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Press Play on the video player above to view this training video. The video script is presented below if you prefer to read.
It's easy to dismiss permissions as simply a way to give users access to parts of your folder tree, but that misses some of the most interesting aspects of system design. In fact, before we go further, let's take a quick look at how easy it is to assign a permission to a user.
Here we are logged in as a user who has no permissions yet, not much to see. Not much to do. But let's hop over to our administrative user and change that. [see video] This is simple through the Files.com interface.
The first thing we need to look at is where in the folder tree we want these permissions to start for this user. Let's choose the video tutorials folder. The next thing is: which user or group do we want to grant permissions to? So, let's add a new permission, and let's choose our newuser2196. And for now, let's just say we're going to grant full permission to this folder. Open this menu, and you can see that this user can be an administrator of this folder, can have full permission, read-write, only read, only write, or list just to see what is in this folder and sub folders, or history permissions allowing this user to see the history logs or the audit logs that are associated with this folder. So for now, to keep it simple, we're just going to grant full permission. And we click add.
Now, if we refresh, this user has a very different experience. You can also see that as an administrator, by clicking on the permissions button at any given folder, you can see who has permissions to this folder, and what permissions they have.
With the permissions that we've granted this user, they can navigate in and out of folders, upload and download files, all the operations that a user would typically do: update, delete, move, and copy. If we want to remove permissions from this user, it's as simple as clicking on these permissions, [web interface - see video] and they're all selected because they're part of the full permissions, and we can click revoke.
Now if we refresh over here, we don't have permissions to any folder anymore. So, now let's navigate to a an interior folder, and instead of setting permissions to this folder, we're going to set permissions to this other folder. And we'll see how that's different.
So we go back to our permissions button, click on that, we can see who has permissions; this user is not included in this list. So, now we're going to add a new permission. Choose our user again, and this is the same user, and let's say we're going to just add list permission this time, and we're going to add only for this folder only and not any subfolders. Let's check this box. So, any sub folders that are added in here, this user will not be able to access for listing purposes. Now we add this permission. You can see that this permission now has a slightly different icon. This dot indicates that this is non-recursive.
So first, let's go over to this user and refresh. We can go into video tutorials. We see we only have access to the European operations folder. Let's go ahead and list. Now we can see the same files that are appearing on this side for our administrator, but let's create a new folder and call it folderA. Let's copy a few files into folderA.
Remember, we granted non recursive permissions to newuser2196, so if we go back and reload this folder, we can see that we can list the contents of this folder but we don't have access to folderA, so we can't see that folder is there, nor can we list the contents. Now let's go back and change this one more time. We're going to remove that permission. Now we're going to add it again, and this time we're going to add it as recursive.
Now there's no dot on that icon. And now if we refresh, we see folderA, and we can list the files that are in folderA.
Since Files.com has a built-in granular permissions model, setting permissions becomes, in effect, a design tool that allows you to create guides and structure that make your system stronger, smarter, and more productive.
Let's take a look at how that can happen.
But first let's talk about the principle of least access. This principle states simply that a user should have the minimum permissions needed to accomplish their tasks. This approach provides better security, and makes it less likely that a user will inadvertently lose or compromise data. A simple example would be a user who needs to know and report on which files are present in a folder in order to complete their tasks. Providing that user list permission like we just did, only allows them to see which files are there but does not allow them to accidentally delete any files. So for instance, if we try to check a file, I have no way to delete. And there's no mechanism here that would allow me to do that.
In contrast, following a practice of providing all users full permission by default, leaves open the possibility that a busy team member clicks too fast, or without looking, and accidentally destroys a file.
Believe me, if that happened to you, you wouldn't be the first. But why not use the principle of least access to avoid that.
Another benefit of using that more secure approach is that by using the available permission options, rather than granting everyone full access by default, you've turned permissions into a structural tool to enhance your system design.
Let's talk for a second about file flow.
Files come in, files are stored, files go out. In some simple workflows, your Files.com site might act like a warehouse, where you keep your files until someone needs that data. But in other cases, and more commonly in our experience, files need to be acted upon and referenced by multiple parties at multiple points in a complex process. Most often, more than one team is involved, and the touch points include both human and automated users.
Should all of these touch points or users have full permission set to perform any action on those files? Absolutely not. Permissions need to be set appropriately, following least access for each user's collection of tasks.
When files need to migrate through a process to help the process work, we can use permissions to guide their direction of flow. For instance, users in groups that have read permission can pull files from a folder. Users and groups that have write permission can push files into a folder. Those with read permission for folderA and write permission for folderB can perform a copy from folderA to folderB.
Those with read and delete permission for folderA and write permission for folderB can move a file from folderA to folderB. Extending this simple example, you can see that permissions determine which users or groups are able to move files in which directions.
So how do you use an example like that in a system design sense? You can think of it almost like plumbing. You have a resource, your data, that needs to move through a process to create its value, and like water through pipes, in order to generate the value you intend, it needs to follow a design shape, so you can predict its state at each step along the process and at the point of value delivery.
Let's take a hypothetical.
Let's say you have 15 inboxes where anonymous users can upload files. We often see this scenario in use cases by universities and municipal governments, pretty much any organization that has to serve a constituency.
Each of the inboxes is for a particular purpose, expecting particular types of files. You have an intake team that performs initial verification of the uploaded files. That intake team needs to verify the files and advance them into categorized folders for the next team to review.
The review team is notified of files arriving, perhaps based on category, for specific roles within the team by email notifiers, so they know to go to their category folder to retrieve them with categorization happening at intake.
You can see we're starting to create a funnel shape here. We have fewer categories than inboxes, and the goal at this step is to present the review team only with vetted and properly categorized files to review.
Another important goal is that we don't want any submissions to fall through the cracks or be lost. How would permissions help us meet these goals for this part of the process? The intake team needs read permission for all of the inboxes so that they can see and vet the submissions. To make sure that no one from the intake team accidentally loses a file, we would avoid giving them delete permission. And, since they are not adding files to the inboxes, they do not need write permission. They do however, need write permission to the next layer of folders, where they will advance the submissions for the review team.
So the intake team can see and evaluate files in the inboxes and copy them with their read permission to the next layer of folders where they have write permission. Since they can't delete files from the inboxes, no file is lost.
But wouldn't that clutter up the inboxes with duplicates and over time make new submissions harder to sift through? Sure. But that's an easy one to solve with web hooks and the REST API.
What you do is set up a web hook in each of the inboxes as well as the target folders for the next layer. The web hook fires on the read action from the inbox, and then the create action to the target folder and triggers a script that uses an API key owned by a bot user with delete permission to the inboxes.
And note that we do have a separate video on the use of web hooks, which I encourage you to check out.
Now, in our plumbing metaphor, this functions like a one-way check valve. The file is only deleted from the inbox when it has been confirmed copied into its new location, and is deleted automatically by a bot user based on the path provided by the read web hook. Using permissions, the submissions can flow only in one direction, can't go back, and can't be deleted until they are confirmed in their new location.
How about the files that don't pass muster in the inboxes? We don't want to leave them in there to create clutter. That's also an easy one. Provide the intake team with a remove folder at the same level as the target folders and give them write permission to that folder and set the webhooks just as if it were another target folder only for the remove folder. Set a folder behavior to automatically expire the files after 30 days, or whatever number of days makes sense. This automatically clears the clutter but still gives you 30 days to double check the discarded files should that be necessary in your process.
So this leaves us with the files advanced to the appropriate review folders for the review team. Let's say the review team is going to review these files and then further advanced them to the next level for the processing team. We're continuing the funnel design by giving the review team write permissions to fewer target folders than they have read permissions for.
Let's say their review results in these files going through either process A or process B. Let's also say that both processes will change the files. But we want to keep the original secure for a period of time for reference. So we will use a variation of the one way check valve. Rather than using web hooks and the API to delete the files as soon as they are copied to the process folders. We'll use that same combination with an API call to copy the files instead to a holding folder. To perform the copy the API key would need to have at least read and write permission.
If it makes sense for the process, we could put something like a 90 day file expiration on this holding folder to automate the housecleaning. Now, the process team needs full permission to their process folders, because they're going to be making edits to the files. They also need read permission to the holding folder, so they can refer to the original files if they need to. But we don't want them to be able to change those originals.
When the processing team is done with their processes, they can advance the files to an authorization folder where they have write permissions but not delete permissions. This continues the direction of flow through the funnel, and maintains the one-way check valve.
Once they upload the finished files that are waiting for authorization, they cannot overwrite them or delete them because they do not have delete permission to the authorization folder. The authorization team needs read permissions to the authorization folder so they can view the files and give them the Okay.
Let's say that this process of content creation and review has resulted in outputs of some sort, like reports that are output as PDFs. At the end of the line, these reports need to be distributed to a population. The authorization team has the responsibility to sign off on the reports and final product produced by the process team and then distribute them to the end users. They can do this with their read permission to the authorization folder and write permission to a distribution folder.
If the population that needs the reports is not a credentialed population, or is anonymous, which is normally the case in the workflows we see in municipal governments and customers of that type, then the distribution is likely to be by a sharelink URL that is given out to the population. The share link is to the distribution folder itself, so when the authorization team copies the processed report file from the authorization folder to the distribution folder, it is instantly available to the audience. And depending on the nature of the file content, maybe the share link is protected by a password.
We have another video in this series that deals specifically with share links that I also encourage you to watch.
We've talked about these structures referring to individual user permissions so far, but the most efficient way to leverage these ideas is with group permissions. When we speak in terms of teams, that naturally lends itself to the idea of groups. If you build your permission structure around groups, then managing appropriate access becomes a much simpler matter of making sure your users are members of the right groups. In fact, we have a feature that allows you to manage all permissions via groups. Enabling this feature on your site means that your existing users with permissions still have those permissions, but any changes would have to be made through groups, and any additional permissions added to your site would only be done through the group context.
We have a separate video also talking more specifically about using groups on Files.com, so be sure to check that one out as well.
We hope that this discussion of permissions as a design tool has left you informed and opened doors to new ideas about how you can design processes that secure your operations and help them be more reliable and efficient.
If you have any questions, please feel free to Contact Us or give us a call at 1-800-286-8372.
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The button below will take you to our Free Trial signup page. Click on the white "Start My Free Trial" button, then fill out the short form on the next page. Your account will be activated instantly. You can dive in and start yourself or let us help. The choice is yours.Start My Free Trial | <urn:uuid:98db7873-e954-43f8-8df6-629409e6f56c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.files.com/docs/training-videos/training-video-permissions | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334620.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925225000-20220926015000-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.958836 | 3,213 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The volume of online transactions is growing exponentially — driven by the digitalization, sheer increase in the volume of online transactions themselves, larger scale of operations and new Financial Technologies (FinTech for short). Simultaneously with digitalization, there is a new quest for enterprises to start new channels of business, to get more online presence, to retain existing revenue streams and more importantly, to just stay relevant to the current technology. In fact, it is a whole new world, not just an incremental change to the traditional methods of doing business.
To keep up with this dramatic pace of change, the senior Finance executives have to learn how to fuel the growth of their operations through major shift in policies and innovations. They have to learn how to create more online platforms and payment methods.
Due to the sheer volume of transactions, and the impersonal nature of the transactions there is also a commensurate increase in financial crime and fraud! The risks are bigger and the stake are higher.
Most companies invest in having teams in their finance departments try to keep up with these new data sources to to analyze them and be able to detect fraud, and do it as quickly as possible. However, traditional approaches that were being used earlier, and continue to be used in many organizations even today, just cannot keep up with these new challenges.
So what exactly can be done to effectively handle Finance Fraud Detection in the new era?
The reason traditional approaches are inadequate today is because they are rule-based systems and are usually unable to detect patterns. The case of fraud can be detected but internal-linking of various small incidents that may indicate a pattern of fraud is often beyond the traditional system.
This is where a lot of tools such as the all new https://avianaglobal.com/naas/ have been successful in providing pattern detection and unearthing fraud schemes. The tools are based on machine learning and AI, so all that enormous amount of data is just making the system better at predicting fraud.
If correctly applied, the techniques can actually break complex patterns and predict fraud, helping prevent such instances from happening. And it goes hand in hand with the acumen of the traditional fraud detection teams and enhances the results.
However, we have to guard against the major challenge of False Positives.
What is the major challenge of False Positives?
Some of the transactions that are tagged as fraudulent, and set aside for investigation turn out to be genuine – and may these create major customer relationship problems. For example, if a customer is considered to be conducting a fraudulent transaction as compared to their usual behavior they are blocked. If in fact, the transaction was a genuine one, and our system had provided a “false positive” our affected customer would be very unhappy.
Thus there is a need for more sophisticated anomaly detection engines that can eliminate or minimize the occurrence of false positives. This can be seen in some of the newer offerings in the market, such as Aviana’s offering, referenced earlier in this post. The impact of such improvements in fraud prevention technologies will just not be seen in better financial control, but also in operation efficiency and higher job satisfaction of your fraud prevention team. | <urn:uuid:53f89501-1444-4bad-8282-6f0cafdcaab4> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://avianaglobal.com/leveraging-digital-technology-to-unearth-fintech-fraud/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335573.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001070422-20221001100422-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.957993 | 649 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Why do we need 10GBASE-T copper transceivers?
10GBASE-T, or IEEE 802.3an-2006, is a standard released in 2006 to provide 10Gbit/s connections over unshielded or shielded twisted pair cables, with distances up to 30 meters (98 ft) with RJ45 connectors on an electrical transceiver (or copper transceiver). It's backward-compatible with existing 1GbE (1 Gigabit Ethernet) networks, meaning that it can be deployed based on existing 1GbE switch infrastructures in data centers that are cabled with CAT6 and CAT6A (or above) cabling. 10GBASE-T is a cabling solution of 10GbE, the other 10GbE cabling solutions include SFP+ fiber (10G-SR,10G-LR,10G-LRM, etc.), SFP+ Direct Attach Cable (DAC), SFP+ Active Optical Cable (AOC).
The most outstanding difference between optical transceivers and electrical transceivers is the transport media they use, as a result, optical transceivers should be linked with optical fiber and electrical transceivers should be linked with networking cables such as CAT6.
Generally, transceivers are meant to be optical because there are RJ45 electrical ports on switches for potential connection need of networking cables. However, the fact is we don’t have enough RJ45 electrical ports on the switch for networking cabling every now and then, it’s unlikely to replace the functional switch merely for a temporary or occasional use of electrical ports. In this case, a product that can convert the optical port to the electrical port, which is a 10GBASE-T copper transceiver can certainly give you a hand. Even more than that, the 10GBASE-T copper transceiver, for example, the 10G-SFP-T (SFP-10G-T-S) of 10Gtek, can backward-compatible with 100/1000Base-T as well, surely it’s a good news for those Data Centers built years ago, by this means the owner can save a bunch of budget from it. Even so, in order to achieve the expected effect, the electrical transceivers inevitably consume more power than optical transceivers, which limits the amount of 10GBASE-T transceivers being installed at the same time. Whether the chipset is Marvell or Broadcom, the power consumption of electrical transceivers is still 2.5 W. As to the chipset, 10Gtek is applying Marvell on the 10G-SFP-T because it costs lesser than Broadcom though they have the same function.
Currently, there are products with 10GBASE-T standard, including the Network Interface Card (NIC) and the electrical transceiver. 10GBASE-T has been important in the network of the data center. In case you are looking for 10GBASE-T transceivers, there are 2 websites for you to get one of them, the e-commerce website SFPcables.com and amazon.com/10gtek. Make sure whether you have requirements on compatibility for the 10GBASE-T transceivers before making an order. What’s more, 10Gtek provides technical support for those products on their websites. | <urn:uuid:91ee723d-5f32-4e12-aed0-840441a39c57> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.10gtek.com/new-1293 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337446.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003231906-20221004021906-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.92273 | 694 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Ultrasensitive Microwave Detector Developed – Enabling Technology for Next-Generation Quantum Computers
(SciTechDaily) A joint international research team from POSTECH of South Korea, Raytheon BBN Technologies, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S., Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology in Spain, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan have together developed ultrasensitive sensors that can detect microwaves with the highest theoretically possible sensitivity. The research findings, published in the prominent international academic journal Nature, are drawing attention as an enabling technology for commercializing the next-generation of technologies including quantum computers.
“This study is significant in that it has established a scalable technology to enable the next-generation quantum devices,” remarked Professor Gil-Ho Lee of POSTECH, who led the study. He further explained, “This study developed a bolometer technology that measures how many microwave photons are absorbed per unit time. But currently, we are developing a single-photon detection technology that can distinguish each microwave photon.” He concluded, “We expect this technology to maximize the measuring efficiency of quantum computing and drastically reduce the indirect resources to enable large-scale quantum computers that will be of great use. Dr. Kin Chung Fong of Raytheon BBN Technologies commented, “We are seeing an unexpected interest in this study from those researching the origins of the universe in the field of radio astronomy and those studying dark matter in particle physics.” He added, “This is an example of how research on basic science can be applied to various fields.” | <urn:uuid:986960a0-b70c-4afb-9591-5dfc2d8fb477> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.insidequantumtechnology.com/news-archive/ultrasensitive-microwave-detector-developed-enabling-technology-for-next-generation-quantum-computers-2/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337446.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003231906-20221004021906-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.906539 | 332 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Active Setup Explained
This is a summary of my experience with Active Setup combined with what I could find on the internet. The information applies to older and current versions of Windows, up to and including Windows 7, Windows 10, Server 2016, Server 2019.
Active Setup is a mechanism for executing commands once per user early during logon. Active Setup is used by some operating system components like Internet Explorer to set up an initial configuration for new users logging on for the first time. Active Setup is also used in some corporation’s software distribution systems to create an initial customized user environment. To understand why such a mechanism is necessary we need to take a step back.
Application programs use two different types of data: machine-specific data like the files in the installation directory, and user-specific data like the information which document a user last edited with the application. Installing machine-specific data is simple: just copy it to
C:\Program Files and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and you are done. But how to get an initial user configuration into a user profile? Writing into the profile of the user doing the install does not help because we need the initial configuration for all users logging on to the system.
One solution to this problem is Active Setup. It uses both machine-specific data and user-specific data. The machine part consists of a list of components identified by a GUID each. The user part is basically a mirror of the machine data, but, and this is the key point, it does not exist in new user profiles. Whenever a user logs on, Active Setup checks if each machine part component GUID is present in the user part. If not, the component’s command is executed and the component’s GUID is stored in the user part. If it is, the current user profile has already been initialized and no further action is required.
Active Setup runs before the Desktop appears. Commands started by Active Setup run synchronously, blocking the logon while they are executing. Active Setup is executed before any Run or RunOnce registry entries are evaluated.
Active Setup is executed by
explorer.exe, namely the Explorer instance that acts as the shell and later shows the desktop. For this very reason Active Setup does not work with published applications, since
explorer.exe is not started when a published application is run.
You can manually trigger Active Setup by executing the following command within the session, e.g. from a logon script:
This is the root key containing all things Active Setup. The keys and values mentioned below are all located under this root key.
A duplicate of this machine key exists in the user profile:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components. In this article, I call the HKCU Active Setup key “user part”.
- Type: registry key
- For each component, there is a GUID key below the root key. Technically, this need not be a GUID, but GUIDs have the advantage of being unique.
- Each GUID represents one component to be managed by Active Setup. The number of components is not limited and there can be zero, one, or multiple components per application. The number of components is dependent on the number of commands that are to run – only one command per component is possible (see StubPath below).
- Type: REG_SZ
- Optional name of the component. If a name is stored here, it will be shown in the Active Setup user interface dialog when the component’s command is run.
- Type: REG_DWORD
- 0: The component’s command will not run.
- 1: The component’s command will be run once per user. This is the default (if the IsInstalled value does not exist).
- Type: REG_SZ
- An arbitrary string specifying the installation language of the component. If this string is either not found in the user part or different from the machine part, the component is run. Please note that Active Setup does not impose any restrictions on the nature of this string, you could use “abc” just as well as “de” or “en”. Once run, the version number is copied to the user part.
- Type: REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ
- Format: Any valid command line, e.g. “notepad”
- This is the command that is executed if Active Setup determines this component needs to run during logon.
- Type: REG_SZ
- Format: Four numbers separated by commas, e.g.: 1,2,3,4 (points do not work)
- If a version value is present, the component’s command will run only if the corresponding version in the user part is smaller or not present. Once run, the version number is copied to the user part. If you want a component’s command to run again, you need to increase the version number. That is what Windows updates do, e.g. when you install Internet Explorer 8 on a machine that only had IE7 before. By increasing the version number, the initial user configuration is guaranteed to run again.
This is really simple. Let us unrealistically assume you need to start notepad once per user. This is what that would look like:
All you need are two simple registry values below your own Active Setup component key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\Helge] @="Helge's Active Setup Component" "StubPath"="notepad"
As you can see, I used a not so arbitrary component name (“Helge”) in place of a GUID. I set the default value to a string I would like displayed while my component’s command executes (“Helge’s Active Setup Component”). And finally I set the command line executed by Active Setup: “notepad” just starts the Windows editor, of course.
Active Setup employs neither a timeout nor any other mechanism to determine if a StubPath process it started is still alive. That means it is very easy to shoot yourself in the foot: if a process started by Active Setup hangs, Active Setup hangs, too, and there is typically no easy way to remedy the situation, except flipping the big red power switch. | <urn:uuid:5fefe859-0d66-4e74-b739-7a687a4df5dd> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://helgeklein.com/blog/active-setup-explained/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.880875 | 1,376 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Social engineering is when cybercriminals exploit human psychology to gain a favorable result for themselves, like tricking people into providing their password. It is easier for criminals to exploit people’s instinctive tendency to trust than to find ways to hack devices or networks.
See 10 reasons why Graphus is better than other email security solutions. SEE THE LIST>>
What is social engineering?
The term social engineering, first used by French industrialist JC Van Marken in 1894, is a phenomenon of influencing people to take any action that may be against their best interest. It is the art and science of controlling the masses to comply with one’s wish.
What are examples of social engineering?
A threat actor may use social engineering to entice an employee into downloading a malicious file by convincing them that the file is an important, harmless document. During the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals would get people to open malicious files by presenting them as COVID-19-related company policies.
Social engineering can also be used to trick an employee into giving over their password when cybercriminals spoof messages from well-known brands like Microsoft that instruct the victim that their password needs to be changed because messages from big brands may be perceived as trustworthy.
Social engineering is used in business email compromise and conversation hijacking attacks by convincing the victim is someone the victim already has a business relationship with. This can be used to persuade the victim to transfer money to pay an invoice or give the bad guys sensitive data.
AI is the secret weapon you’re looking for to boost business email security. SEE WHY>>
What are social engineering attacks?
Social engineering attacks are any cyberattack that is based on psychological trickery. The psychological aspects, more than the technical aspects of the attack, are the gateway for significant damage, such as opening dodgy emails, handing over passwords and clicking on a suspicious link, are a few to mention. Social engineering is the catalyst for 93% of successful data breaches.
Types of Social Engineering Attacks
Social engineering attacks are carried out in a number of ways. Here are a few of the most popular tactics:
Phishing is the most common form of social engineering attack. A phishing message aims to persuade the recipient into taking a specific action that will serve the cybercriminal’s goals, like downloading a document that carries ransomware. Cybercriminals favor phishing because it is cheap, easy, versatile and effective – 97% of users can’t spot a sophisticated phishing message.
In spear phishing, the perpetrator engineers their message to be extremely appealing to a specific pool of victims. Messages are tailor-made based on things like education, job roles and contact details. A typical scenario may involve a bad actor trying to an impersonate IT consultant working for the victim’s company requesting a password change, thereby deceiving the employee into assuming it is an authentic message.
Like phishing and spear phishing, whaling is a digitally enabled fraud that uses social engineering techniques to craft phishing messages designed to target high-ranked or highly privileged employees in an organization. It often encourages the victim to perform secondary actions such as a wire transfer of funds.
Scareware has the same characteristics as malware and uses social engineering tactics to create confusion, shock and anxiety to manipulate users into buying or installing malicious software. A typical scenario of a scareware attack would include tricking the user into believing that their computer is infected with a virus, then suggesting the user buy/pay for antivirus software to remove it.
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Social engineering red flags
Social engineering attacks are increasing, and security teams must be on the lookout for potential attacks with the users on the last line of defense. However, the end-users must be responsible for monitoring their actions. Here are some red flags to watch for.
- Password request – Unsolicited emails seeking personal information like passwords must be rejected and should be reported to the security team immediately.
- Immediate assistance – Hackers can disguise themselves as technical support of an organization. If one did not request any assistance, consider any offers or requests as scams.
- Spam emails— Unsolicited bulk emailing can increase the risk of flooding the employee’s inbox with malicious links, potentially leading to a major phishing attack.
- Text messages— Don’t fall for text message requests asking users to reply with temporary passwords received on their devices.
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Social Engineering Prevention
- Set spam filter to high –Click the spam filter feature in your email client to high, which will help stop more suspicious messages, but may cause a delay in communications.
- When in doubt, change your password – If an employee may have given away their password to a bad actor, an instant change in the password can help minimize the damage.
- Incorporate two-factor or multi-factor authentication – Two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) prevents 99.9% of cyberattacks.
- Stay alert for unexpected messages. when in doubt, report a suspicious message to your administrator or supervisor.
- Use a high-quality email security solution. Choosing advanced tools that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect suspicious activity keeps dangerous messages out of employee inboxes.
See how to avoid cybercriminal sharks in Phishing 101. DOWNLOAD IT>>
Prevent social engineering attacks with Graphus
Keeping up with a computer-based social engineering landscape can be daunting for businesses. New sophisticated forms of attack can easily outfox traditional phishing filters. Traditional security tools compare incoming messages to a checklist of possible trouble signs.
Powered by intelligent AI technology Graphus can detect and quarantine potential phishing attempts by learning the unique communication pattern of without interrupting the flow of traffic while catching 40% more phishing messages than a SEG or traditional/onboard email security.
TrustGraph uses more than 50 separate data points to detect and analyze phishing attempts before sending them to their recipients—it never ceases to learn and is always on the lookout for new threat intelligence.
EmployeeShield adds a bright, noticeable box whenever there is a new line of communication— keeping employees vigilant whenever handling unknown messages. By marking a message authentic or malicious with one click, each employee can contribute to safeguarding business security.
Phish911 completes triple-layered protection by making it effortless for employees to report any suspicious messages to the administrator. Messages are instantly removed from everyone’s inbox anytime an employee reports suspicious activity to avoid further trouble.
Social engineering attacks can make a business go bankrupt in their wake— 60% of businesses never recover after a cyberattack. Our experts can show you why Graphus is this ideal solution to safeguard businesses against social engineering and other sophisticated cyberattacks. | <urn:uuid:69efbdf4-3531-4238-a567-d844cf806bb0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.graphus.ai/blog/what-is-social-engineering/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.926636 | 1,436 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Computer viruses are much like real viruses in that an infection can ruin everything. Systems that once worked well grind to a halt as your computer struggles to recover. That’s why antivirus programs are non-negotiable: They keep your digital life safe if you avoid the most common mistakes.
One of the most common misconceptions about antivirus software is thinking that anything will do. They download the first free program they can find, thinking it will work just as well as a paid product from a legitimate company. In reality, using free antivirus software could cost you dearly.
When you’re protecting your computer, you get what you pay for. That’s why Kim recommends her sponsor, TotalAV, which has an industry-leading security suite that offers the best protection possible. No matter what program you use, avoid these common security mistakes.
Mistake No. 1: You don’t do your research
This might sound bizarre, but many antivirus programs are just malware in disguise. Cybercriminals know that many people are trusting. They’re banking on you not doing your research and taking the word “antivirus” at face value.
If you fall for one of these fakes, you could download malware onto your device. We recommend avoiding free antivirus programs since they’re more likely to come from scammers. After all, cybercriminals know they can reel in more people by offering free services.
Bottom line: Do research when you’re trying to protect your computer. Choose poorly, and you could inadvertently destroy it. Read reviews to see what people like you think about the antivirus program. If people say it’s a scam, believe them.
Mistake No. 2: You don’t download your antivirus software from the official sources
Maybe you see an ad for a reliable program and you click it. This takes you to a website that looks legitimate. If you download the program from this site, you could be putting your digital life in danger.
Cybercriminals often try to get your guard down by pretending to be something they’re not. According to Bemidji State University, many fake antivirus or malware removal programs pose as legitimate tools from trustworthy companies.
That’s why you should never download a program from a random website — no matter how official the site’s design looks. Otherwise, you could be buying a fraudulent program riddled with malware.
Instead, you should look up the official website and purchase the software there. You need to take a few extra steps, but it’s worth it. If you’re worried about imposter cons, we’ve got you covered.
Luckily, there are a few surefire red flags you can look for. Tap or click here for a few ways to avoid impersonation scams.
Mistake No. 3: Not having backups is one of the most common antivirus mistakes
Although antivirus programs are an essential tool in your cybersecurity kit, you shouldn’t rely on them alone. You should also use firewalls, VPNs and other protective strategies. Depending on just one program is expecting a lot.
Remember that each cybersecurity tool protects you differently. There are countless threats you’ll have to deal with, like:
- Phishing schemes.
- Data breaches.
Those are just a few examples. There are many other cyberattacks you need to watch out for. To protect yourself as much as possible, use more than just an antivirus program.
Tap or click here for the difference between a firewall and an antivirus program. We’ll break down why you need both to maximize cybersecurity.
Mistake No. 4: You don’t update your antivirus program
Many people will download an antivirus program and never think about it again. They think of installing it as another task they can cross off their to-do list.
In reality, you need to participate in your cybersecurity strategy. You can’t just sit back and wipe your hands clean. One of the most common antivirus mistakes people make is not staying up-to-date on their program of choice.
To protect yourself, watch for updates. Whenever the company releases new patches, download them. This way, you won’t miss out on critical security features. If you don’t do this, you’re putting yourself at risk. Hackers often find old errors and vulnerabilities in popular programs.
Your device could be hacked if you don’t update your antivirus software. Staying up-to-date protects your computer from preventable infections.
Mistake No. 5: You’re using multiple antivirus programs
The more, the merrier! This only applies to parties. When discussing cybersecurity, you only need one antivirus program at your beck and call.
If you double up, you might put yourself in danger. That’s because each antivirus program has a unique way of interacting with your computer. If you download two at once, they might counteract each other.
In fact, they might misinterpret the other as malware. Thus, one antivirus program might designate the other as a harmful program and quarantine it. Just like that, a program you paid for has been rendered useless.
