And even if the security guard clears them, the incident could be entered into the person’s record and stored by the machine and used against them later on. Even tested and authenticated AI cameras have shown unintentional and hidden biases within the systems. While some algorithms do not incorporate race or gender explicitly, they do include variables that have a distinct racial or gender bias, such as clothing or hairstyles; such prejudices could lead to embarrassment when middle eastern passengers are misidentified as “suspicious,” even though they weren’t on the authority’s radar.
- Abuse of Power: Data collected by AI cameras could fall into the wrong hands. As robust surveillance infrastructures become more readily available, they’re creating opportunities for misuse at the hands of whoever controls them. Who knows what the consequences of this level of data collection and privacy invasion could be!
- Violation of the United States Constitution: Some users of AI analytics could be in violation of the United States Constitution, especially as they become more and more thorough and intrusive. The collection of physiological responses such as heart rate and pupil dilatation could be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s law against unreasonable searches of an individual and their belongings.
As the aviation industry continues to embrace the advantages of artificial intelligence, protective actions need to be taken to prevent the grim consequences of AI video analytics. The data collected by AI-powered surveillance systems should be regulated by practices that ensure reliable privacy protection. As this field grows, policymakers should focus on creating laws that strictly govern the sharing, retention and destruction of information. Information that is not deleted but retained, however, must apply audio and video redacting software tools to conceal the passenger’s identity.
The redaction of audio and video recordings protect the privacy of both the passengers and airport staff. Automated redaction software utilizes artificial intelligence to obscure sensitive information, such as faces, voices and travel documents. Laws that restrict access to the types of data collected from government and private sector agencies should also be put in place; this prohibition from accessing and retaining (or even purchasing) would be a mechanism to prevent abuse of private information, as well as the collection of passenger data for marketing purposes. Additionally, due to the fact that AI-powered video analytics have shown discriminatory behaviors, they should be annually subjected to independent testing and review by expert researchers to identify unintentional biases, ensuring algorithmic fairness and transparency.
Although artificial intelligence-powered surveillance technology such as behavior and face recognition and body scanners may be unsettling to some, they are needed in the effort to prevent potential life-threatening incidents and ensure passenger and staff safety. With the application of artificial intelligence and their capabilities, the aviation industry will eventually be able to strengthen its security to impenetrable levels, enhancing its protection without compromising the experience and enjoyment of the traveler. But to avoid a privacy violation catastrophe, it must also invest in measures such as video and audio redaction software that will reduce the harmful consequences of artificial intelligence. | <urn:uuid:77f66746-3660-49cd-a375-1d8346bce6ac> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://caseguard.com/articles/ai-in-airport-video-surveillance/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335424.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930020521-20220930050521-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.952687 | 2,074 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to deploy a constellation of satellites around the Moon.
The system will be used to provide communication and navigation services to lunar probes and, eventually, a research station.
CNSA plans to launch the Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 lunar probes in phases, each of which will require some level of connectivity and navigation.
With 6 exploring the far side of the Moon, it will not be able to maintain direct communication with the Earth, requiring a relay system.
Chang'e-4 achieved humanity's first soft landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019, followed by the Chang'e-5. Both used the Queqiao Relay Satellite to connect back to Earth.
But the successor system, as well as 7 and 8 exploring the southern pole, more connectivity will be required. All three are planned to be launched before 2030, ahead of the launch of a lunar scientific research station.
Specific details about the satellite constellation were not disclosed.
The European Space Agency also hopes to deploy an initial three to four satellites around the Moon, providing Internet and GPS-like services to the lunar service, potentially with the help of base stations. Project Moonlight hopes that not only will it improve access to the far side of the Moon, but it will allow rovers and other landers to carry less communications equipment.
That is also the goal of LunaNet, NASA's ambitious plan to build an Internet for the Moon - and then the wider Solar System. | <urn:uuid:3125c1e0-88fc-4f22-8175-b4c6a6791190> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/china-plans-moon-satellite-system-for-connectivity-and-navigation/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337339.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002181356-20221002211356-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.897412 | 317 | 3.546875 | 4 |
New Training: Create, Modify, and Redirect Files
In this 10-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Shawn Powers teaches you about file creation, text processing, output redirection, and filesystem operations. Gain an understanding of stream editing, file linking, and directory syncing. Watch this new Linux training.
Learn Linux with one of these courses:
This training includes:
49 minutes of training
You’ll learn these topics in this skill:
Choosing a Text Editor
Using More, Less, Head, and Tail
Searching for Lines of Text with Grep
STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR
Understanding Output Redirection Tricks and Tools
Understanding Text Manipulation with Command-Line Tools
Text Processing with Awk and Sed
Using Hard Links and Soft (Symbolic) Links
Find and Locate
Copying Files Over the Network
How To Choose a Text Editor?
For users new to coding, choosing the right text editor can make all the difference when it comes to building a coding environment that supports each user’s unique preferences. A text editor, in the most general terms, is simply a software program that allows users to edit plain text; however, over recent years, text editors have come to mean so much more. Today, text editors not only allow for plain text editing but also act as end-to-end syntax preserving multi-language computer programming platforms that offer programming compilers, debuggers and testing capabilities.
There are tons of text editors out there, each providing a unique value regarding what programming languages are supported, what operating system they can run on, and many other various features that may benefit the user based on their unique preferences.
To provide a simple introduction to choosing a text editor, users often note features such as operating system support, target coding language support, ease of use, effective debugger, effective compiler, and extensibility. Of all these, users respond most favorable to ease of use so long as their target coding language is support. Once a user feels they can quickly navigate a text editor and ensure it checks all of them, they're unlikely to leave that favorable text editor for a long time. | <urn:uuid:8ca052be-02aa-4d68-beb3-babaf41c6741> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cbtnuggets.com/blog/new-skills/new-training-create-modify-and-redirect-files | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337625.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005105356-20221005135356-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.893036 | 452 | 2.6875 | 3 |
StellarGraph has launched a series of new algorithms for network graph analysis to help discover patterns in data, work with larger data sets and speed up performance while reducing memory usage.
Problems like fraud and cybercrime are highly complex and involve densely connected data from many sources.
One of the challenges data scientists face when dealing with connected data is how to understand relationships between entities, as opposed to looking at data in silos, to provide a much deeper understanding of the problem.
Tim Pitman, Team Leader StellarGraph Library said solving great challenges required broader context than often allowed by simpler algorithms.
“Capturing data as a network graph enables organizations to understand the full context of problems they’re trying to solve – whether that be law enforcement, understanding genetic diseases or fraud detection. We’ve developed a powerful, intuitive graph machine learning library for data scientists—one that makes the latest research accessible to solve data-driven problems across many industry sectors.”
Lower memory usage and better performance
The version 1.0 release by the team at CSIRO’s Data61 delivers three new algorithms into the library, supporting graph classification and spatio-temporal data, in addition to a new graph data structure that results in significantly lower memory usage and better performance.
The discovery of patterns and knowledge from spatio-temporal data is increasingly important and has far-reaching implications for many real-world phenomena like traffic forecasting, air quality and potentially even movement and contact tracing of infectious disease—problems suited to deep learning frameworks that can learn from data collected across both space and time.
Testing of the new graph classification algorithms included experimenting with training graph neural networks to predict the chemical properties of molecules, advances which could show promise in enabling data scientists and researchers to locate antiviral molecules to fight infections, like COVID-19.
The broad capability and enhanced performance of the library is the culmination of three years’ work to deliver accessible, leading-edge algorithms.
Mr Pitman said, “The new algorithms in this release open up the library to new classes of problems to solve, including fraud detection and road traffic prediction.”We’ve also made the library easier to use and worked to optimize performance allowing our users to work with larger data.”
Network graph analysis implementation
StellarGraph has been used to successfully predict Alzheimer’s genes, deliver advanced human resources analytics, and detect Bitcoin ransomware, and as part of a Data61 study, the technology is currently being used to predict wheat population traits based on genomic markers which could result in improved genomic selection strategies to increase grain yield.
The technology can be applied to network datasets found across industry, government and research fields, and exploration has begun in applying StellarGraph to complex fraud, medical imagery and transport datasets.
Alex Collins, Group Leader Investigative Analytics, CSIRO’s Data61 said, “The challenge for organizations is to get the most value from their data. Using network graph analytics can open new ways to inform high-risk, high-impact decisions.” | <urn:uuid:69486252-5245-48e1-a4d4-5e3d849cac32> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/05/11/network-graph-analysis/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337855.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006191305-20221006221305-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.927976 | 627 | 2.6875 | 3 |
With the blogs in this series I want to reach not only my typical audience, security professionals, but especially less security aware people to help them improve their personal security. If you think the content is helpful for people you know, share it with them!
What is HTTP
To understand HTTPS you must understand HTTP first. Communication on the Internet happens between a client and a server. The clients we typically use are the browsers on our PC, tablets or smart phones and the apps on our mobile devices. The servers are the machines somewhere on the internet hosting the websites we visit or the resources that are consumed by mobile apps.
Clients and servers communicate with each other via requests and responses. The client sends a HTTP request to the server. This request is processed by the server and the server returns a HTTP response to the client.
The security risks of HTTP
HTTP requests travel between the client and the server in readable format. This means that both the requests from the client and the responses from the server are readable to anyone that can intercept the communication.
Not only readable though, they can be manipulated as well. But how big is the real risk that someone can intercept this traffic? Well do watch this video. You'll understand why connecting to the free wifi in an hotel or at the airport is risky business.
As we saw in the video the hacker was able to read and steal confidential data that users provided to particular websites over HTTP.
What HTTPS provides
HTTPS is the secure variant of HTTP. The requests you send over HTTPS are still using the HTTP protocol but they are also secured via the TLS protocol. TLS stands for Transport Layer Security. When it's properly configured on the servers hosting the website it provides a secure communication channel between the client and the server. The data gets encrypted (=made unreadable) at the browser and stays encrypted until it reaches the web server where it gets decrypted (=made readable again).
This encrypted connection ensures that no one can intercept, read or modify the information that's exchanged between the client (i.e. browser on your PC) and the server hosting the website.
I'm pretty bad in analogies, but look at it as if you're having a confidential conversation with your doctor in their office.
What HTTPS doesn't provide
Before you entered the doctor's office, you were sitting in the waiting room together with a woman. When it was your turn to enter you saw the person who left. So even if everything said in the consultation with your doctor is private and confidential, the fact that you visited the doctor isn't.
With HTTPS this is no different. HTTPS only encrypts the connection between the browser and the website. It doesn't hide which website your are visiting. As we will see in an upcoming blog, this can be a serious privacy issue.
Another common misconception is that websites over HTTPS are secure. This is not true. The only thing that HTTPS implies is that the connection with a site is secure. Even on HTTPS websites, there can be all sorts of security risks on the client or on the web server, resulting for instance in data being hacked out of the database or malware being injected in the website.
HTTPS doesn’t say anything about the legitimacy or intentions of a website either. The purpose of a phishing site, stealing your personal data, is the same whether it’s served over HTTP or HTTPS. Or like Scott Hanselman states...
How do you know if a website implements HTTPS?
In firefox you'll notice there's a padlock in front of the url.
If a site doesn't implement HTTPS or has a broken HTTPS implementation you will see no padlock in Firefox. When you click on the info icon you'll see that the connection is not secure.
In Chrome it's very similar. If you see a black padlock in front of the url it means that the connection to that site is properly secured.
Chrome is more clear by showing "Not secure" when a site doesn't implement HTTPS.
Unfortunately for mobile apps you can't discover easily if they're using HTTPS.
In this post I told you what security and privacy HTTPS offers and what not. I hope it's clear that you should only enter your personal data on a website that implements HTTPS and that you should stay vigilant. HTTPS doesn't mean that the website is secure. It only provides a secure connection to it. In an upcoming post I'll give more tips on how to improve your privacy and security on HTTP and HTTPS sites. In the mean time stay safe online! | <urn:uuid:9964f195-1753-4a86-93e8-af72db0eca65> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://johnopdenakker.com/understanding-https/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030333541.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924213650-20220925003650-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.943054 | 930 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Industries are exploring and leveraging the newer benefits of pressure sensor tech not only to stay relevant but to drive optimization as well.
FREMONT, CA: History has shown that advancements in technology and material science are the essential drivers of the development of sensor technologies. Today, pressure sensors play a critical role in several processes in various industrial applications. The sky is probably the limit when it comes to applications of pressure sensors. Here is more to it.
• Energy Conservation
Energy conservation is highly important to reduce excessive power consumptions and its associated costs for an enterprise and to minimize the environmental impact, including a business' ecological footprint. For enhanced energy conservation, accurate pressure measurements are required. Pressure sensors allow reducing energy consumption and saving money by optimizing the indoor climate in offices and homes as well. Pressure sensors in buildings also open up a wide range of possibilities to conserve energy. This technology improves the inhabitants' quality of life, monitors parameters, including temperature and pressure in buildings while also boosting energy efficiency. Pressure sensors are also used to control the cooling levels in cars and weather stations, and in testing, devices measuring diesel truck emissions levels, wind energy systems, and wind engineering concerning new building designs for the same purpose of energy conservation.
• Quality Control and Data Acquisition
Applications of pressure sensors increase based on the need for more rigidly controlled processes associated with quality control requirements. Monitoring of pressure and vacuum can detect the need for equipment maintenance before untimely failures that cause excessive downtime and increase manufacturing costs. Pressure sensors also play an increasing role in applications such as, bottle and equipment leak detection, compressed air pressure monitoring, gas detection, suction check, pneumatic controls, and many others which require static measurements. Brewing and dairy applications use individual sanitary pressure transducers to measure the pressure in bottling lines. Pressure sensors are of the most significant utility for industrial and laboratory data acquisition too. Useful data acquired using pressure sensors include inlet-outlet or system pressure in the engine test setup, pressure drops for preventive maintenance, fluid height levels in tanks, sanitary pressure in bio or pharmaceutical industry—all of which contributes to performance monitoring and preventive maintenance.
• Safety Instrumentation
The devices used in the mining industry, including cranes, haul trucks, and hydraulic shovels can be operated with great care with pressure sensors to avoid accidents. Heavy equipment typically has numerous safety features based on pressure sensor technology. They can detect a change in pressure and convert the changes to an electrical signal that is relayed to the operator through a dial, gauge, monitor, or other instruments. Pressure sensors also reside in hydraulic booms, measuring the load to ensure it is within the capacity to avoid dangerous tip-over. These sensors can detect overloads both at initial loading and when the load shifts during transport, warning the operator to take necessary steps to prevent a loss of load. Mining sites function in all climatic conditions so that mining equipment is designed to operate across a broad range of temperatures, making pressure sensors an integral part of them. To detect a gas leak, utility providers will need a reference pressure against which the pressure that is going into the tank is measured. Pressure sensors can be of great help, indicating the presence of the leak.
Pressure sensor technology is relevant in almost all aspects of various industries, including safety, security, surveillance, monitoring, and energy efficiency. Pressure sensors are becoming central to multiple sectors, and, inevitably, they can further improve the world in many ways.
Check Out: Energy Tech Review | <urn:uuid:be30b26d-64a7-4b5e-a491-9cdb4a1baaa5> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.enterprisetechnologyreview.com/news/what-s-exciting-about-pressure-sensor-tech-today--nwid-387.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335034.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927131111-20220927161111-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.936939 | 707 | 3 | 3 |
On January 1, 2020, the New York SHIELD Act (Stop Hacks and Electronic Data Security Act), one of the harshest cybersecurity laws in the United States,went into effect. The purpose of this law is to further protect the private information of consumers beyond the scope of existing national laws and regulations.
Who must comply?
This law is mandated on both businesses in New York and any organization that collects or stores electronic records of personal data of New York residents. Any business that has a single New York customer must adhere to the SHIELD Act whether located in or beyond the state's borders. This will most likely encourage companies to implement SHIELD on all consumer data as it is impractical to develop privacy policies for New Yorkers only. While the law is already in effect, businesses have been given until March 21 to comply.
What does the law mandate?
- It expands the definition of what constitutes a security breach. Initially, consumers had to be notified when their data was stolen or acquired by an unauthorized party. Now, organizations must inform consumers even if unauthorized parties access the data. This change is expected to increase the number of data breach notifications.
It also expands the definition of what constitutes private data. Private data now includes biometric data from facial recognition software, as well as email addresses, passwords, security questions and answers, social security numbers, any form of identification cards or numbers and financial account data.
Organizations must put sufficient safeguards in place to ensure the protection of consumer data. This includes identifying areas of risk, vetting vendors correctly and restricting access to personal data. While the SHIELD Act does not mention specific safeguards, organizations will be in compliance if their security program includes the elements specified in the Act.
Organizations must onboard an employee tasked with coordinating their security program. This employee must conduct risk assessments and implement safeguards in response to risk assessments. They must also ensure the organization's compliance with the SHIELD Act. In the event of a breach, the employee is responsible for reporting the breach to the relevant authorities.
- Organizations must conduct regular updates to their networks' software and hardware. They must also be proactive rather than reactive in the safeguards they implement.
What to do in case of duplication
If the data breached is also protected under other data protection or privacy laws such as HIPAA, HITECH or any other federal or local laws, duplicate notifications do not have to be sent to relevant authorities. However, in such cases, the State Attorney General, State Police, Department of State and consumer reporting agencies must be notified. | <urn:uuid:b2894a94-8add-4d99-b1bb-5cf386f89562> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.givainc.com/blog/index.cfm/2020/3/5/new-yorks-shield-data-privacy-law-does-it-apply-to-you | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335286.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928212030-20220929002030-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.946314 | 520 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Big data analytics is already a transformative influence across a wide range of sectors, and it’s perhaps no more prevalent than in the world of healthcare.
With the sheer volume of information that patients are capable of producing and the heightened emphasis on the industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, big data may yet develop into one of the most significant tools in maintaining the health of individuals and even anticipating the emergence of conditions that are yet to manifest in patients.
As the data shows, the influence of big data across a range of applications within the healthcare industry is currently expanding at a rapid rate, with both clinical and financial analytics set to be worth nearly $25 billion alone by 2025.
Big data has unlocked opportunities not only for professionals in healthcare but it’s also unlocked significant potential in public health, institutional health, research, and patient care services. Let’s delve deeper into the applications of big data within healthcare and how the technology could hold the key to more comprehensive patient care over the coming years:
Big data analytics has enabled doctors to access a holistic view of a patient’s health history. Additionally, patients may find themselves more empowered with information and take charge of their personal health through big data insights.
This trend has enabled doctors to design accurate intervention programs to treat diseases long before they have the chance to progress to more complex advanced stages that can be expensive and difficult to treat. Big data analytics is actively shifting healthcare delivery paradigms away from a reactive approach and more to a preventative approach.
Big data can produce volumes of data that can then be converted into valuable insights with analytics and AI to identify and address patients with multiple conditions, patients who are at a heightened risk of illness, and patients showing symptoms of certain illnesses through their early stages.
Significantly, for insurance companies, holistic healthcare can help to provide a comprehensive view of a patient’s health history and tailored packages that can be specific to the needs of each individual.
Smart Glasses & Healthcare Delivery
One of the biggest challenges of big data within healthcare is the interpretation and use of the masses of insight that’s created. Both augmented reality and virtual reality can bring strong benefits to the healthcare industry in terms of visualizing data deemed important and using it to improve the quality of service provided.
AR and VR eyewear can be used to improve healthcare diagnostics also. “You can have a colleague or another practitioner thousands of miles away assist with diagnoses or use glasses as the vehicle for delivery of diagnostic data from an artificial intelligence consultant,” explains Dustin Brewer, principal futurist for ISACA.
With telemedicine rising to prominence in the wake of the pandemic, AR glasses can help bring up electronic medical records of patients on demand. Wearables could even potentially be used to collect and provide key health data among patients over the coming years.
While augmented reality is still very much a technology that’s still finding its feet, it could forge a natural partnership in visualizing scores of data that patients unconsciously generate in bitesize chunks, with AI working to filter only the more pertinent of data to prevent professionals from being overawed with information.
As the global eyewear market is expected to reach $210.8 billion by 2025, we’ll likely see the development of more discreet, hybrid designs that incorporate AR technology arriving for both consumer and industrial use over the coming years.
AI and Big Data Applications
While early Applications for big data and AI technology have been focussed largely on non-clinical processes, we’re seeing an increasing number of practical applications for data technology today.
Many organizations have looked to use AI as a tool for improving disease diagnosis. Notably, Tencent entered a partnership with Medopan in 2019 to trial the use of AI in interpreting data to diagnose Parkinson’s disease in patients, while Merck teamed up with Janssen in 2020 to create an AI diagnostics tool to improve the detection of neglected tropical diseases.
AI and big data have been driving forces in the world of pharmaceuticals, too. According to big data analytics company, GlobalData, “AI has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and expense of taking a drug to market and can also improve the probability of a drug’s approval.”
Partnerships looking to build on this potential have been increasing in recent years, with GlobalData’s study into the biopharmaceutical industry’s state claiming that the number of strategic partnerships in this area has risen from four in 2015 to 27 by the end of 2020.
The full potential of AI and big data within the world of healthcare is likely to extend way beyond what we’re capable of imagining today, and provided that investment continues to flow into this integral area of holistic healthcare, we may see more inspiring and exciting Applications crop up over the coming years.
As the world continues to move away from the confines of COVID-19 and towards developing healthcare technology to better respond to future pandemics, the arrival of newer technologies such as 5G may enter the fray to accelerate the future of patients’ insights further. With AI and big data continually expanding, we may be on the cusp of a golden age of innovation for the healthcare landscape. | <urn:uuid:3a0b04db-7817-4675-a671-b86920c6cd45> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.iotforall.com/big-data-vital-for-healthcare-following-the-covid-19-pandemic | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336674.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001132802-20221001162802-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.931029 | 1,081 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The family meeting now involves discussions on Internet safety for kids — what parents expect from their children in terms of responsible Internet usage, and discussions about common-sense precautions that will keep kids safe online.
Social media is of particular importance here. According to a recent Pew Research Center Internet report, 81 percent of teens surveyed between the ages of 12-17 use social media, and while many kids have profiles on common sites like Facebook, they aren't always active on those sites for a variety of reasons: Some kids feel pressured by too much sharing, perceived or real bullying or because they don't feel free to express themselves. They may then gravitate towards newer social sites that parents are not aware of. Parents need to know where their kids are online, who they are interacting with, and just as importantly, why they prefer certain social sites over others.
Social Profiles and Privacy Settings
Every social site begins with creating a profile. Kids are getting more savvy about what they put into a profile, but it remains the parent's job to review it, as it is a key point regarding online safety for your kids. In terms of a profile, less is more. Nobody online needs to know where a child goes to school, relationship status, names of pets past or present, home or email addresses, phone numbers or any other identifying information.
Parents can coach their kids about how nefarious individuals use identifying information to gain access to personal accounts, to spam, impersonate them or otherwise cause harm. Help them set their privacy settings to strictly limit who can see their social media activities and view their profile. Friends of friends, for example, don't need to see their posts and photos. Periodically review their privacy settings to ensure that nothing has changed.
The Hazards of Over-Sharing
The same is true regarding "over-sharing." It may be seemingly innocuous to post details about being home alone, but such information could put a child at risk. The same is true about telling online friends about vacations, which is essentially telling the world when your home will be unoccupied. Kids may not understand that a simple post asking for a phone number may be from a malevolent source. Parents can help by discussing various scenarios with their kids, so that they understand what kinds of information should not be shared via social media.
What Goes Online, Stays Online
Children often get drawn into peer drama, blowing up the social media sphere with arguments and snarky commentary. Bully behavior may crop up, leaving kids feeling vulnerable and alone. Kids may be quick to take a video and post it online without thinking through the consequences. Parents can do a lot to explain that what goes online, stays online. Forever. Teach kids to take a breath before posting, and to never immediately take to Facebook or Twitter in the heat of anger. Parents should be firm that comments, actions and online behavior should be governed with the same courtesy and respect as kids would convey with people they meet face-to-face.
Mobile Safety and Social Media
Internet safety for kids includes mobile. More children have access to the Internet from their phones, tablets and handheld gadgets than ever before. Mobile access also means that kids have the ability to very quickly move to new social media sites before you'll ever see the evidence on the family computer. Setting firm rules about joining new sites is key, as is keeping communication open. Ask why your child may feel the need to jump into a new social media site, whether it is to get away from bullying behavior or simply to be a part of a newer, kinder, gentler online community.
Top Job for Parents
Internet safety for kids seems like a daunting task in the face of the ubiquity social media, but it's certainly necessary and important. Model for your kids the online behavior you expect of them and insist upon friending and following them on their social sites. Set up parental controls and be sure to stay on top of new social sites and determine if they are appropriate for your kids. Because mobile access increases your child's overall exposure to social media, it may be helpful to invest in mobile security software with parental control tools to help monitor your child's mobile activity. Above all, make Internet safety a top family priority. | <urn:uuid:1c7ae394-7be0-4ed1-b2fe-6341ed0328e3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/preemptive-safety-for-kids-social-media-safety | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337631.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005140739-20221005170739-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.949226 | 857 | 3.34375 | 3 |
WAN modernization evolves in tandem with advancements in computing architectures and the devices that access them
There’s a good chance that the concept of a wide-area network (WAN) has been around longer than you. Its inception is largely traced back to the late 1950s, when the U.S. Air Force created a network of phone lines and modems for the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment radar defense system (SAGE).
Although SAGE was rudimentary compared to today’s enterprise network architecture, most of us have experienced an even simpler version of a WAN using cups and string in the childhood game of telephone. Imagine all that your 6-year-old self could have accomplished if that cup was connected to not just one cup, but multiple clusters of cups, spaced thousands of miles apart. Throughout the years, engineers have used that same imaginative thinking to improve and refine WAN technology to complement advancements in computer architecture and devices.
WAN modernization throughout the decades
Each decade marks a unique and dramatic shift in WAN modernization. Here are the highlights since 1980.
The 1980s: centralized mainframe computing
The ’80s marked the beginning of enterprise networks, with virtually every network in the world running on leased, multi-point wirelines. These lines sent data from predominantly IBM mainframes to front-end processors, and finally to computer terminals, at speeds typically around 9.6 Kbps.
Jim Metzler, Ph.D., is the founder and vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates. With an extensive background in systems software, mathematical modeling of computer networks, and the development of telco network services, he describes the essential building blocks of mainframe computing architecture during this time as:
- The end user devices in branch offices
- The network connecting those branch office devices
- The WAN connecting the branch offices to a datacenter
- A mainframe computer and front-end processors
Cradlepoint Chief Marketing Officer Todd Krautkremer, an IBM network engineer in the 1980s, recalls the tedious processes associated with early mainframe computing.
“Communication was an extension of mainframe computing — the two were inextricably linked,” he said. “Customer interactions with applications on the mainframe were done on a dumb terminal. Every time you hit a key, information went back and forth to the mainframe on a channel at speeds around 9.6 Kbps.”
As manufacturing methods and materials evolved, PCs became more affordable and dumb terminals were ultimately put out to pasture. Enterprise businesses outfitted their offices with IBM PCs and even some Apples, leading to the next advancement in enterprise WAN architecture: distributed computing.
The 1990s: distributed computing
Most office PCs during this era were used by accountants or those in finance and insurance industries whose jobs relied heavily on data input. Soon those users needed their PCs to talk to printers and clusters of other PCs, thus giving birth to the local-area network (LAN).
“PCs became the most important way in which you connected people to applications,” Krautkremer said. “Ultimately, the shift to PCs was met by a shift in computing. Instead of having highly centralized mainframes, people began to move their computing out of the mainframe and to more distributed, mid-range systems from DEC and IBM that were more optimized for communicating with PCs.”
The shift to distributed computing grew in tandem with TCP/IP. This new connect-all protocol for both LANs and the WAN also gave rise to frame relay networks, which allowed for more efficient WAN communication. Frame relay services were multiprotocol in nature, helping with network transitions from IBM to proprietary LANs and TCP/IP, and were significantly cheaper to operate, which left businesses clamoring to set them up. According to Metzler, the frame relay adoption rate beat out the public Internet as the fastest uptake of any WAN service in history.
The 2000s: virtualized, server-centric computing
As businesses adopted an increasingly global mindset, server farms replaced mainframes and distributed mid-range computers, and applications became more centralized while virtual private networks (VPN) and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) also began to take center stage. MPLS, the successor to frame relay, was more TCP/IP-native and offered a way to prioritize traffic and create more efficient routing of data on lease-lined circuits.
“Intelligent networks during this time recognized that customers had different types of traffic coming from their business sites that required different types of priorities,” Krautkremer said. “MPLS allowed network engineers to have different quality of service across the WAN, allowing for more seamless end-to-end connectivity of applications and remote LANs. Now, instead of frame relay, the network became a differentiated, carrier-provided service.”
From there, it was a very short step to the rise of SD-WAN.
2010s: Centralized cloud computing
The tech scene during this era was booming, to say the least. The 2010s saw the launch of the iPad, Instagram, Microsoft Azure, and the first activation of 4G LTE in the U.S. As networks, devices, and applications became increasingly mobile and bandwidth usage exploded, MPLS and traditional data centers began their long decline, which is still happening today
Replaced by intelligent, reliable, and secure cloud-based technologies, enterprise businesses found increased value in moving their operations closer to the edge using LTE and SD-WAN to help get them there. SD-WAN controls network traffic to ensure a certain outcome based on customer-defined protocols.
Reflecting on this WAN modernization, Rohit Mehra, vice president of Network Infrastructure at the International Data Corporation (IDC), said this: “Enterprise WAN is being rapidly re-architected to cost-effectively deliver new, secure, cloud-centric capabilities. Understanding and adapting to current WAN network and security solutions across the emerging connectivity and application landscape is going to be a key ingredient for success.”
Participants in a 2021 study/report from IDC agreed, indicating one of their top reasons for embracing SD-WAN is to “simplify management of WAN to support hybrid IT/multicloud.”
“SD-WAN is the last epoch of the wired networking world for fixed sites, but enterprise businesses today have moved beyond exclusively fixed sites,” Krautkremer said. “They have vehicles, IoT devices, and kiosks, and connecting all of these critical business assets, anywhere, is what takes us into the current decade.”
The 2020s: Hybrid cloud computing and Wireless WAN
Today, the low latency and high bandwidth benefits provided by 4G LTE and 5G solutions have enabled wireless connections to become essential infrastructure of WANs. Wireless WAN (WWAN) provides the agility and reach that modern WANs need to deliver rapid deployment; support high-availability cloud access; and connect people, places, and things anywhere — all with much fewer humans than ever before.
“Enterprise business today requires constant connection to people, places, and things anywhere,” Krautkremer said. “Over time, as 5G demonstrates that it can deliver ‘fiber fast and cellular simple connections,’ customers will deploy 5G as a MPLS alternative.”
Not only is WWAN becoming more universal, but IDC forecasts the Private LTE/5G market to reach $5.7 billion in 2024 as security, mission-critical accessibility, scalability, and centralized management continue to be top considerations for enterprise business networking solutions.
“With more spectrum being made available for enterprise uses, coinciding with the arrival of commercial 5G, interest has grown toward using private LTE/5G solutions as a basis for connectivity across a multitude of mission-critical, industrial and traditional enterprise organizations,” said Patrick Filkins, senior research analyst, IoT and Mobile Network Infrastructure, at IDC.
WAN modernization: a continuous evolution
Wide-area network: the three little words that connect our world. From modest beginnings to an intricate, global web, WAN will continue to evolve alongside computing, device, connectivity, and business needs.
“Every shift in networking has happened because of a change in computing architectures and the type of devices connecting to them,” Krautkremer said. “Both of these transitions happen in parallel, and the network always follows: from mainframe computing, to distributed computing, to client server computing, to SD-WAN, and now to hybrid cloud and edge computing. We’re continuing to move beyond fixed sites and connecting devices of people, places, and things.” | <urn:uuid:5a80ddd8-0bb3-4b53-aa6c-31e91903bc1f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://cradlepoint.com/resources/blog/from-wired-to-wireless-wan-an-oral-history-of-enterprise-network-architecture/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334871.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926113251-20220926143251-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.944964 | 1,830 | 2.890625 | 3 |
This program is ideal for those who recognize that to further their careers, they would benefit from a greater understanding of how the financial side of their business operates.
It is specially designed for those who are not working in a finance or accounting role, and for those who work in the sector, but have never had any formal training.
It will be extremely useful for managers, sales and marketing personnel, account managers, and executives, as it gives them the financial knowledge and insight to make more informed business decisions and become more effective in their current roles.
All employees can be more productive if they have a clear understanding of the financial and commercial considerations that impact their business. This course is designed to fill the financial knowledge gap in a fast-moving, interactive format that focuses on acquiring the practical skills of business finance.
The jargon, conventions, and formats of accounting are translated into simple, easy-to-understand language. Upon completion of the course, delegates will feel more comfortable using financial terms, have a clearer understanding of what these terms mean, and most importantly, how they impact on the bottom line of any business.
Case studies and practical exercises form an important part of this program. These are reinforced by trainer-led discussions.
The program focuses on the following objectives:
1. Understand and interpret a basic Profit and Loss Statement (Income Statement).
2. Understand and interpret a basic Balance Sheet.
3. Understand the concept of Accrual Accounting and how it differs from Cash Accounting.
4. Understand Depreciation and Amortization.
5. Understand a simple Cash Flow Statement.
6. Assess ways of improving Working Capital.
7. Understand how to use Ratios to analyze a business.
8. Understand the different types of Costs (fixed / variable / semi-variable and direct / indirect).
9. Learn how to use Break-Even Analysis.
10. Understand different sources of business financing.
11. Understand different budgeting techniques.
12. Use Variance Analysis to assess budget performance.
13. Apply and assess the merits of key Investment Appraisal Techniques – Return on Investment (ROI).
14. Evaluate the importance of non-financial factors affecting investment decisions.
- Understanding Key Financial Statements.
• The Profit and Loss Statement.
• The Balance Sheet.
• Cash Flow Statement And Forecast.
- Understanding Income And Expenses Statement.
- Gross Profit, Cost of Goods Sold, and Net Profit.
- Accrual-Based accounting.
- Distinguishing between Fixed and Current Assets, Current and Long-Term Liabilities, and Equity.
- Depreciation and Amortisation.
- Causes of Insolvency.
- Ways to improve working Capital and Cash Flow.
- Ratio Analysis.
• Profitability ratios.
• Liquidity ratios.
• Efficiency ratios.
• Financial risk ratios.
- Horizontal and Vertical (Sizing) Analysis.
- Cost Types.
• Fixed and variable expenses.
• Direct and indirect expenses.
- Break-even analysis.
- Pricing strategies.
- Markup vs Gross Margin.
- Upselling and Cross-Selling.
- Budget Basics and Budget Review (Variance Analysis).
- Investment appraisal techniques
• Payback period
• Average rate of return
• Net Present Value (Present Value And Discounted Cash Flow)
• Internal Rate of Return
- Other factors affecting investment decisions
- Sources of financing
• Internal vs external
• Short, medium, and long-term sources
• Factors affecting the choice
• Borrowing vs issuing shares | <urn:uuid:acfeb52a-cd8d-4078-b3dc-869d18298fee> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://etac.ae/Courses/Details/ACT-331 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337504.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004121345-20221004151345-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.849103 | 774 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Protecting Teachers Under Attack by Students
A crisis is being underreported in this country. Teachers and school staff members across the country are being assaulted by students in schools, classrooms, and hallways. Federal and state regulations are in place to protect students’ safety and privacy, but the policies regarding protecting educators are failing. Any time a student of any age, attempts to commit a battery, creates the threat of battery, or even puts educators in a position of feeling reasonable fear of battery, then it is determined to be an assault. According to the criminal justice system, the same definitions apply to students as to adults. Battery can be defined as purposely using force or violence on another person, or deliberately attempting to poison by use of a noxious substance or other liquid or drug. This is how battery is defined for criminal purposes, but for civil purposes it can be any physical contact without consent.
Statistics on Teacher Assault
Recently, police in the Atlanta public school district were called to investigate an assault on a teacher that another student filmed with their cell phone and posted the video on Instagram. The film shows the teacher attempting to prevent a 9th-grade male student from starting a fight with another student. The student then turned his anger on the teacher, pouncing, and began punching the teacher repeatedly in the head. Within seconds, other educators were able to pull the violent student off the teacher, but it did not prevent serious injury or time spent in the hospital recovering.
While school safety programs exist, including surveillance in many public areas of the school, most programs that are centered around violence prevention are concerned with student safety, not the safety of educators. When someone thinks of a dangerous career to pursue, many first think of military, law enforcement, or possibly construction jobs as dangerous, teaching is not the first thing to come to mind, but maybe it’s time to start addressing this issue.
A school resource officer in the Triad school system in North Carolina believes the violence is out of control and not being addressed enough. He indicated that in his school he has seen bloodied teachers, injured backs, and broken ribs. What do we know about violence against teachers?
- 235 attacks in one year for one school district. The Triad school system experienced nearly one teacher assault for every day the schools were open;
- 10% of teachers in US school districts across the country were threatened with serious injury in the past school year;
- 6% of US educators were physically assaulted and injured last year;
- 12% of educators have been traumatized by serious verbal threats and/or physical assaults in the past year that they required seeking mental health services;
- 1 in 5 educators in a nationwide survey report being victimized by verbal and physical assaults that they did not report to authorities or school administration;
- 14% of school educators feel humiliated by the assaults so much that they don’t share the information with their colleagues;
- 24% of teachers keep information regarding threats and assaults from their own family members.
Safety Protocols & Video Surveillance
Schools in the past have attempted to keep information on-campus violence out of the news, as it has an effect on student registration. They want to keep up the current student count in order to maintain their level of federal, state, and local funding that they need in order to run their day to day services. When schools experience violence on a large scale it often leads to a decrease in attendance as parents move their children out of the district to safer environments.
However, in light of the ever-increasing numbers of student assaults on teachers, the education systems nationwide have no choice but to start responding. The focus should be on school-wide safety protocols that protect both the students and staff from any form of violence on school grounds. Many schools have opted to install video surveillance in public areas and classrooms as an additional monitoring source and to help curb the onset of violence. Students knowing that their actions will be recorded on video as evidence, will often think twice before reacting.
The Guilford County Schools in NC are instituting training for their educators and staff members called Social-Emotional Learning. The idea behind this strategy is that when there is a caring relationship between two individuals, including a student and teacher, violence is less likely to occur. Minnesota attempted to put forward a bill to automatically expel students who threatened or attempted bodily harm against any educator or staff member for up to one year. Even though this bill was in reaction to a violent student who slammed a teacher’s head against a concrete wall, knocking them unconscious, then jumped on and attempting to strangle the educator to death. Though the teacher will live with traumatic brain injury, the bill was dropped.
Other Minnesota schools have enacted the REACH program, which stands for Relationships, Education, Accountability, Character, and Hard Work. It is offered as an elective course for students in grades 7 – 12, and allows them to learn to take responsibility for their actions. Schools who offer this type of program feel that it works better than a zero-tolerance program which removes students from being able to pursue an education.
Release of Information
Another issue highlighted by assaults on teachers and staff is the ability to access student records. Currently, students’ rights to privacy are protected under law by the US Department of Education. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a legal guideline to protect student privacy, but does not necessarily extend to educators or staff.
Generally, the teacher that has been assaulted, must follow through by writing a referral or complaint to the school. This can also be followed up by criminal charges. For workmen’s compensation, the educational staff must also fill out an accident report and clearly define the actions of the student and how the injury occurred, be it a physical assault or mental abuse. The schools are mandated to provide paid sick leave while under treatment or doctor’s care for the assault. Teachers may choose to file criminal charges against the student or may file a civil suit against the parents of the student for damages.
Even though the educator has been assaulted, gaining access to the student’s record may require a court order or subpoena. The teacher’s access to the student’s records may not fall under “educational requirements.” FERPA has specific laws that schools must follow before releasing any personally identifiable information on students, even in light of criminal investigations.
Students’ Rights a Priority
When dealing with these types of assaults against teachers, many different agencies can become involved. There are reports to be made by the teacher who was assaulted, witnesses, and any corroborating evidence gathered such as surveillance footage. School resource officers, law enforcement, mental health services or school psychologists, parents, courts, and possibly juvenile justice departments may all want copies of the student’s permanent school records as well as any information regarding the assault. While the school should work to protect both the student and staff members alike, federal rulings protect the privacy of the student, regardless of the charges.
Even when attempting to deal with a crisis intervention situation, the school should follow any applicable FERPA guidelines by using a quality redaction system to be sure that any personally identifiable information regarding other students, particularly those not involved in the incident be redacted.
Complying With FERPA
Penalties for non-compliance with the US Department of Education’s Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) can be severe. A single violation can cost the school their entire federal funding for the following year, which could break budgets for many districts. Although an assault on staff members would be defined as a matter of immediate safety concern under the FERPA guidelines, it would be in the best policy for the school to manage the paper trail of the student’s record for security purposes.
FERPA specifies under which guidelines any information can be released and to whom. Other than school administration, who can review the student’s record for disciplinary action, the following guidelines apply for releasing student data when an assault occurs:
- Schools must comply with any order from a court or a subpoena regarding student data;
- In emergencies, necessary agencies for resolving health and safety issues;
- Records must be released upon request to certain juvenile justice authorities, state and local law enforcement according to district policy and state law;
- Parents can request copies of surveillance footage if appropriate redaction has taken place;
- Teachers can request copies of the footage through a court order.
Having multiple staff members and administrators trained to use the redaction software system will ensure that requests for information will be handled in a timely manner. Many times, when information is requested by a court, or even the press through an FOIA request, there are legally mandated time periods in which the school has to respond. CaseGuard provides quality redaction software that follows guidelines set forth for privacy laws, including those mandated by FERPA and law enforcement making it is easy for school resource officers, teachers, and law enforcement to work together to redact documents, audio and video data.
Protecting Teachers & Staff
Schools must be prepared to deal with the idea that surveillance and video data regarding student behavior will indeed have to be maintained for the safety of the school, staff members, and other students. The footage obtained by continued monitoring of the school grounds can catch behaviors that may otherwise be missed. During the course of security duties, this footage can be reviewed by the administration with their school resource officer or local law enforcement.
Taking violence seriously has to be made a priority by districts in protecting both students and staff members. A school district can be held legally liable in a civil suit for the injuries or death of victims of school violence. Federal statute 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Section 1983) allows citizens monetary damages under certain circumstances. Teachers and staff often fear reacting to students for the same law, as they can be held financially responsible as well. If their acts are deemed lawful, as, under their duties by a government entity, a representative of the school, administration, teachers, and staff can fall under qualified immunity.
With so many avenues that can go wrong when trying to keep students and staff safe, the administration’s last worry should be about how to maintain records and receive additional penalties for not having a protocol in place. Schools should sit down with their school resource officer and other appropriate team members to do a Student Threat Assessment and Response program. By stepping through possible scenarios, the route of student data can be planned out so that errors are not made. Staff can be assigned duties for redacting data; the administration can review the redactions and sign off on a list of individuals to which the data can be released. Using an on-site quality redaction system that conforms to FERPA regulations and is easy for several members to be trained on will make task assignments go quickly. | <urn:uuid:555b374c-9209-451f-8f1c-7bf9affe8d1b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://caseguard.com/articles/protecting-teachers-under-attack-by-students/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337668.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005203530-20221005233530-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.966207 | 2,221 | 2.734375 | 3 |
by Andrew D. Zonenberg, Ph.D
Associate Principal Security Consultant
The latest new widget just showed up on your desk. You excitedly crack open the case, look around a bit, and find a signal that looks interesting. You fire up your oscilloscope, touch a probe to the signal, and... the widget won't boot! Or maybe it works fine, but you see garbage on the scope screen that looks nothing like a useful digital waveform.
It's a problem that's becoming all too familiar to hardware hackers. As technology advances, signals become faster, which makes them more sensitive and less tolerant to the sloppy wiring and probing techniques commonly used in reverse engineering. Even cheap SPI flash can run at 100+ MHz in modern designs.
This article will focus on practical problems and solutions for analyzing existing boards, without digging too deep into the more advanced electrical engineering theory needed for design of high speed logic. For a more in-depth treatment of the subject, High Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic (1993) by Howard Johnson & Martin Graham is an excellent read, as well as its successor High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic (2003).
|If your probing setups look like this, you're going to have a bad time reversing modern hardware!|
At this level, the main thing to be aware of is that electrical signals move through wires at a finite speed, typically around 0.6-0.7x the speed of light (roughly six inches per nanosecond), and that changing cable characteristics (more specifically, impedance) causes an impact on the signal whose duration in time is proportional to their length.
Before we proceed any further I'd also like to introduce an abbreviation from the test equipment world that you may not be familiar with: DUT (Device Under Test). This is a fancy way of saying "the thing you're trying to probe".
Avoid Long Messes of Wires
In the photo above, a JTAG adapter was connected to the DUT with several feet of wire, without paying any attention to impedance or termination. The JTAG software was unable to detect the processor. When an oscilloscope was connected to the TCK signal on the DUT, the signal looked like this:
|JTAG TCK signal with long wires|
The rising edge of the clock signal climbs for a while, then dips, then continues climbing to its full value. These non-monotonic edges are a big problem! If the position of the dip happens to line up with the threshold of the device's input pin, it will see two rising edges instead of one, resulting in a bit of data being duplicated.
You might be tempted to reduce the clock frequency of the JTAG adapter in this case, but this won't help: all it will do is move the rising and falling edges further apart without changing their shape. Fast edges at 1 kHz are just as vulnerable as edges at many MHz.
Adding filtering to slow down the edge rate (at the cost of reducing the max operating speed), adding a ~33Ω series terminating resistor at the source end of the wire, or playing with ground geometry to match the impedance of the cable more precisely can all help. In most cases, however, the easiest solution is simply to shorten the wires.
|No more spaghetti!|
|JTAG signal with shorter wires|
If you look closely a small defect on the edge is still visible since the ribbon cable isn't impedance matched, but it's much smaller because the mismatched cable length is shorter. At this edge rate, this sort of defect shouldn't be a problem since it doesn't dip, it just stops rising momentarily. When dealing with sharper edges, you might want to shorten the cable even further. You should also...
Properly Secure Wires
|Kapton tape securing a solder-in probe tip|
|Wires secured with UV glue|
Probe holders: There's a wide range of these available, ranging from DIY 3D printed bipods to $500+ three-axis micrometer jigs. More temporary in nature than any kind of adhesive, but useful for any time you want to look at more than a handful of signals while keeping your hands free. These get the probe tip right up against the board without any additional wire, which is great for probing faster signals.
|Probe held in a bipod positioner|
Avoid Long Probe Grounds
|10 MHz clock seen through a 10MΩ probe with a long ground wire|
|Test signal with no probe|
In this screenshot we see three different signals:
- Blue: The signal as seen through the probe (flatlined, since the probe isn't on the board yet).
- Pink: The signal internal to the DUT
- Yellow: A snapshot of the pink waveform frozen in time. Right now they're identical, but if the probe alters behavior of the DUT you'll see them deviate.
To start, let's use a standard 10MΩ passive scope probe (a Teledyne LeCroy PP022) and an alligator clip ground.
|Probing the easy, obvious way.|
|And here's what the scope sees|
The signal is completely unrecognizable through the probe! In addition to causing ringing on edges, the inductance of the long ground lead destroys high frequency performance.
A spring ground is a bit trickier to use since you have to find a good ground point fairly close to the signal you're probing on the DUT, but gives a much nicer looking view of the signal.
|Using a spring ground|
|Waveform seen with the spring ground|
That's a lot better looking: the edges are rounded off and not as square looking as they should be, but that's an inherent limitation of this probe (500 MHz bandwidth). Individual data bits are clearly readable, so all is well... right?
Wrong. Take a look at the signal on the DUT (pink waveform)! There's huge dips in it. This might well be enough to corrupt data and render the DUT nonfunctional. This brings us to our next topic...
Beware of Probe Loading
|Probing our test setup using a transmission line probe (Pico TA061)|
|Waveform seen through the transmission line probe|
|Waveform seen through transmission line probe with spring ground|
Open Hardware High-Speed Probes
|AKL-PT2 soldered to a board|| |
|Same Ethernet test signal seen through the AKL-PT1| | <urn:uuid:ccb13d44-1341-436f-90e8-7959816bfcae> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://labs.ioactive.com/2021/01/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337668.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005203530-20221005233530-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.933181 | 1,362 | 2.546875 | 3 |
This Article first appeared on CMSWire.com.
Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to deliver enterprises higher efficiency, increased accuracy and greater utilization of corporate information assets.
But these promises can only come true if the AI is built on a solid information architecture.
While many would like to believe that AI is combination of magic and pixie dust, for human-to-machine conversations to become reliable, a significant amount of foundational effort must take place. And this process begins with the basics of knowledge management.