BONUS: One of the most common antivirus mistakes is not going for the best of the best
Cyberattacks are on the rise, and the more we rely on our devices for work, school and our personal lives, the more we have to lose. Whether it’s bank accounts, personal data, photos or conversations, there’s just so much to preserve and protect. That’s why we recommend TotalAV.
TotalAV’s industry-leading security suite is easy to use and offers the best protection in the business. In fact, it’s received the renowned VB100 award for detecting more than 99% of malware samples over the last three years.
Not only do you get continuous protection from the latest threats, but its AI-driven Web Shield browser extension blocks dangerous websites automatically, and its Junk Cleaner can help you quickly clear out your old files.
Right now, get an annual plan of TotalAV Internet Security for only $19 at ProtectWithKim.com. That’s over 85% off the regular price! | <urn:uuid:b65df48c-2a17-428d-bb0f-6868edfdc7f8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.komando.com/security-privacy/most-common-antivirus-mistakes/855468/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.930523 | 1,347 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Scientists invented a pen-like tool that rapidly and accurately identifies cancerous tissue during surgery, delivering results in about 10 seconds. The MasSpec Pen is an innovative handheld instrument that gives surgeons precise diagnostic information about what tissue to cut or preserve, helping improve treatment and reduce the chances of cancer recurrence.
Telling cancerous tissue apart from healthy tissue is important during surgery, and not just to ensure that all the tumor is removed. Taking too much healthy tissue can also dangerous, raising the prospect of damage to muscle and nerve function, along with other painful side effects.
Currently surgeons follow Frozen Section Analysis for diagnosing cancers, and also determine the difference in cancer and normal tissue during surgery. But, this method is slow and sometimes inaccurate. In this method, each sample can take 30 minutes and more to prepare and interpret by a pathologist, which increases the risk to the patient of infection. In some type of cancers, frozen section interpretation can difficult, yielding unreliable results in as many as 10 to 20 percent of cases.
The MasSpec Pen is much quicker and more accurate than current approaches. During tests, researchers remove tissues from 253 human cancer patients comprising both healthy and cancerous tissues of the breast, lung, thyroid and ovary, and takes about 10 seconds to provide a diagnosis. The device also detects cancer in marginal regions between normal and cancer tissues that presented mixed cellular composition.
Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, an assistant professor of chemistry at UT Austin, says, cancer cells have abnormal metabolism. These metabolites are so different, we extract and analyze with the MasSpec Pen to obtain a molecular fingerprint of the tissue. However, the MasSpec Pen rapidly provides diagnostic molecular information without causing tissue damage.
The pen simply needs to be held against the tissue while a foot pedal is used to kick off the process. This sees a drop of water fall onto the tissue, allowing small molecules to be absorbed into the liquid. This water is then fed into a mass spectrometer to detect thousands of molecules and interpret the molecular fingerprints of various cancers.
Once the analysis complete, a connected computer screen will automatically display “Normal” or “Cancer” within about 10 seconds. When testing the MasSpec Pen, it proved more than 96 percent accurate and also detects cancer in marginal areas between normal and cancerous tissue.
Researchers say, this technology allows us to be much more precise in what tissue we remove and what we leave behind.
More information: [Science Translational Medicine] | <urn:uuid:80d74449-3819-4010-99a7-5f939eb06764> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://areflect.com/2017/09/07/this-pen-can-detect-cancer-tissues-in-seconds/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337625.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005105356-20221005135356-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.942048 | 518 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Focus groups are ideal when you want to gain multiple perspectives in an interactive group setting.
However, one of the things that can happen in focus groups is “group think.” The first person starts off on a tangent – good or bad – and then the entire room goes along with that first opinion. This is a dynamic that every good researcher is aware of.
So does groupthink invalidate a focus group? Of course not, and in fact it can be very useful as long as you know it’s happening and stop it when necessary. Here are a few tips:
- First, establish if group think is a good or a bad thing for your project. Depending on your goals, group think can be a very bad thing. For example, in message testing you’re usually evaluating the kinds of pain/benefit statements that someone experiences in isolation. Groupthink is very damaging in that kind of environment because you end up seeing only one participant’s uneducated, unguided reaction to messages. In this case, maybe focus groups are not the right medium – in-depth interviews or a Web survey may give you better results.
- Remember that group think can be very good. If you’re trying to brainstorm an idea, having somebody to kick off the conversation and then see where the group goes with it is a very good thing. A smart moderator will encourage this kind of thinking for a while and see where it goes. The most creative ideas from focus groups I’ve been in did not come from one single individual. They came from the group members inspiring each other to build off of each other’s experiences and ideas and come up with something more powerful than any of the individual input. When one participants says “what if …”, and then the next participant says “cool idea, but how about this…” and then yet another participant says “or even better, you could take that idea and try…”. Now you’re cooking!
- Be prepared to funnel groupthink. When you see it happening, a good moderator will challenge the group with the opposite assumption. Prompt some “group think” around the positive ideas, and then redirect the group to talk about the negative ideas. Insist that the group gives you multiple perspectives.
Above all – don’t be scared of negative group think! It’s very good to hear every possible objection your target audience can make about your solution BEFORE you start selling, so you can be prepared with the products, messages, and objection handling you need to be successful. | <urn:uuid:15b3cc83-1012-4365-8f47-a1aa508bd95d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://dimensionalresearch.com/blog/2009/08/03/dealing-with-group-think/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335286.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928212030-20220929002030-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.940936 | 535 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Scams cost Americans $56 billion last year, and credit card fraud made up a large chunk of that. With criminals becoming more sophisticated, it's difficult to know how to protect ourselves. According to research, most of us believe we could do more to safeguard our identities online.
Most people are aware of the dangers of online scams, but many still fall victim to them. Scammers are getting smarter and more sophisticated, so you must be smarter to avoid scams.
Financial frauds cost Americans millions of dollars every year. Criminals are always coming up with new methods to steal your money or withdraw funds from you. Get the information you need to defend yourself against these frauds.
Misleading, deceptive, or other illegal methods are used to deprive you of your money or otherwise endanger your financial health. This may be achieved in various ways, including identity theft and investment fraud.
The money you lose to fraud or fraudulent schemes is typically not covered by victim compensation programs. Check with your attorney to see whether your state has any special rules on victim compensation. Only civil justice might provide a route to retrieving lost funds.
If you are the victim of financial fraud, you must take action quickly by notifying law enforcement and other appropriate authorities. You should also dispute or reverse fraudulent charges as soon as possible and keep records of everything related to the crime, such as bank statements, tax forms, or credit reports from current and previous years (or any other important information).
If you've seen television commercials promoting people getting defrauded by identity theft, typically without intending to, then you're probably familiar with financial fraud. When money or other assets are taken from you through deceit or other types of criminal activity, it's known as financial fraud. According to the most recent figures, millions of Americans were victims of financial fraud last year.
Identity theft is just a variety of financial frauds types that may occur; therefore, it's critical to be aware of different types of financial fraud and how to combat them. Here are some prevalent kinds of financial fraud and the measures you can take to avoid them today.
Identity theft is the illegal acquisition of someone else's personal information, usually in the form of a username and password, to assume their identity. This data might include names, social security numbers, and debit or credit card numbers. Identity thieves may illegally use your information to obtain loans or engage in other illicit activities without your consent. They could also utilize it to establish lines of credit or receive medical care through insurance providers you're paying for via credit cards or lines of credit.
Although it may appear that you can't avoid identity theft, there are things you can do to prevent your information from being stolen. Sharing intimate details, such as your date of birth or social security number, is a no-no. Collect your mail daily and use strong passwords on all online accounts. Furthermore, avoid handling personal business such as paying bills on open Wi-Fi networks.
Making false, deceptive, or fraudulent statements about investments or securities. This might be the case of making/omitting critical information and insider trading recommendations, among other things.
Pump and dumps are fraudulent schemes in which stock traders or brokers purchase a stock at a low price and entice other investors to buy the same security to boost its value. Those who bought the stock at a low price then sold their shares and profited from the transaction.
Ponzi schemes are investment fraud in which returns are paid using new money from freshly recruited investors rather than interest and profits from legitimate investments.
Securities fraud is called misrepresenting a business or real estate opportunity investment by providing bad, inaccurate, or false information. Omitting or hiding important information related to an investment decision is also considered investment fraud.
The most effective protection against investment fraud is to be an informed investor. Know what you are investing in and why you are investing. Do not take tips from strangers or people you do not know and trust, especially unsolicited tips. Also, do not let anyone pressure you into making an investment decision. Take your time, research, and seek professional advice if you have any doubts.
A less frequently talked about the type of financial fraud is embezzlement. Here, the scammer steals property or money they've been entrusted with for personal use. An example of embezzlement would be if someone had access to another person's finances at work but didn't have legal ownership over them and took some of that money for themselves. This serious issue is often grouped with other forms of property theft.
Conduct a complete background check, restrict access to money and financial resources, and have a zero-tolerance policy for any act of theft. Pay attention to your finances and keep close track of your money. This includes knowing where your money is, how it's being used, and who has access to it. If you have someone managing your finances, choose someone you trust and who has a good reputation. It's also important to stay involved in your finances and regularly check in on what's happening. Be aware of the signs of embezzlement. These can include sudden changes in lifestyle, unexplained absences, secretive behavior, and financial problems. If you suspect embezzlement, take action immediately. This includes contacting law enforcement, your bank, and/or a lawyer.
Mail fraud is any scheme to harm or defraud someone through the mail using false pretences or promises.
Some common mail fraud includes:
The most effective prevention against mail fraud is to be proactive and check the validity of a letter before responding. If a number appears on what looks like an official piece of correspondence, verify that it's the real company's number rather than a fake one.
It's always best to hand-deliver any letters containing personal information like your Social Security number or bank account number. And when you're going on vacation, don't let your mail pile up! Be sure to either disable your mailbox or have a neighbor collect it for you while you're away.
Tax fraud describes the act of deliberately providing false information on your taxes to reduce what you owe the government. This is considered cheating because it prevents people from paying their full share of taxes. Some common examples of tax fraud include claiming false deductions (such as personal expenses classified as business expenses) and not reporting income.
You should avoid tax fraud because it is illegal and because criminals are more likely to commit identity theft during tax season by stealing tax documents. To reduce your risk, you can file your taxes early and securely - for example, using a safe internet portal or going through a trusted accountant. Being detailed and organized with your finances by saving receipts and other documentation will help you file your taxes accurately and protect yourself from any potential tax fraud allegations.
A driver's license is required for various purposes, including flying, opening a bank account, and driving! So it should be no surprise that people seek to steal driver's licenses to enable them to perform all of these activities under someone else's name.
If a fake driver's license is issued in your name, they may commit traffic infractions and more serious offences that will reflect poorly on you. If the imposter resides in your state, YOU could have difficulties renewing YOUR own license.
There are a few things you can do to help protect against driver's license fraud:
Unfortunately, credit and debit card fraud is becoming one of the more prevalent types of financial crime in our increasingly digital world. This happens when an individual uses someone else's credit or debit card without permission. Debit or credit card numbers can be easily obtained through unprotected internet connections or physically stealing someone's cards.
As the name implies, internet fraudsters use the web to take advantage of others through deceit. This term is broadly used to describe any kind of fraud that happens on the internet, including auction fraud (like bidding on an item and never receiving it), phishing schemes (fraudulent emails that try to get you to input your personal information on a fake website), and romance scams (being scammed by someone you met online).
They typically commit these crimes through malware, email account compromise (EAC), data breaches, and phishing scams. Sadly, billions are stolen from honest people online each year.
There are a few things you can do to protect against online fraud, including:
If you think you may have been a victim of online fraud, you should immediately report it to the proper authorities.
Being scammed out of your hard-earned money is unnerving, but there are thankfully many ways you can prevent it from happening. Following these tips can help reduce your chances of being scammed.
If you believe your personal information has been compromised, the first step is to call your bank. They will be able to tell you what precautions to take moving forward. You must monitor your accounts closely; as soon as any fraudulent activity appears, report it immediately by contacting your financial institution (using the number on the back of your card). Your bank will then freeze the card to thwart future illegal transactions and refund you ASAP after verifying everything internally. The IRS will also examine this case of fraud. You may also contact the police or go to your local police station to report bank fraud.
If you have been the victim of fraud, you should report it to the police and your bank or credit card company as soon as possible. You should also keep all documentation and evidence related to the fraud, as this may be helpful in pursuing legal action. If you have been the victim of online fraud, you may also want to contact your local FBI office or the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Nobody is immune to falling into such a trap, but these suggestions can help you avoid many headaches and significant financial losses. | <urn:uuid:9183db5c-cf5a-4959-b31a-15e544c5f2cb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.efani.com/blog/financial-fraud | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337360.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002212623-20221003002623-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.955324 | 1,982 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Robotic Process Automation
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a type of automation technology with the potential to transform the way businesses operate by automating manual tasks within business processes by implementing (software) “robots” to perform these tasks instead of humans. This leadership brief looks at the most appropriate applications of RPA and the biggest potential business benefits.
1 Executive Summary
The initial wave of RPA technologies focused on automating manual, repetitive tasks such as data entry automation using screen scraping. But RPA is increasingly using AI (mainly in the form of machine learning) for augmenting and replacing human decision making and understanding of text and other information for more complex and enterprise-wide applications.
What distinguishes RPA from traditional IT automation is the ability of adapt to changing circumstances and exceptions, and its ability to integrate workflows across an entire enterprise. This approach enables companies to integrate siloed operations, applications and data, build internal capabilities to adapt and scale, and create business value and competitive advantages. RPA uses pieces of software capable of completing complex repeated processes typically performed by a human. These pieces of software are commonly called “software robots”.
RPA typically mimics the tasks performed by humans, but a digital workforce of software robots can also support and augment business processes and human workers as well as manage processes across multiple departments, locations, and systems, on premise and in the cloud.
The biggest benefit of software robots is that they are not prone to human error, can easily scale to workloads and work 24x7 every day of the year.
By replacing humans for high-volume IT and business processes, RPA is not only about improving efficiency and productivity, cutting costs and reducing headcount, but it is also about freeing up employees for more strategic and rewarding tasks, and is ultimately about enabling organizations to grow and remain competitive or even gain a competitive advantage.
This leadership brief outlines the main use cases for RPA to help businesses assess the relevance of RPA and how it can be applied as well as avoid potential pitfalls.
Full article is available for registered users with free trial access or paid subscription.
Register and read on!
Sign up for the Professional or Specialist Subscription Packages to access the entire body of the KuppingerCole research library consisting of 700+ articles. | <urn:uuid:559424ef-2d17-4b24-b0c7-7b44454f0847> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.kuppingercole.com/research/lb80333/robotic-process-automation | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335058.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927194248-20220927224248-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.934427 | 476 | 2.75 | 3 |
The FBI’s Safe Online Surfing (SOS) Internet Challenge, which teaches students how to keep their information safe, avoid online predators, and identify cyberbullying, begins Thursday for the 2016-2017 school year.
Since 2012, teachers in grades 3-8 have signed up more than 870,000 students to participate in the national competition.
The website has one island per grade level where students play age-appropriate games to learn about Internet safety. After navigating through the islands, students take a quiz based on the topics they learned. The scores in each school are compiled and shown on a leaderboard for each month. The top schools at the end of each month receive a national FBI-SOS award.
The schools compete in three categories depending on how many students are participating. The categories are Starfish, which includes schools that have 5-50 participants; Stingray, which includes schools that have 51-100 participants; and Shark, which includes schools that have more than 100 participants.
“The information presented in the program has really resonated with our students,” said Bradley Evers, teacher and athletic director at Martin Luther School in Oshkosh, Wis.
Evers has used the FBI-SOS challenge with his seventh- and eighth-grade students. The students learned about copyright law and plagiarism along with Internet safety.
“According to my most recent contact with the FBI Public Affairs agent, we remain the only school in Wisconsin that has been recognized as a national winner,” Evers said. “I look forward to using the program at our school in the future.”
Chrissi MacGregor, teacher at North Gwinnet Middle School in Sugar Hill, Ga., has used the program with sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students.
“I was looking for an online, fun, informative source to help reinforce Internet safety vocabulary as well as have some real-life scenarios,” MacGregor said. “I think the kids just like something that is interactive.”
MacGregor said she likes the games that help to reinforce the vocabulary that the students learn and the quiz that students take at the end. However, she said the challenge could be updated to make it easier for teachers to see what each student comprehends.
“When I need to populate the results of the quiz I get the codes with scores, so then I have to match that up with the student. Not very friendly,” MacGregor said. “I would like a student login. Then when I want to produce a report I can have their data along with their names.”
Anyone can participate in the games on the FBI website, but only students can compete to win awards.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with how teachers and students are responding to the program and how participation is growing in such leaps and bounds,” said Scott McMillion, official for the FBI Criminal Investigative Division’s Violent Crimes Against Children Section. “FBI-SOS is helping to turn our nation’s young people into a more cyber-savvy generation and to protect them from online crime now and in the future.” | <urn:uuid:8aefc6db-ea84-41bc-b58c-35a6c35f59b8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://origin.meritalk.com/articles/students-compete-in-fbi-online-safety-challenge/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337398.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003035124-20221003065124-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.968317 | 664 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Organizations are continually striving to assess and mitigate their cybersecurity risk, working to minimize the likelihood that their brand name will be splashed across newspapers nationwide because they’ve fallen prey to a high-profile hack.
In cybersecurity, at least the way it is currently practiced, risk is not quantifiable. Look to other fields, however, and there is a basic formulation of risk:
Risk = Probability x Consequences
In other words, what is the likelihood of a bad thing happening? And if does, what would be the fallout?
Try tallying this equation as it relates to cybersecurity, and you arrive at a rather disturbing result:
- Probability cannot be quantified. Cybersecurity is almost always delivered as individual point solutions designed to defend against particular known kinds of attacks made against particular known kinds of vulnerabilities. But it’s not possible to defend every vulnerability against any number of unknown types of attacks. Since you can only defend against some but not all vulnerabilities, there is no way to quantify the probability of a successful attack against your undefended vulnerabilities, no matter how many point solutions you implement.
- Consequences are rising but they are still unquantifiable. The average cost of a reported data breach has skyrocketed, with negative impacts spanning the financial, reputational, legal, regulatory, and other realms. At the same time, you may be breached and not know it. You might report it and get only a slap on the wrist. Or you could report it and be pilloried by regulators and the courts alike. Who knows?
Assume Compromise and Compensate for It
Perfect defense using point solutions is impossible. The only way to ensure that data remains accessible and controllable solely by permitted users is to assume compromise—assume that network, software, and/or data access are already compromised and could be compromised in the future as well. Then compensate for breach in the design of software and the data software makes and manages.
To change the threat equation, we need applications that a) automatically encrypt data by default and b) that automatically apply usage controls to data. With such applications deployed, the probability of breach can continue to rise exponentially and yet the IT industry can slash risk by making it exceedingly difficult to compromise data even if the systems where it lives are compromised.
This is engineering for assumed compromise. The point isn’t to prevent breaches, it’s to make them irrelevant.
No method can guarantee perfect protection but assuming compromise and engineering to compensate for it reduces consequences, and therefore risk. This can finally help to tip the balance in favor of the good guys. | <urn:uuid:4dd1a2fd-d1fc-41e0-be22-1f513b56f897> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.absio.com/%EF%BF%BCquantifying-cyber-risk-the-unsolvable-math-problem/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.943073 | 541 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Digital technologies are expected to fundamentally change the classroom experience for the rising generation of students, but some fear that a lack of comprehensive standards and clear performance indicators may stymie progress.
The latest research from PBS Learning Media supports the role of technology in the classroom, with approximately three quarters of pre-K-12 teachers indicating that digital aides help them reinforce and expand course content, motivate students and adapt to a variety of learning styles.
“Technology is a critical part of learning teaching in today’s classrooms,” said PBS spokeswoman Alicia Levi. “Teachers today need access to high-quality digital content to keep pace with schools’ investment in interactive whiteboards, tablets and other devices to maximize the educational benefits of technology in the classroom.”
While the enthusiasm for digitization may be strong, there is some uncertainty as to whether all classroom software is living up to the expressed goals of teachers – or the best interests of their students.
In a recent interview with NPR, Duke University business professor Aaron Chatterji fixed his focus on interactive whiteboards when weighing the merits of digital innovation. In his view, a “smart board” may be more of a status symbol than a true learning enabler.
“[My mother] has a smart board in her classroom and a lot of teachers have those across the country. To my knowledge, we don’t have great data to know whether smart boards actually make a difference,” Chatterji explained. “As we invest all this money on new technology and new hardware, we ought to know if we’re spending our money on the right things.”
Steve Schneider, senior program director for science, math and technology at nonprofit WestEd, is inclined to agree. In a separate interview with NPR, he voiced concerns that the software suppliers flooding the marketplace with fun and intriguing education apps are moving much faster than product quality and learning outcome researchers. With fewer controlled studies to reject or confirm effectiveness ratings, teachers have been left with little more than intuition for informing their decisions.
With 45 states and the District of Columbia now subscribing to Common Core State Standards, technology vendors may now have a more unified vision of what educators need – and a simplified production model. According to NPR, marketplaces similar to the Apple App Store and Amazon’s mp3 store could remove the middlemen from teacher-developer relations and allow for more economical purchase of course material. Although products will be developed with common functionality and end goals in mind, educators could retain individual authority to pick only the tools that work for them.
According to Chatterji, rate and review features will be instrumental in supporting these platforms. By effectively crowdsourcing sentiments from across a community of peers, teachers can make more informed decisions than they may have going solely on their own intuition. Nevertheless, any expansion in the research literature would be beneficial to both sides.
“If I can’t sell it to people and I can’t prove to people it works to give myself some credibility, I might as well go do something else with my time,” Chatterji noted.
As teachers await more rigorous research efforts, there is no reason they can’t be gathering their own performance metrics along the way. With the proper array of classroom control technologies, educators can gain a more accurate view of how students interact with digital aides and cross reference usage trends with performance outcomes.
Who should be leading the charge for more standardized education technology offerings? Would such formal regulation inhibit classroom innovation? Let us know what you think in the comments section below! | <urn:uuid:95befa18-07c6-4aed-bd8a-a1cfde9dbbec> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.faronics.com/news/blog/metrics-standardization-needed-for-classroom-technology-progress | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335326.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929065206-20220929095206-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.935791 | 744 | 3.140625 | 3 |
In a recent analysis of the WastedLocker ransomware, Sophos detailed some of the methods used by the ransomware family to evade typical behavioral detection. By now, nearly everyone is familiar with how ransomware operates. Once a victim is infected, data is potentially stolen, backups are deleted, and the ransomware goes to work encrypting files. During the encryption process, most ransomware opens and encrypts the files directly. This is also how most security solutions that monitor for file events detect it. To get around this, WastedLocker is mapping files into memory before encryption. Windows’ Memory Manager keeps track of memory being modified and will write it all back to disk after enough modifications. Because of this, security solutions may see a trusted system process and ignore the encrypted files being written back to the disk.
By Anthony Zampino Introduction Leading up to the most recent Russian invasion of Ukraine in | <urn:uuid:f113c196-5c5c-4fb1-9ae0-78f356f1af4b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.binarydefense.com/threat_watch/wastedlocker-abusing-windows-cache-to-avoid-detection/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335491.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930145518-20220930175518-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.923347 | 179 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The SOHO wireless network is being used by many people every day. It is common to see the being used every day at some offices. So it is important that they are made secured as well. The reason is, that a network which is opened, invites the troubles to the computer itself. So making the network secured should be the first priority of everyone. If someone wants to have some strong network then he should be doing something to secure the basic infrastructure that is the foundation of this network. There is some easy way for that and it is that the network should be closed in some closet. That closet should be locked. Also, if someone makes some restriction that they others cannot gain any access to the network, then it would become so easy for someone. There can be the door with some lock or can be something digital, they all are used for the protection of the network. Sometimes, one can even use the bio metrics. Hence there would be some finger print reader which would be found at the door so that only those who have that print would get access to the network. Also, one can limit the people who can get the access to one's network.
If someone has been using some wired or some unwired network. Then there is something which one can use for the security. There one has to be too much careful while having the default credentials for the infrastructure of the devices. There are the usernames and the password that are brought from the factory. They are written on the box and mentioned outside too, sometimes. But as soon as one gets it, he should change the both of them. As long as the one has the same username and the password, there are chances that someone might have read those credentials on the box and he might steal it and can use it further. So once then person is logged into it, he gets the full control over it and he can change the things here.
SSID is basically the name of the network. When one open up the wireless networks list, one can find many of the networks and they all contain some names. These names are actually the SSID. These are the things through which one can know that what is the name of the network and hence can recognize them. The SSID of the network should not be something so common or something that can actually point towards one. Someone might like to make some smart move and remove the SSID. Then, the network would be shown but the SSID won't be shown and hence, one won't be able to get connected. Here comes the double security, one would not only have to guess the password but the username as well. Also, it can be done by disabling the access point from the broadcasting. But doing that doesn't really mean that now one has put up some restriction access to all of the networks. What is happened by disabling the SSID is that it just becomes invisible. So someone who knows that how one should be looking for the wireless networks would still be able to find it out. But it is a thing which can help one cleaning up the big list of all those networks which one can see on the wireless access.
The encryption has two types, mainly. One of them is not being used since it has some flaws. That is still available in some really old routers but using it is just a mess. It is named as the WEP. This is the most insecure type and one should totally avoid it and should not bother installing it or using it even if one's current network offers this technology. This encryption service is too much insecure. The latest and the best encryption settings contain the WPA-2. That is the best among all encryptions settings which have been introduced. Many of the modern devices have it, so if one is using some old device, then one should get switched to this one.
SSID is the name of any network which is available. One can turn the SSID off so that no one can know that there is some network available and when they ant to get connected to it, they will find that they can't. The reason is that one would not just have to type in the password, but would have to know the username too. One might want to disable the SSID since it has the benefits mentioned above. One can do that manually.
On the wired and the unwired networks, one can do something and get some access restricted to the network. This thing is done through something known as the MAC addresses or it is the Media Access Controls. This is basically the address of the hardware, the network device's address. These network devices are those which have been connected to the network that one is using. By applying some filters to the infrastructure, then one can make some limitations about those who are getting some access to the network and the place from where the network is being originated.
There are many types of the receivers which are used by one. There are so many antennas which can be used for receiving the signals from the access point which is located pretty far. So when someone is using the internet, one should keep in mind that at what points the signals are being travelled and how much power is being used to enable it for that. Also, one should try to place the receiving point and the access point at near distance since if they are near, the signal strength would be stronger and the internet would work better.
One should know that the radio signals have some more power than the normal signals. They are pretty fast so they can cover some good distance within the short period of time. The regularity's region can put some restriction of the maximum power that can be transferred. Also, sometimes the selection of the channels and the code used by that country can also affect the power level of the radio waves.
Normally one would not do the fixed IP addresses at the homes. But in some ranges one would find them. The router get assigned a new IP itself ad one doesn't have to do anything. By this change one won't even realize any difference. The static IP doesn't change and the computer keeps it for the use for long time. The good thing is that if someone wants to have some local server, then this is good. Since the local home network would then be accessed by anyone in the world and the requests coming would be forwarded to the server machine. If there is the dynamic IP, then the server won't be able to work properly and it would be broken down. For the gaming purposes too, one would like having some static IP address. One while playing, has to forward some of the ports while playing multilayer games. Some of the routers contain some automated setup which is named as the uPNP. Hence one can play the games without any disturbance and the warnings from the network. But this can lead to some IP address conflicts as well. That is the message sometimes one can see. If the IP is set up the same, then the router would start the IP automatically. At other point, some other computer might have the same IP and hence the conflict would arise.
When one gets the device, he should act fast and change the default username and the password already. When it is done, then one can have some full access to the device. Hence one would be able to set any settings he wants and it is very useful. Also, there is a website too at the internet, it has all the list of those routers and the companies which are present in market and the list of the usernames and the passwords used is given there so one can find the information from there as well.
The MAC filtering helps someone getting the network more and more secured. But the MAC address is something which is too simple to spoof. There are many of the network interface card which have the ability to allow one to manually configure the MAC addresses in the computers. So, the thing which has to be done by one is the usage of the free software from internet. Also, then plug that in and observe that what are the types of the MAC address which are communicating right now. Also, when someone sees that one of those addresses have left the network, then one can use that specific MAC Address for communication. This is called the security with the help of obscurity. It is not very obvious that how one can face that problem, but it is somehow, not a good security feature. If there is the access point where the one wants to get access, there should be the offering of the MAC addresses. One can just add them to one's list and then one can create limitation of the MAC addressees which are being communicated through one's network.
There is some other technique too which is being used by one. It is known as the static IP address usage. One can use this technique instead of using the automatic ID, which is known as the dynamic IP as well. One can use this technique whether one of on some wired network or on some wireless network. The IP address is pretty obvious if the encryption is not the proper one. Also, there is the security through the obscurity, if there is someone who is trying to plug in and then they are unable to get the address automatically then someone who knows that how to do the drill can manually set the addresses on one's computer. Hence he can still have the access to the network.
In some of the large environments, it can be difficult for someone to keep the tracks of the thing that who is into the network and who is getting disconnected from it. So, one might like to do the disabling of the physical ports on the routers so that one can administratively perform that specific function. But it helps one making the network become even more secured. It is something good but maintaining it might become a problem for someone. The reason is that the while getting the port enabled or disabled, one would manually have to access the router. Hence, the administrative abilities are require here. But this helps maintaining the security level of the network. So this thing surely can bring some good benefits for someone.
The physical security of the routers and the switches require that one should keep them in some pace where someone else cannot mess with them physically. Like, one might like that the switched is placed in some cabinet which has a lock. So when the owner wants, he can simply go and can restart it or can configure it. This way, it becomes way too easy for someone to protect the router physically.
So one can know that there are many of the ways through which the SOHO router can be saved. It can be the wired one or the wireless one, that isn't the matter since there are the cures for both of them. The security can be done in many ways like the virtual security and the physical security as well.
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Simply submit your e-mail address below to get started with our interactive software demo of your free trial. | <urn:uuid:68877e73-4a9f-4c1d-a001-e185dcbf6844> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.examcollection.com/certification-training/a-plus-how-to-secure-soho-wireless-network-and-soho-wired-network.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335491.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930145518-20220930175518-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.977115 | 2,299 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Published 2 Years Ago on Thursday, Dec 17 2020 By Karim Husami
The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic has adversely impacted the global economy and industries across the world. However, the increasing reliance on technology – by enterprises and people – to help facilitate communication and productivity in these challenging times, has led tech startups to thrive on new opportunities amidst the pandemic.
According to Statista, America witnessed the birth of 8,775 financial technology (Fintech) startups in February 2020, making it the region with the most Fintech startups globally. “In comparison, there were 7,385 such startups in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, followed by 4,765 in the Asia Pacific region.”