3 Steps to Establishing an AI Foundation
1. Develop a Framework
Domain Models and Schemas
Developing a framework starts with the concept of a “domain model.”
A domain model represents the concepts and terminology of a particular industry or specialized area of knowledge. For example, a domain model for an insurance company might include products, services, risks, regions, topics, processes, audiences, content types, customer types, etc.
The domain model represents common terminology, structure and concepts for most business processes within the target domain. At a deeper level of detail, the domain model is converted into “schemas,” which more precisely describe the process, data and context for the area of interest. The schemas become your metadata structures.
The business world contains thousands of schemas and contexts, and you cannot resolve all of them once. Begin the framework process by starting with one, something critical to the business. By narrowing the focus, it will allow you to measure the business impact more readily.
Writing a schema creates a structure which supports machine training. Machine learning models function more accurately when told what is important to your organization.
Search also benefits from domain models and schemas by limiting and contextualizing possible results to make them more meaningful to the user and relevant to the domain.
Digging Deep Into Ontologies
Start by building a logical map of information related to a specific business process or need.
Take the proposal creation process of an enterprise as an example. Proposals in this setting contain many information elements. The challenge is finding the right mix of information which relates to the potential client's requirements and to deliver the completed proposal on time.
Businesses waste hours searching for the various content components, whether product configurations, specifications, information about people such as bios and photos, and other components such as case studies, project plans and cost elements.
Data structures, domain models and schemas (with taxonomies and controlled vocabularies) comprise the ontology — defined as the elements described and all of the relationships between them.
In the insurance domain, the relationship between the vocabulary of risks and that of regions can be called “risks in a region.” These ontological relationships capture knowledge about the organization, its processes and relationships in the real world and become the framework on which knowledge is organized.
Knowledge Engineering, At Scale
Machine learning algorithms can place knowledge elements and artifacts into a knowledge base, and then surface the content users need in the context of their goal.
A salesperson creating a proposal can retrieve the information needed to construct it because the process of completing a proposal is part of the framework. The schema structures the information for that process.
If this sounds like old fashioned knowledge engineering, it is. The difference is how the tools scale across content and data sources as well as interpret human intent.
Many of the elements humans need to learn how to complete a task are the same ones required by an AI-driven search application.
In fact, “training content” remains the biggest obstacle to enabling AI programs. IBM Watson's creators noted that — as one would expect — feeding the AI the wrong information sources degraded performance.
Over time, the machine learning that AI offers will move search to a proactive experience. Machines can watch/listen to what humans are trying to do, and refer to repositories of past search actions, improving its ability to return the most relevant results.
2. Build a Knowledge Management Foundation
Serving Up Search Results, Within Context
AI-enhanced search depends on a knowledge management foundation. Even when the algorithms perform without external ontologies, someone made these decisions and embedded the architecture in the code.
Knowledge engineering will play an even more important role in the success of emergent technologies such as bots and conversational interfaces.
AI tools do not remove the need for domain models, schemas, content architecture, ontologies and other design elements. To the contrary, context must be defined and retained via knowledge engineering approaches.
Knowledge engineering means you are building mechanisms that deliver search results containing the right content to support your employees' processes.
Taking this a step further, using component authoring enables content to be re-used at even finer levels of granularity and in more contexts. AI interprets human intent and contextualizes and personalizes results at a scale impossible with knowledge engineering alone.
Google Sets the Bar High
These precepts aren't new.
Google has been enhancing its contextualized search for a while, showing steady improvements over time. Traditionally, Google searches resulted in a long list of web pages which contained the answers buried inside.
Well-worded searches sometimes resulted in direct hits, where the answers were part of the URL’s page title. This “trained” the world on how to tag web content for easier retrieval (and is why marketers fear the dreaded Google algorithm!).
You may have noticed, however, that Google has started giving direct answers when it can (e.g. search “How old is Drew Barrymore?” — the answer appears in a bio box astride the list of search results).
These responses use the Google “knowledge graph,” a structure of related concepts and attributes, which is a form of schema related by an ontology. But progress has been slow. Even while possessing the largest database of queries known to man, Google still struggles to consistently offer this level of response.
On a positive note, you don’t have to solve what Google is trying to solve. Your business’s area of expertise is a tiny subset of the world’s knowledge that Google tries to master.
Tying Information Architecture to Business Context
Unfortunately, when it comes to enterprise search, Google doesn't reach inside the firewall.
Much of corporate knowledge is stored safely within protected networks that commercial search engines cannot reach. Further, this information is often unstructured and lack the links that facilitate ranking and retrieval algorithms.
Corporate information often exists in untagged documents and files, outside of a meaningful metadata structure. In order for a machine to understand this unstructured content requires it first be classified and mapped, as well as placed within a context of its use in the business.
Many classification attempts fail because the information architecture does not account for the potential uses of content and information. Instead, businesses organize unstructured information in haphazard ways — either through an accidental architecture or by way of personal, idiosyncratic and inconsistent organizing approaches.
Haphazard approaches do not support user needs within their business processes. AI-enabled search is contextual by nature. Search is always tied to a step within a business process. Thinking about search this way changes how you approach information architecture design — basing it on the context of the business process.
For example, a pharmaceutical company is constantly in the process of complying with FDA regulations in order to advance its products to market. All of the related information that goes into this process can be architected, indexed, and classified to enable much faster access when searched. Advanced knowledge management professionals are attacking this problem today, resulting in thousands of hours of labor reduction, and a faster time-to-market.
3. Train Machines Like a Human
If your company is venturing into AI-enabled search, don’t start with machine learning.
Machines first need to be trained on how to learn — whether through schemas or through classifying and organizing information to a set of common purposes within a standard table-driven database. Training sets need to be the gold standard of content and represent clean data in order for them to be useful.
Depending on the purpose, the training sets may require varying levels of structure, but the data must always be of superior quality. Remember what Watson's creators taught us: Putting garbage into an AI system results in garbage AI results.
Consider how humans learn and apply the same approach to AI.
Humans do not learn about the entire business at once. A talented knowledge worker starts by learning about their part of the business. In the same way, a learning “AI machine” is far more successful when tasked with a focused set of business processes and clear objectives. Most of today’s successful AI solutions are narrowly focused.
Feeding the system knowledge about the user, the task and the related content is “the learning” that must occur. It provides context. This process starts one department or one function at a time. Departmental and process-specific AI search applications can then cross over within industries, then cross to adjacent industries, and finally to “business” in general.
But the industry is not there yet.
Setting the right expectations is difficult. AI is not magic, but its value amplifies when you take the machine learning and enabling it in new environments. Each iteration results in refinement for all.
In our third and final post, we will look at the biggest challenge that faces businesses bringing AI into the workplace: people. | <urn:uuid:775c32d9-eaba-472d-a3a0-007350a3891d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.earley.com/insights/what-it-takes-deliver-successful-ai-driven-search | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337668.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005203530-20221005233530-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.923053 | 1,951 | 2.75 | 3 |
variant, partners, detect, ransomware, malware, running, attacks, cpu, system, train, pcs, encryption algorithm, encrypt, camille, security, case, data, important, encryption, machine learning
ANNOUNCER, Camille Morhardt, Ram Chary
Welcome to What that Means with Camille, where we take the confusion out of tech jargon and encourage more meaningful conversation about cybersecurity. Here’s your host, Camille Morhardt.
Camille Morhardt 00:16
Hi, and welcome to this episode of cybersecurity inside what that means threat detection. Today we have with us Ram Chary. He is Senior Director of Engineering in the Product Assurance and Security Group at Intel, which is part of the security center of excellence. Now, Ram has a background in computer science and also physics. And he’s kind of done a whole bunch over his career in engineering. But what might be interesting or particularly interesting to people now is he and his team actually invented threat detection technology. Now, we typically don’t talk about product and this what that means podcast and true to form, we’re going to open with really Ram’s definition of threat detection. We’ll also talk a little bit about platform security and authentication, which he also works on, we really want to talk about it and kind of understand the broader scope. Welcome to the show.
Ram Chary 01:12
Thank you Camille, good to be here to talk about the technology.
Camille Morhardt 01:15
Could you first just help everybody out by level setting on threat detection, that’s a pretty broad phrase.
Ram Chary 01:22
Used to be the fringe a few years ago, but off late, it’s been hitting, you know, the Colonial Pipeline was one of the big ones that was in the news few months ago. So it’s hitting large companies, it’s hitting infrastructure. It’s hitting small, medium, businesses, school districts, you know, everybody’s getting hit. And we worked very closely with our partners, the antivirus developers, as well as what they call EDRs, which is endpoint detection and response companies, they have been doing a great job trying to detect these attacks. But oftentimes, as you’ve noticed, there are new variants coming out on a daily basis. And these variants sometimes get around the protections that our software vendors built around it. So then we have been talking to the to our partners for over three years. And one of the questions or one of the requests we’ve had from them, as you know, is there something that we can do from a hardware perspective that will give some kind of a real time proactive signal that can feed into their algorithms so that they can very quickly respond to new attacks that they’ve never seen before. So that was a problem that we started addressing. And over the last two or three years, we started one of the smaller attacks called a crypto mining detector, and off lately been, which has been deployed by multiple of our partners. And offline we’ve been working on on ransomware detection, you know, the high level, what we’re doing is we are using certain features in the CPU, which actually is designed for some other purpose for actually seeing very spending time in your code, right, it was meant for performance optimization, but we’ve kind of repurposed that to detect any kinds of malware attacks and particular ransomware attacks. Ultimately, Ransom that is software to it runs on the CPU, and it leaves a fingerprint, what we’ve been using is to be able to use some of those events or capabilities in the CPU. And we then apply machine learning algorithms on top of it to kind of eliminate false positives. And the minute we get the signal, and we can do that within seconds of an attack that you’ve never seen before, and you give that notification to our partners, and they can then do the remediation. And our solution is rolled out as part of our partner solutions.
Camille Morhardt 03:28
Ransomware is generally this notion of you get some kind of a cyber attack that basically locks up your system or makes it inaccessible or your data inaccessible. And then you have to pay usually in a cryptocurrency but it wouldn’t have to be you have to pay somebody to re access it. So how actually does it work technically, like what’s happening? And how does it get onto the system in the first place or into the network.
Ram Chary 03:55
One of the things that happens quite often is you may get a an email from it looks very legitimate, that’s maybe coming from your bank or ecommerce vendor, and you click on it, that’s, that’s what we call the phishing emails. And you click on it, and you click on the link and unbeknownst to the end user, there is this malware that actually gets loaded onto their system. And then oftentimes that malware is dormant. And its main goal, of course, is particularly in an organization, large company, you know, its goal is to spread to as many of the systems that’s as possible so it gets onto email and other mechanisms to spread around. And, and to reward to kind of evade the detection barriers that are put in many of them will, they’ll stay dormant for a while, and then they activate themselves. And as you noted, one of the things they do is go around and encrypt the whole driver, you know, partially encrypt, encrypt files, and some of them even exfiltrate the data you know, they move the data to the cloud. So that end of the day it’s it’s primarily to get a ransom but but things as you have known recently have gotten Beyond that, as we get to just those in it for the few Bitcoins, it can be a state sponsored attack, in which case, the goal is to bring down and more than it’s not just money at that point, it’s there are other agendas. But the entry point is always, as I said, it’s something innocuous that comes into your system that just launches it. Unbeknownst to the user.
Camille Morhardt 05:21
The malware is a piece of software. Correct. So how does a piece of software or an application find its way into the hardware to encrypt something.
Ram Chary 05:31
The first thing that they do is they will usually connect to a back end server somewhere, you know, which is to get those encryption keys. And one thing they may do is sometimes they may copy files over but oftentimes they’ll start the encryption process, it just runs like any other program, any legitimate program that will be going around, let’s say you’re using a program, encrypt some file, or to compress some files to send them over as part of an attachment. So it just goes through the process and starts running. And it starts from directory a and kind of chunks its way through the entire entire system. And it can happen quite quickly, in a few minutes, that entire system may be corrupted. And the problem there is if you can detect it right away. Imagine a company like ours where you know, you may have 100,000 employees, and let’s say what would be great if ransomware, you know, somebody had I accidentally clicked on one of these emails and something is launching on my machine, it’ll be would it be nice if within a few seconds, the AV on that machine that’s running one of our partner solutions can detect that attack right away. And not just remediate my machine, but can help protect the 100,000 other machines in the enterprise. That’s what we are trying to achieve is to catch it right. As soon as as that problem occurs.
Camille Morhardt 06:43
How does it catch it?
Ram Chary 06:45
In our CPUs, in our case, Intel CPUs, there’s something called a performance monitoring unit, which is very down on the CPU. And it’s tracking exactly, you know, micro architectural details of what is actually happening, for instance, you know, example would be had a level three cache miss, or something like that, right, which for most people, it doesn’t matter, that it actually helps us. Let’s say I’m a developer, and I’m actually writing my program. And I want to see, what is it doing in order for me to optimize it. In those cases, I can use a tool like VTOL is one of Intel’s own tools. And it’s in fact, using under the hood, it’s using this PMU to get the data so that I can see, okay, this is what my program is doing. And I’m going to optimize it, you’re kind of flipping this on its head. As I said earlier, you know that that is the end of the day software, it’s going to, you know what it’s doing, when it’s encrypting files, it has to run on the CPU. And it’s doing some strange behavior, right, unlike most regular programs, it’s going through entire directories. And it’s chugging through. And it’s actually compressing or encrypting a lot of these files. And we use that capability in the PMU. To now look for that pattern that encryption is going through. And you can program that and as I said, there is a machine learning models that we build based on that, we can then detect anytime in the future, there is a variant that’s something like that, right. And we can this is this machine learning is no different than you’re teaching it to recognize a dog by showing you pictures of 50 dogs, and it’s going to detect another 50 dogs without you telling and that’s exactly what we’re doing, setting the training into the various types of attacks we know of and then eventually detect any new variant that might come in. And the crux of your question to me is, the reason we are able to do that is the end of the day, those encryption algorithm, they don’t change all that much, right? They use a yes or no salsa 20. I mean, there are these few types of encryption algorithms that they use. But those malware just reuse the same thing over and over. Right? They look different. But ultimately, when they start executing, they have this commonality and that’s what we’re trying to catch.
Camille Morhardt 08:55
So how do you know that it’s not encryption that you’re doing on purpose on your own system? One of
Ram Chary 09:00
One ofthe things when we talk to partners, you know, they’re kind of three requirements, you know, one is it has to be proactive, it has to get something as quickly as possible. The second important thing is it has to have low false positives, because if it’s crying wolf all the time, it’s it’s actually sometimes worse than not liking anything. And what you’re asking is the crux of salt solution is any machine learning model is only as good as the data that you train it on. Right? At least initially. That’s what we’re trying to train before we let it loose in the world. And this is why working with our partners has been critical. Right? The first set of data that we have to train on is the malware itself. Kimmy there are publicly available databases of fake ransomware. There are so many variants of it, we take all of them, we are subscribing to it, as a lot of other AV companies are and we train the models with it, right. The second thing we have to do, which is that is just to catch any new variants, but the more important point as you brought up is, how do we train for all the make sure it discards a good application? So we actually do a lot of that in house, you know, we run it, for instance, in our case, it’s very close to tie to our commercial platforms, right to the platforms in particular. So So we train it on a whole ton of commercial applications that are out there that you and I would be using or other companies in general use, so that it knows how to differentiate between the good apps and the malware. And the other important part. And this is why a partnership with our key AV vendors and EDR vendors is critical, is because they then deploy it on hundreds of millions of systems out there, and different geography running on a small company setup running an app that we would never see in our labs. But we get that data, right, we get the data working with our partners, and we can we can then train our models to say, you know, ignore these types of new types of attacks. So it’s kind of a, you know, it’s a, it’s something that we work together with our partners so that it very quickly gets to the point where it’s able to tell the good apps from from the bad ones and be trained it so that when we detect that tab, and it’s fairly certain, you know, knows which process actually running it, and it gives that handle to our partners so they can review.
Camille Morhardt 11:09
So as fast as you’re kind of training and designing training, I assume that there’s bad actors out there, adjusting the ransomware so that you think it’s good versus bad. So how do you kind of keep track of that or keep up with it or keep ahead of it?
Ram Chary 11:24
Good point, that’s one of the two aspects to it. Right. The first part is, that’s why machine learning is critical, right? We cannot be programming this, you know, as as opposed to the standard case, you’re telling it to look for a particular pattern. Here, we wanted to go beyond that, you’re going to train it on all the samples that we know, that’s why machine learning is critical, because we are now telling it, look for other things you haven’t seen yet. And overtime, it kind of learns it, it kind of detects these new samples. And every once in a while, we have to go and retrain it because there may be a new variant but But oftentimes, we find that there may be a new variant that uses the same encryption algorithm that we’ve already trained it on. Ultimately, when the encryption algorithm gets triggered, we are able to detect it and we can flag it. And the factors are doing it the CPU is, you know, the typical bypass mechanism that many malware could have is it can back off. So rather than running continuously, it can run and then stop and run, the granularity of the CPU at which we are monitoring is so fine that it doesn’t matter. I mean, we can detect them. Even if they do that. Of course, if they do at the point where they are not encrypting at all for a long time, we have succeeded, because that’s the whole goal of the malware is to enter the system. So we can stop it that it’s that’s one thing. The second part, as I said, is we do work with our partners so that when they have new variants on V V, kind of monitor them too. But we work very closely with our partners so that when there’s a new variant, we can very quickly train it in case it’s something that’s it’s it’s in using a new encryption algorithm, we can update our models, and we share it to the partners, and it’s an over the air update. So they can update it in minutes. They just …
Camille Morhardt 13:01
Is this technology that goes across computers and servers?
Ram Chary 13:05
Our the performance monitoring unit that I was referring to? That’s cross Intel, the same thing is true on our endpoint or PCs. It’s also you know, a lot of our PC chips are also used by our edge products, like our Internet of Things groups, and it’s applicable there. It’s also applicable to the servers. Absolutely.
Camille Morhardt 13:25
I know, you probably can’t get into the architecture of it, specifically, but is it different? Is each architecture sort of unique across each one of the with the same kind of end benefit? Or is it actually the same architecture, regardless of the endpoint?
Ram Chary 13:40
There are commonalities. For instance, the fact that there is a performance monitoring unit across all our systems is definitely a commonality. But there are differences too, because the performance that we have to train, as your earlier question was alluding to is, we have to train it for the bad actors. But we also have to train it for the good applications. And that means it’s a combination of the applications and the operating system that is actually running underneath. So a lot of what I talked about, for instance, the deploy components have been very much focused on our PC side of the fence. So these are running either Windows 10, or 11. And they’re primarily our core PCs. As we go to say servers and servers, even though the Xeon PCs have the same underlying capabilities. You have a very different model. You have phenomenally high levels of cash. There are a lot of a lot of threading that is happening those environments and it’s usually running Linux in many cases. And it’s running, you know, virtualized containers on top of that. So the payloads are very different. Some of the events that we are monitoring the PMU sometimes they are the same across clients and servers, but usually we have to fine tune it to make sure for that particular environment, say servers in a CSP environment. It’s optimized for the kind of operating system environment and the world clothes that are out there.
Camille Morhardt 15:01
So it can end up being pretty custom depending on like the industry or the use case. That’s correct. Yeah. Okay. That’s very interesting. Why, I guess let me just ask you kind of a high level question. I actually just recently read the World Economic Forum cybersecurity report, published in January 2022. And they mentioned that ransomware is kind of still on the rise. I remember last year kind of looking at trends and seeing that ransomware was sort of all over all the security conferences. Why is it suddenly such a big deal and continuing to trend up.
Ram Chary 15:37
It’s an easy way, for those who are interested in making money, it’s a very easy way to do that, because it’s one of those things where these days ransomware is almost as a service as saying there is another underlying architecture, which may be using the same encryption algorithms, a lot of commonality, somebody can very quickly put a wrapper on it and come up with a different variant very quickly, they can deploy it. And, you know, until this technology, like ours gets very broadly deployed, they can work around just enough of the systems out there, maybe those systems don’t have the latest software, that always gaps in those systems out there. And they’re able to hold it for ransom. Because one thing that all of us need, especially in a corporate environments true for us outside of work to is, in our data that we have, is the most precious thing we can have, right? It could be our photographs or emails in our home environment or at work, it could be business data, its software, it’s an area where they can attack and they know that they will, you know, no company wants to be held ransom. But at the same time, the business is at stake. So they are very aggressively targeting it. But as we have seen it sometimes it goes beyond just a corporate environment, there are attacks that are going after national infrastructure. So their motivations, there are different. And they will probably continue. So that that’s the case,
Camille Morhardt 17:01
I guess, what do you think the future of ransomware is going to be? Is it going to be the same kind of thing? Is it going to expand to heavens? You mentioned personal photos, like I never really thought about the fact that somebody might lock up my photos and say, Hey, five bucks, you can have your photos back? It’s like, well, that’s a pretty mass scale. I mean, where are you seeing it head?
Ram Chary 17:22
I think all of those places, because of the fact that they can very easily spin up new variants, and there isn’t yet definitely a way to stop all of them. I mean, our partners are doing a heroic job in catching most of these attacks. But they just have to get through a sometimes and just for for enough time to be able to catch some of those, those corporations that are some, you know, best known methods or techniques that people can use. But, you know, everybody knows, you know, this often has to be always updated, but doesn’t always happen that way. I think given the the ease with which, you know, you can just make a claim for a Bitcoin payment, it can be done. So that’s, that’s what when we talk to our partners, we’re in the frontlines of this. That’s what they’re telling us that they don’t see this abating in the near future.
Camille Morhardt 18:08
Is anybody arguing over? Like how best to detect threats? Are there other approaches in industry, I mean, is looking for encryption, kind of the Holy Grail. And the only way it’s done, are there other methods?
Ram Chary 18:23
There are quite a, quite a variation of these partners, they’re all trying their best to detect these attacks using all kinds of techniques. I mean, they’re using behavior analysis, just based on software techniques today, and that’s why they have been successful at detecting many of these attacks. The challenge in that approach is sometimes it ends up being reactive, you know, you may have a scenario where, you know, that particular day when that attack happens, you know, it particularly we may not have necessarily have got it here having techniques to detected what we’re adding to the mixes. Because the hardware we believe has because from an execution perspective, we have some great signals that we can give them. So our goal is to augment the great work, our partners are already doing it so that we can make ours a little bit more proactive. It’s always about that age.
Camille Morhardt 19:13
That’s pretty cool. Like if you’re you start to go, okay, something starting to encrypt. Yes. Like you’re looking at that down at the processor level. That’s pretty interesting.
Ram Chary 19:22
And the fact that you can eliminate the fact it’s not a good application that’s actually doing it, it’s based on the machine learning models, we can tell. It’s the bad guy. That’s the information you get to them. And there are other aspects to you know, the technology itself, which I can mention, right, which is the one question we may get from our audiences. Machine learning sometimes is CPU intensive, right? That’s, that’s one of the reasons people people don’t like to run it all the time. But the great thing, for instance, in our endpoints and the CPUs on our PCs, which is that technology is currently deploying on on ransomed and so on, he says it’s fantastic and integrated graphics that, for instance, Intel has, you know, what we find is a lot of these machine learning algorithms that you’re developing, you can run it on the CPU, and it can take 567 percent of your CPU, but you can offload it to this integrated graphics such as there, and you can drop the CPU consumption to almost, you know, less than 1%. So it’s it’s not perceptible. And that’s another whether that’s a that’s another important requirement for our, from our partners is how do I leave this running all the time without necessarily being a CPU hog, right, so it’s that third leg of that solution, which is, which is also important. But the primary goal at the end of the day is to make sure we are being proactive, that we eliminate the false positives using machine learning. And the third part is do that in a performant. way. So that’s kind of the the aspects of detection.
Camille Morhardt 20:49
So one other final question for you is another thing, since I just read this World Economic Forum report, it’s kind of top of mind for me. The other thing that they brought up is this kind of shift from just talking about cybersecurity, to talking about cyber resilience. The first thing that I kind of note with that is okay, now we’re saying it’s inevitable to some degree, no matter what you do, you will not be able to protect 100% 100% of the time. So you have to have a way to mitigate, you have to have a way to triage you have to have a way to bounce back or, you know, have a fail safe alternative plan, whatever it is, I want to kind of get your opinion of what is really important in that resilience space. I mean, you’re working on detecting threats. So from your perspective, what is really the key thing people should be looking at from, I guess maybe it’s the other side, the resilient side.
Ram Chary 21:40
The whole idea of detection is we can give this immediate notification to our partners to do remediation, right. So the first thing to do is to make sure that your software is up to date, and you have an oftentimes, when you work with these partners, particularly like at home, for instance, you know, our AV is probably getting pushed and updated by default. But it’s always good to verify that it is. The second thing, of course, to always there needs to be a plan B for these cases, which I think people do very well in a commercial environment, but not as much sometimes at home, backup all your data, this is what I tell anybody I know, is make sure you’re backing it up, and you’re not having that connected to your PC. Because you know, it shouldn’t be an extensible system. And that at least takes care of the the fact that you’re the recovery part of it. Right. And and the the first part, of course, of course, they make these attacks. So innocuous and enticing. It’s very nobody knowingly will click on that email. But you know, use as much as possible, as you touched on earlier, you know, use biometrics in your platform, if it’s available, the authentication becomes more reliable, you can authenticate it to you, then you log into could be any website or work outside. And likewise, the website can actually trust you. So I think there are other attributes to this, this whole thing. And by the way, our the larger security ecosystem is working diligently on that those are other aspects and that adults need to pursue.
Camille Morhardt 23:07
So let me ask you a personal question, because you’re such a techie. What do you do in computing that? You know, you shouldn’t? Or what do you not do? That? You know, you should?
Ram Chary 23:20
I’ve been in the security space for some years. So I should know this. But out of the blue sometime, maybe three years ago, I got a call from someone saying, Okay, I’m calling you from from this bank, which is a legitimate bank that have an accountant. And they said, we have a compromise, you know, if you need to know your account number, right. And I was running from one building to another from a meeting to meeting, I didn’t think about it, and I just gave the account number. And then they started saying social security number. And I’ve been in this space enough to say, wait a minute, this doesn’t make sense. I was just not in the moment when I was doing that. So I tell you know, everybody I know just you know better. Just don’t give away your personal information, because that’s the easiest way to to compromise your system. But that’s something we have to be it’s like driving, you know, you can you know, everyday you have to be focused. And likewise, I think that security, we have to be deliberate in what we do. And use the tools that are available to us the biometrics if it’s second factor authentication, use it. That’s what I tried to do. I try to do those as much as I can.
Camille Morhardt 24:25
Thank you very much. Ron Chari joining us from Intel, where he and his team invented threat detection technology. And he’s Senior Director of Engineering and the product assurance and security group within the security center of excellence. Thanks so much for your time today.
Ram Chary 24:41
Great. Thank you Camille, it was a great pleasure talking to you.
never miss an episode of what that means with Camille by following us here on YouTube. You can also find episodes wherever you get your podcasts. The views and opinions expressed are those of the guests and author and do not necessarily reflect the views policy or position of Intel Corporation. | <urn:uuid:bd423326-4e21-4a53-8e33-4949f1f3f315> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://cybersecurityinside.com/episodes/86-wtm-threat-detection-technology/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337971.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007045521-20221007075521-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.962828 | 6,490 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Passphrases are an important security component in the implementation of Novell SecureLogin. Passphrases are unique question and answer combinations created to verify and authenticate the identity of a user. In a directory environment, you can create passphrase questions for users. Users can select one of these questions and provide an answer for it. You can also permit users to provide a question of their choice and the answer for it.
Passphrases protect user credentials from unauthorized use. For example, in a Microsoft Active Directory environment, you can potentially log in to the network by resetting the user’s network password.
However, this cannot happen when you are using Novell SecureLogin. If someone other than the actual users tries to reset the network password, Novell SecureLogin triggers the passphrase question. The user must provide the correct answer before successfully logging in. Even an administrator cannot access the user’s single sign-on-enabled applications without knowing the user’s passphrase answer.
NOTE:In a Microsoft Windows Vista environment, when you log in to Novell SecureLogin in an offline mode with an incorrect password, you are prompted to provide the passphrase answer. If an incorrect passphrase answer is specified, you are prompted to retry the authentication.
However, if you again provide a wrong password, instead of seeing a prompt for the passphrase answer, you are prompted to specify the password (that is, instead of the passphrase dialog box, the password dialog box is displayed).
Close and relaunch Novell SecureLogin to be prompted for the password first, then prompted for the passphrase answer if the incorrect password is specified. | <urn:uuid:281615d2-23c2-48d5-a5f1-82945289e464> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.netiq.com/documentation/securelogin70/user_guide/data/bly3d5g.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334515.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925070216-20220925100216-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.862669 | 346 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The findings, which drew together analyses on over 4,131 pregnant mothers from the Children of the 90s study in the UK, with similar detailed studies in the Seychelles, are published in NeuroToxicology.
Importantly, the researchers also found that it does not appear to matter which types of fish are eaten because the essential nutrients in the fish could be protective against the mercury content of the fish.
The more important factor was whether the woman ate fish or not. This contrasts with current advice warning pregnant women not to eat certain types of fish that have relatively high levels of mercury.
Although there are several studies that have considered this question, this research has looked at two contrasting studies of populations with mercury levels measured during pregnancy where the children were followed up at frequent intervals during their childhood.
The second study considered analyses of data from the University of Bristol’s Children of the 90s study (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)), based in a relatively industrialised area in south-west England where fish are consumed far less frequently. No summary of the findings from this study has been published before.
Although it has been known for some time that the children of women who eat fish in pregnancy are likely to benefit in various ways in regard to their eyesight and intellectual abilities, official advice has included the warning not to eat certain types of fish that have relatively high levels of mercury.
As a result, there is the possibility that some women will stop eating any fish ‘to be on the safe side’.
Dr Caroline Taylor, Senior Research Fellow and co-author of the study, said: “We found that the mother’s mercury level during pregnancy is likely to have no adverse effect on the development of the child provided that the mother eats fish. If she did not eat fish, then there was some evidence that her mercury level could have a harmful effect on the child.
“This could be because of the benefits from the mix of essential nutrients that fish provides, including long-chain fatty acids, iodine, vitamin D and selenium.”
Professor Jean Golding, co-author and Emeritus Professor of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology at the University of Bristol, said: “It is important that advisories from health professionals revise their advice warning against eating certain species of fish.
“There is no evidence of harm from these fish, but there is evidence from different countries that such advice can cause confusion in pregnant women. The guidance for pregnancy should highlight ‘Eat at least two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily’ – and omit all warnings that certain fish should not be eaten.”
In this population-based birth cohort study, some associations between maternal dietary n-3 PUFA intake during the first trimester of pregnancy and child neuropsychological scores at ages 4 and 7 years were found. The data suggest that the n-3 PUFA intakes in the third trimester of pregnancy seemed to be less related to later child neuropsychological function.
This finding shows a discrepancy with the established hypothesis that most of the n-3 PUFAs are transferred from mother to child in the third pregnancy trimester . Young children’s general cognition, including executive and verbal functions, and children’s attention functioning, were positively associated with maternal intakes of these fatty acids during early pregnancy. However, this fact does not suggest causality in the association, and large randomized clinical trials are needed.
Furthermore, the study results were similar after applying inverse probability corrections for the missing cases. Finally, as expected, maternal social class and education level were the most important confounders in the exposure–outcome associations reported here.
The positive associations found here were also observed in other longitudinal cohort studies based on PUFA intakes (or similar nutrient compounds, such as seafood) during pregnancy and child neuropsychological development. For example, Mendez et al., 2009, in our previous study with 482 pregnant women from Minorca island, found that mothers who consumed two to three servings of fish per week during pregnancy had children with significantly higher scores in neuropsychological tests at 4 years of age, compared to mothers who had less than one serving of fish .
In this study, a statistical difference was found in all main McCarthy outcomes (general cognitive, perceptual performance, memory, verbal, numeric, and motor skills). Furthermore, a review paper from Weiser et al., 2016, described several studies about DHA intake during pregnancy and infancy, and showed positive associations similar to those seen in this study, for example, in child cognitive functions related to attention, memory, and verbal scores .
This review included a large cohort study report, including one by Hibbeln et al., 2007, who used pregnancy FFQs and child neuropsychological outcomes up until 8 years of age, and who discovered an association between a low intake of seafood, defined as less than 340 g per week during the third trimester of pregnancy, and an increased risk of suboptimal neuropsychological outcomes, affecting verbal function, fine motor, and social development scores .
These studies did not estimate the PUFA intake from FFQ, and used primary source compounds, such as fish intake, and neither assessed the exposure (PUFA intake) several times during pregnancy. Furthermore, there are a few randomized trials exploring the effect of pregnancy PUFA intake on later child neuropsychological development with positive results . For example, in a randomized double-blinded clinical trial including 590 pregnant women, led by Helland in 2003, it was reported that daily n-3 PUFA supplementation during pregnancy had greater effects on mental processing outcomes at 4 years of age , which may be a similar outcome to our study’s ANT–HRT-SE assessed at 8 years of age.
In relation to the neuropsychological outcomes mostly related to maternal n-3 PUFA intake, it is interesting to see that executive and attention functions were highly associated. These functions are involved in the optimal prefrontal cortex development, the section of the brain that performs several complex cognitive functions, including the functions assessed in this study . This brain area may need high amounts of n-3 PUFA during development due to the complexity of its synaptic connections.
Therefore, a mother’s n-3 PUFA intake during pregnancy may be vital for optimal long-term neuropsychological outcomes for the child. There are biological pathways facilitating the transfer between the mother and the offspring during pregnancy. One study from Koletzko et al., 2007, demonstrated an active and preferential maternal–foetal transfer of DHA across the human placenta, and that this pathway was a mechanism for the expression of human placental fatty acid binding and transport proteins .
Our results may be partly explained by this active transfer process of n-3 PUFAs from mother to foetus, and by the metabolic pathways involved, which are essential for the rapid cellular uptake of the n-3 PUFAs. Thus, both biological mechanisms may affect neurodevelopment during foetal growth [7,8,9,13]. For example, in our recent study conducted with this cohort (Julvez et al., 2020), we demonstrated the importance of some single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) metabolizers of n-3 PUFAs, present in relation to maternal seafood intake, and later child attention function . We further described stronger associations between early pregnancy n-3 PUFA intake and child neuropsychological development. We would have expected stronger associations at the end of the pregnancy, due to the fact that, in this period, neuron dendritic growth and myelination are highly activated .
However, the complexity of human brain growth during the entire gestational period and the related long-term behavioural consequences are difficult to assess. This fact requires more scientific work and a deeper analysis of the potential biological mechanisms. These finding needs to be confirmed in other epidemiological studies and further investigated in experimental studies, particularly in experiments focusing on the human brain development.
The main strengths of this study include its longitudinal cohort study design, with a large sample size from different regions of Spain, where all of the cohorts used common assessment protocols. The data in this study were collected prospectively and with standardized and valid methods and instruments regarding the exposure variables, covariates, and neuropsychological outcomes. For example, the neuropsychological assessments used validated and standardized tests, and the psychologists involved in the study underwent training and followed quality controls. The study also applied several statistical analyses in order to verify that the associations reported were independent to the main confounders, and also that the associations were not biased due to missing data.
The study design is not without limitations. Firstly, self-reported data from FFQ are subject to measurement errors and recall bias. The accuracy of the FFQ relies on the subject, which poses risks relating to the true representation of intake, leading to underestimation or overestimation. Furthermore, the conversion of results from the FFQ to nutrients are estimates at risk for variances, especially for foods with limited nutritional information, such as ready-to-eat meals prepared outside the home.
Secondly, although a lot of covariate information was available, the study lacked dietary and supplementary information and biomarkers of n-3 PUFA intake during lactation, which may have been relevant for analysis. Additionally, although confounding factors, based on a literature review and a DAG model, were reviewed during data analysis, there is still a risk of potential residual confounders due to the observational nature of the study, causing potential bias in the study. Furthermore, the data showing the important confounding effect of maternal social class are indicative of this risk of potential residual confounding due to socially advantageous families.
Furthermore, complete information for those that were lost or opted out are not available from all cohorts, creating possible selection bias. Nevertheless, we applied inverse probably weighting corrections in our study, with no changes observed in the main findings. However, some cohorts had certain information, such as low socioeconomic status, that were more prevalent amongst non-participants , and this has to be taken into consideration if results are generalized to the general population.
A slight correlation between omega-3 PUFA intakes during the third trimester of pregnancy and cord blood omega-3 fatty acid concentration was observed in a subsample, and this low biomarker correlation is usually observed in this type of exposure based on FFQs [20,21], and plasma PUFA biomarkers are used to indicate short-term—about a few weeks—PUFA consumption . Furthermore, a few women (5%) reported using omega-3 supplements during pregnancy, and we treated this as a separate variable, but we observed no influence in the present results. Finally, the clinical interpretation of the findings is limited by the fact that the associations were modest, since only a few test scores (MCSA points or ANT–HRT-SE milliseconds) separated the differences between exposure groups.
Overall, this study found that higher maternal n-3 PUFA intake during the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with improved scores in some child neuropsychological outcomes at 4 years and 7 years of age. The associations were only found in maternal n-3 PUFA intake during the first pregnancy trimester compared with the third trimester period. Given the large number of potential covariates, the temporal distance between exposure and outcome, and the non-clinical significance of the associations found, this research topic needs more longitudinal cohort studies to continue exploring these associations, plus clinical and experimental studies to further explain the biological pathways of n-3 PUFAs during pregnancy and their potential role in child neuropsychological development.
reference link : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8838693/
Original Research: Open access.
“The benefits of fish intake: Results concerning prenatal mercury exposure and child outcomes from the ALSPAC prebirth cohort” by Caroline Taylor et al. NeuroToxicology | <urn:uuid:8ea7f778-f1c0-4248-8f61-0835ca8bff25> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://debuglies.com/2022/09/07/eating-fish-during-pregnancy-can-help-provide-essential-nutrients-to-the-developing-fetus/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335059.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927225413-20220928015413-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.960253 | 2,489 | 3.125 | 3 |
If you crack open an SD card, you’ll likely be able to see the NAND flash memory chip. NAND flash has become the go-to for solid state data storage in this day and age. You can find it in not only your SD cards, but in your flash drives, SSDs, smartphones, and tablets as well. You can think of a single NAND flash memory chip as the rough equivalent of one of your hard drive’s platters. Platters are divided up into tiny magnetically-charged regions. Each region represents a single bit of data. A NAND chip, on the other hand, is built out of cells. These cells are lined up in columns and arranged in rows across the chip. Each cell plays the same role as the magnetic regions on your hard drive’s platters.
Just like hard drive platters, NAND chips have a life expectancy. Over time and with use, the magnetic fields on parts of the platters weaken and decay, resulting in sectors going bad. The same aging process also affects NAND chips. Every time a cell is altered, it takes up a single program-erase cycle. Each cell is designed to last for hundreds of thousands of program-erase cycles or more. An SD card’s controller distributes data as evenly as it can across the chip’s cells in a process called “wear leveling”. Wear leveling can prolong a NAND chip’s life and improve its performance. But of course, life isn’t perfect, and some cells just don’t last as long as they should.
In this SD card recovery case, a lot of the NAND chip’s cells had gone bad. Solid-state devices have means of dealing with bad cells, just as hard drives have means of dealing with bad sectors. Hard drives and solid state devices like SD cards can both identify failing sectors or cells and sweep them under the rug. But sometimes a failure catches the device by surprise. In this SD card file recovery case, some of the bad cells in the SD card were enough to cripple the device. Bad cells can crop up anywhere and have a variety of effects. In many cases, the cells can be in the middle of a file. This can result in file corruption. The cells can also affect the boot sectors or partition table of a storage device, or cause firmware failure. Bad sectors and cells are always a luck of the draw scenario. If they affect the right places, you might not even notice them. If they affect the wrong places, your memory card becomes a brick.
SD Card File Recovery Case Study: SanDisk SDHC Memory Card
SD Card Model: SanDisk SDHC
Drive Capacity: 4 GB
Operating System: FAT32
Situation: Files appear on SD card but cannot be opened or copied over
Type of Data Recovered: Photos
Binary Read: 99%
Gillware Data Recovery Case Rating: 9
The client, a photographer, was unable to pull their photos off of the card. While they could access the SD card and see the files on it, they could not open or copy over any of them to their computer. This client had stored thousands of pictures on their camera’s SDHC card and needed them back. Our flash memory data recovery engineers analyzed the SD card and found that there were bad cells in its flash memory chip.
Don’t let bad cells on your SD card keep you from your data.
SD Card File Recovery
In this SD card file recovery case, the bad cells affected the SanDisk memory card in just the right way that the data on it could still show up. But while all of the client’s photos were clearly visible, they could not be opened, saved, or copied to the client’s computer. The data was there, but the SD card had a big sign on it that said, “Look, but don’t touch.”
Here at Gillware, our SD card file recovery technicians weren’t about to let a few bad sectors get between them and the client’s data. Our technicians were able to make a write-blocked forensic image of about 99% of the storage space on the SD card’s flash memory chip. The bad cells only made up about 1% of the SD card’s total storage space. But some of that 1% had fallen in just the right place to make the client’s data inaccessible.
Our data recovery efforts proved fruitful. Of the 2,000 photos stored in the SD card’s memory, over 1,600 photos were fully and completely recovered. The remainder of the recovered photos had all been partially recovered, and many of those partially recovered photos had been nearly completely recovered, with binary reads of well over 90%. Our data recovery technicians rated this successful SanDisk SD card file recovery case a 9 on our ten-point scale. | <urn:uuid:e09dd59f-74e7-405c-aad5-0d38582a31c6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.gillware.com/sd-card-microsd-card-recovery-service/sandisk-sdhc-memory-card-recovery/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336978.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001230322-20221002020322-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.95471 | 1,023 | 3.25 | 3 |
Sept. 12, 2022 — The dawn of exascale computing will bring exciting new capabilities to bear on scientific investigation as well as unprecedented challenges that we should reframe as opportunities in order to find “exemplary solutions”. Numerous phenomena realized over the past several decades pose challenges waiting to be met head-on with novel ideas and technologies: the doubling effect of Moore’s law and the concomitant increase in data generation; the explosion of high-resolution sensors and instruments; the modern, expanded scientific process; the lagging ability to store data; and the rise of machine learning. A review offered by the Exascale Computing Project’s Data and Visualization lead was published in the July/August issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.
Hardware and software developments have translated into superior data quality, faster data processing, and more powerful simulations, all of which have driven the computational and data exploration scientific paradigms that have arisen in response to our new capabilities. The scientific process in modern times has expanded to include data verification (i.e., checking whether simulations do what they are designed to do) and data validation (i.e., checking whether simulations match real-world experimental results). Challenges inherent in the traditional scientific process include creating visual representations of higher-dimensional data elements such as tensors and functions; supporting complex data structures and complex unstructured mesh types; and developing effective ensemble (i.e., input/output results) representations and methods. Verification and validation challenges include use of high-dimensional visualization techniques to visualize diverse experimental and simulation ensemble data and to compare ensembles with their members. The biggest challenge in the exascale era will be ensuring scientific visualization methods account for the full scientific process: tools must be able to operate on spatial/temporal representations at the bottom of the hierarchy as well as the abstract ensemble level at the top, and all levels in between.
Data storage deficits co-existing with today’s voluminous data have resulted in much longer timeframes for storing data compared with producing it. This challenge has led to the development of edge computing to act on data where it’s gathered and to approaches including compression, sampling, and multiresolution representations that aim to reduce the size of a dataset without reducing its usefulness. A promising new method, called in situ visualization, visualizes data as the simulation is running. Challenges associated with the method involve improving automation by selecting effective parameters and supporting visual exploration following simulations. Ray-tracing accelerators, which can be customized to handle large-scale visualizations and renderings, may enable scientists to trade memory-heavy geometries for directly sampling scientific data. Additionally, the rise of machine learning techniques creates a challenge similar to visualizing ensembles—that of using visualizations to explain the results of machine learning applications—because machine learning data typically are ensembles. More effective ensemble visualization methods are needed.
James Ahrens. “Technology Trends and Challenges for Large-Scale Scientific Visualization.” 2022. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications. Visualization Viewpoint. July/August. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCG.2022.3176325
Source: Exascale Computing Project | <urn:uuid:cccd51cc-6e79-48d6-bf61-4dc841e94300> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/ecp-data-and-visualization-lead-offers-viewpoint-on-the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-exascale-computing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336978.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001230322-20221002020322-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.901802 | 661 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Don’t let the terminology confuse you– spear phishing is not the act of hunting for fish in the ocean, it’s a specific type of phishing attack where cyber criminals use detailed personal information to attack a specific individual or organization. This typically happens through email with the goal of gaining confidential information for their own fraudulent purposes.
Spear Phishing vs. Phishing
The key differences between spear phishing and phishing are the manners in which cyber criminals go about the process, and the specificity of the attack. Spear phishing is a vastly more targeted attack that requires the attacker to dive deep into research on their intended target, to present a more believable and specific email. Standard phishing attacks use general information in their emails that can be sent out to a large quantity of people. To simplify, spear phishing values quality and, phishing attacks value quantity.
Stats on Spear Phishing
Recent reports from Proofpoint have indicated that 64% of security professionals and 88% of organizations have reported experiencing a targeted spear phishing attack. Additionally, they noted a rising trend in the use of spear phishing in place of standard phishing attacks. Attackers are beginning to realize that the more targeted their attack is, the higher their chances of successfully gaining your information for leverage or exploitation.
Organizations should invest in an email protection solution that uses analytics to detect any suspicious emails and potential attacks. Example solutions include, utilizing email providers such as Gmail who use spam filters to identify and separate spam emails from your inbox. Additionally, using data encryption on emails to protect sensitive information inside emails, and Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Performance (DMARC) solutions are alternative ways to protect your organization. DMARC, being the most effective of these solutions, is a free solution allowing email domain owners to protect their domain from unauthorized use.
In addition to email protection solutions, pairing staff security awareness training with your technology-based solutions, plays a critical role in having a comprehensive strategy towards your cybersecurity. Staff training to prevent spear phishing attacks should focus on teaching employees to take a cautious approach to clicking on links, and opening emails that feel “off ”. Let staff know that if an email feels out of the ordinary, to verify that the email address is correct and isn’t a variation of the real one, for example with an added “1”, before opening it. Staff training should additionally teach the importance of keeping personal information close, and the importance of running software updates on company devices to ensure security solutions can run properly.
The sad truth is no one thinks they will be the victim of such an attack,… until they are. Cyber criminals are becoming smarter each year and are finding new ways to exploit human nature that is prone to error. As these new methods of hacking emerge, it is important for you and your organization to be fully aware of these threats and implement the solutions and best practices that will help mitigate your risk of attack. | <urn:uuid:67dcdf76-aa83-443d-9915-a681c41d35d2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://agileblue.com/spear-phishing-what-it-is-and-how-to-protect-your-organization/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337516.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004152839-20221004182839-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.935576 | 607 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Patch management is a process that involves detecting missing software updates and applying patches to correct errors (also known as “bugs” or “vulnerabilities”) found in your organization’s systems. These errors are often weak points for malicious hackers, viruses, and other cyberthreats to attack. When a vulnerability is discovered, a patch is deployed and inserted into the code of an existing software program to update and mend necessary fixes.
In other words, IT professionals and systems maintenance teams rely on patch management software to proactively ensure operating systems, endpoints, servers, software products, and applications remain unsusceptible to exploitation.
Patch management reinforces a cybersecure environment for your organization and maintains smooth performance for operating infrastructure. To simplify and increase the accuracy of patching software, many businesses opt for automated patch management.
Here are key reasons patch and vulnerability management are important:
It’s a valuable, preventative tool against cyberthreats, including several types of malware that opportunistically infiltrate your company’s systems. Patching vulnerabilities reduces your risk of cyberattacks, including harmful data breaches.
It works to safeguard productivity and protect business continuity. In a competitive landscape, patch management helps your organization stay up to date, making sure your software and applications run efficiently while minimizing downtime. Choosing to automate the patch management process mitigates human error caused by manual patching.
Besides detecting old software, introducing improved features as a patch helps augment backend efficiency without the disruption of a large full update. It’s an easy-to-use method of deploying the latest innovations your company has to offer and ensures your users have the newest product features at scale.
Creating a well-organized and detailed patch management strategy can easily be achieved in a cost-effective way by creating customizable patches to fit your organization’s business practices and system priorities.
Developing a comprehensive strategy starts with understanding patch management best practices:
Leverage flexibility by making separate profiles for each device type and system, therefore you can pinpoint critical systems to patch without interrupting others.
Prioritize patches based on level of severity and monitor complete, missing, or failed patches. This patch management software customization and configuration includes focusing your business' most prevalent types of vulnerabilities.