After technology played an important role to facilitate businesses in 2020, tech startups will benefit and capitalize on a number of advancing trends in technology in 2021.
2021 will be the year where artificial intelligence will have an even more significant role than ever before.
For example, healthtech and biotech startup Tempus uses AI to gather and analyze extensive medical and clinical data and provides precision medicine that personalizes and optimizes treatments to an individual’s specific health needs.
As for 2021, Tempus is planning to use AI to achieve a breakthrough in cancer research while relying on genetic makeup, past medical history for diagnosis and treatment.
Thus, AI is important for startups and is considered an essential part of its success because it provides intelligent solutions to a broad range of business inefficiencies and the ability to self-learn in order to solve related problems in the future.
Artificial intelligence is crucial to startup innovation, making it easier to integrate company software and cloud-based solutions.
The pandemic has prompted a shift in consumer behavior by demanding they deal with products requiring less human contact to guarantee more safety.
The outbreak of the pandemic hasn’t stalled initiatives of tech companies to test run technologies such as robotics deliveries and self-driving cars, and the radical changes witnessed by this industry further proves this point. The use of autonomous vehicles and robotics is expected to be at the forefront of tech development next year.
While it is expected that tech startups will focus on self-driving projects such as the ones Tesla, Toyota, Waymo, and Honda are planning to accomplish, China and other countries including the U.S and UK were the first countries to ramp up deployment and use of robots to deliver orders to slow the spread of COVID-19.
For example, living in lockdown in Milton Keynes-UK, a robotic delivery service created by Starship Technologies, could prove to be the future as miniature autonomous vehicles bring food deliveries to almost 200,000 residents of the town.
Robotics will undoubtedly go mainstream with the help of tech startups.
Tech startups will demand higher speed internet and the push for the advancement of 5G.
The fifth-generation wireless network will facilitate innovation as enhanced speed and internet stability will enable companies to access data systems more efficiently. Businesses are constantly looking to invest more in automation and machine learning, so optimizing connectivity is essential for startups to boost and diversify customer service offerings.
For example, startups like Nido Robotics in Spain will use drones to explore the seafloor with the help of 5G technology which will enable drones to navigate better while utilizing IoT to help communicate with devices on board.
As technology becomes an integral part of daily life, the essence and success of startups is determined by their ability to innovate and adapt to the rapidly changing circumstances.
The Asus Rog Phone 6 Pro is the latest upgrade to the rog phones family. A great gaming phone with loads of cool features and excellent screen fidelity lets us look closely and see what the fuss is all about. How Good Does It Look The Asus Rog Phone 6 Pro has an intimidating, rough, […]
Stay tuned with our weekly newsletter on all telecom and tech related news.
© Copyright 2022, All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:3af57179-b40a-4b5a-8f3b-2f5a8bbc6741> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://insidetelecom.com/key-opportunities-for-tech-startups-in-the-coming-year/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336978.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001230322-20221002020322-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.933733 | 828 | 2.546875 | 3 |
A Smart City Is A Safe City
With the right process, people, and technology, any community can become smarter and safer.
There comes a time when community leaders struggle to make their community more efficient and smarter. Forward-thinking organizations institute policies and procedures that enable them to make data-driven decisions, maintain constant awareness of community activities, and stay connected with all of their constituents.
A smart city is an urban area that uses different types of electronic data collection sensors to supply information which is used to manage assets and resources efficiently. This includes data collected from citizens, devices, and assets that is processed and analyzed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services. The smart city concept integrates information and communication technology (ICT), and various physical devices connected to the network (the Internet of things or IoT) to optimize the efficiency of city operations and services and connect to citizens. Smart city technology allows city officials to interact directly with both community and city infrastructure and to monitor what is happening in the city and how the city is evolving.
ICT is used to enhance quality, performance and interactivity of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to increase contact between citizens and government. Smart city applications are developed to manage urban flows and allow for real-time responses. A smart city may therefore be more prepared to respond to challenges than one with a simple “transactional” relationship with its citizens. Yet, the term itself remains unclear to its specifics and therefore, open to many interpretations.
Effective smart communities do so by applying a hub approach that connects people with the information and technology to drive improved quality of life, innovation, and better choices. Get the most out of your location technology investment by exploiting a combination of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, big data, inclusive apps, and community feedback to gain previously unimagined insight. | <urn:uuid:bb80b8b2-afd9-492c-92ab-cad30c9b1f64> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.arxys.com/solutions/city-surveillance/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337680.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005234659-20221006024659-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.941874 | 401 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Today’s Top IoT Challenges and Best Practices
Everyone’s talking about the Internet of Things – and for good reason. The Internet of Things, or IoT, is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to exchange data over the internet. And, it’s growing rapidly. In fact, there are more than 7 billion connected IoT devices today ranging from common household products to sophisticated industrial tools. According to IoT Analytics, this number will continue to increase, with more than 27 billion connected devices in the world expected by 2025.
All of this connectivity, of course, brings about security concerns. Software vulnerabilities and cyberattacks can make some people hesitant to use IoT devices. So, how can companies and individuals better improve IoT security? In this blog, we explore how those that operate in finance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and other industries can manage IoT securely.
What is IoT Security?
IoT Security is all about securing Internet devices and the networks they’re connected on. With the right protection, IoT devices can be more secure from threats and breaches. Of course – and unfortunately – many IoT devices were not built with security in mind, making them vulnerable to hackers.
Because of the large number of IoT devices, a vulnerable piece of equipment could have an impact on a single individual or thousands of people. For example, a home security system could be turned off by burglars, endangering a single homeowner. Or, traffic lights on a busy city street could be hacked, creating chaos for hundreds of commuters.
Many IoT devices also store a lot of personal information, which by cybersecurity laws, standards, and regulations, requires them to be protected. When personal information gets into the wrong hands, it can damage – or destroy – a company’s credibility and reputation.
To keep people and their personal information protected, IoT security requires that data is collected, stored, processed, and transferred securely. It also means that vulnerabilities need to be continuously monitored and threats are eliminated.
Common IoT Challenges
Here’s a look at some of the most common IoT challenges impacting individuals and organizations in 2022.
Studies show that the average person has more than 100 online accounts. Remembering all of these passwords has become problematic, so many use simple or similar passwords across accounts. Of course, weak and simple passwords can easily be hacked, resulting in data breaches, account takeovers, and other forms of cyberattack.
Data is commonly exchanged through IoT devices. When the device transmits data, threat agents might exploit vulnerabilities to intercept sensitive data while it’s traveling across the wire. The most common threats are when an adversary shares your local network (compromised or monitored Wi-Fi) or carrier or network devices as well as malware found on your mobile device.
Unpatched vulnerabilities are another way that bad actors breach networks. These occur when security teams fail to patch vulnerabilities in commonly used software. The HIPAA Journal reports that ransomware gangs are increasingly targeting unpatched vulnerabilities in software and that these unpatched vulnerabilities are now the primary attack vector in ransomware attacks.
Outdated Operating Systems
Many organizations fail to consistently update or upgrade their operating systems. By using outdated operating systems, they are more likely to fall victim to a data breach. You may recall the WannaCry ransomware outbreak of 2017. This breach was carried out by hackers gaining access through outdated Windows operating systems.
All software has an expiration date, and the longer you use it, the worse it becomes. That’s because it’s no longer being maintained. This can lead to unpatched vulnerabilities that open doors for attackers. By using outdated software, individuals and organizations become prime candidates for a cyberattack.
An Application Programming Interface (API) is what allows software applications to interact with each other. Vulnerable APIs – those that are not properly authorized or authenticated – can allow unauthorized users access to sensitive data and systems. This makes it critical that organizations regularly test APIs to identify vulnerabilities and address them when they’re discovered.
A data leak is another IoT challenge that happens when any type of sensitive data is accidently exposed either physically or on the internet. A data leak can occur simply by someone losing their laptop, smartphone, or other IoT device, leading to a cybercriminal accessing data with ease.
malware is an umbrella term used for viruses, trojans, and other destructive computer programs. Malware is used by cybercriminals to infect systems and networks in order to gain access to sensitive information or hold data hostage until some form of payment is made.
Six IoT Security Best Practices
As you can see, there are many ways for your data to fall into the wrong hands. Fortunately, some IoT security best practices can help keep cyber threats at bay.
1. Implement Secure Password Protection
Passwords can be a pain (and 75% of people, according to a Google study are frustrated with them) but they are one of the most effective ways of protecting your network, assets, and organization’s reputation. Adopting multi-factor authentication processes can strengthen your IoT security even further. It’s important to remember that many IoT devices come with weak preset passwords that are easy to find online. So, once you add an IoT device to your network, also reset the present password with a secure, more complex password.
2. Implement Access Control Policies
Device-level security is a great starting point, but user-level security is just as important. Access control is a security technique that regulates who or what can view or use data and resources at any given time. Implementing access control can greatly minimize threat risks. There are two types of access control: physical and logical. Physical limits access to offices, rooms, buildings, and physical IT assets. Logical access control limits connections to computer networks, system files, and data. Implementing authentication protocols that restrict who has access to certain data and where they can access it from can greatly reduce IoT security threats.
3. Implement Data Encryption Practices
IoT devices can horde large amounts of data which is why they are so valuable for attackers. One of the best ways to protect this information from thieves is to encrypt your information. Studies show that 98% of all IoT traffic is unencrypted, leaving it exposed to cybercriminals. With encryption tools, you can make your data unreadable for unauthorized users.
4. Implement Software Update Policies
Updating software is key to preventing vulnerabilities that leave you open to an attack. Most software developers are always looking for ways to improve device security; as threats arrive, they offer updates and patches. However, many IoT devices do not yet do this automatically like most IT systems. So, consider setting automated reminders to check for updates or program your device to automatically download and install new versions when available.
5. Implement IoT Security Training
It may seem like common sense, but IoT security training is important for employees. People only know what they know, and many may not understand how IoT devices can be used to harm them or the organization. Always try to relate the training to their specific roles in the organization, which may require breaking out groups with different functions. And, don’t make security training a one-and-done event. People tend to slip back into bad habits, so it’s important to regularly remind them to be vigilant (and update them on any new information).
6. Always Be Monitoring for Vulnerabilities
Last but not least, real-time risk monitoring, reporting, and alerting are critical for IoT security. To protect your sensitive data, you’ll want to implement a threat monitoring solution that continuously analyzes the behavior of all network-connected IoT endpoints.
Stay More Secure with Compuquip!
Implementing good cybersecurity policies starts with securing all devices on your network, including the potentially-overlooked IoT devices. However, if managing this on your own sounds daunting, we get it. Developing a strong comprehensive strategy for protecting your organization – especially if you’re unaware of all connected devices within your organization – can be challenging.
That’s where Compuquip comes in! Our cybersecurity experts will help you determine the best course of action, whether that entails performing a security audit to identify each connected device or developing a strategy for establishing good IoT security practices. | <urn:uuid:0d042ed9-8f27-49a7-96b4-5f1cc2c7b372> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.compuquip.com/blog/todays-top-iot-challenges-and-best-practices | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337680.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005234659-20221006024659-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.928995 | 1,747 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Transforming How Video is Analyzed
Deep learning is a new computer model in which neural networks are trained to recognize patterns from massive amounts of data. A science unto itself, BriefCam was an early pioneer in harnessing deep learning to advance the breakthroughs it had already made using computer vision to transform how video was being reviewed and analyzed.
Capturing and unlocking the immense store of data in video requires processing power. Advances in GPU technology, led by industry leader NVIDIA is exponentially accelerating the performance and precision of BriefCam’s solution. Processing breakthroughs continue to foster new advances in speed and capabilities.
The BriefCam® fusion of Deep Learning and VIDEO SYNOPSIS® is redefining how video surveillance systems are being used by leading Law Enforcement agencies and major enterprises globally.
"Just through BriefCam, being able to go through it very quickly, we were able to identify the exact time frame and the exact individual who was creating the problem."
Bonnie Michelman, CPP
MGH Director of Police, Security and Outside Services | <urn:uuid:0ba5dc99-746b-4f64-b031-62fac2b27642> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.briefcam.com/technology/deep-learning/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334528.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925101046-20220925131046-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.946523 | 213 | 2.828125 | 3 |
The Current State of Privacy
In the United States, personal data privacy laws are extremely fragmented. The existing legislation can largely be broken up into two main categories:
- Industry-Specific Standards: Certain specific types of data are protected under industry-specific regulations in the US. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act (HIPAA) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) mandate how patient and cardholder data should be used and secured.
- State-Level Legislation: Several US states have passed or are currently considering state-specific data privacy laws. These state-level laws typically cover only residents of that state, and data subject rights and business requirements can vary significantly from one state to the next.
This fragmented regulatory landscape means that not all Americans can expect equal levels of data privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the recently passed California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) provide strong privacy protections for California residents.
However, in many cases, these protections and rights are only extended to those explicitly covered under the law. Many websites ask whether someone is a California resident as part of the process for exercising the rights outlined in the CCPA and CPRA. This demonstrates that, currently, major gaps exist in US privacy protections.
The Future of Privacy in 2021
The data privacy landscape is recently evolving. In the past few years, several new data privacy laws have been passed and put into place in a number of countries, states, and regions. However, no federal data privacy law currently exists within the United States.
This lack of a federal privacy law is expected to spur continued development of data privacy legislation in the US. In 2021, it would not be surprising to see:
- More State-Specific Privacy Laws: Without national privacy legislation, states are increasingly developing and passing their own privacy legislation. Several state-specific privacy bills are currently working through state legislatures, and more are likely to start the process in 2021.
- A National Privacy Law: Legislators have been working on a national privacy law for several years now, and many of the core components currently have bipartisan support. With the 217th Congress, the potential exists for a federal privacy bill to pass the legislature and be signed into law in 2021.
With these new privacy laws come new requirements for businesses. As data protection regulations impact a greater percentage of consumers, businesses will need to focus on their compliance efforts in 2021. This includes both ensuring the ability to comply with data subject rights requests and to protect consumer data against breach and unauthorized access or use. | <urn:uuid:216a06b5-63e8-400b-8b75-264b07db2eac> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.morganfranklin.com/insights/company-insight/privacy-where-it-stands-in-2021-and-what-we-can-expect-throughout-the-year/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335350.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929100506-20220929130506-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.936226 | 523 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Welcome to this week’s Tip of the Hat!
Cybersecurity Awareness Month wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t talk about authentication! Traditionally a perennial topic for cybersecurity training, authentication was also in the news last week with the allegation of a well-known security researcher breaking into a presidential candidate’s Twitter account. The researcher, who also broke into the candidate’s account in 2016, was able to break into the account by brute force, trying out possible passwords based on what he knew of the candidate. In both cases, multifactor authentication was not turned on. If the allegation is true, the candidate did not learn from the 2016 hack, leaving his account vulnerable for all these years.
Why is multifactor authentication (MFA) important? The following is an excerpt from our April post on the LITA Blog where we explain what MFA is, why it’s important, and how to implement it alongside other cybersecurity measures!
Our community college district has required access to our LSP, Alma, that requires multi-factor authentication when used through our single sign on provider. Can you talk a little bit about the benefits of multi-factor authentication?
Multifactor authentication, or MFA, is an authentication method that requires at least two out of the three types of items:
- Something you know, like your password
- Something you have, like your phone with an authentication app or like a physical key such as a YubiKey
- Something you are, like your fingerprint, face, voice, or other biometric piece of information
(FYI – More MFA methods are adding location-based information to this list [“Somewhere you are”].)
MFA builds in another layer of protection in the authentication process by requiring more than one item in the above list. People have a tendency to reuse passwords or to use weak passwords for both personal and work accounts. It’s easy to crack into a system when someone reuses a password from an account that was breached and the password data subsequently posted or sold online. When combined with two-factor authentication (2FA), a compromised reused password is less likely to allow access to other systems.
While MFA is more secure than relying solely on your traditional user name and password to access a system, it is not 100% secure. You can crack into a system that uses SMS-based 2FA by intercepting the access code sent by SMS. Authentication apps such as Duo help address this vulnerability in 2FA, but apps are not available for people who do not use smartphones. Nonetheless it’s still worthwhile to enable SMS-based 2FA if it’s the only MFA option for your account.
This all goes to say that you shouldn’t slack on your passwords because you’re relying on additional information to log into your account. Use stronger passwords or passphrases – ideally randomly generated by Diceware – and do not reuse passwords or passphrases. Check out this video by the Electronic Freedom Foundation to learn more about Diceware and how it works. It’s a good way to practice your dice rolls for your next tabletop gaming session!
As a reminder – your security is only as strong as your weakest security practice, so once you have created your password or passphrase, store it in a password manager to better protect both your password and your online security. | <urn:uuid:f91f7a7e-889e-4a99-b04b-06cdd692589a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ldhconsultingservices.com/something-you-have-know-are-multifactor-authentication/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930181143-20220930211143-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.932195 | 712 | 3.25 | 3 |
Content delivery networks (CDNs)
Content delivery networks (CDNs)
What is a content delivery network (CDN)?
A content delivery network is a network of servers that is geographically dispersed to enable faster web performance by locating copies of web content closer to users or facilitating delivery of dynamic content (e.g., live video feeds).
Each CDN server is located on what is called the "network edge"—closer to users than the host server, which is where the website originates. For this reason, CDN servers are often called "edge servers." Each server stores or caches copies of a subset of the web content—HTML files, images, audio, video, applications—from the host server. By reducing the distance between this content and users, the content delivery network helps the website publisher provide faster performance, reduce loading time for its users and control its own bandwidth consumption and costs.
Organizations typically purchase CDN services from CDN providers, which maintain their own server networks.
In the video What Is a Content Delivery Network?, IBM chief architect Ryan Sumner goes through a scenario where a CDN helps make the website and page load time faster for globally distributed users:
Benefits of a content delivery network
CDNs provide faster load times, reduced bandwidth consumption and many other benefits for web publishers:
- Better connectivity and scalability for web publishers: A content delivery network provides site users with faster content load times. For web publishers, that equates to more page views, traffic spikes, improved customer engagement and less site abandonment.
- Reduced bandwidth consumption: Web hosts charge organizations for data transferred from the origin server. By storing copies of content closer to the users, a CDN enables fewer data transfers from the origin server, reducing an organization’s bandwidth consumption and costs.
- Reduced latency: Latency refers to the delay between the time data is requested from a system and when the system actually starts sending it in response. A greater distance between a user requesting web content and the server delivering it can result in greater latency. Because content delivery network servers store web content caches closer to your users, they can reduce latency and improve performance.
- Better response to traffic spikes: A successful marketing campaign, a limited-time offer, a video gone viral—these types of events can create a sudden (anticipated or unanticipated) increase in content demand. Content delivery networks use load balancing to distribute this demand across servers to prevent overloading any single server. Load balancing also helps keep the spike or surge in demand from impacting website performance.
- Outsourced infrastructure support: By relying on a CDN, an organization does not have to spend time, human capital or money building out and maintaining its own geographically distributed server network.
- Enhanced security: Content delivery networks employ analytics and automation tools that can uncover distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, firewall issues and others.
- Greater user satisfaction: Slow load times and issues with media playback and application responsiveness are among the chief reasons that users abandon and/or avoid websites. Working with a content delivery network can prevent or reduce some of these performance issues, making it more likely that content consumers will be satisfied with their site interactions.
- Improved content delivery: Not only do CDNs deliver content faster, but they also improve the quality of the delivered content. Video replay, video calls and live video streaming can be hindered by slow transmission, which may result in jitter. Buffering, poor image and sound quality and incomplete transmissions also affect the delivery of video and audio content. Content delivery networks help by shortening the distance between the content and the user and by load balancing traffic to prevent overwhelming routers or servers.
- Speedier e-commerce: E-commerce consumers have high expectations for online shopping experiences—they expect fast product image load times, quick payment method approvals and easy transactions on any mobile or desktop device. Content delivery networks help B2C and B2B retailers deliver e-commerce content and apps quickly during peak traffic periods.
How it works
As previously noted, a CDN works by helping a web publisher deliver faster, higher-quality performance for users through content distribution from servers that are closer to them than the website’s origin server.
For example, suppose your website is based in the United Kingdom (UK). If someone from the United States (US) accesses your site, the CDN serves that user from an edge server in the US, closer to the user, instead of from your UK-based origin server for the web page. The result is faster content loading and web application performance, as well as improved user experience.
More than half of all web traffic is served over content delivery networks, and that percentage continues to grow as businesses expand their global reach and offer more varied content types. CDNs also distribute traffic loads so that no single server is overloaded with traffic requests. Gaming companies, cloud application creators, live-streaming on-demand media and other media services, e-commerce sites with a global reach—as digital consumption needs grow, content owners rely on CDNs to better serve their users.
For a full overview of networking, see Networking: A Complete Guide.
A CDN primarily offers improved web content delivery, but CDN providers offer additional services that complement serving up content.
CDNs can provide DDOS protection to data centers and websites.
In a DDoS attack, the attackers try to overwhelm a domain's DNS servers with more traffic than the can manage, with the objective of disrupting or degrading service. CDNs use analytics and automation to monitor for these attacks and respond by limiting request rates (the number of information requests an HTTP can make in a specified time period).
For more info on DDoS attacks, check out our video What Is a DDoS Attack?
In an MITM attack, the attacker tries to intercept or alter the communication between the origin server, CDN servers and website users. MITM attacks can occur at a number of places in a network, but CDNs help mitigate MITM attacks by adopting Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols to secure communications between the CDN and the website origin server, as well as between the CDN and the ISP.
Private content delivery networks
If you work with a content delivery network, you'll most likely share network functionality with other CDN customers. However, some CDNs now offer private CDNs, which provide the customer with their own dedicated CDN resources. A private CDN might appeal to an organization that has strict security needs or specific geographic requirements, or that simply wants its own dedicated edge servers that are highly available and won't suffer any latency issues.
Content delivery networks may offer real-time analytics for monitoring website traffic and gathering metrics about visitors to a site. The objective is to track user behavior. With that information, website and web application creators can optimize content for users, improve site service and target marketing efforts to specific user personas.
Every content delivery network provider maintains its own pricing structure. Most charge a monthly fee based on gigabytes of data transferred from the edge servers to users. Rates vary based on the destination (the region where cached content is hosted and accessed by users). Providers also have different policies for storage; some charge storage fees while others do not.
Major CDN providers post pricing on their websites. For most providers, the per-gigabyte rate decreases as the total gigabytes of data transferred increase. Leading CDN providers also charge their customers only for the bandwidth used each month so that billing reflects actual use of the service.
Several providers even offer free levels of service. What is included in that free level of service varies widely by provider. Free and paid levels of service come with specific service level agreements (SLAs). Leading CDN providers tend to offer 99.9 percent of uptime to customers.
Before choosing a CDN provider, understand its pricing structure and SLAs. Since most providers charge based on actual bandwidth used, estimate usage before choosing a service to gain a general idea of what monthly costs will be. There are CDN pricing calculators online that help you compare pricing among top providers based on bandwidth estimates and bandwidth use by geographical region.
CDN for websites
Not every website publisher needs a CDN. A local school district's website, for example, may not need a CDN because most users will access the site from a nearby location.
But if you have a media-rich website, a geographically dispersed group of users, or mission-critical content that requires fast delivery, a CDN may be your best option.
The proliferation of content delivery network providers has been spurred by an increase in content types and devices used to access that content. Top providers include the following:
When choosing a CDN provider, consider the size and distribution of its network, how well its server locations (called points of presence, or PoPs) map to the locations of your site users, customer support availability, pricing and service level agreements (SLAs). Also, consider whether the provider offers any additional services that would be helpful to your organization, such as added security and analytics services.
Content delivery network hosting describes the networked servers of a CDN provider that host selected web content from a website. While website hosting typically refers to only one server, CDN hosting includes many servers networked together. CDN hosting augments website hosting by caching content in network servers that are geographically closer to website users. This differs from a web server, which hosts your full site on the origin server. CDN hosting can, therefore, deliver content to users faster than the website's origin server.
Open source CDNs
For website operators with robust content storage needs, content delivery network providers offer storage clusters that integrate with their network of edge servers. Website operators may want this storage capability if they serve large static files, such as videos or installation files. By storing these files closer to the user, CDN storage delivers better service and faster downloads. These storage options also relieve the traffic burden on the origin server by decreasing load requests and routing those requests to CDN edge servers instead.
Learn more about how you can leverage cloud object storage across all IBM CDN offerings.
If you're ready to learn more about using content delivery networks, try one of these tutorials:
- In the tutorial Accelerate Delivery of Static Files Using a CDN, you'll practice how to upload files to a Cloud Object Storage bucket and then make content globally available with a CDN.
- Similarly, you can easily manage your data stored in IBM Cloud Object Storage via CIS's Resolve Override with COS capability.
- How to: Use a CDN with an Express® web application (link resides outside IBM) demonstrates the benefits of a CDN and teaches you how to use an Express JS application as a caching mechanism.
- Lastly, the How IBM Cloud Internet Services Optimizes Performance tutorial illustrates how to optimize the performance of your web services and applications.
Content delivery networks and IBM Cloud
IBM offers CDNs in two flavors: IBM Content Delivery Network (CDN) and IBM Cloud Internet Services (CIS).
IBM Content Delivery Network, delivered over the Akamai network, allows your users to experience faster load times for web content and applications. It automatically scales your service as needed and uses pay-as-you-go pricing. Beyond meeting content demand, the IBM Content Delivery Network also protects your website and web applications from attacks by putting an additional protective layer between your users and your infrastructure.
IBM Cloud Internet Services, delivered through Cloudflare, includes a set of edge network services to help you improve the performance of your web services and applications by leveraging three major features: global load balancing and content optimization through page rules and caching, which ensures that every page renders as quickly and efficiently as possible. By protecting your origin servers from spammers, bots and malicious crawlers, you can reserve your resources for your application's performance, which improves your customer experience.
Sign up for an IBMid and create your IBM Cloud account. | <urn:uuid:596daac8-613b-4535-b2be-8d6dcc9da80d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/content-delivery-networks?cm_sp=Cloud-Product-_-OnPageNavCTA-IBMCloudPlatform_IBMContentDeliveryNetwork-_-ProdPage_to_LearnHub | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.913512 | 2,642 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Engineers at Xerox PARC have designed a prototype chip capable of self-destructing, it is named DUST, or Disintegration Upon Stress-Release Trigger. If t you are thinking that such kind of things can exclusive of action movies you are wrong, the researchers at Xerox PARC believe that their integrated self-destruct chip could represent the ideal solution for the storage of high-sensitive data, including the encryption keys. Of course, let’s think of the application of such kind of technology in military and intelligence sectors.
The potential applications of the DUST self-destructing chip include remote sensing or battlefield communications kit, and of course drones.
The engineers used a Gorilla Glass substrate to fabricate the innovative self-destruct chip, which is capable of shattering on demand into thousands of pieces making impossible the reconstruction.
Gorilla Glass is a brand of specialized toughened glass developed and manufactured by the Corning firm, it is typically used as a tough glass in smartphones and smart watches displays due to its small thickness and high damage resistance.
The research on a self-destruct chip was funded by the US Darpa, which invested $2M as reported by Xeros PARC:
“PARC, a Xerox company, today announced it has signed an up to $2 million contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop and demonstrate PARC’s disappearing electronics platform (called DUST), with intriguing implications for a variety of military, ecological, and commercial interests.
DUST, or Disintegration Upon Stress-Release Trigger, is a technology that allows electronic devices using full-performance microchips to be disintegrated on command, leaving only tiny fragments that are invisible to the human eye. The DUST technology builds on PARC’s cutting-edge capabilities in advanced manufacturing, novel electronics, and smart devices.” states the announcement published by the company.
DARPA funded the Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR) program with the goal to create a new generation electronic systems capable of physically disappearing in a controlled, triggerable manner.
During the demo Xerox PARC made at the DARPA the glass was stressed close to breaking point by heat. The generation of additional heat by inducing a small current across a resistor allowed to shatter the self-destructing IC into thousands of pieces.
During the demo, the researchers used a photo-diode to trigger the self-destruction, but experts explained that it could be easily replaced with a radio signal.
“Imagine being able to cover a large area, like the ocean floor, with billions of tiny sensors to ‘hear’ what is happening within the earth’s crust, and have them quickly disintegrate into, essentially, sand, leaving no trace and not harming the planet or sea life,” explained Sean Garner, PARC researcher on the DUST project. “I’m looking forward to working with other scientists and companies that can help us explore cool new ways to deploy DUST that we may not have even considered.”
DUST sensors could be used also to monitor wide areas during natural disasters as reported on the announcement.
“In the world of environmental science, DUST sensors could be distributed in large numbers to help measure wide-area phenomenon such as weather patterns for hurricane prediction or subtle vibrations that precede earthquakes, and then be effectively removed from the environment with no residual footprint,” it explained.
No doubt, this kind of technologies will change our life in the next future.
(Security Affairs – DARPA, self-destruct chip) | <urn:uuid:9fcc1352-3930-4d72-8247-3cb9d3ddf9f7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/40143/security/darpa-dust-self-destruct-chip.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.943475 | 749 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Big data is one of the most rapidly growing industries in the world and was valued at $169 billion in 2018, with expectations to approach the $300 billion mark by the end of next year. Even with such monetary influence in the world already, the industry is still figuring itself out, and new uses for data (and new jobs for data analysts) are being discovered all the time, including predictive analytics.
From videogames to healthcare to sports, individuals with analytic backgrounds and beliefs are moving to the forefront of their respective industries, and the insurance industry is no different. Insurance rates are based on trends in given demographics, and young men tend to pay more for the exact vehicle than middle-aged women because data shows that young men are more likely to crash. That is a very simple example of data use in insurance, but as the ability to share data evolves and becomes more secure, so do the abilities to utilize it in different ways, including when making predictions for the future, otherwise known as predictive analytics.
What is Predictive Analytics?
When analytics and data science methods combine to focus on the future, the result is predictive analysis. Predictive analytics utilizes past and present trend data and extremely advanced computing methods to paint a proverbial picture for analysts regarding what the past and present data means for the future of a given industry.
One step further is machine learning, where analytic programs no longer need to be programmed with data. They simply take it in and automatically change their predictive analyses, hence the name “machine learning.”
How is Predictive Analytics Affecting the Insurance Industry Today?
One of the primary uses of predictive analytics in the insurance industry is in risk assessment. Whether life, auto, home, or otherwise, insurance companies must weigh everything about a given client to determine their insurance rates.
To use auto insurance as an example again, companies look at driving records, age, location, and more to determine a rate. When this information is put into a system, it can be compared to other individuals who had similar demographics and then can take into account how well those similar individuals did relative to the insurance (for cars, this may mean they crashed a lot, had a bunch of speeding tickets, or had squeaky clean records).