Customize rules for important operating parameters and create policy groups that list proper guidelines for managing vulnerabilities. Categorize patch deployment depending on vendor, type, or severity. Consider implementing a rollback system as a fail-safe plan in case something goes wrong after a patch rollout or during the application process.
Scan for missing patches and discern high priority patch groups. Flexible scheduling allows your organization to run scans after a software release and receive critical updates during regular maintenance windows.
Test patch deployment and application in batches. Try running tests under high stress environments to ensure performance is maintained during production. Track your organization’s progress, re-examine patch policies, and alter to your needs.
Your company’s IT personnel must consider numerous aspects when comparing patch management tools. Key factors for choosing the right patch management tool include:
Whether your operating system is Linux or Microsoft, your internal IT team needs to know what types of devices and platforms they are supporting to find a patch management tool that meets their needs.
Your IT leaders want to know how much automation they will need and how much automation a specific tool offers.
They will need to know what is currently being patched manually and the budget expenditures towards needed IT skills to upkeep supporting these areas.
There are many pros and cons to using agent-based or agent-less solutions. Each offer unique advantages and drawbacks. Your IT team needs to consider factors, such as number of workstations, company bandwidth budget, and prioritizing account privilege.
A common problem in patch management involves third party apps, especially legacy applications. There are instances where a breach occurred when a patch had been available for several years, and hadn’t been applied. Legacy software gets forgotten and therefore remains a threat vector for years.
Malwarebytes Nebula Vulnerability and Patch Management module enables you to scan, assess, and deploy patches in a single place with cloud-native Nebula management console. The lightweight agent provides intuitive patch management solutions to expand your visibility across the attack surface and keep your business safe from cyber incidents.
Patch management is a process that involves updating, deploying, and installing patches to remedy problems such as "bugs" or "vulnerabilities" threatening your organization's cybersecurity posture.
Patch management best practices for your business:
5 Stages of the Vulnerability and Patch Management Life Cycle:
Select your language | <urn:uuid:374ed12a-c823-4c41-b271-d493654b186e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.malwarebytes.com/cybersecurity/business/what-is-patch-management | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338001.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007080917-20221007110917-00348.warc.gz | en | 0.925597 | 942 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Chromebook is a family of devices, including the laptops, tablets, convertible, and detachable form factors running on the Chrome OS, a Linux-based operating system from Google. Chromebooks are available from various OEMs, such as Acer, ASUS, Dell, Google, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung. Chromebook Pixel and Pixelbook are high-end variants of the Chromebook. There are a few other types of Chrome OS devices, such as the Chromebox desktop and the Chromebase all-in-one device.
Chromebooks mainly rely on the Google Chrome browser to perform tasks, and they store a majority of the data on the cloud. Their reliance on cloud infrastructure allows them to perform well using the basic hardware. And with almost no moving components (like a fan) and simpler processor chips, they offer higher durability than traditional PCs. However, Chromebooks – like traditional laptops or desktops – are susceptible to data breach and leakage as they also store data on the built-in SSDs aside from the cloud.
The following sections illustrate the risks:
In 2019, Google engineers discovered a vulnerability in the H1 chip firmware. The chip generated truncated Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) cryptographic signatures that are easier to hack and break into the system. This vulnerability could lead to a data breach, later fixed by installing the Chrome OS v75 update and registering the new keys with websites earlier authenticated with the faulty security key. Though the vulnerability is fixed, there is no guarantee of new issues cropping up silently, compromising your sensitive data.
So far, the blog establishes that the data stored on a Chromebook is vulnerable to breach and leakage risks. And the only way to nullify the risks is to permanently remove this data such that no one can access or recover it. Here, it is worth noting that actions like data deletion, formatting, and factory reset cannot guarantee permanent data removal. Anybody in possession of the device can potentially retrieve the data using a publicly available data recovery tool.
The Data Erasure technique can address this problem by overwriting the existing data with unique binary patterns, rendering the data unrecoverable using any method or tool. Data erasure techniques are primarily implemented using data erasure software that automates the task for efficient execution.
A professional data erasure software such as BitRaser could be your best choice to wipe the Chromebook. The tool uses proprietary techniques to “overwrite” the existing data on the Chromebook hard drive. It can offer you ‘total peace of mind’ with safe & secure sell-off, return, reallocation, or exchange of the device without any apprehension concerning your data. It is an easy-to-use DIY tool that also generates documented proof after wiping the Chromebook.
Read our quick, easy-to-understand software KB on how to erase Chromebook using BitRaser Drive Eraser. Using the software, you can start erasing your Chromebook in less than 15 minutes and safeguard your data privacy across all threat scenarios. | <urn:uuid:1e829d8a-9b83-4f57-b43f-04c714e7905e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.bitraser.com/blog/storing-data-on-chromebook-beware-of-the-risks/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334528.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925101046-20220925131046-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.890553 | 619 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 and is continuing to affect many lives. And a key thing it has made us realize is that companies require an excellent risk management program. This is so that adversities such as a pandemic do not cause high losses.
If you are wondering more about risk management, you have come to the right platform. Here is all the information you need about it.
Risk Management Definition
Risk management is the process in which hazards are identified, analyzed, and evaluated for control measures. The key feature of this strategy is to help you avoid or minimize threats that affect business earnings. For instance, a pipeline burst may disrupt the activities of an essential department.
Besides, risks can also be in lawsuits, accidents, robbery, and much more. As a manager, you must identify all the threats that affect a project’s completion. Moreover, you should also notice the risks that impact the entire organization adversely.
A successful management program can help you improve the efficiency of your team. It can also allow you to increase the profits earned.
Why Is Risk Management Essential?
Here are the top things that will help you understand why your company requires a risk management strategy:
- Helps Prepare For Uncertain Times
The top thing about a risk management strategy is that it considers all factors that negatively affect the entire business. This means that you can prepare your company during emergency cases. For instance, it may help you realize that your business requires a disaster recovery plan.
Besides that, you may also be able to learn about other weak points of your company. A prime example emphasizing the importance of risk management is the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses were not ready to tackle lockdown issues and were affected severely.
- Improves Profits
You should understand that risk management can help you improve profits if you identify the issues effectively. This is because it allows you to eliminate the different threats. Not only that, but the strategy also helps you minimize the risks that cannot be removed to a safe level.
Aside from that, the process may help you identify a financial threat. In such a case, you can make an informed decision to save your company resources.
- Offers High Security
One of the top risks that your business can be vulnerable to is lawsuits. They can occur because of employee misconduct, personal damage to the client, and much more. Typically, a management strategy will help you identify scenarios in which you may suffer from a lawsuit.
After that, you can determine how to eliminate that scenario or reduce its possibility. For instance, if you are worried about a client sustaining an injury on your property, you can place policies to ensure that a customer does not have to come to your premises.
Risk management can also offer high security from lawsuits because of cyber-attacks. Data breaches can cause your clients to file a case against your company. You can reduce this risk by having excellent data protection software. | <urn:uuid:b49cd7ad-8e41-435f-8ee8-84521474ac52> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://fluentpro.com/glossary/risk-management/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334915.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926175816-20220926205816-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.960392 | 611 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The end of the router as we know it
Hannes Gredler, CTO at RtBrick, reflects on the evolution of the not so humble router
Since their first commercial deployments network routers have evolved significantly. For the past two decades network equipment vendors have had a difficult time keeping pace with the rapid adoption of internet services and demand for bandwidth hungry applications. Service providers also struggled to capitalise on their investment, and consistently asked vendors to help them build value added services. Critics of router-based network services argue that adding but never removing features has driven up the cost of the routers to a point where the advantages and cost-savings achieved through technological advances are no longer passed down to customers. Here are some of the functions that have become redundant during these technology developments, but operators are still paying for.
In their 2004 paper Sizing Router Buffers, researchers at Stanford University wrote that buffers as deep as 2000ms have served well for low bandwidth services and flow diversity of order of hundreds like in the days of the internet. However, with speeds of 10GBits/s and flow diversity of 10 million flows on a typical internet backbone link the value of buffering becomes highly doubtful. The benefits are becoming even more questionable, considering that there is no signalling to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer during “buffering”. Most routers, however, still support a 100ms+ buffer depth for 100GB/s circuits, which means that you need 1.25 GB DDR4-RAM for every 100 GBit/s port in a router.
This DDR4 RAM, sometimes the most expensive form of RAM, makes the buffer the biggest driver for today’s router hardware cost. Not only is it needed for a function that rarely works with today’s internet backbone usage patterns, it must also be implemented as off-chip memory, which increases the cost of external I/O, power consumption, and cooling.
The next biggest cost factor for a router’s data plane is the size of its forwarding table. Contemporary hardware can store approximately two million forwarding entries in IPv4, IPV6, and MPLS forwarding tables. The design of those forwarding engines has been driven by two thoughts:
Firstly, a single forwarding entry can consume a large amount of traffic. A single prefix may even consume the entire bandwidth of a link. Today, this continues to be a true assumption, as content delivery networks (CDNs), and Web 2.0 companies, attract a large part of internet traffic to only a few IP prefixes.
Secondly, all forwarding entries may carry the full link bandwidth. This is clearly invalid today. Like all “organic” systems, the internet shows an exponential distribution for its “traffic-per-prefix” curve, which means that the chip design for data forwarding must be radically revised. Rather than treating each IP forwarding entry equally, a memory cache hierarchy is much more practical. This is comparable to today’s computer designs: a tiered memory hierarchy with Level-1, Level-2, and Level-3 memory, at varying speeds and cost.
Modern IP routers still work at only one storage level, on the assumption that every forwarding entry must be fast. However, analysis of the real backbone traffic data shows that this is no longer the case. In fact, the forwarding tables are now 10 times oversized for practical use. The good news is that the hardware can be easily optimized. Customers only need to clearly articulate what is needed so that the next generation of forwarding hardware can be adapted accordingly. Network software, on the other hand, is a different class of problem.
It is difficult to say which software functions are actually redundant and which not, since these depend on the individual needs of a telecommunications company. Over time, manufacturers have developed a wide range of features at the request of network operators and added them directly into the code. However, this procedure makes it impossible to deactivate certain functions after implementation. This can quickly become a cost factor as network operators have to pay for these features even when they are not being used. At the same time, when a new function is introduced, interference tests must be carried out every time for all existing functions – even for those that are not required.
The reason for this is that the software for the router was previously programmed as a monolithic system, whereby new functions were closely linked to the underlying infrastructure. The removal of such functions from the code base can be as complex as their original development. At the same time, the hurdle for a functional expansion increases with each new feature.
In today’s highly competitive telecommunications market, however, service providers rely on their systems being agile, easy to maintain, tailored to their needs and those of their customers. As such, router system manufacturers have to take a new, more cost-effective approach that enables network operators to flexibly and smoothly manage, update and if necessary, remove functions.
The solution: Disaggregated Systems, Distributed SDNs & Modular Code
Disaggregation of hardware and software allows network operators to choose between different bare metal switches and validated network software. They can take advantage of the latest chip generations and thereby strengthen their innovation potential. However, this means that the responsibility for function management lies entirely with network operators. A distributed software-defined network (SDN) offers the ideal conditions for this. It combines the advantages of SDN with the benefits of a distributed control level and thus enables smooth management of the software.
To ensure that functions can be added and removed smoothly, the code should be structured in such a way that it can be put together from individual blocks of code, so called “composable” code. These should be able to be swapped or removed again as needed, with no interdependencies between the blocks. A “cloud-native” design like this brings many advantages, with independent micro services deployed and running in containers. If a new function or an update is required, a corresponding container is supplied by the software developer, which updates or adds the respective feature within milliseconds, without interrupting the service. This way, route processing, updating, and restarting are 20 times faster than with conventional router operating systems. If open interfaces are also available, network operators can even develop and implement their own functions.
Traditional routers and dynamic control systems are challenged by new concepts such as disaggregation and distributed SDNs. They are promising significantly faster implementation, automated control, and a shorter time to market. For future router designs to meet these challenges, fundamentally new router hardware and software must be developed, and modern software architectures and paradigms introduced. | <urn:uuid:62e72320-62b8-4f65-81ca-3c95b68c22ef> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.capacitymedia.com/article/29otckqx2h8okpvxno64g/blog/the-end-of-the-router-as-we-know-it | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335059.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928020513-20220928050513-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.950532 | 1,370 | 2.890625 | 3 |
In cryptography, PKCS#11 is one of the Public-Key Cryptography Standards, and also refers to the programming interface to create and manipulate cryptographic tokens.
The PKCS#11 standard was first developed by the RSA Laboratories in cooperation with representatives from industry, science, and governments, is now an open standard lead-managed by the OASIS PKCS#11 Technical Committee.
The PKCS #11 standard defines a platform-independent API to cryptographic tokens, such as cryptographic accelerators called a Hardware Security Modules (HSM), smart cards, and names the API itself “Cryptoki” (from “cryptographic token interface” and pronounced as “crypto-key” – but “PKCS #11” is often used to refer to the API as well as the standard that defines it). The API includes functions such as RC2, RC4, RC5, MD5, SHA-1, DES, triple-DES, IDEA, RSA, DSA, MAC computation, and key generation for a wide variety of cryptographic algorithms.
The API defines most commonly used cryptographic object types (RSA keys, X.509 Certificates, DES/Triple DES keys, etc.) and all the functions needed to use, create/generate, modify and delete those objects.
To facilitate the integration of native PKCS#11 tokens into the Java Card platform, a new cryptographic provider, the Sun PKCS#11 provider, has been introduced into the J2SE 5.0 release. This new provider enables existing applications written to the JCA and JCE APIs to access native PKCS#11 tokens. No modifications to the application are required. The only requirement is the proper configuration of the provider into the Java Runtime. | <urn:uuid:f76becac-f1f3-437e-aeb2-f615bc15df11> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cardlogix.com/glossary/pkcs-11-public-key-cryptography-standards/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930181143-20220930211143-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.917796 | 363 | 2.75 | 3 |
Personal Cyber Security 101: A Beginner's Guide to Internet Safety
Cyber safety best practices
Cyber security is critical for businesses and their employees, but it’s also extremely important for individuals in their daily lives outside of work.
You should follow cyber security best practices on all of your personal accounts and devices, and whenever you go online, you should do so with the recommended safety precautions in mind. Cyber risk management only adds a few steps and considerations to your Internet usage, and it’s well worth it to prevent the emotional and financial toll of cyber attacks.
In order to feel confident every time you log on, you should educate yourself and everyone in your household on the basics of personal cyber security. Here’s what you need to know about staying safe online.
What is cyber security?
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) defines cyber security as “the art of protecting networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use and the practice of ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.”
A vast majority of modern life relies on computers, smartphones, and the Internet, including communication, work, medicine, transportation, entertainment, and shopping. On top of that, a lot of our personal data is stored on our devices and online, from bank accounts to medical records to Social Security numbers.
This digitization of daily life has increased rapidly in the last few years since the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, as have cyber threats. Cyber criminals are discovering more and more ways to exploit vulnerabilities and attack businesses and individuals, which is why it’s more important than ever to equip yourself with knowledge and stay one step ahead with protecting yourself.
Risks of poor cyber security
While it’s appealing to think, “A cyber attack could never happen to me,” and take a passive role in your security — the truth is that anyone can be targeted by a cyber criminal. It doesn’t matter your financial situation. If a hacker sees a weak point in your digital footprint, they can and will exploit it.
The costs of poor cyber security can be high. Your identity or credit card could be stolen, or you could lose money, have personal files or information stolen, have malware installed on your devices, have personal details leaked, or have an attacker use your accounts or devices to commit other attacks.
No matter what a criminal targets, a cyber attack can cost you in time and emotional energy if not money as well. Additionally, it can rob you of your peace of mind and can undermine your confidence in using the Internet, an increasingly necessary tool in our digital era.
Main cyber security threats facing individuals
Here’s some good news: cyber attackers most often target individuals in known ways, meaning there are common ways to prevent them and warning signs to look out for.
Here are some of the primary cyber threats facing individuals and how to prevent and spot them:
- Phishing and smishing: These types of attacks are commonly leveraged against individuals. “Phishing” refers to when criminals use emails or malicious website links to steal personal information. An attacker may send emails that appear to come from a reputable financial institution and that prompt the recipient to log in or provide account information, typically suggesting that there is some sort of problem with the account that the user needs to address. When the victim responds with their login or personal information, the attacker can use it to gain access to accounts and commit identity or credit card fraud. “Smishing” is a similar type of attack, but it’s carried out via SMS or text message rather than email.
- Malware: Sometimes, instead of trying to gain account access, cyber criminals perpetrating phishing or smishing attacks will send malicious web links that appear legitimate but that install malware when clicked. There are many types of malware — this umbrella term refers to any type of malicious software — but attackers typically use it to steal personal data that they can leverage over their victims for financial gain.
- SIM swap attacks: SIM swapping happens when criminals use one of a few methods to trick a victim’s cell phone provider into switching their number to a SIM card in their possession. Once they’ve done this, the criminal can then easily access any account that uses phone call or SMS verification.
- Credit card fraud: Credit card fraud occurs when criminals fraudulently access an individual’s credit card information to make purchases or steal funds. Cyber criminals can steal credit card information without physical access to the card, and they typically do this when information is leaked in data breaches or when people access their accounts on public or unsecured Wi-Fi networks.
Internet safety tips
The good news is that it actually doesn’t take too much effort to increase your cyber security. It’s mainly just about being informed and aware. Following are the top tips for individuals to stay safe when they go online:
Be smart with your digital wallet
You should protect your digital wallet in the same way you do your physical one, but the threats are slightly different and more complex when it comes to digital credit cards and online bank accounts.
First off, any device on which you can access your e-wallet should have multiple layers of strong authentication — ideally at least one of which is based on biometrics.
Beyond that, never leave your smartphone unattended and never use your digital wallet, make online purchases, or log into bank accounts on public or unsecured Wi-Fi. On all mobile apps or sites on which you save your card information, use unique passwords and implement multiple layers of authentication when possible. Take a look at the permissions on your social media accounts, which may — unknown to you — have access to your financial information.
Finally, keep an eye out for data breaches, especially those that affect companies that may have your credit card details stored digitally. If a business that has your financial information is hacked, then your credit card information could be leaked, so it’s worth your while to stay informed as well as to change your passwords and monitor your account activity any time you become aware of a breach.
Implement strong authentication on accounts
In addition to protecting your digital wallet, you should implement multiple layers of strong authentication on all accounts and devices you use.
But keep in mind: Not all authentication is created equal. Whenever you have the option, choose biometric or app-based authentication, and always use strong, unique passwords. Avoid phone- and SMS-based authentication, as these can easily be targeted by SIM swap fraud. If you choose to add security questions on an account, be sure that you don’t post any revealing information online that could help criminals guess the answers.
Use good password hygiene
Strong and unique passwords are important. While it may seem over-the-top to use different, complicated passwords for every single account, especially with the many accounts most people have, it’s a worthwhile precaution to take. Reusing passwords makes it all too easy for cyber criminals to access multiple accounts if they target you, making it that much more likely that they’ll make away with money or personal information.
While it may be tempting to save all those unique, complex passwords on your device or browser so that you don’t have to remember them, this is also not a great idea, because devices can be stolen. You’re better off using a password manager — but even these have their own vulnerabilities, which is why always adding multiple layers of authentication is so important.
Finally, always change passwords when notified of a breach, and make a habit of updating passwords every few months. Cyber security is all about being proactive, and these up-front investments in digital protection will pay off in the long run.
Think twice before you post online
Be careful what types of personal info you post on social media. Make sure you’re never posting information that could compromise any of your accounts — such as information that may help a cyber criminal answer your security questions. Even if your accounts are private, the internet is a public domain, and hackers have been known to access social media accounts through a variety of means.
Beware of scams
Be careful what you click on.
If a message seems too good to be true — like an alert that you’ve won sweepstakes you didn’t enter, an offer for a free vacation, or an easy-money scheme — it’s likely a scam. Even clicking a fraudulent link can be dangerous due to malware, so exercise caution. Better safe than sorry.
Additionally, look out for the warning signs of phishing and smishing, in which cyber criminals pose as a legitimate organization. Pay attention to the email addresses you receive messages from, the grammar in messages you receive, the URLs of links sent, and other similar details. If anything seems off, do not click links. And if you want to be as cautious as possible, then make a habit of always logging onto all accounts by going directly to the website you want to access rather than clicking through and logging on via links sent through email or text.
Look out for malware
Know the warning signs of malware so you can spot it if any of your devices are compromised. Here’s what to watch for:
- Your device slows down significantly or freezes
- Your device crashes or restarts itself abnormally
- You get locked out from logging on
- Your device suddenly has less available storage space
- Your antivirus software is disabled
- Your email or social media accounts are sending strange messages to contacts
- You receive unusual error messages
- You’re interrupted by frequent pop-ups
- You notice new icons or apps that you didn’t download
Back up data
Back up all of your data to the cloud to protect it in case of an attack. This way, if you are the victim of malware or if your device or accounts are otherwise compromised, you will still have access to your files and personal information. Take note: all backed-up data should be encrypted, and ideally stored in a decentralized network.
Monitor online accounts
Even if you’re taking all the above precautions, you should keep an eye on all account activity and credit reports, just in case. In the case that you are the victim of a cyber attack, the sooner you realize it, the sooner you can take action to protect yourself. | <urn:uuid:6acfdb49-3ed9-4dc8-ac25-3ab02964e50d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blog.ironvest.com/personal-cyber-security-101-a-beginners-guide-to-internet-safety | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.927008 | 2,155 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Multi-factor authentication, or MFA, is a type of account access security that requires users to verify their identity in two or more ways to be able to sign in. This is much more secure than the traditional sign-on approach that only requires one method of authentication—usually a password.
Employees often manage up to hundreds of separate corporate accounts, from communication tools to the applications they use to actually to their jobs. Because of this, a lot of people tend to be guilty of using the same password for multiple accounts, or using a weak or memorable phrase to make it easier to keep on top of. Recent studies have consistently found “password”, “qwerty” and “123456” to be amongst the most common passwords, with sports, names and foods also being popular choices. Unfortunately, this means that hackers can easily gain access to an account, either by trying common passwords or doing a little digging into the user’s background to make a more educated guess, or through carrying out more sophisticated phishing attacks. In these attacks, the bad actor sends an email posing as a trustworthy source to trick the user into giving away sensitive or confidential information. Once they’ve cracked the password, the hacker can access critical company data and use this to carry out further malicious exploits, such as business email compromise (BEC) attacks, or spreading malware.
MFA eliminates this risk by asking the user for further proof of identity. This means that, even if a hacker discovers a user’s password, they won’t be able to get into the account because it’s protected by a second layer of security. There are three main methods of verification used in MFA after a user has entered their login credentials. These involve something the user knows, something they have, or something they are.
In this article, we’ll cover these three types of authentication in more detail, exploring how they work and giving examples for each one.
Something You Know
The first method of authentication is called knowledge-based authentication (KBA), and involves something the user knows. This could be a second password, a PIN, or the answer to a security question. Security questions and their static answers are usually set up when the user creates the account. They’re also often used as a means of account recovery, to verify a user’s identity if they’ve forgotten their password.
Dynamic KBA is more secure than static KBA. In this authentication method, the security questions are generated in real-time and based on data records that are regularly updated, like credit transactions. This makes it more difficult for a hacker to find out the answer to the questions, as they’ll need access to the database that the questions are generated from. With static KBA, the hacker may only need to find out the name of the user’s pet.
Something You Have
The second method of authentication is via something that the user has. This could be an object such as a key or a smartcard, that lets the user into a physical location. However, for digital accounts, it usually involves a token that generates a one-time password (OTP). There are three types of token authentication that are the most commonly used, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses:
- SMS token authentication is when the organization sends a PIN number to a user via a text message. The user then enters the PIN as a OTP to gain access to their account. This is particularly useful for organizations whose employees often need to access their accounts from a cellphone, either because they work off-site or have to travel as a part of their role. However, it doesn’t only work for employees on the go—users can also receive SMS tokens to access accounts via a desktop. It’s easy to implement, but has the drawback that the user must have them phone on them for it to work. It’s also possible for hackers to use powerful cellphone tracking software to tap into a user’s phone and monitor that user’s mobile activity without them knowing. This includes having their text messages sent directly to the attacker.
- Email token authentication works similarly to SMS authentication, in that a PIN is sent to the user’s email address. This provides a slightly more secure layer of protection than SMS token authentication, because the user has to log in to their email account to access the OTP—although this does mean that it takes the use longer to access the account they’re trying to log in to. Email token authentication also means that organizations don’t have to rely on the employee having their phone on them; users can access the OTP from any device that can receive emails.