In life insurance, health records are often the main subject of predictive analytics, as evolutions in EHR sharing allow companies to utilize similar methods as auto insurance to determine what the future may hold for a given client with a shared medical past. Ultimately, insurance companies have been known to err on the side of caution, so this uptick in the availability of relevant data saves consumers money more often than it costs them.
How will Predictive Analytics Affect the Insurance Industry Tomorrow?
The mere youth of predictive analytics makes it appealing because more and more capabilities are being discovered, and the insurance industry assumes the same. Significant investments are being made into the industry, and Forbes recently released an article encouraging investment into predictive analytics.
With this trend in mind, consumers are already asking, “how do you utilize predictive analytics?” meaning a front-runner (in the sense of insurance use of data) can be more appealing to said consumers. They are more likely to switch to forward-looking insurance companies, especially when their commitment to predictive analytics means money saved for those consumers.
Also, corporations that utilize predictive analytics grow at a rate 7% faster than their counterparts that do not. The future of predictive analytics in insurance is more likely to be a refined version of what is already happening, but as the industry is, indeed, very young, keeping an eye on new evolutions in the use of data can mean staying ahead of severe business curves that may arise from this rapidly growing data industry. | <urn:uuid:1d4a070e-f1a6-4b50-9fc1-765a7ef173b1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://dataconomy.com/2021/06/future-predictive-analytics-insurance-industry/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.951451 | 753 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Literacy. It is the foundation of American Public Schools, and an important arc in the story of democracy. But what does literacy really mean, especially in a modern, digital world?
This is the Miriam Webster definition of literacy:
Being educated, cultured; able to read and write; versed in literature or creative writing; lucid, polished; having knowledge or competence.
But when you boil it down, the generic definition of literacy is the ability to read, write, and perform math so that you can function in your society. That’s why in the United States, children are required to attend school and obtain a high school diploma. Graduating from high school (or passing a GED [General Educational Development] test) is the measure to prove basic adult literacy.
But is literacy simply the ability to read, write, and do math? Do you just need to read the words that are put in front of you? Do you need to be able to regurgitate what you read into written words, or do you need to be able write your own thoughts? And does this include the ability to evaluate the validity of the information that you consume?
Applications of Literacy
Literacy is important, as it seems to be an indicator for societal success. For example, this chart from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that you can earn more money the more education you have. This chart seems to reinforce that the true meaning of literacy is the ability to read, write, and perform math so that you can function in your society.
But there’s a dark side. Literacy opens doors financial security and the ability to function as equals in a democratic society. Literacy tests were used in the 1800s to prevent Irish immigrants from voting, and then again in the Jim Crowe era, denying black voters their right to vote. These citizens were given 10 minutes to take tests like this, and 1 wrong answer meant you wouldn’t be registered to vote. There are several ways to interpret each question, meaning if the voting registrar didn’t want you on the rolls, you weren’t going to be on the rolls. For interesting 1st person accounts of this, visit this site.
As technology improved, there became more ways to consume information that reading printed words, and more ways to transmit information than writing words. There had to be different ways to describe proficiency with all types of media. This is how the National Association for Media Literacy defines media literacy:
Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication. In its simplest terms, media literacy builds upon the foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. Media literacy empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators and active citizens (emphasis mine).
Part of the definition – being critical thinkers and makers – is important when it is easy to create persuasive content. How can you tell the information you’re consuming is real, that it’s not trying to trick you into believing something else? How can you be sure it’s not propaganda?
Media Evaluation: How to Tell If Content Is Useful or Propaganda?
The original meaning of the word propaganda came from a committee of cardinals established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV named Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, or “congregation for propagating the faith”. The goal of this group was to promote Catholicism in non-Catholic countries. By 1790, propaganda meant “any movement to propagate some practice or ideology”. (via) But after WWI’s large-scale propaganda, the word took on a negative connotation.
The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) was founded in 1937 to do something about the fascism propaganda that was beginning to be shared with new technologies (radio broadcasts, film, etc.), hoping to provide citizens the information they needed to avoid being duped by misinformation. They believed that education was the American way to deal with disinformation.
Now we come to the electronic age, and we need to update the literacy definition again to account for the new ways to consume and create information. The American Library Association defines digital literacy this way:
Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills (emphasis mine).
Evaluate takes on a more important meaning in this case. With media literacy, you know who gives you a pamphlet, or who placed a print ad in a newspaper. But how do you figure out how content is put into the feeds of applications you use? How do you know who is creating the information that you are consuming via algorithms in your feed, and how that information got there in the first place?
I think the IPA had it right. The only way to combat misinformation, propaganda, fake news, whatever you want to call it, is to educate ourselves on how it gets into our feeds, and how to distinguish it from non-propaganda. We need to become digitally literate, and we need to make sure are family and friends are digitally literate as well. That’s why I started Digital Sunshine Solutions. | <urn:uuid:98234301-ae46-40d6-a511-27a2194055c3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://digitalsunshinesolutions.com/literacy/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.943796 | 1,085 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Stands for personally identifiable information. Information that when used (alone or with other relevant data) can identify an individual. PII may contain direct information (e.g., passport information) that can identify a person uniquely, or quasi-identifiers (e.g., race) that can be combined with other quasi-identifiers (e.g., date of birth) to successfully recognize an individual.
What is PII?
PII stands for “personally identifiable information.” This information, when used alone or with other relevant data, can identify an individual. PII may contain direct information (e.g., passport information) that can identify a person uniquely, or quasi-identifiers (e.g., race) that can be combined with other quasi-identifiers (e.g., date of birth) to successfully recognize an individual.
PII vs. PHI
Protected health information (PHI) should be handled carefully by healthcare organizations. The government mandates certain rules regarding the handling of protected health information. This includes medical records, billing information, insurance claims, and any other information about your physical or mental health. Healthcare organizations are prohibited from selling your private information to third parties without your consent. Healthcare organizations are also obligated to protect your privacy.
Why does PII need to be secured?
Protecting PII is essential for personal privacy, data privacy, data protection, information privacy, and information security. With just a few bits of an individual's personal information, criminals can create false accounts in the person's name, incur debt, create a falsified passport or sell a person's identity to another criminal.
Who is responsible for safeguarding PII?
From a legal perspective, your organization is responsible for protecting PII. However, individuals should also take some responsibility for protecting their personal information.
What is a Data Privacy Framework?
Data privacy frameworks are used to protect people's information. People should know what companies are doing with their personal information. This framework includes policies and procedures for handling sensitive personal information. These policies and procedures must be made available to employees and customers.
Creating a data privacy framework for your organization
A data privacy framework is a documentation structure that helps organizations protect sensitive data. This includes payment card numbers, personal information, and other intellectual property. There are several existing frameworks that companies use, but this document provides an overview of them and shows how they differ.
Types of PII
There are three main categories of personal information: Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Sensitive Personal Information (SPI), and Non-Sensitive Personal Information (NSPI).
Sensitive vs. Nonsensitive PII
PII is information about you that can be used to identify who you are. It includes your name, address, Social Security number, driver’s license number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passport numbers, medical record numbers, and other similar types of information. Your personal information may also be considered “sensitive” because it contains information that could cause harm to you if it were released.
Sensitive personal information should be encrypted while being transmitted, stored, and accessed. This information includes biometrics, medical information covered by HIPAA laws, personally identifiable financial info, unique identifiers, employee personnel records, tax info, passwords, credit cards, bank accounts, electronic and digital account info, and school ID numbers.
Non-sensitive personal information may not be protected by encryption. Examples include phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, birth dates, gender, race/ethnicity, or hobbies.
The classification of information into sensitive and non-sensitive is based on whether the information is likely to lead to the subject’s identification.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has developed a set of guidelines called the Privacy Rule which defines what constitutes sensitive personal information. These guidelines apply to any organization that uses or discloses PHI.
How Does PII get into the hands of criminals?
Misuse/Abuse by Employees
What are some examples of how PII gets into the wrong hands?
Misuse/abuse by employees
What steps should you take for PII Protection?
Use strong passwords
Encrypt sensitive documents
Use two-factor authentication
Keep devices secure
Regularly backup files
Use encryption software
Be vigilant about who has access to your PII
What are Common Mistakes When Protecting PII?
Individuals don't use strong passwords
Individuals don't encrypt their hard drives
Individuals don't have a backup plan
Individuals store all of their PII on one device
Individuals share their PII with others without permission
How is PII used in identity theft?
Many people’s personal information is being stolen by criminals. People’s names, addresses, social security numbers, birth dates, driver's license numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, etc., are being taken away from them. Identity thieves are using these stolen identities to steal money from people.
They can also sell this information to other criminals. This information includes bank account numbers, social security numbers, driver's license numbers, etc. These criminals use the stolen information to open new accounts and withdraw money from existing ones.
PII Laws and Regulations
People are concerned about what happens when companies collect personal information. They want to know if there are any regulations governing this type of activity. Users are looking for ways to protect themselves online. Regulations are being hammered out to make sure consumers' privacy is protected.
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of a growing list of regulations and privacy laws affecting how organizations conduct business. The GDPR holds those organizations fully accountable for protecting personal data, no matter where it might be located.
PII Security Best Practices
Organizations should take steps to protect personal information. Employees should be aware of what types of data are being collected, how it is used, and who has access to it. Data breaches can happen if an employee loses or misplaces a laptop containing sensitive information, or if someone hacks into a company network. Companies should also implement policies and training programs to ensure that staff understands the risks associated with handling personal information.
Encourage employees to follow security guidelines and practices. Safely destroy or remove old media with sensitive data. Install the software, applications, and mobile updates. Use secure wireless networks, rather than public Wi-Fi. Use VPNs. Protect PII by limiting what you share on social media. Shred important documents before discarding them. Be aware of whom you give your Social Security number to. Keep your Social Security card in a safe place. Make sure to avoid shoulder surfing, tailgates, or dumpster diving. When shopping online, purchase items over secure sites. Avoid uploading sensitive documents to the cloud. Lock devices when not in use.
Unfortunately, it’s a foregone conclusion that cybercriminals will make every effort to compromise your account credentials. Everyday news breaks of another major data breach, leaked personally identifiable information (PII), or malware campaign that pilfers usernames, passwords, and other sensitive data. It’s now a foregone conclusion the credentials of your employees and customers, often through no fault of their own, will be compromised at some point or another. The same can be said of your key suppliers and vendors who are holding your customer data or providing business-critical services. Compromised credentials, a highly sought-after commodity in the underground marketplace, are often an easy entry point into networks or the start of an account takeover (ATO) scenario that can leave your business reeling. Just sitting back and reacting to account anomalies, alerts, or even worse – a blog or news story – no longer is an effective way to manage the risk
Intel 471's range of intelligence products can help security teams defend against threats and mitigate risks from the underground. Our Adversary Intelligence provides security teams with visibility into the cybercrime underground, including insight into actor TTPs, motivations and operations. Users also can monitor for compromised credentials proactively via Intel 471's Credential Intelligence service, track weaponized malware via our Malware Intelligence and determine patch prioritization of vulnerabilities via our Vulnerability Dashboard.
Intel 471 cybercrime intelligence empowers analysts to monitor and respond to threats in near real-time — enabling them to support the cyber defense mission with timely and actionable intelligence. These analysts can also explore the alert context in our intelligence reports and data collection giving them a richer understanding of your organizational risk to better mitigate threats. | <urn:uuid:89e2aa8e-1817-4917-982f-c527452085a3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://intel471.com/glossary/pii | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.900461 | 1,828 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Researchers have expanded the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Incident Management Preparedness and Coordination Toolkit (IMPACT) to offer assistance in a wider variety of dangerous scenarios, from stadium evacuations to hazardous chemical exposure.
IMPACT, funded through DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T)’s Explosives Division (EXD) , is a geospatial tool used to facilitate communication and awareness during emergencies. Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., have developed more capabilities for IMPACT, including tools to assist with active shooter planning, downwind hazards of toxic chemicals, and casualty simulations. According to a Snapshot from S&T’s website, IMPACT is the only GIS tool specifically designed to deal with homemade explosives and active shooters.
“IMPACT is a free, all-hazards planning tool for first responders, emergency managers, and other security professionals. It combines simulation, visualization, and mapping into an integrated user interface similar to a smartphone or tablet,” said Elizabeth Obregon, S&T program manager. “First responders can use it for planning, situation awareness, and response to natural and man-made disasters. It uses common data formats to easily exchange data with other map-based tools.”
Four hundred agencies at the Federal and state levels, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and police departments are in the process of evaluating IMPACT.
Some agencies, however, have already adopted the technology. For example, the United States Capitol Police (USCP) have used IMPACT since the spring and law enforcement officials at a school in Louisville, Ky. used IMPACT during an active shooter event in September 2014. | <urn:uuid:2c435877-ef04-49c9-9645-08f435be131b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://origin.meritalk.com/articles/dhs-st-broadens-impact-for-emergency-situations/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.921251 | 376 | 3.15625 | 3 |
If it seems like you’re hearing more often about security breaches, it’s not your imagination.
There has been a 67% increase in security breaches over the past five years.
The number of phishing attacks grew by double digits last year alone and it shows no signs of slowing.
The vast majority of cyber-attacks start with phishing emails. Whether it’s enticing someone to click on a malicious link, trick them into giving up their credentials, or open up a pathway for cybercriminals to get inside your network, phishing practitioners can cause major problems for companies.
While many phishing attempts aim to steal data, cybercriminals are also changing or destroying data. Ransomware attacks, launched by a phishing email, encrypt data and hold it for ransom unless you pay a fee to get the key to recover your data. Crooks are getting inside networks and damaging core systems and controls that have long-reaching effects.
Phishing Attack Statistics
Phishing emails are still the main weapon threat actors are using. The FBI estimates cybercriminals have stolen more than $12 billion from companies over a five-year span using phishing attacks and business email compromise. These are no longer isolated incidents. A study by the University of Maryland concluded that an attack occurs on average every 39 seconds.
The translates into more than 156 million phishing emails being sent every day. As many as 16 million of them make it through company filters and half of those get opened by recipients. 80,000 people are the victims of malicious activity each day from phishing emails.
It happens to some of the biggest names in tech and business. Facebook and Google had $100 million stolen in a C-level phishing attack. Crelan Bank lost $75 million. Upsher-Smith was hit for $50 million. It cost more than $30 million for Ubiquiti Networks, Leoni AG, and Xoom.
It’s not just big businesses that are the targets of these attacks. Nearly half of all small businesses have been attacked with disastrous results. 60% of small and medium-sized businesses that get hacked go out of business after just six months.
The Average Cost of a Data Breach
Phishing attack statistics show that the average cost of a data breach in 2018 was $3.9 million. IBM’s 2019 Cost of a Data Breach report calculates that for data breaches, that works out to roughly $150 for each record that is compromised.
Once hackers get into your system, it can take months before organizations even know they’ve become a victim. It takes an average of 279 days to ID and contain a breach. From the time a breach occurs until it’s eradicated can take 314 days. That’s more than 10 months.
A study of nearly a thousand cyber attacks by Accenture determined the cost of dealing with cyberattacks, malware, and phishing attacks grew 12 percent from the year before and 72% from five years ago. The costs can last for years. While two-thirds of the cost to deal with a breach comes in the first year, they will be clean up expenses typically for another two years down the road.
Take Action Against Phishing
In light of these growing attacks, 87% of business and IT executives agree that organizations must take proactive steps and rethink their approach to security. That approach starts with a robust phishing attack solution.
The weakest link in your cybersecurity is humans. Even when trained, people can still click on a malicious link or fail to recognize the dangers in a phishing email. That’s why you need to stop them from getting through in the first place.
What You Need To Know About Phishing And Email Security
You need a phishing attack solution that detects incoming phishing attempts and prevents them from getting through your defenses. It should disable malicious links and quarantine malicious emails. It should educate email users so they can recognize future problematic emails with bold, easily identifiable warnings.
A Phishing Attack Solution
INKY is the industry’s leading anti-phishing software solution. It employs artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to stop email phishing attacks that other software can’t.
Most anti-phishing software relies on blacklists of known threat actors. The bad guys know this and frequently change strategies, URLs, email, and IP addresses. INKY goes a step further by examining the email itself. It looks for potential discrepancies in company names and can even detect minute changes in logos down to the pixel level. It can detect realistic-looking forgeries that appear to come from legitimate companies that will pass through other software filters.
When it finds suspicious activity, it renders them harmless and displays bold warning messages inside the body of the email that can’t be missed. This banner both warns users and educates them.
The anti-phishing software that’s built into Exchange, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace simply do not provide enough protection. They depend primarily on blacklists and content filtering. Content filtering flags keyword and common phrases used by phishing attacks but can easily miss more sophisticated attacks. INKY traces links before delivering them. It examines the destination and quarantines the link until it makes sure it’s safe.
Reduce your worries with INKY. Try your personalized demo now.
This blog was updated in November 2021.
INKY® is the emerging hero in the war against phishing. An award-winning cloud-based email security solution, INKY® prevents the most complex phishing threats from disrupting or even immobilizing your company’s day-to-day business operations. Using computer vision, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, INKY® is the smartest investment you can make in the security of your organization. INKY® is a proud winner of the NYCx Cybersecurity Moonshot Challenge and a finalist in the 2020 RSAC Innovation Sandbox Competition. Learn more about INKY® or request an online demonstration today. | <urn:uuid:9b639c82-2cc9-4aac-a7d1-e7568541515c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.inky.com/en/blog/what-a-phishing-attack-costs-your-business | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.936721 | 1,237 | 2.8125 | 3 |
1 - Introducing Illustrator CC
Apply Design Principles, Elements, and Graphics Composition Evaluate Graphics Scalability Navigate the User Interface Customize the User Interface
2 - Creating Documents Containing Basic Shapes
Create Documents Save Documents Draw Basic Shapes
3 - Creating Documents Containing Customized Paths
Draw Paths Modify Paths
4 - Creating Graphics Containing Customized Text
Insert Text Apply Flow Text Along a Path Insert Bounded and Threaded Text Apply Text Styles Insert Typographical Characters
5 - Customizing Objects
Import, Place, and Link Graphics Alter the Appearance of Objects
6 - Customizing Basic Shapes
Apply Strokes and Brushes Fill Shapes Apply Graphics Styles Distort Text with Text Envelopes
7 - Preparing Documents for Deployment
Update Text Wrap Text Hyphenate Text Optimize Content for Print Optimize Content for the Web Optimize Content for PDF Documents
Actual course outline may vary depending on offering center. Contact your sales representative for more information.
Who is it For?
This course is intended for designers, publishers, pre-press professionals, marketing communications professionals, or people switching to a design job or taking on design responsibilities and who need to use Illustrator to create illustrations, logos, advertisements, or other graphic documents. | <urn:uuid:cbc79085-3e07-4fe3-b6bd-20dbf77342af> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://nhlearninggroup.com/training-and-certifications/course-outline/id/1000401012/c/adobe-illustrator-cc-part-1 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334579.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925132046-20220925162046-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.704087 | 275 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Medical devices are having cyber security flaws which when explored by hackers can cause serious hacking concerns. Recently, Johnson & Johnson(J&J) discovered that its OneTouch Insulin pump has a cyber security defect through which hackers can remotely reprogram the device in such a way that the device alerts additional doses of diabetes drug to users. This could be life threatening issue.
Last week, the company sent a letter mentioning all the above said details to all patients using OneTouch. But as a sigh of relief, the letter quoted that the probability of unauthorized access to the Insulin checking pump was low, as it required technical expertise and sophistication to tweak the regular settings of the pump.
Currently, J&J are working to eliminate the security flaw from the pump and in the meantime has asked the patients to practice some series of steps to reduce the risk or isolate the device from any kind of cyber threats. The company has asked the patients using the device to turn off the Wi-Fi connection of the pump to a blood sugar meter. In case, if it is not possible, they are asking the patients to set a limit on the amount of Insulin that can be delivered.
The latest announcement reminds us the fact that the medical devices, which are widely used by both providers and patients are vulnerable to cyber criminals in the IoT devices.
The fact that medical devices are more prone to cyber attacks was discovered a couple of years ago.
FBI in a report issued in 2014 said that medical devices- especially those which are networked and use wearable sensors are more prone to cyber threats and can prove fatal to an entire healthcare network database, as they can serve as easy entry points to intruders.
If ignored, Federal Bureau of Investigation has also admitted that all such medical devices which are prone to cyber threats can act as access points compromising the data security of healthcare organizations.
The FBI report of 2014 lists out the following set of medical devices which are vulnerable to cyber threats
a.) Infusion pumps
b.) X-Ray Scanners
c.) Blood gas analyzers
d.) Medical Imaging devices such as lasers and
e.) life support equipment like Ventilators
As these devices are expensive and last long, providers usually use them for a period of say 5,10 or even 15 years. Thus, the software running on these devices remains old and usually remains non-updated. Hence, the absence of the latest version of cyber defense software makes the entire device vulnerable to the malware prevailing in today’s world.
Last year i.e in 2015, the Food and Drug Administration alerted users using Hospira Symbiq Infusion System about the vulnerabilities and asked the healthcare facilities to ban the use of the pumps in their agencies.
Security experts think that most medical devices used in healthcare organizations can act as soft targets for hackers with basic knowledge.
Medical devices manufacturers are now working hard to make their devices hack proof. But they say that they need a coordinated support from other industry players as well. | <urn:uuid:3df2d736-33f2-4d5d-b8fb-f04ea3de2532> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/healthcare-alert-medical-devices-are-more-prone-to-cyber-attacks/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335124.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928051515-20220928081515-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.956449 | 605 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Administrative Safeguards of the HIPAA Security Rule
A crucial step to protecting electronically protected health information (ePHI) is the implementation of appropriate and reasonable administrative safeguards to organize and establish an organization’s security program. This article will outline what HIPAA administrative safeguards are as well as discuss some methods that organizations can implement to maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of ePHI.
What are HIPAA Administrative Safeguards?
The HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities and their business associates implement several measures of security standards categorized as Administrative safeguards, Technical Safeguards, and Physical Safeguards that will work together to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of ePHI. Physical safeguards protect the physical security of your offices and devices where ePHI may be maintained or accessed. Technical safeguards pertain to the technology that protects personal health data, such as firewalls, encryption, or data backups. Administrative Standards are concerned with processes, policies, and procedures that will work to protect against a breach or unwanted disclosure of private information. PHI will be needed to be available for authorized users to do their jobs but no more than that.
Administrative Safeguards make up over half the HIPAA Security Rule requirements. HHS defines administrative safeguards as “administrative actions, and policies and procedures, to manage the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security measures to protect electronically protected health information and to manage the conduct of the covered entity’s workforce in relation to the protection of that information.”
In other words, covered entities and business associates must implement clear policies that will guide their employees in the proper use and care of ePHI to protect against unauthorized breaches of protected health information. The administrative safeguards are by far the biggest component of the Security Rule, as they inform and lay the foundation for compliance with the physical and technical safeguards that follow. HIPAA Administrative Safeguards can be broken down into several standards and covered entities will need to review and determine how best to implement all of these in order to be compliant with HIPAA.
Security management processes
These procedures relate to the prevention, detection, and correction of any security violations. In other words, these processes lay down the foundations for the steps that an organization must take to guide its employees in HIPAA compliance. This can include a Risk Analysis to identify potential vulnerabilities to PHI and how likely a breach is to occur, how best to manage those risks, and creation of internal policies to penalize employees who are found to be violating internal rules for safeguarding phi.
Assign a Privacy Officer
HIPAA requires that an individual be designated as a security official who will be responsible for the development of security policies and procedures. Some organizations may even have multiple people managing security because they have multiple locations, or even have an entire team or department dedicated to the role. The good news is that the Security Rule understands that different organizations will have different requirements and resources, so the number of security officers should reflect the size, complexity, and technical capabilities of the organization.
Related Article: Responsibilities of the Privacy Officer
This procedure is designed to ensure that all members of an organization have appropriate access to ePHI that is dependent upon the employee properly filling their job function. In other words, if the employee doesn’t need to access ePHI in order to do their job, that employee should not be able to access private health data. Additionally, organizations should be certain that when an employee is terminated or changes roles, access to ePHI is terminated as well.
Information Access Management
This procedure mainly serves to reiterate earlier points that pertain to restricting access to ePHI. According to the HHS, “Compliance with this standard should support a covered entity’s compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule minimum necessary requirements, which requires covered entities to evaluate their practices and enhance safeguards as needed to limit unnecessary or inappropriate access to and disclosure of protected health information”. As part of this procedure, covered entities should determine how to grant access to ePHI, such as through a designated workstation or software program, and work to ensure that an employee’s permissions are up to date, as well as adding access or removing access as needed.
HIPAA Security Training
As part of this standard, an organization must have a security awareness training program for all members of its workforce. This standard has four components: periodic reminders of the importance of security, protection from malicious software, monitoring of log-ins to ePHI, as well as procedures for creating, updating, and safeguarding passwords.
Security Incident Procedures
Organizations must have policies and procedures in place to address security incidents. These procedures should outline what will happen in the event of a security incident. Essentially, all employees at an organization should understand how they must react in each type of a breach in order to ensure the integrity of ePHI.
This standard outlines what organizations must do in the event of a natural disaster. They should include strategies for recovering access to ePHI as well as plans to backup data.
Evaluations should be assessing all of the steps and procedures that are listed above. Will those policies and procedures protect ePHI? These policies should be periodically reviewed so organizations can adjust to any environmental or operational changes that affect ePHI security.
Business Associate Agreements
Make certain to sign a Business Associate Agreement with any external entity that will be creating, receiving, storing, or transmitting ePHI to ensure that the business associate will be appropriately safeguarding the information entrusted to them. A BAA will clearly state how ePHI will be used, shared, and protected. In the event of a breach, a BAA will ensure that your business associate is liable for the breach, not your organization.
Implement Safeguards to Comply with the Security Rule
These nine standards sound like a lot, right? The good news is that the Security rule was designed with flexibility in mind, as its authors realized that every organization will utilize different quantities of PHI and also have different resources available to protect that data: A small chiropractic office will require different standards than a major hospital or a cloud storage provider. The drawback is that each organization is responsible for determining what their security needs are and how best to accomplish them.
With this ambiguity in the application of the Security Rule, becoming and maintaining HIPAA Compliance can feel daunting and overwhelming. Fortunately, that is why we founded Accountable: our HIPAA compliance management solution will guide you and your organization step by step in the full process of becoming HIPAA compliant. | <urn:uuid:d7a078b8-710b-4d80-9556-e82721737d53> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.accountablehq.com/post/security-rule-adminitrative-safeguards | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930212504-20221001002504-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.944305 | 1,358 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an open federation standard protocol for authenticating web applications. It simplifies the login experience for users by allowing access to multiple applications with one set of credentials. SAML is also the underlying protocol that makes web-based single sign-on (SSO) possible and provides a way for users to authenticate themselves when logging into third-party apps.
SAML allows an identity provider (IdP) to authenticate users and then pass an authentication token to another application known as a service provider (SP). SAML enables the SP to operate without having to perform its own authentication and pass the identity to integrate internal and external users. SAML allows security credentials to be shared with a SP across a network, typically an application or service. SAML enables secure, cross-domain communication between public cloud and other SAML-enabled systems, as well as a selected number of other identity management systems located on-premises or in a different cloud. With SAML, you can enable a single sign-on (SSO) experience for your users across any two applications that support SAML protocol and services, allowing a SSO to perform several security functions on behalf of one or more applications.
At the heart of the SAML assertion is a subject (a principal within the context of a particular security domain) about which something is being asserted. The subject is usually (but not necessarily) a human. As in the SAML 2.0 Technical Overview, the terms subject and principal are used interchangeably in this document.
Before delivering the subject-based assertion from IdP to the SP, the IdP may request some information from the principal—such as a user name and password—in order to authenticate the principal. SAML specifies the content of the assertion that is passed from the IdP to the SP. In SAML, one identity provider may provide SAML assertions to many service providers. Similarly, one SP may rely on and trust assertions from many independent IdPs.
SAML does not specify the method of authentication at the identity provider. The IdP may use a username and password, or some other form of authentication, including multi-factor authentication (MFA). A directory service such as RADIUS, LDAP or Active Directory (AD) that allows users to log in with a user name and password is a typical source of authentication tokens at an identity provider. The popular Internet social networking services also provide identity services that in theory could be used to support SAML exchanges.
EyeLock Releases EyeLock ID® – Simplified Logical Access for On-Premise and Remotely Connected Workers
NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2020 -- EyeLock LLC, the leader of iris-based identity authentication solutions, announced today the release of its highly anticipated EyeLock ID® logical access system for connected workers. Recognizing that passwords and usernames are things of the
BIO-key adds Technology Transfer Institute of Africa to its Channel Alliance Program; Bolstering Sales Reach in Large, High-Growth African Market
WALL, N.J. and OWERRI, Nigeria, Nov. 04, 2019 -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of biometric authentication and security solutions, today announced that the company has added Technology Transfer Institute of Africa (TTI) as a Channel Alliance Partner (CAP).
DENVER — August 5, 2019 — Ping Identity, the leader in Identity Defined Security, today announced the release of PingCloud Private Tenant, a private cloud identity solution for the enterprise. PingCloud Private Tenant provides cloud identity and access management (IAM) by combining
CHICAGO – CyberArk Impact Americas Conference–– July 17, 2019 – CyberArk (NASDAQ: CYBR), the global leader in privileged access security, today fortified its long-standing relationship with Microsoft by joining the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association to help customers secure infrastructure against privilege-related attacks. This marks the latest
BIO-key Introduces ID Director for SAML, Enabling Simple, Secure and Efficient Biometric Single Sign-On to Hundreds of Applications
RSA 2019 - SAN FRANCISCO and WALL, N.J., March 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of biometric authentication and security solutions, today announced the general availability of ID Director for SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language),
NY Regional Bank Selects BIO-key Biometric Authentication to Comply with New York State Department of Financial Services Cybersecurity Law
WALL, N.J., Oct. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of biometric authentication and security solutions, today announced a regional bank serving customers throughout Long Island and neighboring New York City boroughs, has selected BIO-key to provide | <urn:uuid:8d7f077f-78d3-4139-8588-12d13a64dc3e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cardlogix.com/glossary/saml-security-assertion-markup-language/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337421.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003133425-20221003163425-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.893618 | 1,039 | 2.859375 | 3 |
A guide to encryption for small businesses
Cyber risks have been top-of-mind for many large and small business owners as risks have increased over the years. We released our fourth Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report this year, which found that the median cost of a cyber incident rose from $10,000 last year to $50,000 this year. It’s a dramatic jump, but it’s just one of the reasons that businesses are seeing an increase in cyber risk.
Another reason for the increase in cyber risk is the pandemic. Once shelter-in-place orders were enacted and most businesses required employees to work remotely, there was a rush of cyber and phishing scams.
There are a few different ways that businesses are mitigating these increasing risks, and one of them is looking to encryption solutions.
Use this guide to better understand encryption and why it could be crucial to fighting cyber crime in your business.
What is encryption?
Encryption is a way to encode sensitive information so that cyber criminals, even if they were to get their hands on your sensitive data, would not be able to read it. How does encryption work? It uses a secret key that scrambles the letters and numbers in a document making it unreadable to someone who does not have the key.
How is encryption used?
Encryption is used to protect all kinds of sensitive data. For example, an encryption code disguises information in a file on your computer so that anyone who doesn’t have the decryption key can’t read it. You can also choose to encrypt a whole set of files and folders. It gets more complicated the more data you want to encrypt. For example, you can apply “full-disk” encryption which means that you’re encrypting every piece of information, folder, file, on an entire drive.
Why do businesses use encryption?
There are many reasons that businesses use encryption. If you collect sensitive personal information about customers, such as birthdays, social security numbers, or credit card information, you should protect that information from hackers. Without encrypting it, you leave yourself vulnerable to a breach, which would have the information of your customers ending up in the wrong hands, and then you face a potential lawsuit.
The same could happen if a device like a laptop or phone that you use for work is stolen.
Encryption is particularly helpful in protecting sensitive data over email. Here are some email security tips for small businesses.
One of the most important things to know about using encryption is that if you forget your password or lose your decryption key, you may not be able to retrieve the data.
Turning on encryption on most devices is easy. It just depends on the type of device you’re using (IOS, Android, or Windows). Use this encryption guide for steps to turn encryption on for your devices.
Additional ways to fight cyber crime
Many businesses take data protection one step further by getting cyber security insurance. A cyber security policy can protect you if any of the following situations occur:
For more ways to protect your business and make sure you’re prepared for the future, check out the Protect Your Business page. | <urn:uuid:17a90802-e472-4a7e-a07a-4f80d35030bd> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.hiscox.com/blog/guide-encryption-small-businesses | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337421.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003133425-20221003163425-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.946266 | 661 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The concept of data decentralization that has been popularized by the Blockchain technology has created a wave of reforms in various industries and fields. Mesh networking is how the concept of decentralization merged with Wi-fi signal and is most probably the future of how we’re going to be accessing the Internet.
Although this type of networking isn’t new by any means, it is a more convenient and cost-effective method of providing your entire living quarters or office with good connectivity without any “blind spots.” But first, we need to look into what mesh networking is.
Wireless mesh networks are most probably the best solution to connect devices within a large space to a Wi-fi connection that is equally fast throughout the entire place. You everyday networks normally comprise access points or hotspots. Whereas a mesh network has signal distributed to a large amount of “nods.”
The nodes are the medium which allows the Internet signal to spread throughout the larger area. And yes “node” does sound mysterious and futuristic, but speaking it’s nothing but a connection point.
To be connected to hundreds of users, only one “node” needs to be wired to an Internet modem, and it can be wirelessly connected to any other node in a large space. The connected node will, in turn, share the connection to as many users around as needed. There is no limit to how far the connectivity can be spread. The signal can be limited within a home, a smaller or larger office, or even an entire city, who knows…
Even the latest and the strongest Wi-Fi routers have to deal with a significant issue in our homes and offices: dead zones. There will be some parts of the building where our connections will suffer if we are too far away from where your router is located. Although this problem can be tackled by using a Wi-Fi bridge or an extender, that does seem to be a bit challenging at times.
With an extender, an existing connection is re-broadcasted. The extender picks up the signal and then re-transmits it. It does sound good “on paper,” but this wouldn’t be an optimal setup for a small office, for example. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ie4imVwn9vk
Eliminating Dead Zones throughout your Home/Workspace
Even for a strong Wi-Fi, it is hard for larger houses to find connection everywhere. With a basic router, there will be some dead zones here and there. This problem can be remedied by installing Wi-Fi repeaters or Wi-Fi Extenders, but they are not very easy to install, and they all need power access on their own.
Using mesh networking routers means eliminating the chances of dead zones around your house or small office. While a Wi-Fi router will broadcast signals from one corner of your building, a Mesh Router system will broadcast from numerous points. This means that the whole area will be covered by Internet connections, even when your home/office is more extensive than 3000 square feet or if you have multiple walls in between.
Mesh routers can be easily accessed smartphone. You can use a mobile app to access and control mesh routers even when you’re not in its immediate proximity. While being far away from your router, you can:
With a traditional Wi-Fi router, most of these functions are possible, but they have to be done via a desktop/laptop, and you need to be in the router’s range. Besides, you won’t find most of these features in a basic Wi-Fi router, but only in the expensive high-tier ones.
Wi-Fi extenders are not easy to install, but it might take less than 15 minutes to get your mesh network ready for work. All the individual hubs under a network are automatically programmed to work together, and all that a new user is required to do is to power them up and set up a password. Nothing more!
An important property that comes with the decentralization of data is that government agencies will no longer be able to track the users’ and companies’ online activity. This is one of the most important social ramifications of mesh networks.
Although convenient, there also happen to be some drawbacks of using mesh. First of all, this is a relatively expensive technology. It may give you uninterrupted connectivity throughout your home or small office space, but it is expensive compared to a traditional Wi-Fi extender.
Since there will be multiple nodes placed throughout the area you want to be under connection, each node covers a smaller area compared to what a Wi-Fi Extender would have covered.
Mesh technology is supposed to be user-friendly, so it is designed to be reasonably straightforward. Respectively, a mesh router may miss some of the advanced features that can be found in a high-tech router.
There have been a few studies published that suggested that mesh networks are slightly more vulnerable, due to the open medium wireless channel and the fixed topology.
The answer isn’t straightforward. Mesh networking technology is confidently the future of connectivity, but it comes with a few conditions. This is a choice that can be perfect for certain situations, in other cases, it’s better to stick your good-ole Wi-fi router.
If you are looking for uninterrupted connectivity at every single corner of your home or office, there cannot be a better option than to switch to mesh networking. In a general perspective, this technology focuses isn’t performance, per se, but rather a well-distributed connection that is very easy to manage and set up. | <urn:uuid:712e01fa-93f2-4609-ada9-f0418efc976a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.colocationamerica.com/blog/why-mesh-networking-for-small-office | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.947747 | 1,170 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Gilad Gressel On Why You Should Watch His Newest Course: Deep Learning With Python
Hi, my name is Gilad Gressel and I’d like to tell you about my new course: Deep Learning with Python.
Deep learning is an old technology that has recently been sweeping through the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Deep learning powers many of the cutting edge technologies that appear to be “magic” in the world today. Voice recognition, image detection, facial recognition, AI game playing agents (Dota, Chess, and Go), all of these are examples of deep learning in action.
Why Would You Be Interested in Deep Learning?
You might be interested in studying deep learning simply because you want to know what the “magic” is, what the hype is all about. That’s a fine reason to take this course, but I urge you to dig a bit deeper. If you have ever stared at a bunch of data and known “there is a pattern here, but I can’t find it,” then this is the course for you!
About The Course
In this course you will learn what is going on in a deep learning program, what it can do and what it’s limitations are. If you are wondering if you can apply deep learning to your field of expertise – the chances are that yes you can. If you simply watch the introductory trailer you will know what is required to make this work (hint: data).
This course is an introduction to deep learning. It assumes zero prior knowledge and has no prerequisites aside from the ability to code comfortably in any language. That said, we will be coding in Python, so you will either need to learn it (it’s easy) or already know it. I won’t assume you know much of any math, except what you would have learned in high school.
In this course you will code your own image recognition model (for handwritten digits), predict housing prices and perform sentiment analysis on the IMDB movie database dataset. During all these exercises I will be helping you understand how your decisions will affect the performance of your deep learning models. I am going to help you understand what affects what when you build your deep learning models, and we’ll do this all in practical coding sessions. | <urn:uuid:3b4e8b60-62a2-4c9f-9a81-baf9f535d027> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ine.com/blog/2018-09-21-gilad-gressel-on-why-you-should-watch-his-newest-course-deep-learning-with-python | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338213.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007143842-20221007173842-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.93478 | 481 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Lakehouse And Data Lakes - What Are They?
Databases have traditionally been very structured and ordered.
Data had to be defined in terms of records and fields. Each field had to be numeric or alphanumeric and often the length and size also had to be pre-determined. In short, a database was highly restrictive and could only store and analyze a fixed version of data.
For many years this was good enough, managing stock control in a warehouse where each item has a specific item number, arrival date, expiry date, and so on, is a good example. With these fixed and determined fields, it’s possible to use the database for this purpose, but more recently companies have explored the possibility of including unstructured data in the same pool.
Data warehouses emerged to focus on decision support and business intelligence applications, though they were still not suited for handling unstructured data, semi-structured data, and data with high variety, velocity, and volume. This is where the arrival of data lakes became significant.
Data lakes arrived and could handle raw data in many different formats for data science and machine learning.
This was also facilitated by the price of storage declining dramatically. Data lakes have many faults though — the quality of the data is not enforced and because there is no control over the consistency of the data, it’s very difficult to manage batch or streaming tasks — there will be too many errors.
So data specialists have stitched these worlds together. At a basic level, this works, but it can result in duplicate data that requires more storage and greater security risks. A two-tier architecture and the use of a data lake is the answer.
The Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) process is important here. The data is ETLd from the various operational databases and dropped into a larger data lake. Often the data is not well organized, but it will be transformed into a format that is compatible with machine learning tools. It’s likely that another ETL process will be required to pull data from the lake so it can be analyzed for business intelligence or analytics.
It’s clear that this is an improvement on the basic data warehouse, but the multiple ETL processes can result in stale or duplicate data — this type of data requires regular maintenance.
A lakehouse is intended to address the shortcomings and limitations of data lakes by combining the best attributes of data lakes and data warehouses. Lakehouses are enabled by a new open and standardized system design: implementing similar data structures and data management features to those in a data warehouse, directly on the kind of low-cost storage used for data lakes.
I found a useful definition of the key features of a lakehouse here. Summarizing the key points you should expect to find all these attributes:
- Transaction support: support for transactions ensures consistency as multiple parties concurrently read or write data, typically using SQL
- Schema enforcement and governance: the Lakehouse should have a way to support schema enforcement and evolution, supporting DW schema architectures such as star/snowflake-schemas
- BI support: Lakehouses enable using BI tools directly on the source data
- Storage is decoupled from compute: in practice, this means storage and compute use separate clusters, thus these systems are able to scale to many more concurrent users and larger data sizes
- Openness: the storage formats they use are open and standardized, such as Parquet
- Support for diverse data types ranging from unstructured to structured data: the lakehouse can be used to store, refine, analyze, and access data types needed for many new data applications
- Support for diverse workloads: including data science, machine learning, and SQL and analytics
- End-to-end streaming: real-time reports are the norm in many enterprises
This is not a comprehensive list of attributes. Larger enterprise systems may require more features, but this list demonstrates just how far the lakehouse concept has evolved from the structured database or even the data warehouse.
Click here for more information on data engineering expertise at IBA Group. | <urn:uuid:c37d3658-56fc-43e9-a2ba-3b7202c3174b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blog.ibagroupit.com/2021/10/lakehouse-and-data-lakes-what-are-they/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334596.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925193816-20220925223816-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.937161 | 840 | 2.96875 | 3 |
GENEVA (AP) — The inventor of the World Wide Web knows his revolutionary innovation is coming of age, and doesn't always like what he sees: state-sponsored hacking, online harassment, hate speech and misinformation among the ills of its "digital adolescence."
Tim Berners-Lee issued a cri-de-coeur letter and spoke to a few reporters Monday on the eve of the 30-year anniversary of his first paper with an outline of what would become the web — a first step toward transforming countless lives and the global economy.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, plans to host Berners-Lee and other web aficionados on Tuesday. "We're celebrating, but we're also very concerned," Berners-Lee said.
Late last year, a key threshold was crossed — roughly half the world has gotten online. Today some 2 billion websites exist.
The anniversary offers "an opportunity to reflect on how far we have yet to go," Berners-Lee said, calling the "fight" for the web "one of the most important causes of our time."
He is convinced the online population will continue to grow, but says accessibility issues continue to beset much of the world.
"Look at the 50 percent who are on the web, and it's not so pretty for them," he said. "They are all stepping back suddenly horrified after the Trump and Brexit elections realizing that this web thing that they thought was so cool has actually not necessarily been serving humanity very well."
The anniversary is also a nod to the innovative, collaborative and open-source mindset at the Geneva-based CERN, where physicists smash particles together to unlock secrets of science and the universe.
As a young English software engineer, Berners-Lee came up with the idea for hypertext-transfer protocol — the "http" that adorns web addresses — and other building blocks for the web while working at CERN in March 1989. Some trace the actual start of the web to 1990, when he released the first web browser.
Berners-Lee reminisced about how he was really out to get disparate computer systems to talk to one another, and resolve the "burning frustration" over a "lack of interoperability" of documentation from disparate computing systems used at CERN in the late 1980s.
Now, the hope of his World Wide Web Foundation is to enlist governments, companies, and citizens to take a greater role in shaping the web for good under principles laid out in its "Contract for the Web."
Under the contract's sweeping, broad ambition, governments are supposed to make sure everyone can connect to the internet, to keep it available and to respect privacy. Companies are to make the internet affordable, respect privacy and develop technology that will put people — and the "public good" — first. Citizens are to create and to cooperate and respect "civil discourse," among other things.
To Berners-Lee, the web is a "mirror of humanity" where "you will see good and bad."
"The Contract for the Web recognizes that whether humanity, in fact, is constructive or not actually depends on the way you write the code of the social network," he said.
Some tough regulation may be necessary in some places, in others not, Berners-Lee said.
On one issue, he's insistent: "Net neutrality — strong regulation," Berners-Lee said, hammering a fist on the table. He was alluding to a principle that anyone with an internet connection should have equal access to video, music, email, photos, social networks, maps and other online material.
Berners-Lee said the web has created opportunity, made lives easier and given the marginalized a voice, but "it has also created opportunity for scammers, given a voice to those who spread hatred, and made all kinds of crime easier to commit."
Ultimately, his "Contract" proposal is not about "quick fixes," but a process for shifting people's relationship with the online world, he said.
"It's our journey from digital adolescence to a more mature, responsible and inclusive future," he wrote. | <urn:uuid:2c24e637-0899-4aa2-9fc9-d9148baf97bf> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.mbtmag.com/home/news/13250099/wwworries-inventor-of-web-laments-comingofage-woes | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334987.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927033539-20220927063539-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.96022 | 849 | 2.546875 | 3 |
One of the questions we get asked by customers a lot is “Can your bot learn on its own?”. The popular belief is that a bot is truly intelligent only when it’s
Before we get started on self-learning bots, let’s first understand how bots are built. There are broadly two major approaches to building chatbots.
Approaches to Chatbot Development
1. Retrieval Based
Retrieval based bots work on the principle of directed flows or graphs. The bot is trained to rank the best response from a finite set of predefined responses. The responses here are entered manually, or based on a knowledge base of pre-existing information.
Eg. What are your store timings?
Answer: 9 to 5 pm
These systems can be extended to integrate with 3rd Party systems as well.
Eg. Where’s my order?
Answer: It’s on its way and should reach you in 10 minutes.
Retrieval based bots are the most common types of chatbots that you see today. They allow bot developers and UX to control the experience and match it to the expectations of customers. They work best for goal-oriented bots in customer support, lead generation and feedback. We can decide the tone of the bot and design the experience, keeping in mind the customer’s brand and reputation.
Another method of building chatbots is using a generative model. A good starting point for generative models is the seq2seq neural network. This network was initially released for machine translation but has also proved to be quite effective when it comes to building generative chatbots. These chatbots are not built with predefined responses. Instead, they’re trained using a large number of previous conversations, based upon which responses to the user are generated. We won’t delve too deeply into how generative models work. You can learn more about them in this video.
Generative models are good for conversational chatbots with whom the user is simply looking to exchange banter. These models will virtually always have a response ready for you. However, in many cases, the responses might be arbitrary and not make a lot of sense to you. The chatbot is also prone to generating answers with incorrect grammar and syntax.
Generative chatbots also require a very large amount of conversational data to train. We trained our seq2seq implementation for our reminders bot using 2 million conversations. Customers usually don’t always have this large amount of data readily available.
Generative + Retrieval
It’s important to apply technology in the appropriate context to make sure we’re delivering value to customers as well as to the end users. Our approach has been to employ a mixed model that takes the best of both worlds.
The Generative model primarily helps us improve small talk capabilities, i.e. chit chat and banter that users might want to indulge in with the bot. You can select and customize the tone of small talk – Funny, Formal
However, the primary focus of bots is to keep in mind the goal of the customer, to help users resolve support queries and to provide them with information. A retrieval based system is best equipped to meet such needs today.
A research paper by our machine learning team dives deeper into the implementation of such a model. You can read it here.
So how do we build a self-learning bot for retrieval based systems and generative systems?
Generative systems require simply feeding in the response to a particular question that may be missing from the initial data used to train the model. To make the bot self-learning, bot developers have taken an approach to let users themselves train the bot. This has had a lot of unexpected consequences.
The Microsoft Tay Bot, for example, was gamed by users using the ‘repeat after me’ function. This function was built to let users on Twitter train the bot and let it learn by itself. However, without any filter on what the bot was being trained on, it didn’t take long for users with mal-intent to retrain the bot with hate speech and extreme right-wing propaganda.
Thus, it’s evident that Self-learning generative models can be quite risky, given the potential for bots to be reprogrammed by users.
Training retrieval based systems required to keep the bot learning on its own involves a few categories of self-learning:
1. New Intents
Users are showing a new intent. The bot might have been built only for ordering a pizza, but not for cancellation of the order. This requires a bot developer to build the order cancellation intent and integrate with the Cancellation API.
Our system semi-automates this process. The system automatically aggregates and recommends new intents based on user conversations. A human agent can then choose to add it to the bot’s knowledge base or reject it.
2. Missing Variations
The other category is missing data. The system reflects this as well, by recommending new variations for a particular intent that’s similar to the existing intents. However, to prevent bad data from polluting the bot’s intelligence, this also needs to be cleared by a human agent. The agent will evaluate the data and test the bot, to make sure that no existing functionality has been affected.
3. Incorrectly Labelled Variations
This is the hardest category to solve for since, in this case, the bot has managed to respond to the user, but it’s an incorrect response. We focus on keeping a close eye on User Feedback, with our built-in CSAT system for every chat. Users can mark a particular conversation as helpful or not helpful. Our Bot QA then reviews these conversations to check if the bot needs tuning.
4. Contextual Word Representations
This is an ongoing process to improve the word embeddings used by the bot. These embeddings provide and expand the vocabulary of the bot. By adding more data about how users from different geographies use colloquial language, the bot gains a better understanding of these nuances. Haptik is fortunate to have hundreds of millions of past conversational messages to learn from. New conversational data with new vocabulary is regularly used to retrain the word embedding models on a regular basis. This allows bot A to get smarter with data from bot B!
We might see self-learning chatbots like Iron Man’s JARVIS in the coming decade, but they’re not quite production ready solutions for businesses today.
The approach we’ve discussed above is known as Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) learning. HITL leverages both human and machine intelligence to create machine learning models. People are constantly involved in the training, tuning
Our Active Learning system prompts our bot trainers to verify messages that have a low confidence score and validate those judgements before feeding them back into the model.
So, as you can see, there’s a lot that goes into preparing a self-learning bot to successfully cater to the needs of any enterprise and their customers.
This article has been authored by Prateek Gupte, Director of Product and Engineering at Haptik. | <urn:uuid:df2cfbb9-48d9-4f59-b736-85eac6be2d8d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.iotforall.com/how-do-chatbots-learn | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337432.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003200326-20221003230326-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.938845 | 1,512 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Cookies are typically sent to third parties in cross origin requests. This can be abused to do CSRF attacks. Recently a new cookie attribute named SameSite was proposed to disable third-party usage for some cookies, to prevent CSRF attacks.
Same-site cookies allow servers to mitigate the risk of CSRF and information leakage attacks by asserting that a particular cookie should only be sent with requests initiated from the same registrable domain.
The server can set a same-site cookie by adding the
SameSite=... attribute to the
Set-Cookie header. There are three possible values for the
- Lax: In this mode, the cookie will only be sent with a top-level get request.
Set-Cookie: key=value; SameSite=Lax
- Strict: In this mode, the cookie will not be sent with any cross-site usage even if the user follows a link to another website.
Set-Cookie: key=value; SameSite=Strict
- None: In this mode, the cookie will be sent with the cross-site requests. Cookies with
SameSite=Nonemust also specify the
Secureattribute to transfer them via a secure context. Setting a
SameSite=Nonecookie without the
Secureattribute will be rejected by the browsers.
Set-Cookie: key=value; SameSite=None; Secure | <urn:uuid:70ca5651-35e4-4c06-ae52-ebe6a2e21185> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.invicti.com/web-vulnerability-scanner/vulnerabilities/samesite-cookie-not-implemented/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337537.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005042446-20221005072446-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.842587 | 292 | 2.78125 | 3 |
What is Data Management Maturity?
Data immaturity can put you out of business
Merriam-Webster defines maturity as (1) the quality or state of being mature or (2) termination of the period that an obligation has to run. While the first definition is of little use, the second forms the basis for this discussion on maturity. Data Management Maturity guides your obligations for:
- The ways data are handled and used
- Governance and regulatory responsibilities
- Security, recovery, archival and backup requirements
- Ease of use by staff and customers
- Cost of data management and storage
In 2017, Harvard Business Review released a study revealing that only 3% of companies’ data met quality standards, and even worse, 47% of newly created data records had at least one critical error! An MIT Sloan Management Review article argues that 15-25% of your revenue can be lost due to insufficient data, which led Bill Gates to say: “How you gather, manage, and use information determines whether you win or lose.”
What is Data Management Maturity?
Data maturity relates to how you measure yourself against a recognized standard of what it should be, the processes used to manage and access data, the tools employed, and the data used in decision-making.
“a process improvement and capability maturity framework for the management of an organization’s data assets and related activities. It contains best practices for establishing, building, sustaining, and optimizing effective data management across the data lifecycle, from creation through delivery, maintenance, and archiving.”
CMMI cautions that the proposed 5 levels below should be used as a guide and that organizations apply each level according to their unique situation.
The five levels of the CMMI Data Management Maturity Model guide your performance against risk, capability, and usage are:
- Performed Processes are performed ad hoc, primarily at the project level. Process discipline is primarily reactive, fixing data issues rather than improving quality processes. Data is considered only from the project, application, or immediate work tasks and not as a strategic resource. Data management is not a board-level initiative or topic.
- Managed Processes are now planned and executed within policy guidelines. While there is awareness of the importance of treating data as a critical asset, the skills or tools are still inadequate from an organizational perspective. Senior leadership has begun to take data management seriously and is guided by assessments from consultants or industry standards.
- Defined Sets of Standard Processes are now helping to provide a consistent quality of data to help perform business tasks, meet strategic visions or maintain regulatory compliance. Management and governance oversight has been introduced along with monitoring, alerting and feedback loops. Data inconsistencies have the resources, tools, and funding to be addressed for critical datasets.
- Measured Managed and Process Metrics are judged against agreed variances. Data is treated as a source of competitive advantage or as an asset in performing daily tasks. Everyone is using data as a source of information and is concerned about its accuracy and timeliness to perform their work safely and securely. Applications are written to capture data issues that are resolved as quickly as possible to avoid reputational damage or regulatory fines.
- Optimized Process Performance is continually improved through incremental and innovative improvements driven by feedback obtained via automated tools, peers, industry practices, competitors, and customers. Data is regarded as the critical asset, other than skilled resources, for survival in a volatile economy.
As maturity and awareness improve, creating a Master Data Management (MDM) strategy and model specific to your organization emerges. MDM helps ensure that your data becomes information that can integrate the way your company works, makes decisions, influences customers, achieves its goals and continues to remain competitive, secure, compliant, sustainable and relevant. A Data Management framework will be composed of both the MDM and the DMM.
Model of DMM CMMI
ISACA and CMMI merged in 2016. Between them, they have articulated the model for how data can best be obtained, used, kept, and deleted, which is now the gold standard, as seen above. Their model encompasses six categories, each with several processes or practices for Data Management Strategy, Data Governance, Data Quality, Data Operations, and Platform Architecture. The DMM model highlights that your organization must evaluate and set each category and its functions. Data need, and usage is unique, and the model can only act as a guide by creating an agreed framework for behavior, tools, culture for data and information.
Making the Data Management Model your Model
Consider the intent and breadth of CMMI’s DMM against your enterprise data management model and processes. Data is your most crucial non-people asset; therefore, your DMM must consider all of these concepts to be of any value:
- Data Management Strategy
- Enterprise Data Management Processes
- Communications to staff, customers, and partners
- Business case and funding
- Data Governance and a Business Glossary of terms
- Metadata Management tables and templates
- Data Quality Strategy
- Data Profiling and Cleansing
- Data and Data Management Assessment
- Data Requirements
- Data Governance and Control
- Data Platform, Architecture and Configuration Management
- Data Reporting
- Data Management Backup, Archival, and Recovery
- Data Management Analysis
- Risk Management
Those organizations that take the time to create a viable, flexible and user-friendly data management model will be the ones to benefit from a digital business while keeping the costs of data access and use under control.
Benefits of a model and maturity
The DIKW pyramid states that data becomes Information used in daily tasks. Data then becomes Knowledge underpinning decisions and aids in the Wisdom of solving problems or fulfilling requests. To achieve Wisdom data must be:
- Enhance the quality and timeliness of decisions
- Reduce risk
- Help to manage costs
- Maintain compliance
- Sustain competitiveness
- Increase productivity
- Ensure agility for product introduction and maintenance
How to start
The Capability Maturity Model has undergone many iterations since it was first created in 1991. This model aids leaders by asking them to review what happens if they do not manage data and how do they know that what they are doing is acceptable?
Organizations fail in their attempt when they strive to use the DMM in its strictest sense without applying it to their circumstances
The Data Maturity Model, like many other Capability Maturity Models, were never meant to be used as-is. Instead, best practice is to ensure the wording of each level, including the level names or and goals, have relevance to your teams and management. For instance, one client changed their model names to be:
- We don’t do this well
- We are beginning to understand
- We now have a standard practice
- We are pretty good at this
- We are really good at this
The teams then created wording for each level with Outcome Key Result indicators to act as guardrail guides and warnings when they were not on track to improve how they were managing data. Start a pilot, get staff involved, make the model apply to each area of your company, measure performance or customer impact. Regularly review practices with auditors or via software tools to assess the state of your data and the maturity of your methods.
The last point is quite essential. With the accumulation of data, the ease of introducing data from a wrong source can cause you to incur fines, have reputational damage, lose staff and customer trust, or put you out of business. You will require software, be it tools for monitoring and alerting of issues, your application’s internal data check or cloud products, to help you maintain Data Management Maturity. Use news stories to motivate you to act so that what competitors have done incorrectly does not happen to you. Remember that Data Management and Maturity is the role of everyone!
DevOps, Agile or ITSM practices such as Value Stream Mapping can assist in the creation of visual models of data flow and use within your organization. These practices highlight gaps, redundancy, manual processes, or risks, facilitating iterative improvement tasks to encourage trustworthy data management and maturity.
A basic but scalable Data Management Maturity Model must encompass the enterprise and treat each domain as a discrete part of the model. Therefore, an overall governance team would include:
- Skill review and training
- Business case and funding. Collaboration and communication
- Data culture, especially around security
- Enforcement of business value
- Technology use such as cloud, data warehouse and data lakes
- Data Management Maturity Assessment and Survey against capabilities, skills, and tools
Gartner suggests that you take 12 actions to create a Data Governance Maturity Model, which your MDM maturitymodel will support. The Gartner data governance maturity model includes KPIs, roles, data governance guidelines, tools to consider and how to judge business value and outcomes. It is a flexible alternative to ISACA CMMi.
Data Management Lifecycle
Data stewardship is the practice of defining and managing data, documenting its use in catalogues, creating policies and rules, cleansing data, monitoring that data introduction and use is as required, de-duplication, access, archival and recovery. Data stewardship underpins Enterprise Data Management (EDM) and MDM architecture, governance, and quality. EDM and MDM concepts will evolve into your centers of excellence by business domain, ensuring sound and safe data management.
Summary of Data Management Maturity
Maturity is unique to every business. It is not about hitting a target or a level. Instead, Data Management Maturity should lead towards improvements in capabilities and tools in data usage. As you continue to improve, the need for compliance is recognized and becomes part of usual business tasks and roles. Data Management Maturity must be iterative and will never have an end date as conditions of data use change in this uncertain and volatile economy. Begin with what data is critical to control today, and via agile practices, benefit from a minimum viable set of data approaches to start your maturity improvement journey.
The high-level steps are:
- Perform a comprehensive assessment of the state and use of your data, processes and applications that use data, where and for what reason it is stored and regulatory rules that you must adhere to
- Decide on a plan that iteratively fills the gaps and improves the use and cost of data
- Benefit from industry standards and stories
- Document what works and what does not
- Create levels of maturity that make sense to you
- Ascertain the cost of bad data and introduce metrics to avoid poor practices and culture
Finally, ensure your staff are not wasting time and effort because of bad data. Look at this graphic from Forbes, which states that many companies’ actions are on cleansing and organizing data. Software tools and strong, but flexible rules, will help ensure that you avoid this waste and, instead, concentrate on transforming data into valuable information.
If you liked this topic, you might also enjoy learning about strategic capabilities for data-driven decision making in times of uncertainty. | <urn:uuid:1778c17a-5061-44b6-bfb5-5236ecaa2003> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.actian.com/what-is-data-management-maturity/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030331677.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924151538-20220924181538-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.931549 | 2,299 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Two recent disclosures show that often the weaknesses in cryptography lie not in the algorithms themselves, but in the implementation of these algorithms in functional computer instructions. Mathematics is beautiful. Or at least mathematics triggers the same parts of our brain that respond to beauty in art and music . Cryptography is a particularly beautiful implementation of mathematics, a way of ensuring that information is encoded in such a way so that it can only be read by the genuine intended recipient. Cryptographically signed certificates ensure that you are certain of the identity of the person or organisation with which you are communicating, and cryptographic algorithms ensure that any information you transfer cannot be read by a third party. Although the science of cryptography is solid, in the real world nothing is so easy.