- Software token authentication requires the user to verify their identity via an app on a smartphone or tablet. When prompted for their OTP, the user opens the app, which gives them a time-restricted PIN to enter. Most authenticator apps generate a new PIN every minute, which means that it’s much harder for a hacker to retrieve this information than an SMS token. The only downfall of this authentication method is that it relies on the user having a smart device to install the app. Personal devices tend to have fewer security measures in place, so this introduces a risk to enterprise accounts should the device be lost, stolen or hacked. One way to get around this is to make sure that employees only access their accounts though corporate-issued devices, but this can be an expensive solution that not all businesses can afford. Another solution is to make sure that the organization has a record of every employee using a personal device to sign in to any corporate accounts (including messaging apps like Teams). Android and iOS smartphones include a work profile feature that separates personal and corporate apps. The organization manages the corporate-use apps, while the employee’s personal apps remain private. It also ensures that personal apps like WhatsApp can’t retrieve data from apps in the device’s work profile.
Something You Are
Last, but certainly not least, we have biometric authentication, which is based on something that the user is. This is the most secure authentication method because it’s the most difficult type of data for a hacker to steal; finding out the names of someone’s relatives only takes a quick search of their social media profile, but you’d need to be a lot more savvy in your thievery to steal their fingerprints or a scan of their retina without them noticing!
For biometric authentication to work, the user needs to own a smart device or computer that allows for biometric scanning. This could be a fingerprint scanner, or voice or facial recognition capabilities. A lot of modern smart devices have these built in, like asking a user to scan their fingerprint to unlock the device or enter saved financial information for online shopping. This means that most users are already used to using this type of technology. Some, though, won’t be, so it’s important to make sure that your employees are comfortable with using their biometric data to sign in.
You also need to be aware of how your employees’ data is being stored and protected. Some smart devices only store biometric data in the device itself. This means that, if the personal device is stolen, a hacker could crack the biometric controls by guessing the device’s password and adding their own fingerprint to it. If your organization is issuing corporate devices to mitigate that risk, you need to be able to ensure complete security of your employees’ sensitive data to help reassure anyone that is wary of having it stored in a database (and potentially stolen).
Biometric authentication is quicker than having to wait for a code to be sent or generated and the user doesn’t have to remember any pesky passwords. However, as with software token authentication, this method requires the user to have an up-to-date smart device that either has the technology built in or the capability to download a biometric authenticator app.
Each of these types of authentication have their own strengths, and some are better suited to certain industries than others. SMS token authentication, for example, works for just about any user and is easy to roll out across large numbers of users, but isn’t as secure as biometric authentication. Biometric authentication is the most secure, but it also requires the organization to have tighter security measures in place to protect its employees’ sensitive information. It’s important that you consider the security risks facing your organization, and use this information to help you decide the level of MFA needed to protect your network.
That might sound a little complicated, but worry not – we’ve put together a comparison of the best multi-factor authentication solutions on the market to help you get started. | <urn:uuid:22c74e73-5227-4fbb-96b8-e4360887fd35> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://expertinsights.com/insights/what-are-the-3-types-of-multi-factor-authentication/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.949939 | 1,812 | 3.5 | 4 |
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has been recognized by NASA with two awards for its exceptional work on the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) plant growth system, which is currently bringing more fresh food and advanced plant physiology research to space on the International Space Station (ISS).
The prestigious awards include the Exceptional Public Achievement medal honoring two individuals and a group NASA certificate for SNC’s significant team contributions to NASA’s mission:
- The Exceptional Public Achievement medal was awarded to two key SNC engineers, Gil Tellez and Matt DeMars.
- The award commends high-quality, innovative approaches that significantly or substantially improve operations, resulting in the advancement of the agency’s goals.
- The NASA group certificate was given to a select number of SNC engineers, support staff and management for quality results, customer satisfaction, effective management and development of innovative work.
- Awardees included Adam Anderson, Mike Bourget, Matt DeMars, Jim Harris, Robert Morrow, Robert Richter, Gil Tellez, Sarah Waddill and Russ Wallace.
(Learn More from researchers Robert Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul of the University of Florida, about the Advanced Plant experiments on the International Space Station in which they have already learned a great deal—and gotten some interesting surprises—about how plants grow in space. The ability to grow food in space will be very important to support future missions beyond low Earth orbit into deep space. Courtesy of NASA Johnson and YouTube)
Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) Plant Growth System
“Knowing how to grow fresh food and plants to process air and water for life support is critical to the future of humans being able to live in space for long periods of time,” said Tom Crabb, vice president of SNC’s ORBITEC business unit, a part of SNC’s Space Systems.
“We are delighted to help create the technology that makes future human spaceflight more cost effective.”
The APH provide the environmental conditions to grow plants in microgravity, test new technologies and conduct controlled science experiments, which are expected to be key in making agriculture and fresh food more prominent in extended space exploration.
Information and technology from APH are also being used in other space biology experiments, where specific growing conditions are beneficial or required.
The system is the next generation of biological systems, the largest of its kind, providing long-duration plant science capabilities.
It’s self-contained and automated, which significantly reduces the required crew time to grow plants and ideally will lead to a more reliable and fruitful crop at harvest.
The plant habitat is about the size of a small kitchen oven with precise controls of the shoot and root environments and the system easily integrates into existing ISS infrastructure for sustainable operations.
How it Works
- The APH closely controls and regulates parameters such as temperature, humidity, light levels, photoperiods, moisture provided to specimens, CO2 levels, ethylene levels and air flow.
- The APH system uses red, blue, green and a broad spectrum of white LED lights.
- Among other plants, Arabidopsis seeds will be grown, which are small flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard. Changes in this plant type are easily observed, making it a very useful model.
- Data gathered from 180 sensors within the habitat will be relayed back in-real time to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
- Images from three cameras will be available for periodic photographs.
- APH will provide a trove of other data for bioscience research.
“We’ve always known that SNC is home to many very talented employees doing innovative and excellent work,” said Fatih Ozmen, owner and CEO of SNC.
“It’s a great honor to have NASA recognize them as well. I couldn’t be more proud of the team and their dedication to the future of space.
“APH is a perfect example of SNC leading the future of space exploration,”
The APH is a first-of-its-kind, enclosed plant growth system and environmentally controlled chamber.
SNC worked with NASA engineers to develop the equipment, which arrived on the ISS earlier this year, and expects to have its first plant test aboard the station this fall.
“Our team is truly doing incredible science with plant growth in space,” said Tom Crabb, vice president of SNC’s Propulsion and Environmental Systems business unit.
“It’s exciting enough for us just to be doing the work, so any extra recognition is truly an honor.”
Engineers from SNC’s ORBITEC, located in Madison, Wisconsin, spent nearly five years on APH, refining technologies with KSC and honing in on a design that would allow the system to be treated like a plug-and-play unit and comprise of subsystems that could be easily removed and replaced.
(Learn More, courtesy of NASA and YouTube)
The APH award ceremony was held August 24 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Recognized as one of “The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Space,” Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) provides customer-focused advanced technology solutions in the areas of space, aviation, electronics and systems integration. | <urn:uuid:4f141058-6acb-4676-a46a-087748d396cc> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://americansecuritytoday.com/snc-wins-nasa-awards-adv-plant-habitat-learn-multi-video/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337415.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003101805-20221003131805-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.926306 | 1,114 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Fibre Channel is the name given to a set of standards that define mechanisms for connecting network nodes using serial communication over copper or optical cable. Fibre Channel standards were developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to overcome the shortcomings of the current SCSI infrastructure, and are used to provide high-speed connections between servers and storage devices. In current implementations, Fibre Channel is able to provide speeds of up to 2Gbps with 4Gbps on the horizon.
Fibre Channel speeds can be attributed to the fact that it is able to communicate with other network systems using channel technology. This means that using Fibre Channel a point-to-point connection can be established between two devices creating a fast, low overhead connection.
While Fibre Channel is most often associated with fiber optic media, traditional copper media such as twisted pair can be used for smaller network implementations. However, using Fibre Channel over copper introduces the same old shortcomings of the media including short transmission distances (30 meters depending on the exact cable), and susceptibility to EMI.
While copper based media may be suited for some environments, fiber optic cable is the media of choice for larger storage network implementations using Fibre Channel. Fiber optic cable is categorized by its diameter, which is measured in microns, and by its ‘mode’. There are two modes of cable; single mode can carry a single signal at a time, while multimode is able to carry more than one signal by bouncing the signal against the sides of the glass core of the cable. The accepted standards and ratings for Fibre Channel over fiber optic cable are 175 meters over Multimode 62.5 micron cable, 500 meters over a multimode 50 micron cable and 10 kilometers over 9 micron single mode cable.
In practical terms, what the fibre channel standards define is a mechanism for the transmission of SCSI, IP and other types of data between two devices. This mechanism allows the data to be transported between two devices without being manipulated or translated between formats.
What about SCSI?
Given that in a networked storage scenario Fibre Channel is used to transport SCSI data, many people question why Fibre Channel is needed. After all, SCSI has served us admirably over the years. The problem with SCSI has always been it its distance limitations. SCSI’s 25 meter transmission range is far short of the 10,000 meters offered by Fibre Channel and precludes it from being used in many storage area network applications. In fact, Fibre Channels 10,000 meter limit can be extended to 100 kilometers using special optic transceivers leaving SCSI way behind.
Though the distance capability of Fibre Channel are impressive, Fibre Channel originally operated at speeds no faster than SCSI 3, which meant that the real value of Fibre Channel in storage area networks was the distance benefit, not the speed. Times have changed for Fibre Channel and with speeds now offered in the 2GB range, both the speed and performance of Fibre Channel outstrip SCSI.
If that weren’t enough, SCSI 3 is limited to 16 devices per channel, While Fibre Channel can support up to 126 devices per loop, and millions of nodes in a switched fabric. We’ll talk more about switched fabrics and loops in Part Two of this article.
The other big difference is the way in which Fibre Channel treats the SCSI data that travels across it. Traditional SCSI is parallel, i.e. data travels in along the cable in parallel wires (that’s why SCSI cables have 50 or 68 wires). Fibre Channel transports the data in Series, that is one bit behind the other.
Fibre Channel Standards
There are five layers to the Fibre Channel standard. Each layer is responsible for a certain set of functions or capabilities. In a sense it’s a little like the OSI model (except that the OSI model has seven layers, not five) in that each layer in the model is reliant on the layer directly above or below for performing certain functions. The layers are numbered FC-0 to FC-4 from bottom to top. The following is a very brief explanation of the standards and their function.
- FC-0 – Physical Layer : This layer defines cabling, connectors and the signaling that controls the data. Performs a very similar function to the OSI physical layer.
- FC-1 – Transmission Protocol Layer : This layer is responsible for things such as error detection, maintenance of links and data synchronization.
- FC-2 – Framing and Signaling Protocol Layer : This layer is responsible for segmentation and reassembly of data packets that are sent and received by the device. Sequencing and flow control are also performed at this layer.
- FC-3 – Common Services Layer : This layer provides services such as multi-casting and striping.
- FC-4 – Upper Layer Protocol Mapping Layer : This layer provides the communication point between upper layer protocols (such as SCSI) and the lower FC layers. The FC-4 layer makes it possible for more than SCSI data to travel over a Fibre Channel link.
By conforming to the layer format, products and applications that perform at one layer can be automatically compatible with products and applications that reside at another layer.
InfiniBand (IB) has emerged as a formidable contender to Fibre Channel technologies and their associated products. However, IB is a nascent technology, and though it offers increased I/O speeds, the products associated with it are immature. That being said, some companies such as Mellanox Technologies appear to be leading this connectivity paradigm that could significantly cut into the Fibre Channel market in the future.
SCSI 3 has not outlived its usefulness, though, and since it offers considerable cost savings over Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel is only appropriate if SCSI 3 bus storage technologies will not suffice. Today Fibre Channel drives are more expensive than SCSI drives, but as Fibre Channel drives decrease in price, it is expected that the SCSI drive market share to migrate to Fibre Channel drives.
In Part Two….
In the next part of this look at Fibre Channel, we look at Fibre channel implementation considerations such as topologies, switches and port types. | <urn:uuid:6c0d92cb-3493-43f6-8b4a-a48ba7d12780> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/hardware/storage-basics-fibre-channel/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337415.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003101805-20221003131805-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.932859 | 1,297 | 3.984375 | 4 |
Passwords. The bane of modern existence. To celebrate this nuisance, the holiday gods have given us World Password Day, where thousands of people come together online and pledge to improve their password habits. How many of those pledges do you think stick? According to the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, not many. A little over 50 percent of all breaches in the last year leveraged either stolen or weak passwords.
Current state of affairsAccording to a poll by Intel Security, the average person has 27 discrete online logins. From social media accounts to banking to online shopping to utilities, credentials—which usually include a username and password—are required for each. And if people are practicing good password hygiene, they’re engaging in the following recommended practices:
- DO: Use a different password for each account.
- DO: Use a long password. In fact, the longer, the better.
- DO: Use special characters, numbers, and capital letters.
- DO: Change your passwords every couple of months.
- DO NOT: Write down your password, whether that’s on a piece of paper or stored electronically.
- DO NOT: Share passwords via text, email, or chat.
- DO NOT: Use easily identifiable information, such as a birthday or a child’s name.
- DO NOT: Use an incredibly generic password such as 12345. (That’s the combination an idiot would use on his luggage.)
This level of discontent and security fatigue means that very likely, most users are falling back on bad habits: writing passwords down in a notebook or a Google Docs sheet, for example, or using the same password across multiple logins. (A study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology confirms this: 91 percent of its respondents admitted to reusing passwords.)
So this is why we say: stop it. Stop the bad habits, yes, but stop the “good” ones, too. Having 27 different passwords that are lengthy and full of characters and numbers and need to be changed every few months and can’t be written down—you’d need the memory of an eidetic elephant to keep up. Online services will only multiply, so what should you do?
It’s very simple. Get a password manager.
Password manager 101For those who might not be familiar, password managers assist in generating, storing, and retrieving passwords from an encrypted database. They typically require that users create and remember one master password to rule them all. One master password to find them. One master password to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
One master password to stand at the precipice and shout gallantly, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”
Sorry, it couldn’t be helped. As we were saying. Generally, most password managers work the same way. You’ll be asked to create a strong master password during setup (and here’s where you’ll use those password best practices, such as generating a long passphrase with numbers and capitals that steers away from guessable personal info). From there, you’ll add your other credentials to the password manager either manually or through tools that can automatically find and upload passwords for you.
While most password managers have similar setups, they secure passwords in different ways. Web-based password managers store your passwords encrypted in the cloud. Some are built into browsers, such as Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. Others may store your passwords locally in an encrypted file on your computer, tablet, or phone.
In addition, some password managers have features that help you audit your credentials, allowing you to weed out duplicate login info and remove sites you don’t use, or alerting you to breaches that have happened to the companies you log into. Many have customizations that allow increased security, such as regional lockout and two-factor authentication (which we highly recommend taking advantage of).
But aren’t I just asking to be hacked?While some folks might be wary of using a single point of access for all their sites, remember that password managers still use your individual passwords to log in to your accounts. Those passwords are locked in an encrypted database, which is way more secure than a post-it on your office desk or a faulty memory. Ask yourself this: is it safer to store all your money in one bank or to hide it in piles underneath several mattresses?
As for fear of password managers being breached—sure, it’s possible. In fact, it’s already happened, as was the case in 2015 when LastPass was breached. However, even though cybercriminals got their hands on some email addresses, they were unable to crack master passwords. This is because master passwords are protected with military-grade security, hidden behind thousands of rounds of hashing, or algorithms that convert strings of text into longer strings of text. So far, no reputable password manager has leaked consumer master passwords (that we know of).
So which password manager should I use?The following password managers come highly recommended by our staff and tech reviewers from The New York Times, Lifehacker, and PCMag: third-party apps with all of your personal information, you can try an open-source password manager such as KeePassX, though it requires a fair bit of technical know-how to set up.
I am absolutely opposed to a password manager. What else can I do?While we stand by our recommendation to use password managers, we understand the urge to reject placing all your trust in the hands of another company. So here are a few alternate methods for choosing more secure passwords than the random hodgepodge you’re likely working with now.
- Split up your online services into major groups, such as bills, entertainment, shopping, and social media. Assign a single theme to each group, and create passwords for each service related to that theme. For example, you could choose movies as your theme and assign quotes from one movie to one group, or character names from a second movie to the second group. Rotate these passwords every 90 days by incrementally adding a number or changing a character. This requires a lot more effort but is still preferable to using the same password across all accounts or having to reset forgotten passwords every week.
- Choose one semi-difficult password for all accounts but insert a naming convention in the middle of the password to denote which account you are signing into. For example, if your password is L3tme1npleaz, your Gmail password could be L3tme1nGMAILpleaz. Your Amazon password could be L3tme1nAMAZONpleaz, and so on and so forth. (Please don't use these examples.)
- When possible, choose a service that has two-factor authentication over one that does not. More than 150 applications currently implement two-factor authentication. You can check out which ones do here.
Do you have a favorite password manager? Or a method for creating and remembering unique passwords? Let us know in the comments below. | <urn:uuid:6b3530f9-a9be-4250-bae3-603a12b5761b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2017/05/dont-need-27-different-passwords | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337524.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004184523-20221004214523-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.934664 | 1,462 | 2.953125 | 3 |
New research has found plant-eaters with a taste for processed foods are more susceptible to depression than peers with diets high in fresh produce.
Megan Lee, a researcher in nutritional psychiatry at Bond University, said the findings were significant given the increasing popularity of vegan and vegetarian lifestyles and the proliferation of packaged foods targeting those markets.
“There is a general perception that following a plant-based diet is inherently healthy but like any diet it comes down to what you put in your mouth,” said Dr. Lee, the lead author of the study.
“Vegans and vegetarians are not automatically eating heaps of fruit and veg because there are all these products out there that are fully processed, fully refined.
For the study, researchers examined the diet quality and mental health of 219 vegans and vegetarians in Australia.
Those with diets high in fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and whole grains were found to be at lower risk of depression compared to fellow vegans and vegetarians with low quality diets.
Dr. Lee said the protective effect of a high-quality plant-based diet was likely due to the presence of complex carbohydrates, fiber, probiotics and antioxidants which have all been found to decrease symptoms of depression.
But she said the research indicated switching to a high-quality plant-based diet was not a “cure” for those already experiencing depression.
“It seems to have more a protective role,” she said. “Our research did not find that a plant-based diet was a treatment or fix for those who were already depressed.”
Vegans and vegetarians are already more vulnerable to depression than the general population.
Dr. Lee said this could be due to their outlook on life and that they are generally a younger cohort which is already more susceptible to mental health issues.
“We think this (susceptibility to depression) might be because vegans and vegetarians tend to be more conscious about external issues – animal welfare, environmental concerns – and they can be ostracized socially because of their choice of diet.”
Participants in the study were aged 18 – 44 which closely corresponds with the 15 – 44 age group for which suicide is the leading cause of death in Australia. Almost 14 percent of people in this age group report experiencing symptoms of depression.
The research also holds good news for meat-eaters looking to protect their mental health.
More than 2.5 million Australians have chosen to go meat-free – about 12 percent of the total population.
Over 300 million people globally experience symptoms of depression.1 Mood disorders, including depression, are significant predictors of suicide and suicidal ideation and are responsible for over 800 000 global suicide-related deaths per year.1 In Australia, 1 in 10 people (10.4%) report experiencing symptoms of depression. In younger adults, the prevalence rate of depression is higher at 13.9%, with suicide the leading cause of death for individuals aged 15–44.2
The most common treatments for depression are pharmacology and psychotherapy. However, approximately one-third of patients do not respond to conventional treatments and can develop treatment-resistant depression.3 Increasingly, lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise have been shown to impact symptoms of depression positively and could be both a cost-effective and modifiable adjunct treatment to current traditional treatment options.4
Both poor diet and mood disorders are known leading causes of morbidity and mortality.5 6 Diet quality is ‘The nutritional adequacy of an individual’s dietary pattern and how closely this aligns with (Australian) national dietary guidelines’.7 However, there is confusion surrounding the term ‘diet quality’ with minimal agreement on a valid diet quality measurement.8
Dietary patterns include the variety and quality of foods and beverages in a diet and the quantity and frequency they are habitually consumed.9 Dietary patterns are most often evaluated based on their inclusion or exclusion of healthy and unhealthy foods and beverages. Healthy dietary patterns, including traditional and Mediterranean diets, are loosely defined as a healthy intake of fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, water, lean meats and dairy.10 11
Plant-based dietary patterns are commonly divided into two main categories, vegan and vegetarian, with several subcategories low in animal food consumption.12 As such, a healthy plant-based dietary pattern is characterised by high consumption of fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains and water, but may omit lean meats and dairy.13 14
Conversely, unhealthy dietary patterns are characteristic of a large consumption of ultraprocessed, refined and sugary foods, despite the inclusion or exclusion of animal-based products.15–18 In Australia, there has been a surge of people choosing to follow plant-based lifestyles with over 2.5 million Australians choosing to go meat-free. This equates to 12% of the total population, with the largest proportion of plant-based dieters being young adults between 18 and 45.19
Dietary intervention studies highlight healthy dietary patterns rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and legumes as promising in reducing symptoms of depression.4 20 However, the evidence of the association between plant-based dietary patterns and depression is inconsistent and conflicting.21 Some studies suggest that plant-based diets (PBD) are associated with improved mood and mental health.22
Others suggest that PBDs are associated with a greater risk of depressive symptoms,23 24 while others find no relationship.25–27 A meta-analysis of 13 studies by Iguacel et al 28 found that vegans and vegetarians were at increased risk of depression (OR=2.14, 95% CI: 1.11 to 4.15). Another systematic review and meta-analysis of ten observational studies by Askari et al 29 found no association between those who consumed a vegetarian diet and depression symptoms (pooled effect size: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.84 to 1.25).
While a narrative review of 19 studies by Jain et al.30 found conflicting information, some studies suggesting that those who adhered to vegan and vegetarian dietary patterns had higher depression rates, while others indicated they were associated with decreased depressive symptoms. Other primary research studies suggest that young adult vegetarians are at higher risk of depression31 and suicide32 than omnivores in the same age group.
The reasons for these conflicting findings are not yet fully understood but may be due to the lack of heterogeneity of the measurement of dietary patterns (self-report), and that quality rather than dietary patterns needs to be further explored in this population.33
Indeed a recent meta-analysis showed an increased risk of depression in vegetarians,34 however, the interpretation of the findings is limited due to the lack of methodological clarity in vegetarian diets being of ‘low’ or ‘no’ meat consumption. As such, diet quality measures in PBD is critical for exploring the association between diet and mental health.
This study explores the association between vegan and vegetarian dietary patterns and depressive symptoms in adults by exploring the overall dietary quality of these patterns. The research hypothesises that a high-quality PBD is associated with a lower risk of depressive symptoms.
reference link : https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2021/10/28/bmjnph-2021-000332
Original Research: Open access.
“Plant-based dietary quality and depressive symptoms in Australian vegans and vegetarians: a cross-sectional study” by Megan Frances Lee et al. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health | <urn:uuid:09da204a-67b4-4924-ada4-ae0284a211e1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://debuglies.com/2021/11/21/vegetarians-who-eat-more-processed-foods-are-at-higher-risk-of-developing-depression/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.95207 | 1,580 | 3.125 | 3 |
As businesses adopt Artificial Intelligence in recruiting at an increasing rate, it’s critical that they know how to leverage the technology to mitigate bias rather than worsen it.
Despite signs of a recession, hiring is a key concern and a challenge for many industries, including hospitality, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics report, there are currently 10.7 million vacant jobs in the US. Talent teams must find ways to be more successful and efficient in the current environment.
Using Artificial Intelligence can help make the hiring process swift and efficient. Additionally,
AI can be an effective tool for exposing hidden hiring biases and igniting change, forcing companies to review their historical hiring data and improve their recruitment strategies.
Biased Hiring Trends
Because bias is the process of identifying patterns in data, data scientists will claim that all data is biased. Some bias is needed, such as the bias used to recommend job roles to individuals based on their desired location, interests, skills, and job title. When building algorithmic models, it is helpful to encourage biases that fulfill these preferences to match candidates with positions they are interested in and recruiters with the best candidates to fill open positions. Bias is advantageous here for both employers and job applicants.