Ransomware is an insidious form of malware that encrypts files on a hard disk so that the legitimate user no longer has access, and charges a fee for the key necessary to decrypt the files. Users are faced with the choice of reinstalling software and recovering documents from back-ups or paying the ransom to retrieve their files. The effects can be devastating on businesses that find that their back-up solution has not been as effective as hoped.
The business model of ransomware depends on the price offered for the key being less than the price of the resources necessary to crack the encryption. Hence, the cybercriminals have a strong incentive to use proven encryption algorithms with long keys. If the algorithm is able to be broken easily, nobody will pay for the key.
One particular piece of ransomware reported by Virus Bulletin used the secure RSA encryption algorithm coupled with a 1024 bit length key to encrypt victim’s files . Usually this would be beyond the capabilities of commercial computer to crack, if the criminals hadn’t made a mistake in generating their key. Researchers discovered that the key only contained numeric characters, instead of a mix of lower case, upper case, punctuation characters or binary data. The criminals had literally interpreted that the key should contain random numbers and had only included digits instead of completely random data. This reduced the effective bit length of the key to something that could be broken within a day on a desktop computer. The cryptography and mathematics was perfect, but the implementation of the cryptography was flawed.
The recent vulnerability reported in Apple’s implementation of SSL certificate handling shows how difficult it can be to get cryptography right . The bug means that when a secure connection is established within another computer, the cryptographic certificate that verifies the identity of the remote party is unchecked. The result being that it is possible for an attacker to masquerade as your webmail provider or bank by using a forged certificate without the forgery being discovered. The cause of the vulnerability was a duplicated line of code that caused the checking of the certificate to be skipped in certain circumstances.
Again, a flawless mathematical algorithm was defeated by a less than perfect implementation. In both cases simple mistakes reduced the effectiveness of the cryptography to the point that it could be easily broken. Anyone who has ever written computer software knows how easy it is to make simple mistakes, and how difficult it can be to identify these mistakes especially if the code appears to work correctly. Test driven development where each conditional branch is tested with unit tests as part of the development process should have caught this bug. Writing such tests and ensuring that the tests cover all possibilities can be done, but it requires a lot of diligence on behalf of the development and test teams.
Implementing cryptography correctly is hard. Although the theory is irrefutable, if the theory isn’t implemented correctly then you can’t rely on what the cryptography tells you. In an imperfect world of imperfect crypto code written by imperfect humans how we can detect when communications are being forged?
Identity verification should not mean blind trust when initiating or accepting a connection. The nature of the connecting computer and the content transferred should still be checked. Server reputation can be very useful in identifying servers or networks that have previously been used by cyber criminals. A cryptographic certificate that asserts that you are connecting to a reputable and trusted organisation, when the server that you are connecting to has been previously used for cyber attacks should cause alarm.
Even the most reputable organisations can be hacked and trusted connections used to distribute malware or as a conduit for hacking attacks. Checking the content transferred over these connections is vital to ensure that attacks cannot be propagated over trusted networks.
The Russian proverb, trust but verify, is often applied to cryptography. Applying non-cryptographic techniques, such as reputation checking, and content scanning, to verify that trusted connections are what they seems to be is necessary to secure data in an imperfect world. Mathematics may be beautiful, but the real-world implementation of mathematics as computer code can be ugly.
1. “Mathematics: Why the brain sees maths as beauty”, BBC News, 13 Feb 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26151062
2. “Researchers crack ransomware encryption”, Virus Bulletin Blog, 22 Feb 2014. http://www.virusbtn.com/blog/2014/02_21.xml
3. “Apple’s SSL/TLS bug”, Adam Langley Imperial Violet Blog , 22 Feb 2014. https://www.imperialviolet.org/2014/02/22/applebug.html | <urn:uuid:a91b90c2-2f05-405e-9f05-469579086be3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blogs.cisco.com/security/trust-but-verify-and-verify-and-verify-again | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334992.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927064738-20220927094738-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.935035 | 1,100 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Complex cyberattacks placing people, institutions or states in a difficult situation both financially and morally in recent years. Worldwide repercussions, such as the leaks of confidential photos and videos of celebrities, theft of sensitive data from companies, and the publication of secret government documents, are all carried out through cyberattacks. As the measures taken to prevent such attacks increasing the attack surface and in a result of this there is an increase number in the cyberattack methods and threats. Here are some common cyberattack methods that we come across all over the world.
It is used to identify malicious software such as malware, viruses, trojans and worms. It is the most common cyberattack tool in the digital world. Types of malware that can be infiltrated to different technological devices, especially computers and it can render devices or systems inoperable. A malware can reproduce, hide, and provide remote control by allowing malicious people to access them.
DDoS and DoS, which stands for Distributed Denial of Services and Denial of Services, are still among the most popular cyberattack methods, although they have decreased in effect due to the security measures developed in recent years. DDoS and DoS, which causes online services or websites to crash by sending multiple requests to online services, websites. This type of attacks expected to be on the rise again with 5G.
Phishing directly targets people and used to steal important information such as identity or credit card information. Phishing, enables malicious software to be downloaded to computers or phones through web shells, is usually carried out through links sent to e-mail addresses.
Most databases are developed to be compatible with code written in SQL. Websites that receive data from their users also send this data to SQL databases. Malicious people who exploit SQL vulnerabilities can thus access users' information. In some cases, hackers can also write SQL codes in a web form that asks for a name and address. In this way, they accelerate the process of stealing user information much more.
Man in the Middle is an other cyberattack method carried out over the internet that can seize a lot of information from users by pretending to be the services they want to access. For instance, you can unintentionally connect to Man in the Middle because it looks like a Wi-Fi point in central places. Then the websites you visit and the information you define become easily visible to cyberattackers.
With the cryptojacking method, hackers can perform cryptocurrency transactions using other people's computers or mobile devices. When the method was first used, cyberattackers who infiltrated devices using malicious links and e-mail attachments can now work with codes processed into websites.
Zero Day Exploit, a type of software that can infiltrate devices by installing or updating operating system tools which can be applied by using vulnerabilities in operating systems. Zero Day Exploit is among the most difficult malware to notice and can cause great harm to organizations as well as individuals.
As the name suggests, Passwords Attacks can damage personal or corporate accounts by decrypting passwords, is carried out with different methods. The most common of these is to find the current / easy password by entering different password combinations one after another by malware. One of the most effective ways to prevent such interference is to ensure access security with two-factor authentication solutions or session managers.
Eavesdropping Attack is a passive cyberattack method that can infiltrate users' computers or smart devices and listen to them. With this method, cyberattackers can access many sensitive data like credit card informations or identity informations. They can even ask various questions to the other party via the computer screen in order to steal the financial, medical or critical assets of a person.
Supply chain attacks aims to infiltrate a system and have the purpose to acces critical data with the help of a third party service provider. Inadequately secure services enables these attacks to become succesful. In this type of attack, industries such as telecom, finance, energy, health and public institutions where big data management takes place are targeted. When the act of infiltration occurs as a result of attacks, it can lead to financial losses and effects brand reputation negatively. This can happen in many verticals like the disclosure of data for spying purposes or disruption of production processes.
Cyberattackers have different methods that threaten the cybersecurity of individuals and institutions, and they develop these methods day by day. In order to fight effectively against all these methods and to ensure business contiunity safely in the digital world, you can also get information about Krontech's cybersecurity services or you can benefit from Single Connect which is one of the world's most advanced Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions to carry out the ultimate access security. | <urn:uuid:4a51bb80-fb5f-48c7-97c8-e70a3c0b862f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://krontech.com/the-10-most-common-cyberattack-methods | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334992.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927064738-20220927094738-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.942769 | 949 | 3.53125 | 4 |
*This list is regularly updated with the latest identity theft statistics for 2019 – 2022 (plus a few earlier stats thrown in). To date, we have compiled over 30 identity theft facts, figures, and trends from a wide range of sources and covering a number of different countries.
As the world continues its relentless march toward all things digital, the reams of data we’re uploading to the web are increasingly exposed. Each individual consumer’s personal information now resides on hundreds, if not thousands of servers across the globe. With that fact comes a somewhat obvious result: an increase in identity theft.
Data theft is big business, and following good news in 2019, when there was a slight drop in ID theft cases, this has unfortunately reversed in recent times – partly due to the effect of the pandemic.
According to the FTC, identity fraud incidents increased around 45% in 2020, incurring huge financial losses for American citizens. In 2021, this trend continued with Americans suffering a total of 56 billion dollars in losses, according to Javelin Strategy.
That security company also found that children are increasingly the victims of identity fraud. While children have long been a target for Social Security Number misuse and credit card fraud, it appears the impact is growing. The FTC reported that over 1 million children were ID theft victims in 2020.
Identity theft statistics have taken center stage among the many stats and facts encompassing the entire realm of cybercrime. While ransomware gains more attention, identity theft remains much easier to pull off and monetize. Social security numbers, credit card numbers, and other personal identity factors can be stolen and sold on the dark web, or used by criminals for quick and easy profit.
The following identity theft statistics are categorized to help get a better feel for how and why this threat continues to be a problem for consumers, businesses, and governments worldwide.
Related: Cyber security statistics
1. Over 12,000 reported data breaches occurred in the US between 2005 and June 2020, which help contribute to identity fraud
Alongside the 12,098 reported data breaches in the US between 2008 and June 2020, there were over 11 billion records stolen during that time frame. The numbers reveal that contrary to efforts to stem the tide of data theft, thieves are learning new ways to bypass protections, and much of our data is not protected at all.
The personal information stolen in data breaches can be used to conduct identity theft.
2. Number of fraud incidents still rising
2021 saw a three percent increase in the number of identity theft reports versus the year prior. In fact, these accounted for a quarter of all fraud reports; that’s 1.4 million seperate incidents.
3. Fraud losses up 45% between 2019 and 2020
Identity theft incidents almost doubled between 2019 and 2020. The total amount of money lost due to identity fraud was also on the rise.
According to the FTC, reported losses grew from $1.8 in 2019 to $3.3 billion in 2020 and $5.8 billion in 2021. However, it is worth noting that these figures do not necessarily account for all losses since many victims are hesitant to come forward.
4. Account takeovers up 20 percent in 2020
Account takeovers occur when a criminal gains access to someone’s accounts holding personal information.In 2019, account takeovers were up 72 percent over the previous year. According to Kaspersky this number of account take over incidents grew by another 20% in 2020.
5. 40% of account takeovers happened in just one day
Javelin Research found that fraudsters are fast in their efforts to take over accounts. The company’s 2020 research on identity fraud reports that 40% of takeovers happen within 24 hours of a criminal’s access to a victim’s account.
6. EMV chip credit cards helped to reduce some fraud
EMV chip adoption in the US was slow, but by Q2 of 2021, around 88% of merchants had POS systems in place to accept the chips (up from 67% in 2020), while every major card issuer had already switched to delivering cards with EMV chips.
Prior to EMV chip cards, credit card fraud was the single-largest source of identity fraud losses. However, counterfeit card fraud fell 75% after EMV card rollouts.
7. The pandemic was a leading cause of fraud
The pandemic caused a noticeable effect on the scams that transpired in 2020 and 2021. Unsolicited calls, robocalls, and phishing emails saw dramatic increases during the period in question due to lockdown.
These identity theft scams, including the theft of social security numbers, were used as an attack vector to steal the PII needed to engage in false claims and contributed to a dramatic increase in false claims (more on this later).
Finally, digital payment methods used to shop from home during lengthy lockdown periods also accounted for an increase in fraud, with 18 million victims reportedly affected.
8. Stolen credit card data is often sold on dark web marketplaces for as little as $0.50 per card
Although the cost of losing credit card information can be extensive, those selling that data on the dark web often do so at incredibly low prices. Symantec found single credit cards priced as low as $0.50, and some as high as $20 each. Cards with full details, including CCV numbers, were more commonly twice as expensive, and often run between $1 and $45 per card.
Data from skimmed magnetic is often the most expensive card data on the dark web. The asking price for those can range from $5 to $60 or more.
9. Most people in the US know an identity theft victim
Around 20% of Americans were victims of identity fraud in 2021. Those numbers indicate that if you live in the US, you have likely been a victim of ID theft or known someone who has (whether they’ve admitted to it or not).
10. UK identity theft reaching “epidemic levels”
In 2017, Cifas announced that identity fraud in the UK is reaching “epidemic levels” with fraud incidents occurring at a rate of 500 per day. Unfortunately, things only got worse in 2020, with a one-third increase. There was a further 11 percent increase in the first half of 2021, just as the pandemic took hold. Notably, 42% of reported incidents were committed with the goal of obtaining a credit card.
11. Account takeovers saw a huge increase between 2019 and 2020
Account takeovers have been on the rise for a while but spiked 70% in 2019, bringing losses associated with account takeovers to a staggering $6.8 billion USD, up from $5.1 billion the previous year. In 2020, account take overs continued to rise, with Javelin finding that account take overs let to ID theft that accounted for losses of $56 billion USD.
12. Attackers are embracing new methods of attack
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2021 report, cyberattacks, phishing attempts, and ransomware are all increasingly common. This accounts for everything from formjacking to inadvertently installing a Trojan, although research indicates that criminals are much more likely to target a vulnerability in public-facing systems than before. To illustrate this, there were around two million attempts to exploit Microsoft Server bugs in Q2 and Q3 of 2021 alone.
13. Account takeovers spiked 307% during the pandemic
Sift has revealed that account takeovers have more than tripled since April 2019, with almost half of all victims suffering this fate between two and five times. Over 80 percent of victims lost money this way, and more than a quarter lost loyalty points or reward points to scammers.
14. People in their 30s most likely to be victims
According to the FTC, there were 2.8 million fraud reports from consumers in 2021, a nearly 27% increase over the 2.2 million fraud reports in 2020. 26.4% of these were from people between the ages of 30 and 39, while just 4.7% were from people over 70 years old. However, it recently launched an online platform for reporting fraud, which may see these numbers increase more than usual, given the ease of which users can file a report.
15. Identity scams were the most commonly reported scam in the US in 2021, followed by imposter scams
The 2021 FTC Consumer Sentinel Data Book reveals that identity fraud accounted for the largest share of fraud reports to the FTC, accounting for 25% of all reported scams last year. Imposter scams were a distant second, with 17.16% of all scam reports.
16. Social media users are a high-risk group for identity theft
Those who use social media are among the most likely to experience fraud. Javelin Strategy found that individuals who have an active social media presence had a 30 percent higher risk of being a fraud victim than those who weren’t active.
People who use Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat were particularly vulnerable. Users on these sites have a 46 percent higher risk of account takeovers and fraud than those not active on any social media networks.
17. Children are often victims of identity fraud
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 1.3 million children’s records are stolen every year. Foster children have an even greater risk as a percentage of all children.
Self-reported data to the FTC indicates that over 22,833 identity theft victims were under the age of 19 in 2021. This reflects a 63% increase over the 14,000 reported in 2019.
18. Over 1 in 10 identity theft victims don’t want police reports
FTC data from 2016 shows a surprising 11% of those who reported identity theft to law enforcement did not want a police report taken. While we have not seen updated stats on this in recent years it seems likely that those who fall victim to identity theft and scams often feel embarrassed and may still be seeking to conceal the fact that they have been victimized in 2021.
19. Only 14% of consumers use VPNs to protect their identity
20. Government benefits fraud leading type of identity theft
That makes government benefits fraud the top reported type of ID fraud in 2021. Credit card fraud accounted for over 389,737 reports, putting it a close second.
21. 87% of consumers have left personal information exposed online
Norton found that 87 percent of consumers have left their personal information exposed while accessing emails, bank accounts or financial information, another issue that could be mitigated through the use of a VPN.
The lack of personal WiFi protections appears to coincide with the fact that 60% of consumers feel as though their personal information is safe when using public WiFi.
22. Identify theft now accounts for nearly 3o% of all FTC CSN reports
While the total number of reports made to the Consumer Sentinel Network didn’t rise remarkably between 2017 and 2019, there was a significant increase from 2019 (over 3.2 million) to 2020 (over 4.7 million). In 2019, ID theft had risen to 20.33% of the total number of reports, or over 650,000. However, this rose to 20.39% in 2020 with nearly 1.4 million identity theft reports made. Imposter scams were a distant second, accounting for 10.56% of reports.
23. Most small businesses store private information that could be exposed
According to a CSID survey, in 2016, 52% of small businesses didn’t invest in cyber risk mitigation, believing that they didn’t store any private information. However, 68% at a minimum stored email addresses, which is one potential entry vector for hackers. CSID also found that 31% of surveyed small businesses did not take any active measures to mitigate cyber risks such as data breaches and hacking.
Complicating the matter is money and human resources. In 2019, nearly 77% of businesses claim they didn’t have the personnel to properly secure their records and systems, a 2% increase from 2018. Around 55% indicate they lack the budget to invest in better protection. Finally, in 2020, small businesses accounted for 28% of all data breaches.
The good news is that since 2016, when the CSID report was published, businesses have been investing heavily in cyber risk mitigation. In fact, according to Hiscox in 2021, the average business set aside 21% of their IT budget for cyber security. This is a jump of 63% from 2019.
24. The median fraud loss is $500
The FTC reports that the average fraud loss in 2021 was $500, However, while elderly victims were less common, they tended to lose more money, with a median loss of $1,500 for those over 80 years old.
25. Many fraud victims don’t get reimbursed for their losses
An increasing number of fraud victims are not getting reimbursed. Javelin found 23 percent of fraud victims did not get their money back in 2018, which is 3 times more than in 2016.
26. Poor shopping habits leave Americans exposed to ID theft
Experian found 43% of identity theft victims in the U.S. admitted the incident happened after shopping online during the holidays. Increased shopping from home during the pandemic also led to an increase in online fraud and scam incidents in 2020 and 2021.
Despite this, only 58% said they wouldn’t use public wifi networks for shopping in the future.
27. Account sharing habits could lead to ID theft
Despite the risks involved, a survey found 79% of Americans admit to sharing passwords. Only 13% of survey respondents were worried about identity fraud, despite the risk. Given 65% of surveyed adults admit to reusing passwords across sites, many adults could be more vulnerable to ID theft than they realize.
The Australia Payments Network reports that spending on payment cards is up, and ard fraud is on the rise too. Its FY 2021 report indicates that while counterfeit/skimming fraud fell by 34% and lost and stolen card fraud fell by 24.9%, card-not-present fraud (CNP) rose by 3.8%.
29. Identity theft has lasting emotional impacts
In its 2018 study The Aftermath®: The Non-Economic Impacts of Identity Theft, the Identity Theft Resource Center examined the emotional impacts that follow from identity theft victimhood. The study found 77.3% of victims report increased stress levels and 54.5% experienced more fatigue and decreased energy.
ID theft victimhood can also erode personal relationships. Over 45% of victims felt they could not trust family members after experiencing ID theft. A further 55% noted newly-developed trust issues with friends.
30. New account fraud losses exceed $3.4 billion
New Account Fraud (NAF) losses increased in 2018, to $3.4 billion. NAF fraud accounted for $3 billion in losses in 2017. According to the FTC, new account fraud was down 1% between 2020 and 2021. In its 2021 report, new account fraud accounted for around 302,000 incidents.
31. Federal student loan fraud identity theft largest increase in 2019
Although there were just over 14,600 reports related to it, FTC Consumer Sentinel Report data shows identity theft based on fraudulent applications for federal student loans rose 188% between 2018 and 2019. In 2020, that figure rose by another 88% with 27,495 incidents reported.
On the plus side, student loan fraud fell 34% in 2021, accounting for just 18,202 incidents.
Identity theft statistics reveal the problem is not going away
Identity theft is increasingly a 21st-Century problem. As more data moves off of physical paper and onto Internet-connected servers, the chances of that data getting stolen increases as well. While “malicious outsiders” remain active in stealing data (and by extension, loss of credit card numbers and Social Security Numbers), consumers share a good part of the blame for their lost data. Nevertheless, there are some positives that have emerged in response.
Thankfully, Consumers are getting slightly better at detecting fraud attempts. Javelin Strategy and Research found that online shoppers tended to be quick at identifying fraud attempts. Surprisingly, 78 percent of fraud victims were able to detect fraud within a week’s time.
Still, identity theft prevention appears to be on the rise despite savvier consumers. Data breaches show no signs of decreasing. And unfortunately, consumers still appear to be less than proactive when it comes to securing their private information.
FAQs about identity theft
How do I know if I was a victim of identity theft?
Several red flags help determine if you're a victim of identity theft. Some of the telltale signs are listed below:
- A bank or a retailer denies you credit.
- You receive bank or credit card statements with unknown charges.
- You receive calls from debt collectors.
- There are new accounts on your credit report that you don't recognize.
- You no longer receive bills or statements by mail (indicating someone has changed your billing address).
What should I do if my identity has been compromised?
If you believe you are a victim of identity theft, you should start by contacting the fraud departments of the companies where your accounts have been compromised to ensure your money is safe and your cards aren't being used without your permission. You should freeze any cards you believe are being used concurrently and inform your local police station. If you have ID theft insurance, you can file a claim to recoup some of the costs caused by damages.
How can I prevent identity theft?
Although cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated, requiring less information for successful identity fraud, you can make their job more challenging by following these best practices:
- Use a credit monitoring service to get notified of your data being involved in a breach/significant changes to your credit file.
- Shred paper documents containing personal information.
- Keep an eye on your credit card and bank statements for unrecognized charges.
- Use strong and varied passwords for your accounts.
- Use anti-malware software to protect your device from threats that could steal your data. | <urn:uuid:df020bfc-1441-44c5-8102-2a1d51d4e052> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.comparitech.com/identity-theft-protection/identity-theft-statistics/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334992.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927064738-20220927094738-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.960905 | 3,732 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Hastily passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks of 2001, the PATRIOT Act has long been a very controversial piece of legislation. However, many of its provisions continue to be renewed in spite of sharply divided public opinion. Section 215, which grants the FBI the ability to access browsing history without a warrant as part of a foreign intelligence investigation, appears to be on track for renewal after an attempt to amend it in the Senate failed by one vote.
The bill now returns to the House for another vote, and would remain in place for at least three years if it passes.
Continued access to citizen browsing history without warrants
The USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020 seemed primed to pass, but a bilateral coalition of senators had wanted to amend Section 215 to limit the FBI’s access to search and web browsing history. The amendment actually enjoyed the support of most of the Senate, but a 60-vote majority was needed to end debate and make it a part of the final reauthorization vote.
The fact that the amendment fell short by a single vote was particularly galling to privacy advocates, given that several senators who have publicly supported PATRIOT Act limitations failed to show up. Most notable on the list was Bernie Sanders, who has consistently voted against the PATRIOT Act and its renewal efforts since it was first introduced in 2001. Sanders is not under quarantine or subject to travel restrictions, and did not reply to media inquiries as to why he missed the vote.
What exactly can the intelligence agencies access under the PATRIOT Act?
The original PATRIOT Act amended the existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a 1978 bill that gave government agencies the right to conduct domestic surveillance on individuals believed to be agents of a foreign power. Such a warrant has to be issued by a FISA court, a secretive body that does not make its deliberations available to the public.
Section 215 has been controversial from the beginning due to the dramatic expansion of the FISA court’s power. It enabled various federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to seize any type of record from a private business — physical or digital — if done in the course of investigation of a matter that impacts national security without requiring even the FISA court warrant. And since there is no search warrant, the subject does not have to be notified of the surveillance once the investigation ends.
Given the lack of public oversight of what constitutes a “national security” investigation, Section 215 was quickly abused. The National Security Agency (NSA) used Section 215 as the justification for its controversial bulk collection of national telephone records, something that was outlawed with an addition to the bill in 2015 after public outrage in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks (though it is still legal to collect certain call details).
Senator Ron Wyden, one of the leading opponents of the PATRIOT Act, argues that these warrantless surveillance powers are particularly worrisome during a pandemic that has increased the average American’s internet use, and under an administration that has shown a willingness to direct political retribution against perceived enemies and opponents. This same access to web browsing and search histories would also remain available to future administrations.
At the moment, an investigative agency must simply have probable cause to believe an individual is relevant to an investigation involving national security to immediately be allowed access to their browsing history and search queries. However, since the FISA court is so secretive and there is no warrant process, it is impossible to know exactly what the standards for “probable cause” are in this case. Prior abuses of the PATRIOT Act appear to indicate that these standards are not particularly high.
The collection of browsing history data becomes a particular problem when the FBI does it. That’s because the FBI is allowed to store this information in such a way that local law enforcement agencies throughout the country can then gain access to it, should it choose to do so.
What can people do to protect themselves?
If the federal agencies have had this ability to arbitrarily collect browsing history for some time now, why is it only just now becoming a controversial news item? That’s likely due in part to HTTPS encryption inherently limiting the amount of data that agencies can casually scoop up. In most cases, HTTPS connections will show a snooping agent only the top-level domains that the subject is connecting to. They can obtain more granular and private information, of course, but that would involve committing more assets to the surveillance.
Individuals can make it tougher for this personal information to be scooped up by not allowing companies to log it; for example, disabling the recording of browsing history and search queries when logged into a Google account.
One might also use a VPN service located outside of the country, though it’s important to find one with a trustworthy reputation and proper security measures in place.
Though it appears that the warrantless collection of browsing history is cleared to continue for at least several years, there was at least one piece of good news for privacy advocates. A different amendment to the PATRIOT Act was approved that will require a Congressional appointee to be placed with the FISA court, with the duty of ensuring pro-privacy arguments are heard and attempting to declassify significant court rulings when possible. | <urn:uuid:c4d01aae-4ede-4be9-b1ba-9fa58aab5cf6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-protection/failure-to-limit-scope-of-patriot-act-leaves-browsing-history-search-queries-of-american-citizens-up-for-grabs/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335396.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929225326-20220930015326-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.956947 | 1,069 | 2.5625 | 3 |
A Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) is a submission by an individual (data subject) to a business asking to know what personal information of theirs has been collected and stored as well as how it is being used. Data subjects can also use a DSAR to ask that certain actions be taken with their data. Action requests may include deleting their data, amendment of incorrect data, or opting out of future data collection.
Let’s jump in and learn:
What is a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR)?
Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) is a term introduced by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is now used interchangeably with SAR, IRR, VCR, and SRR. With both the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and GDPR, businesses should provide clear instructions for how a data subject can submit a DSAR.
a data subject should have the right of access to personal data which have been collected concerning him or her and to exercise that right easily and at reasonable intervals, to be aware of and verify, the lawfulness of the processing.
CCPA—Title 1.81.5. California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (1798.100 C, D):
A business shall provide the information specified in subdivision (a) to a consumer only upon receipt of a verifiable consumer request.
A business that receives a verifiable consumer request from a consumer to access personal information shall promptly take steps to disclose and deliver, free of charge to the consumer, the personal information required by this section.
While the CCPA’s DSAR requirements are similar to the GDPR’s, there are some differences regarding how a DSAR must be processed. (Note: other privacy laws also have differences that need to be considered.)
Another difference between the GDPR and the CCPA is how a DSAR can be submitted. The GDPR provides only general direction related to methods for submitting a request. Data subjects have the option to make a request either verbally or in writing.
The CCPA provides more specific instructions. Data subjects must be offered at least two ways of submitting a request, one of which must be a toll-free phone number.
Who Can Submit a DSAR?
If a for-profit organization collects personal data, anyone whose data is stored can submit a DSAR. That includes employees, contractors, suppliers, partners, and customers. A request can be submitted by an individual or by someone else acting on that person’s behalf.
DSAR submissions have also been converted into applications. With Subject Access Request as a Service (SARaaS) platforms, individuals can receive assistance via an app or a website.
Responding to a DSAR
Businesses must promptly respond to DSAR submissions. That means adhering to the window given to process the DSAR (30 days for GDPR and 45 days for CCPA), as well as other important deadlines.
- Within 10 business days—confirm receipt of the request
- Within 15 business days—respond to opt-out requests
- Within 90 business days—inform third parties to stop selling consumer information
- For two years—maintain logs of requests
DSAR Request Verification
To avoid falling victim to a data breach by disclosing information to an unauthorized party, requestors’ identities must be verified. This can be done in a number of ways, such as using:
- Personal information that has already been collected
- An existing password-protected account
- Third-party verification services
Who Should Respond to the DSAR?
A team should be put in place to oversee DSAR management and ensure that the relevant requirements are met. It is important to have several people involved because of the tight deadlines.
Businesses usually put one of the following people in charge of DSAR management and assign them to select a team to execute tactics:
- Data protection officer (DPO)
- Someone in a comparable role
DSAR Response Process
Businesses must respond to a DSAR in a prescribed amount of time once a submission is received. To do this, a DSAR response process should be put into place. It provides the framework needed to manage responses in an orderly fashion with minimal disruption.
Key considerations for a DSAR response process are:
- Systems for receiving requests
- Identity verification
- Workflows for processing requests
- Data collection, review, and redaction (as needed)
- Delivery formats
- Remediation plans
Refusing to Respond to a DSAR
A business can refuse to respond to a DSAR for certain reasons, including:
- Personal information is not maintained in a searchable, reasonably accessible format.
- Personal information is processed for compliance purposes.
- Personal information is not sold or used for any commercial purposes.
- Personal data is used for law enforcement or safeguarding national security.
- A data subject makes repeated requests in a deliberate manner with the intent to cause disruption.
Responding to Part of a DSAR
When responding to a DSAR, it is only necessary to provide information that is considered personal data. Businesses are not required to include every bit of data that mentions or refers to the data subject. A scenario where information would not need to be provided to the data subject would be internal notes or documents related to the person’s order history.
In addition, a DSAR response can include redacted information. This is done for internal content that is not related to or within the scope of the DSAR. Information related to another person can also be redacted.
How Much Time is Allowed to Respond?
The amount of time allowed to respond to a DSAR varies by regulation. For the GDPR, businesses have 30 days to respond from the time the request is received. The CCPA gives businesses 45 days to respond to a DSAR.
Failing to comply with a DSAR request within these timeframes can lead to fines and other penalties.
Charging a Fee for the DSAR Response
If a DSAR is unfounded or excessive, businesses are allowed to charge a “reasonable fee” to cover administrative costs. A business would be within its rights to charge a fee if the same person asks for the same information multiple times or makes unreasonable requests.
Any charges made must only cover costs. The business may not profit from fees charged for a DSAR response.
DSAR Response Challenges
Challenges that some businesses experience related to DSARs include:
- Low barrier for submission: A DSAR can be submitted by simply making a phone call, at no cost to the data subject
- Limited time to respond: 30 days for the GDPR and 45 days for the CCPA
- Distributed data storage for larger businesses: Live, backup, archival, and data warehouses
- Data stored in a wide array of formats, some unstructured
- Cost to manage the processing of DSAR submissions
Be Ready for a DSAR
The DSAR is a key part of most privacy laws, included to provide transparency so individuals can understand how their personal data is used. While this transparency is beneficial to those individuals, it can pose challenges for businesses.
Because the bar for data to qualify as personal information is low (first name and last name in combination with one other element of identifying information, such as a driver’s license number), many businesses find themselves responding to DSARs. Businesses must be cognizant of what data they collect, store, and use as well as manage where it resides.
Some businesses choose not to store this data or to anonymize it to avoid dealing with the DSAR process. In any case, businesses must be aware of this aspect of privacy laws and have a detailed compliance plan.
Egnyte has experts ready to answer your questions. For more than a decade, Egnyte has helped more than 17,000 customers with millions of customers worldwide. | <urn:uuid:dde204e4-55ab-427c-afdc-083bed8ddcf1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.egnyte.com/guides/governance/dsar | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335396.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929225326-20220930015326-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.924702 | 1,644 | 2.625 | 3 |
The use of digital signatures is becoming more commonplace both in the workplace and for personal use. Digital signing allows organizations to streamline signing and approval processes, eliminate paper and establish an audit trail.
Electronic Signing vs. Digital Signing
The difference between electronic signing and digital signing is not widely understood.
Electronic signing is a functional term. Electronic signatures are created through multiple options including typed names, scanned images or a “click-wrap” agreement on a web site. These signatures are not technically bound to a specific individual; therefore, electronic signatures are not easily audited and can be repudiated.
True digital signing requires that the signer use a credential (such as a digital certificate) that is bound to their identity. Binding the identity of the signer to the credential that is used for signing creates assurance that the individual who is signing a document really is who they say they are. When an identity-based credential is used, the signature is considered non-repudiable and is legally binding.
Learn more about the differences between electronic signing and digital signing, where you can also find a white paper, Electronic vs Digital Signing.
IdenTrust Provides Identity-Based Certificates
Obtaining an identity-based credential is similar to the process of applying for a driver’s license or passport. Registration information is provided via a secure website hosted by IdenTrust. Paperwork to prove your business affiliation may also be required. Once your identity has been validated by IdenTrust, you are provided with activation information to download your certificate via a secure online website, also hosted by IdenTrust.
Digital certificates can be stored in the certificate store of your browser for use on a single PC or in a hardware device (i.e., smart card or USB token) providing portability (i.e., the ability to use the certificate from multiple PCs) and security.
Digital Signing Offers Multiple Benefits
The use of identity-based certificates for digital signing offers multiple benefits including:
- Non-Repudiation – Digital certificates that are bound to a trusted identity are used to digitally sign electronic documents, creating a binding and non-repudiable digital signature.
- Inherent Applicability – Digital certificate protocol is embedded in Adobe® and Microsoft® products and the Bluebeam document management system, facilitating a turn-key implementation for digital signing.
- Improved Processes – Digital signing allows an organization to streamline signature and approval processes, eliminate paper and establish an audit trail.
- Multiple Uses – Electronic documents can be incorporated onto online applications, standalone processes and attached to email.
Digitally Sign and Seal Professional Plans
In addition to digitally signing standard documents, IdenTrust digital certificates can be used to digitally sign and seal professional plans and other documentation. IdenTrust certificates are used by engineers, architects, surveyors and others to incorporate a digital seal into a digital signature that is produced when signing with an identity-based digital certificate. Many federal, state and local agencies now require the use of digital signing and sealing when accepting plans submissions. These same agencies are also moving to the use of digital signing and sealing for documents produced by the agency.
Choosing a Digital Certificate
IdenTrust offers a variety of identity-based certificates that support digital signing. Your application will help to determine the best certificate option for you.
- If working with a federal, state or local agency with a requirement to digitally sign and seal professional plans, the IdenTrust IGC certificate is the best option.
- If working with the Department of Defense (DoD) and need to digitally sign documents, the DoD ECA certificate is the best option.
- If you are an individual or you are affiliated with a business and require public trust, an IdenTrust TrustID certificate is the best option.
- If you are an individual or you are affiliated with a business and require government trust, an IdenTrust IGC certificate is the best option.
IdenTrust offers a self-service model that allows you to purchase certificates via our secure website. Alternately, IdenTrust offers various products and services to support an enterprise-wide certificate-based security solution.
To learn more about IdenTrust digital signing solutions, please contact us at [email protected] or call us at 1 (866) 763-3346. | <urn:uuid:d7fe1fb2-a6b3-4dbb-896a-82768fc01357> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.identrust.com/solutions/digital-signing | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335573.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001070422-20221001100422-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.904676 | 895 | 2.75 | 3 |
Buffer Overflows Attacks
Network Security Software Testing, Software Quality Assurance, Fuzzing and the Discovery of Buffer Overflows help lock out cyber security criminals. Hackers break into applications by addressing normal access points in ways that developers didn’t intend or foresee. A very common method of forcing entry is by buffer overflow. The tools used most often by hackers to discover buffer overflow weaknesses; black box fuzzers.
For paper, see: beSTORM Quality Assurance, Fuzzing and Buffer Overflows
Black Box Fuzzing for Software Security Testing
BeSTORM represents a new approach to software security testing. This new approach is sometimes called “fuzzing” or “fuzz testing” and can be used for securing in-house software applications and devices, as well as testing the applications and devices of external vendors.
For paper, see: Black Box Software Testing
Industry RFC Certifications Through DAST
Reliably certify any networked hardware or software for compliance with industry RFCs, while checking it for known and unknown security weaknesses. Software security testing can be done to meet test lab standards prior to shipping products.
For paper, see: beSTORM – Certification
Fuzzing For Microsoft SDL
Black Box Fuzz Testing is a requirement of the software security testing phase of the SDL, the industry-leading software security assurance process that was created by Microsoft and proven effective since 2004.
Given diligent application of required security activities in the Design and Implementation phases, fuzzing done at the Verification phase confirms that attack surface reduction and threat modeling were complete and that resulting code was well written from a security standpoint. We recommend that beSTORM is used for this.
For paper, see: beSTORM and the SDL
Aviation Software Security Testing
Dynamic Aviation Software Testing is software for aircraft systems, from navigation to the entertainment system, must be proven to be free of unwanted reaction to every possible input, whether predicted by the designers or not. Safe operation of an aircraft depends upon every component being able to operate not only when receiving expected data, but must be able to keep its head about it when the unexpected happens. Given the diverse range of protocols that can be used and learned by beSTORM, we highly recommend that it is used for software security testing.
For paper, see: Dynamic Aviation Software Testing
Software Security Testing of IoT Devices
The Internet of Things (IoT) encompasses any and all products that are connected to the internet or to each other. Any product which requires connection to a home, car or office network to deliver its complete set of features falls under this broad term. In fact cars themselves are now a component of the IoT as they now exchange data with the manufacturer routinely if not continuously. beSTORM is the solution we recommend for software security testing all things internet.
For paper, see: Security Testing the Internet of Things -IoT
Security Testing of Critical Infrastructures
Energy, Water, Healthcare, Transport, Communication and Food are some examples of critical services essential for the functioning of any nation. Non-availability or even limited non-performance of these critical infrastructures quickly results in disturbance and distress. Hacking of these systems has surpassed physical attacks as the most serious security issue facing network operators and governments. We recommend using beSTORM when searching for those vulnerabilities, it tests for any and every combination and slightest of anomalies.
For paper, see: Security Testing of Critical Infrastructures
Software Security Testing and Certification of Medical Devices
Medical devices, fully self-sufficient appliances in their own right, aim to revolutionize the healthcare industry. They educate and empower patients to keep a check on their health, aid doctors and patients detect disease(s), assist in medical processes, let patients control and manage their health and make personal fitness more exciting. Before letting your application or device go live, we recommend that you software security test and certify it with beSTORM.
For paper, see: Security Testing and Certification of Medical Devices | <urn:uuid:2c717d59-e48c-4d62-a329-398e0acc767e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.beyondsecurity.com/dast-use-cases | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335424.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930020521-20220930050521-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.916356 | 830 | 2.53125 | 3 |
IBM computers and Intel processors run the bulk of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers, according to an annual ranking, which also found the performance of the top machines increasing quickly.
IBM extended its lead in the latest top-500 list and can now claim ties to 44.8 percent of the systems and just over half of the total computing power in the rankings. HP ranked second, contributing 28 percent of the systems and 18.5 percent of the performance capabilities. No other computer maker could lay claim to more than 6 percent of the machines or computing power.
The top-500 list, now in its 23rd edition, has become a closely watched measure of top computing power, providing a snapshot of vendors and countries that are leading the way in developing the most powerful machines. The rankings are compiled by researchers at the University of Tennessee, the University of Mannheim in Germany and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
“The list gives companies and vendors bragging rights,” Jack Dongarra of the Innovative Computing Laboratory at the University of Tennessee told the E- Commerce Times.
Intel Inside Supercomputing
Of the top-500 supercomputers, 287 systems use Intel processors, up from 189 just six months ago and more than double the number that used Intel chips a year ago. IBM Power Processors run the second-largest number of systems, at 75, followed by HP’s PA-Risc processors, with 57 of the top 500, and AMD, which ran 34 of the machines on the list.
Dongarra said the rise of Intel-based chips is not surprising given that more of the computers on the list are now actually clusters of smaller computers tied together rather than a single machine. There are 291 systems labeled as clusters, up from 208 just six months ago, and making them the most common architecture among the top 500.
“Intel provides a good price point for cluster-based computing,” he said.
Still Number One
Retaining its spot at the top of the list is the Earth Simulator supercomputer built by NEC in Yokohama, Japan, in 2002. The machine scored a benchmark performance of 35.86 teraflops. One teraflop is equivalent to a trillion calculations per second.
The geographic distribution of supercomputers is changing, with China making its first appearance at the top of the list and a system in Europe appearing on the list again after an absence.
Systems based in the United States held several of the top slots, including number two. Thunder, a cluster system running Intel Itanium 2 machines at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, ran at 19.9 teraflops. The LLNL also lays claim to spots four and eight on the list, which are held by prototypes for the IBM BlueGene/L system, which researchers say likely will take over the top spot on the list as soon as the end of this year.
A UK-based system ranks number six, helping Europe regain a spot in the top 10, while China made its way into the top 10 for the first time ever with a system assembled by Chinese integrator Dawning. It runs on AMD’s Opteron chips.
While many of the machines on the list are clusters, the number-seven system, a Japanese-built system running Fujitsu hardware, is noteworthy because it is a heterogeneous cluster running nodes of different performance capabilities. Dangarra said the system is the first of its type to reach the top 10.
Raising the Bar
The more recent list also makes it clear that it has became harder to reach the top 10, with machines running at 8 teraflops not making the cut for the first time. That left the Linux Networx Opteron-based cluster at Los Alamos National Laboratory, at a speed of 8.05 teraflops, stuck at number 11.
Missing altogether from the list is the “SuperMac.” The cluster, built at Virginia Tech, made a strong debut on the list six months ago, but is offline for hardware upgrades.
While the list is seen as an informal contest among computer makers, striving to build ever-faster systems has important implications for research, Aberdeen Group analyst Peter Kastner told the E-Commerce Times.
“There are applications in the military, in medical research, in all fields of science,” Kastner said. “This is an example of how the less expensive computing power can really become important.” | <urn:uuid:f24ef365-5fb4-466b-995d-941aa182452b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/ibm-dominates-supercomputer-list-34634.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337339.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002181356-20221002211356-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.932077 | 939 | 2.609375 | 3 |
eMarketer, a New York based Internet business consultancy, reported that 26% of U.S. teens who use the Internet are actually spending money online. Despite the growing percentage of teenage online shoppers, however, the total Internet sales generated by this group amounted to a small fraction of their overall spending. Looking ahead, eMarketer projects that teens will spend $1.3 billion (US$) online in 2002, out of a total $122 billion that they are expected to spend overall, both offline and on the Internet.
1.8 Million Teen Buyers
While 1.8 million teens made online purchases in 1998, the number is expected to reach 7.5 million shoppers by 2002, representing 61% of the U.S. teen population.
“Teens as a group have significantly greater access to the Web than their adult counterparts, but they are much less likely than adults are to make purchases online,” said statmaster Geoff Ramsey, who prepared the report for eMarketer. The most common reason is because teens do not have access to credit cards as easily as adults do.
Top categories for teen spending are clothing (34%), entertainment (22%) and food (22%). Boys spend a dollar more per week than girls, on average, $84 versus $83. Two-thirds of the money teens spend is their own, whether they earn it or receive it in the form of an allowance or other gift. Parents provide the rest.
New, Fun Way to Socialize
When teens go online, they like to send e-mail, participate in chats, surf the net, play games and, when all of the other options are exhausted, use the net for help with their homework. “Girls are particularly disposed to chatting online,” said Ramsey. “For them it’s a new and fun way to socialize. Girls are also more likely to use the Internet for learning and creative expression. Boys spend much more time downloading and playing games.”
While the general population spends an average of 5.4 hours online each week, teens spend an average of 7.3 hours. “As they spend increasing amounts of time online, they tend to spend less time watching television,” Ramsey concluded, “though many do both at the same time.”
Schools Are Getting Wired
Ramsey also noted that teenagers have significantly greater access to the Internet than does the U.S. population as a whole. Almost all teenagers (98%) have used a computer either at home or at school, and while only 27% of U.S. classrooms are wired, more than 75% of America’s 80,000 schools have access to the Internet.
There are 19.3 million teenagers in the U.S. today and their number is expected to grow by 4.7% to 20.2 million by 2002. By then, just about every teenager will have classroom access to the Web.
The eMarketer report estimates that 6.8 million teenagers, or 35% of the total teenage population, could be considered active Internet users, meaning that they logged on at least once a week during the past year and spend at least an hour per week online. By 2002 there will be 12.3 million active teenage Internet users, or 61% of their total. | <urn:uuid:45a4739e-3afa-4193-9d58-a015ab97bef7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/report-teen-online-spending-increases-366.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337339.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002181356-20221002211356-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.958943 | 681 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Netscout warns that using of the DTLS vector allows hackers to amplify DDoS attacks by 37 times.
The researchers found that criminals are using a relatively new vector for amplifying DDoS attacks: the Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocol, which provides connection security for protocols using datagrams.
DTLS, like other UDP-based protocols, is susceptible to spoofing, which means it can be used as a DDoS amplification vector. That is, a hacker can send small DTLS packets to a DTLS-enabled device, and the response will be returned to the victim’s address in the form of a much larger packet.
According to experts, earlier this vector of attack amplification was used only by advanced attackers, but now the use of DTLS has become more accessible and even a variety of services for DDoS attacks for hire offer it.
Experts have calculated that DTLS can amplify an attack by 37 times. The largest attacks seen by Netscout were at approximately 45 Gbps. Moreover, attackers combined DTLS with other amplification vectors, resulting in approximately 207 Gbps.
Netscout reports that there are currently over 4,300 servers on the network vulnerable to this problem. Most often, it is a misconfiguration and outdated software that disables anti-spoofing mechanisms.
In particular, it was previously noted that Citrix Netscaller Application Delivery Controller devices are often vulnerable, although Citrix developers have already urged customers to upgrade to a newer version of the software, where anti-spoofing is enabled by default.
Let me remind you that Google revealed the most powerful DDoS attack in history. | <urn:uuid:bf35271a-df56-413e-b6d2-94aefea060f0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://gridinsoft.com/blogs/dtls-can-amplify-ddos/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337473.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004023206-20221004053206-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.952637 | 341 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Penetration Testing: Why is a Good Offense the Best Defense?
I recently wrote about the steps in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) incident response (IR) process. IR is a good example of defensive cybersecurity. But you don’t want to wait around for a breach to happen. You can leverage proactive measures, such as penetration (pen) testing, to access your networks vulnerabilities before bad actors can exploit them. Today, I will look at our team’s pen testing process to give you an idea of what to expect if you decide to utilize this service in your environment—a decision I highly recommend.
Penetration testing, often referred to as “ethical hacking”, mimics a real-world attack so you can identify possible vulnerabilities and methods for bypassing security technologies running on your network, system, or application. In addition to showing how well your system could tolerate a real-world attack, penetration testing also helps you determine counter measures you can take to limit threats to your system and how effectively you are able to detect and respond to an attack.
Not all penetration tests are created equal. The complexity of a project can vary from a few days to a few months, and it’s important to know what you want to accomplish before you commit.
Which “box” fits you best?
The volume and type of information you provide to the penetration testing team prior to the execution of your engagement can significantly influence the outcome. Think of it in terms of boxes, where:
- Black box: Assessors get no data about what they are testing. While having less information might simulate a true attacker, we do not usually recommend this approach to companies who haven’t done a penetration test before or if they don’t have a very mature security program.
- Gray box: Assessors get some data about what they are testing. Gray box does provide some simulation of an attacker, while also providing more information to the assessors, which can result in a higher quality assessment.
- White box: Assessors get whatever data they need to execute the assessment. White box is best if the goal is to identify as many vulnerabilities as possible within a set timeframe, as well as trying to simulate an insider threat. It is very helpful when performing web application assessments, especially when source code is provided, as it gives enough information to the assessors to find those more complex vulnerabilities.
What steps are included in pen testing?
Different vendors follow different processes and use different tools for penetration testing engagements. At CRITICALSTART, our pen testing steps include:
- Planning/Scoping – Prior to completing a quote for pen testing, our team meets with the customer to define their objectives, which can be as broad as “What vulnerabilities do I have?” or as narrow as verifying Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) security or segmentation of services.
- Reconnaissance (Recon) – It is our goal during recon to find out as much as we can about the organization and the systems they have running. When it comes to web application assessments, assessors will look for technology versions, frameworks used, or if a web application firewall is in use. During the recon phase, we generally look for the following:
- Domains owned by the organization
- IP Addresses
- Web applications and vendor technology leveraged
- Employees, email address naming schema, password dumps
- Enumeration – After we have completed recon, we enumerate what is running on the customer’s systems. For example, we look for an application’s normal workflow, usernames, passwords, and frameworks (for example, WordPress), operating systems, and the age of their applications. This gives us a better idea of what flaws we need to look at more closely, such as validating network segmentation, to achieve our testing objectives. Within the agreed-upon timeframe, our team looks at every vulnerability possible.
- Discovery/Attack – This phase consists of testing and vulnerability analysis:
- Initial attacks – Assessor sends the opening round of attacks to gain an initial foothold or obtain information that might expand their attack.
- Evasion – For this phase, we evaluate our need to evade defenses based on the attack and the defense techniques that might be present. The tools our team uses for pen tests are similar to the ones used by criminals. We also leverage custom tools that are designed to bypass detection. If we need to bypass more sophisticated detections to meet a client objective or to exploit a specific vulnerability, we will craft a special tool for that engagement.
- Continued discovery – Assessor looks for alternative access method exposures, including portals to internal servers and other issues, if we have achieved our objectives or as other paths to achieving the same objective.
For example, during this phase, we look for whether individual laptops have access to what hackers need. After this step is completed, we leverage that new information to begin the process over again. With each successive attack, our assessors can gather more information about the systems and network security. This in turn allows them to exploit newly discovered vulnerabilities and gain even further access.
The Discovery/Attack process continues until we achieve our objectives. It is important to keep in mind that our teams have a finite amount of time to execute a high-quality penetration test, whereas criminals have as long as they need. This is why a structured, repeatable process, executed by very talented people is so critical.
- Reporting —The last step in our process is to issue an Executive Summary Report and Full Attack Narrative, which walks through all the steps we took to achieve the stated objectives. Our reports highlight the strengths of the customer’s security posture, what defenses worked, what failed, and what areas still need hardening. Based on these reports, customers can take our lessons learned and add to their own testing initiatives.
TEAMARES, the cybersecurity consulting practice for CRITICALSTART, helps organizations identify, classify, prioritize, assist in remediation, and mitigate software vulnerabilities. Talk to one of our experts to learn how to prepare your organization for an incident response—before you are breached.
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- Vulnerability Disclosure(1) | <urn:uuid:de0925fe-4c92-4679-aa68-4ccdbe9bc609> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.criticalstart.com/penetration-testing-why-is-a-good-offense-the-best-defense/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337473.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004023206-20221004053206-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.939124 | 1,431 | 2.6875 | 3 |
AI, or artificial intelligence, is huge right now. “Unsolvable” problems are being solved, billions of dollars are being invested, and Microsoft even hired Common to tell you how great its AI is with spoken word poetry. Yikes.
As with any new technology, it can be hard to cut through the hype. I spent years doing research in robotics and UAVs and “AI,” but even I’ve had a hard time keeping up. In recent years I've spent a lot of time learning to answer even some of the most basic questions like:
- What are people talking about when they say AI?
- What’s the difference between AI, machine learning, and deep learning?
- What’s so great about deep learning?
- What kind of formerly hard problems are now easily solvable, and what’s still hard?
I know I’m not alone in wondering these things. So if you’ve been wondering what the AI excitement is all about at the most basic level, it's time for a little peek behind the curtain. If you’re an AI expert who reads NIPS papers for fun, there won’t be much new for you here—but we all look forward to your clarifications and corrections in the comments.
What is AI?
There’s an old joke in computer science that goes like this: what’s the difference between AI and automation? Well, automation is what we can do with computers, and AI is what we wish we could do. As soon as we figure out how to do something, it stops being AI and starts being automation.
That joke exists because, even today, AI isn’t well defined—artificial intelligence simply isn’t a technical term. If you were to look it up on Wikipedia, AI is “intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals.” That's about as vague as you can get.
Generally, there are two kinds of AI: strong AI and weak AI. Strong AI is what most people might be thinking of when they hear AI—some god-like omniscient intelligence like Skynet or Hal 9000 that's capable of general reasoning and human-like intelligence while surpassing human capabilities.
Weak AIs are highly specialized algorithms designed to answer specific, useful questions in narrowly defined problem domains. A really good chess-playing program, for example, fits this category. The same goes for software that’s really accurate in adjusting insurance premiums. These AI setups are impressive in their own way but very limited overall.
Hollywood aside, today we aren’t anywhere close to strong AI. Right now, all AI is weak AI, and most researchers in the field agree that the techniques we’ve come up with to make really great weak AIs probably won’t get us to Strong AI.
So AI currently represents more of a marketing term than a technical one. The reason companies are touting their “AIs” as opposed to “automation” is because they want to invoke the image of the Hollywood AIs in the public’s mind. But... that's not completely wrong. If we're being gracious, companies may simply be trying to say that, even though we’re nowhere near strong AI, the weak AIs of today are considerably more capable than those of only a few years ago.
Any marketing instincts aside, that’s actually true. In certain areas, in fact, there has been a steep change in capability in machines, and that’s largely because of the two other buzzwords you hear a lot: machine learning and deep learning.
Machine learning is a particular way of creating machine intelligence. Let’s say you wanted to launch a rocket and predict where it will go. This is, in the grand scheme of things, not that hard: gravity is pretty well understood and you can write down the equations and work out where it will go based on a few variables like speed and starting position.
But this gets unwieldy when you’re looking at something where the rules aren’t as clear and well-known. Say you want a computer to look at pictures and you want to know if any of them shows a picture of a cat. How do you write down rules to describe what every possible combination of whiskers and cat ears looks like from every possible angle?
The machine learning approach is well-known by now: instead of trying to write down the rules, you build a system that can figure out its own set of internalized rules after being shown a lot of examples. Instead of trying to describe cats, you would just show your AI a lot of pictures of cats and let it figure out what is and is not a cat.
This is perfect for our present world. A system that learns its own rules from data can be improved by more data. And if there’s one thing we’ve gotten really good at as a species, it’s generating, storing, and managing a lot of data. Want to be better at recognizing cats? The Internet is generating millions of examples as we speak.
The ever-increasing tide of data is one part of why machine learning algorithms have been blowing up. The other part has to do with how to use the data.
With machine learning, besides the data there are two other, related questions:
- How do I remember what I’ve learned? On a computer, how do I store and represent the relationships and rules I’ve extracted from the example data?
- How do I do the learning? How do I modify the representation I’ve stored in response to new examples and get better?
In other words, what’s the thing that’s actually doing the learning from all this data?
In machine learning, the computational representation of the learning that you store is called the model. The kind of model you use has huge effects: it determines how your AI learns, what kind of data it can learn from, and what kind of questions you can ask of it.
Let’s take a look at a really simple example to see what I mean. Say we’re shopping for figs at the grocery store, and we want to make a machine learning AI that tells us when they’re ripe. This should be pretty easy, because with figs it’s basically the softer they are, the sweeter they are.
We could choose some samples of ripe and unripe fruits, see how sweet they are, then put them on a graph and fit a line. This line is our model.
Look at that! The line implicitly captures the idea of “the softer it is, the sweeter it is” without us having to write it down. Our baby AI doesn’t know anything about sugar content or how fruits ripen, but it can predict how sweet a fruit will be by squeezing it.
How do we train our model to make it better? We can collect some more samples and do another line fit to get more accurate predictions (as we did in the second image above).
Problems become immediately evident. We’ve been training our fig AI on nice grocery store figs so far, but what happens if we dump it in a fig orchard? All of a sudden, not only is there ripe fruit, there’s also rotten fruit. They’re super soft, but they’re definitely not good to eat.
What do we do? Well, it’s a machine learning model, so we can just feed it new data, right?
As the first image below shows, in this case we’d get a completely nonsense result. A line simply isn’t a good way to capture what happens when fruit gets too ripe. Our model no longer fits the underlying structure of the data.
Instead, we have to make a change and use a better, more complex model—maybe a parabola or something similar is a good fit. That tweak causes training to get more complicated, because fitting these curves requires more complicated math than fitting a line.
This is a pretty silly example, but it shows you how the kind of model you choose determines the learning you can do. With figs, the data is simple so your models can be simple. But if you’re trying to learn something more complex, you need more complex models. Just as no amount of data would let the line-fit model capture how rotten fruit behaves, there’s no way to do a simple curve that fits to a pile of images and get a computer vision algorithm.
The challenge of machine learning, then, is in creating and choosing the right models for the right problems. We need a model that is sophisticated enough to capture really complicated relationships and structure but simple enough that we work with it and train it. So even though the Internet, smartphones, and so on have made tremendous amounts of data available to train on, we still need the right models to take advantage of this data.
And that's precisely where deep learning comes in. | <urn:uuid:1eca069c-e43c-43a4-b76a-0370dadcd648> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://arstechnica.com/features/2019/04/from-ml-to-gan-to-hal-a-peak-behind-the-modern-artificial-intelligence-curtain/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337625.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005105356-20221005135356-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.949507 | 1,911 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Just a few days ago, we heard about the potential for the web-enabled Hello Barbie to provide hackers (opens in new tab) with personal data. Numerous vulnerabilities open up the potential for data to be stolen, but this could be the start of a worrying trend. If you thought the surveillance activities of the NSA and GCHQ are disturbing, things could be about to get much worse.
There is a movement underway that sees every conceivable device being transformed into a connected device. This is more than just the Internet of Things (opens in new tab) - security experts are warning that not only could any devices connected to the internet (including web-enabled toys) could be used to spy on users, placing children at risk.
The concerns have been voiced following the recent publication of the draft Investigatory Powers Bill in the UK. Experts warn that internet firms could be forced by security and intelligence agencies to hack into devices and spy on users. One of the more troubling suggestions is that children's toys could be remotely access and used as surveillance tools.
As reported by the BBC (opens in new tab), techUK's Antony Walker says that "in theory", any device that is connected to the internet could be hacked into and used for spying. There are calls for government to set out guidelines that would restrict - or at least make clear - what sort of devices could be used for surveillance, and under what circumstances. It's a problem that Walker says will become increasingly important as more and more devices, from fridges and TVs to cars, are not only connected to the internet, but also feature cameras and microphones.
Speaking to the Commons science and technology committee, he said:
In some regards, Walker's concerns have something of a whiff of paranoia to them. At the same time, he raises genuine anxieties that parents will have about connected devices they give to their children. Of course, there is not just the worry that toys and devices could be remotely hacked into by government agencies, but also by criminals.
He is calling for very precise limitations to be set out for future surveillance, saying: "When we start to think, not just about the world today, but the world in five, 10 years' time as the Internet of Things becomes more real, and more pervasive.
"I think it requires careful thought in terms of where the limits should be". | <urn:uuid:ba793803-d0d4-4b67-8fab-79127230e0a4> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.itproportal.com/2015/12/11/could-hacked-barbie-start-worrying-trend-mass-surveillance/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337855.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006191305-20221006221305-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.964512 | 478 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The little things in life sometimes mean the most to us, even when it comes to our IT. The importance of the seemingly mundane can be shoved in our faces the moment we lose them, making us realize how important the little things really are. For example- what would you do if your mouse suddenly stopped working?
You can spend time tracking down a new one, trying to use a different computer, or even calling your IT professionals to help you figure out why it stopped working. All good ideas, but in the meantime…how do you stay productive? There are a number of reasons a mouse can die- it is too old, the USB port on your machine isn’t working, etc.- but the truth is that you can’t stop working when your mouse does. So what do you do?
As it turns out, almost everything you can do with a mouse, you can do without a mouse. How? by using your keyboard. Yup, that’s right. It’s not just for typing emails and blog posts. Your keyboard has the power to act like your mouse, you just need to know the right commands.
So we have compiled a list of commonly used, helpful keyboard commands that will keep you working even when your mouse stops. For a complete list, check out this web page.
**Important note: These commands are for a PC machine running Windows 7.**
General Mouse-like commands:
– Right click: SHIFT+F10
– Left click: Enter or Spacebar
– To move between items: TAB; ALT+TAB; CTRL+TAB; Windows Key+TAB
– To get back to the desktop: Windows Key+D
– To close out of a window: ALT+F4
– To open Windows Explorer: Windows Key+E
– To create a new folder in Windows Explorer (sequence): ALT+F, ALT+W, ALT+F
– To open the “Run a Program” box: Windows Key+R
When inside a program like Microsoft Word or Outlook:
– Save email as draft: CTRL+S
– Send email: ALT+S
– Save document: CTRL+S
– Print: CTRL+P
– Spell Check: F7
– Cut: CTRL+X
– Copy: CTRL+C
– Paste: CTRL+V
– Undo: CTRL+Z
– Redo: CTRL+Y
This list is just the beginning, showing you how to perform the most basic computer functions without a mouse. It will help you stay productive while your IT professionals figure out what happened to your mouse and how to fix it.