However, social bias worries regulatory organizations and hiring teams. On the basis of age, gender, or other demographic characteristics, this bias rejects job candidates. Another example of social bias is a discriminating preference for individuals who attended particular institutions or listed certain former companies on their resumes.
Artificial Intelligence bases its predictions depending on the data it gets. Contrary to what might seem to be the case, bias is not produced by AI. AI merely amplifies the bias that is already inherent in a company’s historical data. This amplification of the pre-existing bias, if left unchecked, can limit diversity by favoring applicants with backgrounds similar to those of recent employees and excluding those who don’t fulfill those criteria.
While acknowledging that integrating AI doesn’t immediately address diversity or inclusion challenges, companies that are successful with it employ this technology to shed light on biased recruiting trends. Instead, it gives organizations insight into diversity gaps so they can take action to close them.
The Human Factor
The best strategy to deal with bias is to identify it before training the models. Before the hiring data is included in training sets or put into production, early exploratory data analysis aids in identifying and eliminating social bias.
Once a company begins utilizing Artificial Intelligence, it is crucial to track the progress of the technology by having a human in the loop—a team responsible for evaluating the AI’s output. Technical expertise is not required for this position. Any team member who is passionate about promoting diversity can learn how to look for biases.
The process can be as easy as scanning the company’s AI dashboard. Teams should assess the hiring suggestions made by the system against organizational standards. It’s a crucial step in ensuring that no demographic group is overrepresented or underrepresented. Engineering teams can modify models to achieve their objectives with the help of ‘human in the loop.’
The end users of a company also help to improve algorithmic models. A product manager should be consulted when recruiters discover signs of bias in the candidate suggestions they receive. A data scientist can then conduct additional research to determine what occurred and offer suggestions for how to prevent it from happening again.
Better Models through Continuous Improvement
Some businesses view Artificial Intelligence as an autonomous algorithm that they can set and forget. But AI constantly learns from the data, so it never stands still. Companies must approach AI as a continuous process. AI predictions generated by better-trained algorithmic models align with hiring objectives.
Organizations will be better prepared to benefit from AI in hiring processes if they have a thorough grasp of the connection between bias and data and a dedicated, diversity-minded team member. The time recruiters will have to devote to the high-level, human aspects of HR that no machine can replace will increase thanks to Artificial Intelligence. | <urn:uuid:b8d2cb68-9e9c-4271-b1af-8973d7d4afd7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://enterprisetalk.com/featured/how-companies-can-achieve-success-with-artificial-intelligence-in-hiring/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.939991 | 824 | 2.75 | 3 |
Researchers have identified a weakness in several encrypted mail applications, including GnuPG, Enigmail, and others, that lets a remote attacker spoof a signature on an encrypted message.
By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker could create a message that appears to have a valid digital signature but isn’t signed at all. The bug is the result of an issue with the way that some tools handle signature verification under certain circumstances. The researcher who discovered the vulnerability said it affects GnuPG, Enigmail, and GPGTools, all of which have issued patches for the bug.
Encrypted email systems use digital signatures as a way to verify that a given message actually came from the sender. This vulnerability means that recipients using vulnerable versions of these tools can’t necessarily trust that the messages they’ve received are authentic. In all cases, a successful attack relies on the user having verbose mode enabled, an option that isn’t enabled by default.
“The attacker can inject arbitrary (fake) GnuPG status messages into the application parser to spoof signature verification and message decryption results. The attacker can control the key ids, algorithm specifiers, creation times and user ids, and does not need any of the private or public keys involved,” Marcus Brinkmann, the researcher who discovered the bug, wrote in an explanation of a possible attack scenario.
“The only limitation is that all status messages need to fit into 255 characters, which is the limit for the ‘name of the encrypted file’ in OpenPGP.”
“The vulnerability in GnuPG goes deep and has the potential to affect a large part of our core infrastructure."
Brinkmann developed several proof-of-concept scenarios that he published in his advisory, some of which apply to Enigmail and some of which apply to GnuPG or GPGTools. He recommends that users check to make sure that they don’t have verbose mode enabled and upgrade to the fixed version of their app as soon as possible. One of the potential attacks on Enigmail can spoof both the signature and the encryption of the message itself.
“The attack is very powerful, and the message does not even need to be encrypted at all. A single literal data (aka “plaintext”) packet is a perfectly valid OpenPGP message, and already contains the “name of the encrypted file” used in the attack, even though there is no encryption. As a consequence, we can spoof the encryption as well,” Brinkmann said.
“But because we need to inject more status messages, we need to drop some information that is unused in the application to make more space for what is needed. We use a shorter version of VALIDSIG which is compatible with an older version of GnuPG that is still supported by Enigmail, and add just enough status messages to spoof an encrypted message for the signature.”
GnuPG is entrenched in a number of different applications and parts of the Internet’s inner workings, making this issue all the more problematic.
“The vulnerability in GnuPG goes deep and has the potential to affect a large part of our core infrastructure. GnuPG is not only used for email security, but also to secure backups, software updates in distributions, and source code in version control systems like Git,” Brinkmann said in his advisory. | <urn:uuid:cd2793c5-4d95-487e-99a1-6f9c60ea5b4e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://duo.com/decipher/ancient-bug-haunts-gnupg-based-encryption-tools | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334942.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926211042-20220927001042-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.937274 | 712 | 2.578125 | 3 |
What Is the HITECH Act?
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) is legislation created to facilitate and expedite the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and the supporting technology in the United States. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) economic stimulus bill.
In addition to stimulating EHR adoption, the HITECH Act was passed to expand data breach notifications further and the protection of Protected Health Information (PHI) and Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) and increase the number of penalties for repeated or uncorrected Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations. In essence, one of the results of the HITECH Act was to give teeth to HIPAA in terms of enforcement of protecting patients’ private data. The HITECH Act established tiers of enforcement and significant penalties for violations of HIPAA rules.
The HITECH Act contains four subtitles.
1. Subtitle A: Promotion of Health Information Technology
- Part 1: Improving Healthcare Quality, Safety, and Efficiency
- Part 2: Application and Use of Adopted Health Information Technology Standards; Reports
2. Subtitle B: Testing of Health Information Technology
3. Subtitle C: Grants and Loans Funding
4. Subtitle D: Privacy
- Part 1: Improved Privacy Provisions and Security Provisions
- Part 2: Relationship to Other Laws; Regulatory References; Effective Date; Reports
The HITECH Act and “Willful Neglect”
In 2013, four years after HIPAA was passed, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the HIPAA Final Rule. A key objective of the Final Rule was to bolster patient privacy protections and enhance the government’s enforcement of and penalties.
According to the Final Rule, the Secretary of HHS must formally investigate complaints indicating possible violations due to willful neglect. It also gives the Secretary the power to impose civil money penalties if violations due to willful neglect are verified.
|“Willful neglect means conscious, intentional failure or reckless indifference to the obligation to comply with the administrative simplification provision violated.” |
45 CFR 160.401
The Four Tiers of Penalties Under the HITECH Act
The HITECH Act established four tiers for HIPAA violations and corresponding penalty structures, with two categories for willful neglect.
1. No knowledge
The person did not know (and, by exercising reasonable diligence, would not have known) that the person violated the provision.
2. Reasonable Cause
The violation was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.
3. Willful Neglect – Corrected
The violation was due to willful neglect that was corrected in a timely manner (30 days).
4. Willful Neglect – Not Corrected
The violation was due to willful neglect that was not corrected in a timely manner.
|Category||Minimum Penalty||Maximum Penalty||Annual Limit|
|Tier A: No Knowledge||$100||$50,000||$25,000|
|Tier B: Reasonable Cause||$1,000||$50,000||$100,000|
|Tier C: Willful Neglect – Corrected||$10,000||$50,000||$250,000|
|Tier D: Willful Neglect – Not Corrected||$50,000||$50,000||$1,500,000|
Data Breach Notification
The HITECH Act includes a HIPAA rule, known as the Breach Notification Rule. In the event that a Covered Entity or Business Associate suffers a data breach, individuals whose personal information has been exposed or potentially exposed by a security breach must be notified.
The rules for data breach notification are specific. Letters must be sent via first-class mail and should include known information about the breach, the nature of the breach, and the exposed PHI. The letter should also include information about what is being done to address the breach and what steps patients should be taking to follow up.
In terms of timing, if the data breach affects more than 500 people, the breach must be reported to HHS within 60 days and a notice sent to a major local media outlet. For smaller breaches affecting fewer than 500 people, the breach has to be reported by the end of the calendar year.
Business Associates that discover a data breach are required to notify all Covered Entities. It is then the responsibility of the covered entities to handle notifications.
The HITECH Act and “Meaningful Use”
With the HITECH Act, HHS received a $25 billion budget to promote the use of EHR. Called the Meaningful Use Program, the initiative offered monetary rewards to health care providers that moved to certified EHRs. The incentives to switch to certified EHRs changed to penalties after a stipulated period of time for those who failed to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs.
As it was originally enacted, HITECH stipulated that beginning in 2011, healthcare providers would be offered financial incentives for demonstrating meaningful use of EHRs until 2015, after which time penalties would be levied for failing to demonstrate such use (e.g., issue prescriptions, to exchange health information).
The HITECH Act and Business Associates
As related to HITECH and HIPAA, a Business Associate is a person who performs or assists in performing a function or activity that involves the use or disclosure of PHI on behalf of a Covered Entity (i.e., health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers). Essentially, any entity that is exposed to or works with PHI on behalf of a Covered Entity would qualify as a Business Associate.
The services that business associates provide include:
- Billing companies
- Data aggregation
- Data storage
- Financial services
- Transcription services
In addition, if a service provider deals with PHI related to long-term care, hospital confinement, dental, or vision, they are considered a Business Associate.
The HITECH Act requires Business Associates to comply with the HIPAA Security Privacy Rules for the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards of PHI as well as develop and establish a written data security program. They are also required to report PHI breaches to Covered Entities. Under the HITECH Act, Business Associates are liable for any PHI use or disclosure that does not follow HIPAA rules or agreements.
The HITECH Act and HIPAA
In January 2013, the government published the HIPAA Final Omnibus Rule, which combined HIPAA and the HITECH Act. The combination strengthened the HIPAA privacy and security rules, enacting higher standards for compliance to protect patient information and hold health care providers accountable for misuse and breaches.
The HITECH Act strengthens civil and criminal enforcement of HIPAA rules and establishes four categories of violations with increasing levels of culpability and corresponding fines (The Four Tiers of Penalties under the HITECH Act, as mentioned above) with broader enforcement. Under the HITECH Act, a state attorney general can bring an action on behalf of a state’s residents.
HITECH Strengthens Healthcare System
The HITECH Act helped improve the healthcare system by giving significantly more enforcement power to HIPAA and expediting EHR adoption. The data security protections, which were expanded under the HITECH Act, go a long way to improving the security of patients’ information, while EHRs facilitate communications between providers. With EHRs, information about patients can much more quickly and easily be shared between care teams, resulting in better patient treatment.
Egnyte has experts ready to answer your questions. For more than a decade, Egnyte has helped more than 16,000 customers with millions of customers worldwide.
Last Updated: 10th March, 2022 | <urn:uuid:1a5f0f1e-b7d8-4d0f-9908-2af42de216a3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.egnyte.com/guides/life-sciences/hitech-act | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335355.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929131813-20220929161813-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.932536 | 1,640 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Why a Dedicated IP Address is Important
Behind every domain name is an IP address that acts as the real address. Domain names came into existence to be used as shortcuts for their complicated IP address counterparts. Instead of having to remember a long string of numbers such as 192.168.0.1, web users can use a simple domain name instead (www.websitename.com).
How Does the IP Address Affect Search Engine Rankings?From a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective, an IP address tells the story about where a website is hosted. While websites hosted on dedicated servers obtain the advantage of having their own dedicated IP address, websites on shared hosting plans will have to share the same IP address hosted on one server with other websites or opt for SEO Hosting services. So, the answer to how to rank in search engines is simple—start with dedicated IP web hosting! Using a shared IP address can lead to a host of potential security threats and search engine discrimination. Depending on the web hosting provider and/or shared hosting plan, a website will often share an IP address with thousands of other websites. Not only does this significantly slow down the website, but it is widely speculated that websites with shared IP addresses will rank lower on search engines than websites with a dedicated IP. Although no one can say for sure except for the technicians who write the algorithms over at Google and Bing, SEO experts have collectively arrived at this conclusion after extensive research. An advantage that websites hosted on dedicated servers possess is the fast loading speed, which major search engines consider a significant factor in a website’s value. This advantage also applies when viewing a site from a consumer’s viewpoint. If a website is sharing an IP with hundreds or thousands of other websites, the loading speeds will be considerably slower and the visitor will become frustrated and leave, sometimes never coming back.
Can I Check If a Website Is Hosted on a Dedicated or Shared Server?There are many websites devoted to the purpose of checking the domain information of a website, including IP address and server type. Whois is a widely used domain information grabber that provides all the basic features and data you need to check if your website, or any other website, is hosted on a shared server or a dedicated server. Simply go onto Whois and enter in a domain name and it will show the results. Here is an example of a website hosted on one of the top shared web hosting providers: Here is an example of a website hosted on a dedicated server: It is common for a website with shared hosting to be hosted on a shared server with thousands of other websites. When hosted from a dedicated server, a website shares the server with absolutely no one else.
Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated HostingHosting on a dedicated server automatically gets you a dedicated IP, whereas shared hosting doesn't. Some shared hosting providers are well aware of this distinction and offer the option of purchasing a dedicated IP for a website hosted on a shared server. Despite having a dedicated IP, websites on shared hosting will still suffer the same disadvantages such as slow loading speeds and limited control. Even worse, purchasing a dedicated IP address on a shared server will not protect a website from being blacklisted when a neighbor website on the server is blocked for hosting illegal or pornographic websites. Realtime blackhole lists (RBLs) will recognize that a website is on the shared server despite a dedicated IP and will penalize it accordingly. The only way to prevent a website from being brought down by its mischievous neighbors is to be hosted on a dedicated server. Dedicated IPs will not speed up your website performance if it is on a shared server. This is especially important to note for SEO purposes. The slower the website loads, the harder it will be for the search engine’s spiders to index the website. This leads to fewer inner pages being picked up in the search engine, which lowers the website’s SERP rankings and domain authority. Be careful of web hosting providers who advertise faster performance after purchasing a dedicated IP on a shared hosting plan.
How Can I Improve My Search Engine Rankings?At the end of the day, the best way to do SEO and gain search engine rankings is to simply create a good website.
- Provide high quality and unique content that people want to read or use.
- Properly organize the website by applying proper meta-data.
- Offer a variety of content including images and video. | <urn:uuid:6ca85bd5-d01f-4467-9bc1-f039736e3a3c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.colocationamerica.com/why-a-dedicated-ip-address-is-important.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.935102 | 908 | 2.625 | 3 |
What Is a Malicious Cyber Intrusion?
As developers strive to meet the demands of the modern software development life cycle (SDLC), they are often confronted with the need to compromise security for faster release cycles. Without proper security, applications are prone to vulnerabilities, making them a target for attacks known as malicious cyber intrusions. Advanced hackers know this and are constantly on the hunt for a chance to execute a malicious cyber intrusion. These intrusions take place anytime a bad actor gains access to an application with the intent of causing harm to or stealing data from the network or user. In both cases, individuals and organizations are left with the risk of sensitive data exposure, known to result in costs in the millions.
Open-source software, along with the growing number of application programming interfaces (APIs), has increased the amount of attack space, giving way to a broader attack surface. A larger surface means more opportunities for intruders to identify application vulnerabilities and instigate attacks on them— inserting malicious code that exploits those vulnerabilities. In the last five years, open-source breaches alone have spiked, increasing as much as 71%, leaving cybersecurity teams with a lot of work left to be done. To effectively develop a strategy of defense against malicious intrusions, security teams must first understand how these intrusions occur, then analyze how application vulnerabilities increase the probability of their occurrence.
How a Malicious Intrusion Occurs
For a malicious cyber intrusion to occur, a third party must gain access to unauthorized areas that house confidential information, core code, and application infrastructures. Intruders who launch a successful malicious intrusion often employ sophisticated techniques, using Malware-as-a-Service (Maas), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and more—though they start with a search for application weaknesses.
Adding Up Attack Probes Versus Exploits
The volume and velocity of cyberattacks on applications remain exponentially high. Over the past 12 months, individual applications experienced an average of 13,279 attacks each month. Yet, only approximately 2% of those actually reach a vulnerability that can be exploited. The remaining 98% were simply probes.
Searching for Vulnerabilities
Before gaining access to core framework components, hackers analyze an application for vulnerabilities from the outside. One strategy employed by cyberattackers is to target open-source frameworks and libraries. An additional method uses vulnerability scanning tools, which identify vulnerabilities in an application. If a vulnerability is detected, cyberattackers can target it to gain access to exploit the application directly or use it to access other applications or data stores.
Exploiting an Application Breach
Once a vulnerability is identified, cyber criminals can commence an attack. The exploitation possibilities are immense. Relevant to the method of exploitation and area of entry, attackers can make changes that affect the application's entire system. Attackers can also instigate a ransomware attack or pilfer business-critical information and personally identifiable information (PII) for employees, contractors, partners, and customers. Once a cyber criminal successfully exploits an application vulnerability, they often can roam within the application and even gain access to other applications and data stores. In the case of the exploited application, they can alter or disrupt commands.
What Is Malicious Code?
Malicious code is anything that is part of a software system meant to cause harm or damage. Hackers use malicious code to break into vulnerable areas of an application system or network, which enables them to propagate, move laterally, and even take down security defenses. Malicious code poses a serious threat to applications. The latest Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon reveals that data breaches tied to application vulnerabilities more than doubled over the past year to 43% of all data breaches.
Cyber criminals are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) as part of their attack approach. In particular, ML algorithms are becoming more complex and accurate and can be used by bad actors to mine for vulnerability targets in applications and to determine what attack technique is best. An AI-enabled botnet, for example, can infect many more computers with malicious code and take control of them more effectively than humans can, resulting in faster and more unpredictable attacks.
Different Types of Malicious Cyber Intrusions
A whole new breed of cyber criminal is launching sophisticated, malicious cyber intrusions that legacy application security tools cannot match. Even brute force attack methods have evolved, as hackers look at HTTP responses after each and every attempt instead of merely taking a wild guess at credentials used to retrieve access. A malicious cyber intrusion at the application layer compromises a wide range of data, including that of the users and the database. Attacks to the application layer are becoming much more advanced, with the most common including:
Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attacks
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of injection in which malicious scripts are injected into benign and trusted websites. XSS attacks occur when an attacker uses an application to send malicious code, typically in the form of a browser side script, to a different end-user. The browser of the unsuspecting user receives the malicious script and will execute due to its inability to identify whether or not the script should or should not be trusted. Malicious code intrusion can access several areas with sensitive information, including cookies and session tokens. It can even rewrite content on the HTML page.
SQL Injection Attack
SQL injection attacks are on the rise: growing 41% in just the past few months. In this type of application attack, hackers insert SQL statements that cause manipulated executions to occur. Back-end data is retrieved, which puts entire web servers in jeopardy. Typical tenuous content hosted within a web server includes confidential identity details.
Session Hijacking Attacks
A session is defined as the time in which two systems are in communication with each other. When session hijacking occurs, a cyber criminal can acquire cookies. This enables them to retrieve session IDs while remaining invisible to both users and servers. Different from hijacking, instead of waiting to retrieve user IDs during a session, a session fixation attack fixes a session into the target’s browser before logging in. With this information, both hijacking variations provide attackers access to all accounts used within the hijacked session, even those that use single sign-on (SSO) systems that house the credentials of numerous users.
When an attacker quietly rests somewhere between the user and the application, it is known as a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. Though it sounds uneventful, the time resting actually consists of thorough observation of all activity within a session, during which attackers can intercept data. This includes, and is not limited to, user IDs or even the entire cookies folder. MITM attacks on the application layer rely on vulnerabilities such as secure sockets layer (SSL)/transport layer security (TLS) configuration. This impersonation, or spoof attack, style is easily left undetected, leaving virtually no tracks until it is possibly too late.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks
Overwhelming a system is known as a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS). Attackers can set impending attacks in motion by creating malicious bots that flood applications with traffic. The goal is to use this traffic to eventually overwhelm the application to the point that it becomes inoperable. If the website or application crashes, users are unable to access information or complete tasks. Unable to access the website or application, users lose confidence, their productivity decreases, and brand degradation sits in.
Regular Expression Denial-of-Service (ReDoS) Attacks
Another denial-of-service (DoS) attack is a regular expression denial-of-service (ReDoS) attack. Regular expressions (regex) are characters used to define search patterns. One vulnerability of regular expressions is their algorithmic methods of identification. Attackers exploit this weakness, creating expressions that are difficult to process, resulting in a slow running or unresponsive system.
To gain access to user accounts without the need for malware, attackers can launch a password attack. Like a brute force, some methods leave attackers to guess at passwords, attempting to break in by taking guesses time and time again. Others use help from a dictionary file, usually made up of common or previously used passwords that could result in a successful login.
Legacy Application Security Approaches Are Not Built To Prevent Malicious Cyber Intrusions
Application vulnerabilities are a top cause of successful malicious cyber intrusions. As noted above, Verizon found that data breaches resulting from application vulnerabilities jumped to 43% of all data breaches over the past year. While a vulnerability scan is a great starting point to sniffing out weaknesses, it comes with challenges. To begin, it generates large volumes of false positives, which distract application security teams from focusing on vulnerabilities that pose true risk. Second, scanning results are presented to application security teams in the form of PDF files that must be analyzed by specialized experts. This tallies into the hundreds or even thousands of hours for application security teams annually. Third, as scanning tools are based on signatures, they struggle to detect unknown threats. The result is missed vulnerabilities or (false negatives), which can cause irrefutable damages if left unremediated. And as time to remediate matters, with cyber criminals requiring only “seven days to weaponize versus 102 days to patch,” the risk is substantial.
Penetration testing is just as, if not more, problematic when it comes to keeping pace with today’s advanced threat landscape. Designed for application development waterfall approaches with releases coming every few months at the most, penetration testing quickly accumulates technology debt in development environments that use Agile and DevOps approaches—with release cycles coming in days or even hours. And as penetration testing does not address vulnerabilities during development but typically shortly before release cycles, it costs dramatically more to fix a vulnerability. Further, as with vulnerability scanning, penetration testing requires specialized application security experts to run and analyze the tests.
One final note is needed on vulnerability scanning and penetration testing: Both provide a point-in-time view and are not continuous. This also creates inaccuracies, such as false positives, that require significant time for triage and diagnosis.
Legacy Perimeter Defense Solutions Fail To Stop Malicious Cyber Intrusions
Web application firewalls (WAFs) have been in existence for more than two decades. Their outside-in approach to security relies on signature-based engines that must guess at whether attacks pose any risk. And with applications receiving an average of 13,279 attacks each month, this accounts for a lot of guessing. This results in a large number of false positives as well as false negatives. The former consumes valuable time on the part of the security operations (SecOps) team to triage and diagnose, while the latter can pose serious risk.
Once a malicious cyber intrusion is successful, it can wreak havoc in numerous ways (see above). Missed vulnerabilities, as a result, are not an option.
Using Instrumentation for Continuous, Accurate Production Runtime
Organizations seeking to harness the advantages of the modern SDLC are turning to security instrumentation as an alternative to legacy application security approaches. Embedding security within software enables developers to automate the detection of vulnerabilities as they write code. It also provides context-aware vulnerability tracing and automates verification of vulnerability fixes. No application security experts or specializations are required. And because its security assessment is continuous, the risks that come with legacy application security tools are eliminated.
The same security instrumentation used to secure software in development can be extended into production to prevent attacks from exploiting vulnerabilities. Runtime application self-protection (RASP) sits alongside vulnerabilities in software and blocks attacks from exploiting vulnerabilities before they succeed.
RASP is also effective in that it only blocks attacks on vulnerabilities that can be exercised, unlike a WAF that guesses at what may pose a risk. This saves SecOps team significant cycles, enabling them to focus on other cybersecurity risks.
Advanced Security Tactics for Advanced Application Development
As developers move toward more complex application developments that leverage Agile and DevOps, application security must remain up to the challenge. Further, malicious cyber intrusions pose a greater risk today than ever—and the application attack surface is broader than ever before. This offers cyber criminals a greater opportunity to exploit vulnerabilities with malicious cyberattacks. | <urn:uuid:a4ed8874-2ac4-4672-9dca-06af6cb61ecd> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.contrastsecurity.com/glossary/malicious-cyber-intrusion?hsLang=en | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.921893 | 2,531 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Dig Command Overview
Dig command is used to gather information about host addresses, mail exchange servers, name servers by sending query to the DNS Name server. This tool can be run by Linux or Mac OS. Simply this works with single domain name, to get the result of multiple domain you will have to run multiple queries.
Dig Command Options
To see the available options used to dig command, Open terminal and execute the following command
Dig Usage Instructions
#dig authority www.google.com
in the above command, the result indicates that the authoritative search went from ns2->ns1->ns4->ns3, that means name server 2 have more authority over the search according to the context of the domain name over name server 1.
Now lets fool around with some other commands
#dig nssearch www.facebook.com **searches for name servers**
dig additional www.facebook.com **controls all additional queries **
dig nsid www.facebook.com ** searches for the name servers ID**
Similarly , there are other options that can be used for several other purposes. Here we go folks yet another command prominent in information gathering.
What can I find using the dig command?
dig will let you perform any valid DNS query, the most common of which are:
- A (the IP address),
- TXT (text annotations),
- MX (mail exchanges), and
- NS nameservers.
Use the following command to get the addresses for mt-example.com.
dig mt-example.com A +noall +answer
Use the following command to get a list of all the mailservers for mt-example.com.
dig mt-example.com MX +noall +answer
Use the following command to get a list of authoritative DNS servers for mt-example.com.
dig mt-example.com NS +noall +answer
Use the following command to get a list of all the above in one set of results.
dig mt-example.com ANY +noall +answer
Use the following command to query using a specific nameserver.
dig @ns1.mediatemple.net mt-example.com
Use the following to trace the path taken.
dig mt-example.com +traceSources:mediatempleCyberpedia.in | <urn:uuid:e6c2eb77-0e55-44c9-875d-48a18980be97> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cyberpratibha.com/gather-information-using-dig-command-in-kali-linux/?amp=1 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338213.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007143842-20221007173842-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.76609 | 489 | 3.203125 | 3 |
A traditional Business Continuity Plan is developed to serve as the foundation for recovering and managing business operations that may be affected by traditional, short-lived disasters caused by natural, human-caused or technological disasters. Organizations plan for these types of disasters to affect them for an average of 14-21 days.
Addressing the likely effects of a pandemic, however, becomes a complex subset of the Business Continuity Plan. A pandemic is often defined as an epidemic or outbreak in humans of infectious diseases that has the ability to proliferate rapidly throughout a widespread geographical area. Unlike natural, human-caused or technological disasters, which have limited life spans, pandemics are predicted to affect a significant geographical area in cycles for up to eighteen (18) months -- and affect the health of more than 40% of the area's population. A smart organization uses its existing Business Continuity Plan as the foundation for incorporating more complex measures that responding to a pandemic will likely require.
What organizations overlook most frequently are the non-traditional issues relating to resource allocation during a pandemic -- the necessary "people, places and things" that are identified during the risk assessment process. Unlike traditional disasters, which generally contain a predictable timetable of events and their responses, a pandemic often contains numerous variables that continue to change multiple times during the pandemic's cycle. The organization must maintain realistic and practical solutions to resolving the critical resource allocation issues that are likely to impact the institution, including:
People: Employees, insiders, affiliated parties (and their families), customers, vendors and third-party service providers;
Places: Facilities that the organization owns, manages, maintains, leases or controls; and
Things: Assets, equipment, supplies, records and documents.
This presentation focuses upon the core components of the FFIEC's Interagency Statement on Pandemic Planning and the lessons learned by more than 2700 organizations during the FBIIC/FSSCC's Pandemic Flu Exercise of 2007.
Those core components include:
Developing a program of prevention;
Documenting a strategy for responding to various stages of pandemic outbreak;
Constructing a comprehensive framework of facilities, systems and procedures to insure the continuing operation of critical functions;
Creating a testing program; and
Managing an oversight program to ensure that ongoing reviews and updates are in place.
You will learn pandemic prevention and business recovery strategies, planning techniques and action tactics that you can use yourself -- and that you can then teach to others within your organization. You will also learn how to identify the real sources of pandemic-related loss exposure; the obvious and not-so-obvious methods for using your resources effectively -- before and during any type of disaster; and the most successful methods for managing the maintenance and recovery effort until you can reinstall all of your organization's components. | <urn:uuid:319bc6b5-6782-4246-8241-b6fb3c25553a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/webinars/pandemic-planning-response-techniques-w-77 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338213.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007143842-20221007173842-00748.warc.gz | en | 0.945109 | 577 | 3.046875 | 3 |
In today’s day and age, we’re accustomed to technological advances and capabilities being uncovered all the time. However, mere availability does not necessarily correspond to immediate adoption.
This is at least somewhat true for differential privacy. The first seminal contribution on the topic was published in 2006 by Microsoft Distinguished Scientist Cynthia Dwork, who said that “in many cases, extremely accurate information about the database can be provided while simultaneously ensuring very high levels of privacy.” Yet despite being one of the strongest existing privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) for de-identification, it’s not always top of mind for data engineering, data science, and data governance teams.
Why is this, and how is differential privacy a game changer for data teams looking to reduce re-identification risks and derive insights and utility from their data? Let’s explore what data-driven organizations stand to gain with differential privacy.
What is differential privacy?
Differential privacy is a privacy enhancing technology in which randomized noise is injected into the data analysis process. Compared to other dynamic data masking methods and PETs that are not process-based — such as masking or generalization — each time a query is made, differential privacy makes it possible to calibrate the noise to that query. This helps to precisely navigate the trade-off between privacy and utility in an effort to maximize data’s value while preserving data privacy.
What are the most common approaches to differential privacy?
There are two common approaches to differential privacy:
1. Global Differential Privacy
Global differential privacy ensures that an individual whose data is being queried is able to deny his/her participation in the data set used to produce analysis results. This means participation in the data set will not significantly increase the likelihood of re-identification.
Global differential privacy offers a number of desirable properties:
- It protects against post-processing — including processing by adversaries with access to external or even future information. Differential privacy modifies the analysis process to help ensure that query results do not depend heavily on any items or data points within the database.
- Its use of randomization also promises that the final result is not only a possible output on a version of the database that does not include this item, it is almost as likely. Thus, observing a particular result does not reveal whether or not any single data point is present.
With global differential privacy, you can only ask questions that will generate aggregates (e.g. minimum, maximum, average, count and sum). In principle, aggregates can be used in a variety of cases, such as to analyze data to improve processes, products, or services, to create customer profiles to ensure product or service maintenance, to derive insights that drive development of new goods or services, and more. Creating profiles on the basis of aggregates is likely the least obvious use case — and one that requires skill and expertise — but is feasible.
What does this look like in practice? Let’s say you’d like to find out how many customers in Company Z’s database bought product B after buying product A. Although an individual, John Smith, appears to have purchased both products, the presence of his record will have only a slight influence on the resulting count. This is because differential privacy ensures that the result obtained by running this particular account occurs with nearly the same probability as a version of the database that does not include John’s data. As a result, John could plausibly argue that he never bought any product from Company Z.
2. Local Differential Privacy
If aggregates are too broad for the analysis you wish to perform — for instance, if you need access to individual-level data — local differential privacy is a strong alternative. Unlike global differential privacy, with local differential privacy an individual cannot deny participation in the data set, but can deny the contents of their record. The output of the process is therefore individual-noised records. Local differential privacy has great potential for supervised machine learning but is generally underutilized.
The key to fully implementing differential privacy and local differential privacy is to understand that machine learning models should be built within controlled environments, which rely upon strict data access control and role allocation amongst several lines of defense. In this environment, you would:
- Start by building a version of the model without differential privacy, note its baseline performance, then throw it away.
- Next, iteratively build models with more and more noise until you reach a minimum acceptable threshold for performance or a maximum acceptable threshold for privacy loss.
- Release the model into production, assuming the privacy loss is acceptable.
Why is differential privacy a game changer?
Data anonymization approaches have been around for a long time. The most widely used technique is masking values in data to hide their true meaning while still providing utility in the data. Years ago, cutting the last digits from a zip code to remove precision was considered sufficient to protect data subjects’ exact locations, but with today’s advanced technology, that method will no longer cut it.
To put a fine point on the shortcomings of traditional, non-differential privacy methods of anonymization, consider this example: It’s 1985 and you’ve been asked to name the run time of The Terminator — what do you do? Probably get in your car, drive to the nearest video store, and read the VHS tape’s box — it’d be a time commitment, to say the least. However, you got that question today, you could answer in a matter of seconds using a search engine. Now, let’s flip the script: It’s 1985 and you’re asked to name the popular movie made in 1984 with a run time of 107 minutes. Difficult then, not so much now.
Without access to additional information or resources — as would be the case in 1985 — protecting the movie title by masking the title, actors, and synopsis, might be sufficient. This is the way traditional anonymization techniques function. But with more data than ever available at our fingertips, this approach is risky. That’s why statistical bureaus could use traditional anonymization techniques last century, but when Netflix releases data today, they get mud in their face. This is called a link attack, and the proliferation of accessible information makes such attacks increasingly easy to achieve.
Here’s where differential privacy comes in. Differential privacy is the first and only way of guaranteeing that any individual record within a dataset cannot be identified. It goes without saying that providing a statistical guarantee of privacy makes sharing data much simpler. Data sharing comes with a host of benefits, like unlocking secondary use cases for existing data (not originally collected for that purpose), selling data, collaborating with skilled external data engineers and scientists, executing data exchanges that make you and your collaborator more powerful together, or even identifying philanthropic use cases, all while protecting your data subjects’ privacy.
How does the math behind differential privacy work?
Typically, when you read about differential privacy you get a math equation thrown at you with unintelligible explanations. But when you remove the fine details, it’s actually pretty simple.
Let’s look at an example where there’s sensitive information to protect: finding out the proportion of people who hide purchasing information from their spouses. You gather 100 people in a room and ask them to pick a number between 1-10, but not to share their answers. Next, you ask them to raise their hand if they hide purchases from their spouse or picked a three in the previous question. By asking two questions you’ve injected noise into the response, providing plausible deniability to everyone who raises their hands. Based on the number of hands raised, and knowing the probability of randomly choosing a three, you can calculate the true proportion of spouses who hide purchasing information while also protecting their privacy. In essence, the noise injected into the response protects individuals’ privacy.
Now, what if you ask the group to raise their hands if they hide purchases, chose a three in the first question, and are wearing a pink shirt. People may be more apprehensive because with few pink shirts in the crowd, the question is more sensitive. In this case, you’d probably need more noise. This could be done by saying everyone has to pick a number between 1-3 instead of 1-10.
This technique of adding noise to data during the data collection time is known as randomized response, which is a local differentially private mechanism. Google has documented how it uses randomized response to collect anonymous usage statistics in their Chrome browser.
What are the common challenges to implementing differential privacy?
If the math behind differential privacy is so straightforward, why aren’t more data teams leveraging it? Historically, a few major challenges have stood in the way:
Challenge 1: Aggregate Questions Only
As mentioned, differential privacy requires restricting questions to aggregates only. Since noise is added to the response, answers must be numerical. This means you’re unable to ask for literal rows in the data, only aggregate questions of it.
Challenge 2: Determining Sensitivity
It’s difficult to understand how sensitive a question is based on a database query. This would require prior knowledge that specific data is sensitive and assigning noise accordingly, in addition to taking into account the possibility that any type of sensitive data could exist in any combination within a test group. In the example from the previous section, you’d have to know there aren’t many people wearing pink shirts and plan for various numbers of pink shirts being present in the group. It’s a nearly impossible scenario to anticipate.
Challenge 3: Privacy Budget
If you’ve ever been to a restaurant when it opens, you know how enjoyable not having to yell or lean across the table to have a conversation is — you can hear everything clearly. But as the restaurant gets busier, you have to talk more loudly, listen more closely — and before long, can you be 100% sure what you heard your fellow diner say was actually what they said? If differential privacy is a restaurant and the number of queries being run are other diners, it’s easy to see how as queries are added, the data gets noisier and less reliable. Privacy budget is the equivalent of the restaurant’s capacity limit — in differential privacy, it caps the number of questions that can be asked of a data set. However, just as a capacity limit decreases the chances of you seeing a familiar face at a restaurant, the privacy budget limits data exploration and insight gathering.
Challenge 4: Noisy Data
Watch any interview and you’ll see that when the interviewer asks their subject a sensitive question, the answer is filled with vague or irrelevant information. Similarly, with differential privacy, highly sensitive queries will likely return noisy data — data that’s not well suited for analysis. This is often a dead end since it maximizes data privacy but minimizes its utility.
How is differential privacy implemented?
Many data teams struggle with differential privacy implementation, but protecting data with differential privacy doesn’t have to be complicated. Modern data access control tools like Immuta dynamically enforce differential privacy on data without requiring a custom database or custom query language.
Immuta’s differential privacy technique works like any other policy and can be easily added to data exposed from any database in your organization through our advanced data policy builder, so noise is only added for users that don’t meet the policy’s conditions.
Since adding noise based on the sensitivity of a question is the heart of differential privacy, and because noise isn’t injected during data collection, Immuta dynamically adds it to query results at run time. In fact, Immuta can add noise in such a way that statistically guarantees the privacy of individual records, on the fly, just like all other policies in Immuta.
Let’s revisit the common challenges of differential privacy implementation to see how Immuta helps overcome them:
- Aggregate Questions Only: Immuta acts as a virtual control plane between data analysts/scientists and databases, enabling enforcement of SQL restrictions on the types of SQL questions you can ask. In other words, this virtual control plane provides the perfect injection point for restrictions on the SQL statements.
- Determining Sensitivity: Immuta’s sensitive data discovery capability quickly and dynamically detects the sensitivity of a question relative to the available data by intercepting and managing the query.
- Privacy Budget: Immuta sits between data and data consumers, allowing it to capture questions that have already been answered and provide a previously-calculated noisy response instead of generating a new one. Based on how often your data is changing — since most data isn’t static — you’re able to tell Immuta how often to refresh the noise in its responses.
- Noisy Data: With the aforementioned sensitive data discovery, Immuta can understand a question’s sensitivity. Instead of adding a significant amount of noise for very sensitive questions, Immuta simply blocks the query and instructs data consumers to ask something less sensitive. This aids data scientists in learning to use differential privacy and protects them from using responses that are wildly inaccurate.
With Immuta’s dynamic privacy enhancing technologies, like differential privacy, data teams have achieved 100% growth in permitted use cases by safely unlocking sensitive data while increasing data engineering productivity by 40%. Clearly, differential privacy doesn’t have to be a challenge, but it should be top of mind for data science and governance teams.
Curious how Immuta’s differential privacy and other features work in action? See for yourself when you request a demo. | <urn:uuid:ea03d5f9-ab94-4366-b9b7-49afae433425> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.immuta.com/blog/why-differential-privacy-should-be-top-of-mind-for-data-science-and-governance-teams/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334987.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927033539-20220927063539-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.929795 | 2,823 | 2.59375 | 3 |
DNS goes back a long way, it is more than 25 years old and is one of the most used, attacked, and implemented protocols by far. Needless to say, it has some security implications and risks attached to it too. Most of them are well documented and discussed, but one of them seems to be overlooked: RFCs (and DRAFTS)
What is an “RFC”
Note: This does include non-internet networks and most of these are adopted on many if not all types of networks.
What is a “DRAFT”
Drafts are pre-determined documents with suggestions, advice and other related topics to be elevated or “approved” to become an accepted RFC. In general, it is considered inappropriate to rely on DRAFTs for reference purposes or implement the topics described (but that rule is sadly not a golden standard anymore).
DNS is Important
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the most used protocol on Networks, by far! It sits in front of any transaction or “intent” of any service, application, or operation. NO DNS means NO Business and everything will be affected with degraded quality or availability. This is on every level imaginable of networking including its devices/users. The impact can and will be HUGE! So taking care of DNS appropriately is a must.
Note: It also works the other way around: A rock solid, quick, and safe DNS provides amazing user experiences, makes networks/applications smooth/fast/accessible, and enables/unlocks all kinds of statistics and data on network/user intent, behavior, and usage. Which in turn can be used to report on (visibility/observability), or to feed and enrich your security ecosystem improving your security posture. To repeat: Taking care of DNS appropriately is a MUST!
DNS has the most RFCs and Drafts attached to it of ALL protocols
As of August 2022, there are 297 Approved RFCs and 2327 Drafts (unapproved). This is a huge amount. Reading (and understanding) them alone would take a lifetime (well, maybe not, but it is a huge undertaking).
In this DNS RFCs series, we try to bare the impact of all of this on DNS, the risk and security implications, and how to deal with it to make sure DNS becomes and stays this stable factor in networks as we are accustomed to.
How DNS RFCs Historically was created:
In the early days of DNS, most if not all RFCs were written by DNS experts driving the Internet. They were more aimed to help the Internet and the World to make things smooth, fast, stable, and decentralized. The number of RFCs written per year was low. This accounts for the first 100-150 or so RFCs that were written by the DNS Gods. This went on for the first 20 years or so and was a pretty stable factor.
… And now
Lately, the number of RFCs and Drafts is increasing rapidly and now it looks like two-thirds of all RFCs are either written by non-DNS-experts to fulfill their purposes. Mostly (but not always) commercially based and under false likelihoods of privacy, security, tracking, and centralization (see Web3, DNS-Over-*, Encryption, Crypto, etc.).
This means that in some cases, security is pushed to the background, and in a lot of cases used to obfuscate the real purpose and pretty much go beyond the (original) purpose of protocol. Checking out the credentials or authority of these RFC/DRAFT creators becomes an added task and becomes more and more difficult as well. It adds to the complexity.
Approved or Not is the question:
Drafts can have a huge impact on DNS operations as parties building DNS engines (and DNS Clients) choose to implement drafts before the resulting RFC gets approved. Most of the time drafts tend to change a lot on how a particular DNS function needs to work/operate as part of new insights and working out the kinks. This means that the final and approved RFCs most if not all of the time have changed from what the drafts depicted. This has a huge impact on “DNS Clients” (apps, web-browsers, services, etc) and has a disruptive effect, breaking DNS usage/working. All of this results in downtime and the unavailability of critical services or applications.
Note: To clarify, lots of the DNS Drafts lately got implemented by the writers (of the Draft) that operate the DNS service themselves (Cloudflare is a good/big example), even before the Draft was approved as RFC. This means that users take a risk on a service that can change and because of it breaks and impacts business, or features are just not supported which can result in degradation of service/usage.
There is quite some critique on the IETF RFC approval process, which adds to the equation. Mainly some RFCs are not always approved by a person that is a specialist on the subject matter and relies on trust or other people to do so or help out and is deemed not transparent enough. This creates an issue of how to deal with RFCs in general and can be considered a risk. We don’t see any real adverse effects because of this (yet), but we do see the uplift of DNS RFCs that (in our opinion) should not be approved by their function, but should be assessed for the adverse effect it can have on DNS infrastructures. But that is a whole different discussion.
Part 2 coming soon!
For now, this concludes part 1 of the DNS RFC’s series, look out for Part 2 coming soon! | <urn:uuid:99cad63f-23a5-4d3e-9e8a-d4a9bbab6472> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.efficientip.com/dns-rfcs-the-elephant-in-the-room-part-1/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335254.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928113848-20220928143848-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.964426 | 1,183 | 2.890625 | 3 |
On the surface, the value of edge computing is relatively simple; by placing computing power closer to users, they experience better latency and performance. However, as you get past this seemingly simple goal of improving latency, you’re left with a task that’s more complex to implement and that has profound impacts on how we interact with data.
One example of how edge computing impacts data is in machine learning. To make accurate predictions, machine learning algorithms need to process large data sets. However, the storage and processing of these data sets are hindered if devices need to transmit back and forth to the cloud to access processing power. Edge computing allows organizations to process data on-premises and then later upload it to the cloud for wider access.
The demand for real-time digital experiences and lower latency computing are more than centralized cloud solutions can handle. This reality and the growth in compute power portability have taken computing at the edge from a good idea to mass adoption. But, how does edge computing work?
Digging Deeper Into How Edge Computing Works
To understand edge computing, we need to know what the edge refers to. The edge is where user devices come in contact with the network. For businesses, this contact point could be a manufacturing plant, office, medical facility, or anywhere a business has large compute and data transfer needs. The goal of edge computing is to place servers closer to where users are accessing the network.
If we think of edge computing in layers, it can help us visualize how everything works together to improve latency. The first layer is built on the high-powered servers in a centralized data center that handles extreme amounts of data processing. The next layer is fog computing which covers the network connections and computing power required to bring the data from the edge to its destination. The third layer pushes computing power even farther out to the edge, where customers interact with the network. This could be at the city, organization, or even building level.
Edge computing helps improve the metric that organizations care about — response time. To illustrate, imagine a machine learning algorithm is working on the preliminary diagnosis of cancer patients. Since the speed of diagnosis is crucial to better patient outcomes, medical facilities must have the on-premise edge infrastructure to analyze the data quickly. Edge computing helps speed up computations when compared to working in the cloud and helps ensure critical functions are performed as fast as possible.
Edge computing has changed the network strategy of the modern organization. Today, a comprehensive network strategy must not only factor in hardware and software but also the server node locations that will best serve its customers.
It’s exciting for organizations to consider the benefits of edge computing, but we shouldn’t overlook its challenges. Leaders who make these challenges part of their planning are more likely to have a positive experience from their edge implementation. Let’s look at three of these challenges:
- Logistical challenges. Edge computing infrastructure is widely distributed, and organizations may have to manage hundreds of smaller locations instead of a few large data centers. They must take into account the security, cost, and maintenance of machines located around the globe.
- Minimal technical support. Edge computing sites are typically operated without on-site technical support. This can present challenges if your infrastructure doesn’t have robust self-repairing capabilities or when local support isn’t readily available.
- Strategic design decisions. When choosing the design of edge nodes, architects must consider how variations will impact training, troubleshooting, and management. A repeatable design is often better since it means that issues can be documented and resolved more quickly at scale.
Despite the challenges, edge computing is often more cost-effective and energy-efficient than centralized data centers since the power required to transfer data is reduced, and it requires less energy to control the temperature of these distributed edge nodes.
Simplify Your Edge Computing Supply Chain
The need for edge computing is too powerful to ignore. As technology becomes more powerful, applications demand real-time performance and lower latency data transmission. Centralized computing isn’t fast enough to handle machine learning applications in the manufacturing, industrial, and medical industries. To fuel future innovation, organizations must embrace the power of edge computing and solve the challenges that come with it.
The new reality of edge computing means organizations must find ways to scale quickly and cost-effectively. At Intequus, we help simplify scaling your edge computing infrastructure by custom engineering edge node servers to client needs, managing relationships between vendors and stakeholders, and ensuring your hardware is maintained over its entire life cycle. If you want to talk about your edge computing strategy, our team would be happy to chat. Contact us to learn more. | <urn:uuid:daac7734-207a-419a-87d6-956b87baa7f5> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.intequus.com/what-is-edge-computing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335365.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929194230-20220929224230-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.930752 | 953 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Urban surveillance and public safety technologies are finding new use cases following the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing AI capabilities. COVID-19 has spurred the use of technologies, such as crowd monitoring, which are here to stay.
ABI Research forecasts a CAGR of 11.6 % with 1.4 billion Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance cameras in urban areas worldwide in 2030.
“Currently, the main use of CCTV in public safety is to aid authorities to solve crimes retroactively. Now, with the advances in AI and its ability to monitor data and activity its ability to assist in real-time situations will be enhanced. Furthermore, CCTV cameras have been used to generate revenue, especially with road traffic fines.
“There has been a marked increase in the interest in video management tools and other smart city platforms to help cities and organizations make use of the data that is currently available to them,” explains Lindsey Vest, Smart Cities & Smart Spaces Research Analyst at ABI Research.
Cities currently have access to vast amounts of data from traffic cameras, police body cams, private CCTV, and many other sources that it can be difficult for them to get the value from this data. “We are seeing an increase in the real-time benefits from surveillance with the help of AI and its ability to, for example, highlight suspicious behavior, monitor crowd numbers, and identify unattended luggage,” Vest says.
Smart cities rely on their ability to gather video and other data which can be incredibly powerful for public safety and other essential applications. “Urban surveillance has been a key part of public safety technology for decades. Although it is not without its controversies, it remains a popular and growing sector,” Vest concludes. | <urn:uuid:71b21783-c295-42b9-be43-e29af9efb93f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/01/25/urban-surveillance-technologies/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335530.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001035148-20221001065148-00148.warc.gz | en | 0.954302 | 359 | 2.546875 | 3 |
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