Was this list helpful? Is there anything else you want to know how to do by using keyboard commands? Let us know in the comments! | <urn:uuid:286d3155-759e-46d9-ba9f-c61184bc30ff> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.networkdepot.com/dead-computer-mouse-hacks-a-cheat-sheet-for-keyboard-commands/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337855.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006191305-20221006221305-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.868256 | 587 | 2.515625 | 3 |
It may come as no surprise that Property and Casualty insurance varies from state to state, but were you aware that these differences aren't just circumstantial? In fact, most states go as far as to enact specific laws they believe will best protect their citizens or aid insurance providers that create employment and economic revenue. Such legislative actions have significant impacts on how insurance products are ultimately sold and managed.
Are the Differences Major?
In general, Property and Casualty insurance offers protection against a range of property risks, such as fire, flooding, earthquakes and boiler leaks. One thing you might have noticed when examining contracts, however, is the fact that some risk situations are outright excluded from coverage.
For instance, if a consumer lives in a state like Massachusetts, their insurance may automatically come with a storm damage clause. Because the likelihood of storm damage is generally perceived to be rare, insurance company lobbyists may not have campaigned against the inclusion of such terms.
In states like South Carolina, on the other hand, the routine occurrence of severe weather systems may mean that consumers have to purchase separate hurricane coverage for such events. Notably, Florida has enacted laws designed to change the way insurance works and support state-run providers in light of local proclivities for natural disasters. Some private insurance firms have even quit offering coverage in these areas as a result, and the corpus of legislation impacting how products may be sold is continually expanding.
Defining Key Terms
Also remember that although they're commonly grouped together, Property insurance and Casualty insurance are different. Property insurance is designed to protect businesses or individuals who have invested in the property itself, while Casualty insurance provides them with legal liability protection in case someone else incurs a property loss or an injury.
Because state laws vary drastically when it comes to tort law and liability proceedings, it's quite possible that a state may require specific endorsements and minimum deductibles for policies to be valid. Quantified minimums are common, and they may also be accompanied by special stipulations pertaining to business consumers, such as New Jersey's Temporary Disability Benefits Law and various worker compensation laws enacted throughout the nation. Due to the unique history of insurance laws in any given state, it's usually critical to study specific codes and statutes in order to gain a better understanding of the variances. | <urn:uuid:5c142660-145f-4bec-9f55-29b43a81340d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blog.mindhub.com/2014/08/property-and-casualty-insurance.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335034.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927131111-20220927161111-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.955141 | 463 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Everyone's had an unhappy afternoon bonding with their technology as they do the same thing over and over because that's how technology is sometimes: libraries have to be organised, space has to be made, data has to be entered and archives have to be searched. Even our favourite programs are frustrating at times.
Software's come a long way towards making everything a little bit more user friendly: searches are faster and more powerful than before due to indexing and more effective meta-tagging. They allow you to search not just titles, authors and dates, but also content in the case of some common file types.
Still, there are times when you need to control things manually and there's nothing to it but to perform the same set of tasks over and over again. That's when you'll want to know how to optimise Windows using shortcuts and automation.
With your favourite programs, you've likely already memorised a few shortcuts. There are some that everyone's familiar with: the Windows key to bring up the start menu, ctrl+V for pasting and alt+F4 to shut down many programs. Mastering shortcuts in not just one program, but at the operating system level as well allows you to avoid using the mouse at all- or in conjunction with a multi-button mouse, save time by binding functions to the extra buttons. This article is going to highlight some functionality and shortcuts for Excel and Word in Windows and provide links to alternate programs, as well as going over commands and functionality common to many programs and Windows itself.
- Window Management
- Rebinding Keys
- Desktop Customisation
- The Ribbon
- Program Basics
- Navigation in Microsoft Programs
The notation key+key means that the first keys should be held down and then the last key should be pressed. Typically, the first keys are “modifier” keys- meaning that using it modifies the behaviour of the keys following it. Modifer keys are usually keys like alt, shift or control (ctrl). They can be used by themselves in some contexts, but not as often as they're used as modifiers.
Windows (opens in new tab)
Most operating systems hide a few extra commands in the menus behind a shortcut key. In Windows Explorer, shift+right clicking reveals some options, but most of those options are for administrator level commands- not useful for the majority of users.
Without binding specifically for opening particular folders, files or programs, the fastest way to access them is sometimes searching.
- Search: Windows key+F
- Run (opens in new tab): Windows key+R
If you're searching this way, you might want to set up some tags or other metadata (opens in new tab) on your files. In Windows, you can search them by searching with parameters (opens in new tab) like “tags: tag name”. Another way of organising things is using libraries, so that it shows up on the side bar of explorer for easy access. Also, be sure to turn on indexing for your libraries (opens in new tab).
Whether the computer's in the midst of crashing or the mouse broke and you need to get some work done, it's sometimes necessary to navigate without using the mouse. You probably already know about using the arrow keys to change a selection and using enter to interact with selected items, but there are some more ways to interact. Many of these only work at the OS level and in particular programs.
- Right clicking: shift+F10
- Selecting the menu bar in a program or window: alt or F10
- Switching between windows: alt+tab (Adding shift as an additional modifier reverses the direction)
- Switch between windows and pinned items (Windows 7, 8): alt+windows key+ a number<
- Minimise Window: alt+ space bar then alt+n
- Close Window: ctrl+w
- Explorer/ Finder: Windows logo+E
One of the harder aspects of navigating without a mouse is dialog boxes. Those are the pop-up Windows in programs, like the save window that pops up when you close a document before saving. The same commands also apply to things like the ribbon in many Microsoft programs.
- Swapping between options in the dialogue box: tab
- Toggle checkbox or select option: Space bar
- Click Button: Space bar or enter
- Cancel: Escape
If navigating like that is proving too hard, some options and menus allow you to use either alt+the first letter of the button. For instance, to select save, alt+S will save. If the first letter doesn't work, the appropriate letter will usually be underlined or otherwise marked.
Windows doesn't have a single key combination for restarting (in the latest versions), but from the desktop (brought up by the Windows key+D) using alt+F4 will bring up the restart dialog box. The Windows key+L will bring up the lock screen.
In recent versions of Windows, using ctrl+alt+delete brings up a splash window with a few different options: task manager, lock screen, sign out, change password, change user. The menu can be navigated with the arrow keys and enter.
- Change monitor setup: Windows key+p
- Show desktop: Windows key+D
- Snap Windows: Windows key+ arrow keys
- Zoom in: Windows key+ plus key
- Zoom out: Windows key + minus key
- Switch to Program: Alt+windows key+ # corresponding to position on task bar
Of course, some of the default keybindings feel like playing twister with your fingers and there aren't bindings for everything you could possibly want. There's some customisation available and there are a variety of 3rd party programs available to solve that lack of functionality. These links aren't shortcuts, but tutorials on how to set them up. It's useful to note that you probably have more buttons than you expect on your mouse (opens in new tab) to use with these.
- Shortcuts to open programs (opens in new tab)
- Reassigning hot keys (opens in new tab)
- Assign functions and macros to the mouse with Intellipoint (opens in new tab)
One last thing that merits mention to help you get the most out of your desktop: customisation. There are widgets and gadgets, some provided by their Microsoft and some provided by third parties. There are also programs which allow more customisable widgets, like Rainmeter (opens in new tab) for Windows. These tend to be more flashy than functional, but there are useful ones out there.
There are the various views of Explorer (opens in new tab). Then there are ways to help organise the buttons (opens in new tab) in your UI or remove some of the worse features (opens in new tab) of newer versions of Windows or just ways to personalise (opens in new tab) it.
The ribbon present in much of Microsoft's office suite no longer requires XML knowledge to customise (opens in new tab). The ribbon follows much of the navigation rules from Windows above.
- Close or open the ribbon: ctrl+F1
- Pressing alt shows the commands for each item in the ribbon.
- Move to another ribbon tab: F10 then left or right
- Save: ctrl+S
- Save as: F12
- Open: ctrl+O
- Undo: ctrl+Z
- Redo: ctrl+Y
- Copy: ctrl+C
- Cut: ctrl+X
- Paste: ctrl+V
- New document: ctrl+N
- Close document: ctrl+W
There are a few things different about navigation in programs compared to Windows Explorer. Mostly, it deals with the inset panes, like the ribbon or find text pane. Instead of using tab or alt to shift focus, there are other keys, shown below.
- Shift focus through panes: F6
- Shift focus from menu to panes: ctrl+tab
- Cycle through pane options: tab
- Open the Navigation Task pane: ctrl+F
- Repeat Find: alt+ctrl+Y
Word Processing: Word (opens in new tab)
There are many word processors in Windows, including Apache's OpenOffice Writer (opens in new tab), WordPerfect (opens in new tab) and Google Docs (opens in new tab), but Word comes as part of its suite of office programs and many of its features are available in other programs, so in the interest of avoiding redundancy, I'm going to list the shortcuts for Word here- finding the feature in another program may involve looking for it in the documentation or searching for it online.
There's a lot to learn about Word, but there are a few common office activities I can point out, like mail merges (opens in new tab) for high volumes of documents. Something else that can help speed the writing process along is word replacement. There's a few different functions, including Find and Replace (opens in new tab), Autocorrect (opens in new tab) and Autotext (opens in new tab). Then of course, there's handy tricks like inserting tick symbols (opens in new tab).
This is only a sampling of the formatting shortcuts available.
- Apply styles: ctrl+shift+S
- Open Styles pane: alt+ctrl+shift+S
- Italics: ctrl+I
- Underline: ctrl+U
- Underline words only: ctrl+shift+W
- Bold: ctrl+B
- Copy formatting: ctrl+shift+C
- Paste only formatting: ctrl+shift+V
- Increase size: ctrl+]
Some shortcuts for ways of viewing the text (opens in new tab).
- Print: alt+ctrl+P
- Outline: alt+ctrl+O
- Draft: alt+ctrl+N
- Split document window: alt+ctrl+S
- Remove document window split: alt+ctrl+S
Spreadsheets: Excel (opens in new tab)
Short of working with a program that supports more robust scripting like Matlab or learning a programming language and using a compiler, spreadsheets are one of the most powerful ways of dealing with large volumes of data, particularly in their robust, visual format, making them an office staple. There are a few competing products: Apache's Open Office (opens in new tab), Google Sheets (opens in new tab) and Excel (among many others). Here are a few shortcuts and tricks for Excel. Experts of the program will probably decry this list's brevity, but that's because so many people spend so much of their workday using it.
The arrow keys in excel allow you to move between cells- provided the program's focus isn't in the cell's content. That's “cell editing mode (opens in new tab)”. If you're in it, there are some better keys to navigate with:
- Move right a cell: tab
- Move left a cell: shift+tab
- Move up a cell: return+shift
- Move down a cell: return
- Control+Page buttons: Switch between worksheet tabs
- Control+arrows: Move to end of data or final cell
- Switch between worksheet tabs: ctrl+Page up/ Page Down
- “Go to” menu: F5
- Zoom: ctrl+ mouse wheel
Many shortcuts have different behaviour when scroll lock is on. Some keyboards may not have scroll lock to toggle it on or off, so there's a virtual keyboard (opens in new tab) to use.
While Scroll lock is on:
- Moves to cell in lower-right of window: End
- Moves to cell in upper-left of window: Home
There's lots of other functionality that's available in Excel, much of it available in other programs from Microsoft's office suite (like copy-pasting only formatting), but what makes spreadsheet programs stand out are their ability to handle simple scripting and create repeatable sequences of actions, known as macros.
Excel's formulas don't boast as much potential as a proper programming language, nor is its library particularly in depth, limiting its functionality, but it isn't intended to be a solution for everything; this is a program for your computational and bookkeeping needs. In Excel, they're known as functions and formulas. They're the heart of Excel: they perform the calculations between cells, allowing users to handle large batches of data with ease. Microsoft hosts some courses (opens in new tab) on the subject. There's also a list of functions (opens in new tab), but that tends to be less useful by itself. I'd suggest starting with this help page (opens in new tab) if you're just getting started.
The basic premise of a macro is that you 'record' a series of clicks or data entry, then play it back to repeat the action multiple times on the spreadsheet. It does this by using visual basic in the background, but like many automation programs, it attempts to automatically create the code behind it with a more simple user interface. That is to say, you tell it to start recording, perform the actions, tell it to stop and it should produce the code to perform those actions again by inference. Occasionally, the program may draw the wrong conclusion about what you were attempting to do and end up with something not terribly useful. That's where it may be useful to know how to use Visual Basic. There's a general video walkthrough here (opens in new tab). It has a general overview of creating macros, editing them, saving and using them.
Often, you might find yourself performing a repetitive task in not just a single program, but at the desktop level or across multiple programs. The Windows OS doesn't have a program built in for that purpose. There are ways to perform some batch operations- technically, dragging a folder with multiple containing items or selecting multiple before dragging them to a different location could qualify- but there's no expedient way to do some tasks. There are a variety of programs out there for creating OS level macros without learning a full programming language, however.
Programs like AutoHotkey perform much the same way as Excel, allowing you to “record” mouse movements and clicks and automatically creating a script from that recording. This may not be useful often, but it's simple enough that it may be worth the time to set up in the few instances where it may be useful- or when you have to do something mindless on a nearly daily basis, saving a couple minutes a day saves a lot of time over the course of months. | <urn:uuid:d2f8519e-9cb2-411f-8863-47b1a6db37d8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.itproportal.com/2015/07/10/optimise-windows-using-shortcuts-automation/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335034.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927131111-20220927161111-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.915695 | 3,053 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The SMART goals framework helps define and plan for achievable outcomes. The idea is to define meaningful and impactful goals that are clear and can be realized within the available means. The common interpretation of the acronym is:
You can certainly apply the concept of SMART goals to any aspect of your life. Companies, however, frequently use the SMART framework to identify organizational objectives and manage employees. The approach helps eliminate ambiguities and guesswork in setting goals, making progress toward goals a process that can be measured.
Whether for personal or workplace use, the SMART approach can help! In this article, we’ll look at SMART goals, real examples, and how to apply SMART principles to make sure your targets are achievable.
The SMART Goals approach
Here are the five factors to consider when creating SMART goals:
S = Specific
Target a specific objective. Define exactly what it means to have reached a milestone. Create a holistic view of the goal in front of you. In practice, this can be achieved by answering the following aspects of defining a specific goal:
- What needs to be accomplished? This could be a detailed description of the objective.
- Who is responsible for the necessary tasks?
- Where is it located? This could be an event or location that must be identified as a detailed specification of the goal.
- When should the target be reached? Setting a timeframe is a critical component of SMART goals, covered further in the Time-Bound section, below.
- Which requirements should be fulfilled? Account for all obstacles that must be addressed in achieving the goals.
- Why is this goal important? Identifying and understanding the motivation behind a goal makes it more achievable.
|Non-specific goal||We must improve customer satisfaction.|
|Specific goal||Our tech support must register a 20% improvement in customer satisfaction based on a post-support survey with customers within the next six months.|
M = Measurable
The progress toward a goal must be quantifiable and correlate with the objectives. It should be tracked on a measurable scale using appropriate KPIs and metrics. You may not celebrate until you meet your final objectives—but each milestone brings you closer toward success. By establishing goals that are measurable, you can identify missed targets and take corrective measures as circumstances change. Importantly, you can find potential performance lapses before it’s too late.
Once the finish line is reached, you can evaluate the historical performance and plan for future improvements. This means that right metrics should be defined to track the progress toward SMART goals. In the domain of enterprise IT, where all business operations are data-driven, getting the metrics strategy right is challenging; choosing wrong metrics can be costly.
Of course, as with any measurement, it’s important to measure goals using metrics that provide accurate and realistic views of progress without generating an overwhelming deluge of misleading information.
|Non-measurable goal||We need to make our mobile app more popular.|
|Measurable goal||We must reach 1 million app downloads by the end of the year 2020 while maintaining 99.999% service uptime for 80% of the userbase.|
A = Achievable
Goals are likely to be achieved if they are realistic, practically possible, and viable based on available resources. An empowering goal can be broken down into attainable milestones. At every progressive step, the end-target appears to be closer to reality—more and more achievable. In contrast, the journey toward an impossible goal causes demotivation at every hurdle. That’s why it’s so important to identify limitations that may impede your goal.
Following a strategic and systematic approach can make goals achievable:
- Identify the resources available to you
- Define the problems and expectations
- Plan the path that will lead you toward success most effectively
It’s also important to understand that circumstances change. A target that’s not achievable today, can be practically within your grasp if the necessary skills and tools are acquired. When defining goals that are practically achievable, it is also useful to understand how you can push your boundaries and make the impossible possible.
|Non-achievable goal||We must prevent all IT outages on our servers.|
|Achievable goal||We must migrate our mission-critical workloads to a reliable private cloud service that guarantees 99.999% service uptime at comparable Total Cost of Ownership of the OpEx model.|
R = Relevant
When resources are limited, you must focus on goals that are most impactful and require immediate attention—both in the short- and long term. It is always possible to achieve many targets, but all targets consume resources and deliver a different outcome. Progressive organizations identify the targets that are most relevant to their vision, strategy, and long-term business growth.
In order to determine whether a goal is relevant, consider the following decision criteria for a goal:
- Is it required? What’s the priority?
- Is it the right time?
- What’s the short and long-term impact of pursuing this goal?
- What are the risks involved and how are circumstances expected to evolve over time?
|Irrelevant goal||We should double our marketing budget to advertise the stability and performance of our app in the market.|
|Relevant goal||We must reduce data leaks, network infringement and IT outage incidents by 50% with an additional IT security budget of $5 million per annum.|
T = Time-Bound
Many goals are achievable if allocated enough time. However, the results may not be impactful if not reached in appropriate time. Adding the constraint of a time duration allows you to prioritize tasks in your periodic routine. Daily tasks should not affect long-term goals. Similarly, ignoring routine tasks can add to the backlog that can impact your schedule plan in the future.
Time-oriented goals also make the progress trackable over the duration of assignment. Progress relative to time spent or time remaining delivers insightful information on past progress and how future plans should be changed in response to the current pace.
|Non-time-bound goal||We should double our revenue.|
|Time-bound goal||We must increase the rate of customer acquisition by 10% within the next six months by investing in a thorough marketing campaign designed for focused target groups.|
SMART goals for digital transformation
It’s easy to remember the SMART framework whenever you need to establish goals that you need to achieve.
For more on developing goals and choosing metrics and KPIs that help you achieve these goals, check out these BMC Blogs:
- Choosing IT Metrics That Matter
- ITSM ROI: Improve Productivity, Cost Savings, and Competitiveness via Enterprise ITSM
- Pitfalls of Choosing the Wrong IT Service Desk Metrics
- What is Digital Transformation?
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Ecosystems. All companies know what they are, but do all of them know how to get the most out of one? Are ecosystems being worked to their full capacity or are businesses failing to take full advantage of what they have to offer. There is a plethora of ways to maximise value from ecosystems but a true consensus on how to really gather up the benefits still remains somewhat elusive.
In some parts of the world, squirrels outnumber SQRLs and lynx run nearly as fast as Linux, and no such confusion exists. Ecosystems really are everywhere! Streams feeds forests, which shelter the grasslands, which nourish the waterfowl, which in turn forage at the feet of the bison herds. All these intricate connections rely on the same habitat, yet no single system directs the complex interrelationships among the flora and fauna residing there.
The same can be applied to the software business. An ecosystem, such as that launched ten years ago by Apple connecting application developers with consumers, clears fertile ground for participants to collaborate, innovate and trade. Is it any wonder that the world’s five most valuable companies — Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook — all thrive within robust ecosystems?
Yet few visitors to Apple’s App Store, for example, seek to purchase products developed by the company itself. Instead, they log on to download their favorite song, game, movie or app. While the value it adds is undeniable, Apple nonetheless remains a conduit. A conduit, interestingly, takes its original meaning from the waterways that give life to a habitat. In nature, an ecosystem represents more than the sum of its plants and animals. Its distinct features — climate, terrain, elevation — reinforce the sustaining interactions among its resident species, extending, in an evolutionary sense, the competitive advantage of each.
Digital ecosystems — not only business-to-consumer platforms, such as Apple’s App Store, but also business-to-business marketplaces, such as SAP Ariba — operate much the same way. Though sometimes thought of as merely a network of buyers and sellers connecting to do business, in reality a digital ecosystem entails much more than that. In addition to facilitating commerce, networks should enable trading partners to collaborate on innovations that open new operating models and revenue streams. Participants should be able to transform product design and delivery, align cross-border operations, and drive mutually beneficial business processes. And when surrounded by a robust ecosystem, they can.
Just as in the natural world, an elegantly designed ecosystem in the digital one confers yet another advantage: attractiveness to newcomers. Out in Big Sky country, it’s amazing how the tranquility and abundance of the environment lures visitors —migrating species. When an ecosystem works as intended, whether in the wilds of the forest or the thickets of the digital economy, word gets around. The best flock to join in, and the benefits accrue to existing participants. As the saying goes, there’s strength in numbers. Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Whoever said “there is no ‘I’ in team,” was technically correct, but way off the mark. Teams are, after all, collections of individuals. Individuals with different viewpoints and ways of thinking and operating. And when you tap into this diversity, you can open the door to totally new things. Consider Lego. In 2003, the iconic toymaker was on the brink of bankruptcy. To stave it off, the company tried to diversify its business, branching into video games and themes parks. But this only made things worse. Then Lego tapped into a diverse community of parents. And things got better as Lego teams began to understand how kids really play and developed products that appealed to them. Today, Lego is among the most valuable brands in the world.
Apple is another great example of the power the ecosystems can have. Anyone can devise the next ingenious add-on and offer it for sale in the company’s App Store. It’s almost impossible today to find something there isn’t an app for. You can find cheap gas or the nearest Starbucks. You can manage your daily meditation. And what would life today be without Fortnite? Apple alone couldn’t possibly deliver all these innovations on its own with the speed and scale that it can through the App Store. And in launching it, the company has not only paved the way for cool technologies that make our lives more manageable and fun, but democratized entrepreneurship.
Today’s runt of the pack can become tomorrow’s king of the jungle when technology with a few clicks. Will an established tech firm develop the next “killer app” to win over buyers and suppliers? Maybe. But it’s just as plausible it will be the handiwork of the young coders at a high school girls’ STEM club. In software ecosystems, David routinely challenges Goliath and prevails. What’s more, “David” turns out to be Maria or Yvonne or Sally as often as not.
If that sounds disruptive or even disconcerting, just imagine how the other animals felt when wolves — the top of Yellowstone’s food chain — were reintroduced into the park after a 70-year absence. Rather than crowding out other species, though, the wolves have flourished (opens in new tab) alongside them. In nature as in business, competition benefits the entire ecosystem (opens in new tab). Yet unlike Yellowstone, whose vast ecosystem dates back millions of years and whose barriers to entry rarely change, digital networks are relatively new. Anything can happen! Creative disruption guarantees that healthy ecosystems revive and replenish themselves, constantly anew.
Consider the growth of SAP Ariba’s own ecosystem. Our delivery partners, including Accenture, Deloitte and IBM, to name a few, provide invaluable expertise ranging from consulting to implementation to integration. Meanwhile, just this past April, Vertex — the leading provider of tax technology — wrapped its solutions within SAP Ariba through an application programming interface (API). A year earlier, Thomson Reuters introduced its Onesource solution to help companies using SAP Ariba cloud services to calculate and comply with taxes associated with global transactions. By visiting SAP Ariba’s app center, the more than 3.4 million buyers and suppliers connected to the Ariba Network can harness these innovations to simplify the complex process of invoice reconciliation and maximise their existing procedures and investments. And they are rapidly doing so. That’s the power of an ecosystem.
What’s next for ecosystems? In many of our cities, there is constant chatter about overcrowding. But in a cloud-based network, physical space is limitless — and so is the opportunity.
Sean Thompson, SVP and Global Head of Business Development and Ecosystem at SAP Ariba (opens in new tab)
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It’s probably unnecessary to explain why water management is considered part of our vital infrastructure, but it's a wider field than you might expect—and almost every one of its components can be integral to our survival.
We all need clean water to drink. As much as I like my coffee, I can't make it with contaminated liquids. And the farmers that grow our coffee need water to irrigate their land. On top of that, the water we use in our households and workplaces needs to be cleaned before it goes back into nature.
In some countries, and especially in large river delta areas, we need a high level of control over the water level to prevent flooding. Other areas need methods to retain water to avoid droughts or to keep vital transportation methods that depend on rivers and canals on the move.
We also use water to generate energy, for example, through dams and mills. In the first decade of this millennium, hydropower accounted for about 20 percent of the world’s electricity, and with the increasing need for clean energy, we can expect this percentage to rise.
Water management is considered so critical that tampering with a water system is a US Federal Offense (42 U.S.C. § 300i-1).
Yet, cybercriminals have found ways to compromise these vital systems as well. Let's take a look at their methods of attack.
HardwareThe Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) architecture that is in use in various water management plants, despite their diversity, is for the most part consistent. There are only so many companies that produce Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). In the past, vulnerabilities have been found in widely-used PLCs made by General Electric, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Modicon, Koyo Electronics, and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. And I would dare to wager that some have been found that we haven’t been made aware off.
One of the best organized safety aspects of water and sewage plants is its physical access (which is not always easy to secure either, if only because of the size of some of these installations). But, according to the 2018 Cybersecurity Risk and Responsibility in the Water Sector report by the American Water Works Association (AWWA):
“Cybersecurity is a top priority for the water and wastewater sector. Entities, and the senior individuals who run them, must devote considerable attention and resources to cybersecurity preparedness and response, from both a technical and governance perspective. Cyber risk is the top threat facing business and critical infrastructure in the United States.”The report goes on to say that getting cybersecurity right is not an easy mission and many organizations have limited budgets, aging computer systems, and personnel who may lack the knowledge and experience for building robust cybersecurity defenses and responding effectively to cyberattacks.
In cyberwarfare, a mass shutdown of computers controlling waterworks and dams could result in flooding, power outages, and shortage of clean water. In the long run, this could lead to famine and disease. In March and April 2018, the US Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that the Russian government is specifically targeting the water sector and other critical infrastructure sectors as part of a multi-stage intrusion campaign.
MalwareOne of the major threats to water-energy plants is Industroyer, aka CrashOverRide, an adaptable malware that can automate and orchestrate mass power outages. The most dangerous component of CrashOverride is its ability to manipulate the settings on electric power control systems. It also has the capability of erasing the software on the computer system that controls circuit breakers. CrashOverRide clearly was not designed for financial gain. It’s purely a destructive tool.
Another malware that many industrial plants are threatened by is called Stuxnet. This threat is designed to spread through Windows systems and go after certain programmable controllers by seeking out their related software. Near the end of 2018, the Onslow Water and Sewer Authority (ONWASA) said it would have to completely restore a number of its internal systems thanks to an outbreak of Emotet and one of the ransomware variants it is known to deliver.
Earlier in 2018, the first cryptocurrency mining malware impacting industrial controls systems and SCADA servers was found in the network of a water utility provider in Europe. This was not seen as a targeted attack, but rather the result of an operator accessing the Internet on a legacy Human Machine Interface (HMI).
Not that SCADA systems are free of targeted attacks. A honeypot that mimicked a water-pump SCADA network was found by hackers within days and soon became the target of a dozen serious attacks.
Insider threats are another cause for concern. In 2007, headlines told of an intruder who installed unauthorized software and damaged the computer used to divert water from the Sacramento River. In hindsight, this turned out to be a former, and probably disgruntled, employee.
An infected laptop PC gave hackers access to computer systems at a Harrisburg, PA, water treatment plant. An employee's laptop was compromised via the Internet, likely through a watering hole attack, and then used as an entry point to install a virus and spyware on the plant's computer system.
CountermeasuresA lot of what we can learn from these incidents will already sound familiar to most of our readers. Countermeasures that security teams in water management plants and organizations can apply follow many of the same cybersecurity best practices as corporations protecting against a breach. Some of our recommendations include the following:
- A clear and strict Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy can help prevent staff bringing in unwanted threats to the network.
- A strict and sensible password regime can hinder brute force attacks and should close out employees who left the firm.
- Legacy systems that serve as human interfaces should not have Internet access.
- Easy backup and restore should be made possible to keep any disruption limited in time and impact. Needless to say, this is imperative for critical systems.
- Software running on industrial controls systems and SCADA servers should not give away the nature of the plant or the underlying hardware. This makes it harder for attackers to find out which exploits will be successful.
- Use secure software, even though you cannot control or check the security of your hardware.
- Monitor the processors and servers that are vital to the infrastructure constantly so any abnormal behavior will be flagged immediately.
Water and powerAs you can see, there are many similarities between water management plants and power plants. While water management may be even more vital to our existence, many of the threats are basically the same. This is due to the similarities in plant infrastructure and hardware.
And when the threats are the same, you will see that the countermeasures are also similar. What's strange, however, is that despite both water and power being vital to the country's infrastructure, their cybersecurity budgets are quite limited, and they often have to work with legacy systems.
When the city of Atlanta was crippled by a ransomware attack in March 2018, city utilities were also disrupted. For roughly a week, employees with the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management were unable to turn on their work computers or gain wireless Internet access. Two weeks after the attack, Atlanta completely took down its water department website “for server maintenance and updates” until further notice.
Instead of systems backing each other up, they brought each other down like dominoes—an almost perfect example of Murphy’s Law, or the "butter side down" rule, as my grandma used to call it. It doesn't have to be that way, and when it comes to our vital infrastructure, it shouldn't.
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Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in healthcare
Healthcare sectors have been growing for the last 10 years. But for the last couple of years, it is booming because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To tackle this problem, industries from all over the world are taking assistance from AI, Machine Learning, and Big Data technologies.
According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, 63% of the companies are using machine learning for business purposes. The market value of AI in healthcare will reach $6.6 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach more than it in 2022. There is a huge overlap between AI and Big Data in healthcare. The healthcare industry fetches Big Data and examines it for meaningful purposes such as AI and Machine Learning.
In this article, you will learn how Big Data and AI helps in the healthcare industry.
What is Big Data in healthcare?
Big Data in healthcare is a massive amount of data that is both structured and unstructured forms. Too much that we can’t handle in traditional ways, like storing them in hard drives. We can store this huge amount of data in clouds or customized memory storage.
Big Data development companies use this Big Data to analyze business and grow your company in the market. This is a helpful technique to find the deficiencies in your business and overcome them. In the healthcare sector, Big Data comprises patient medical records, patient treatment history, hospital records, exams results, medical machines data, and many more.
If the medical researchers and medical industry properly manage and analyze the data, they can prepare the medical industry for future pandemics.
Why is Big Data important in healthcare?
Collecting Big Data in healthcare is very important because it helps researchers and doctors to make well-researched decisions and treatments. For example, if a doctor analyzes a disease in a better way through Big Data, they can easily find the symptoms of that disease in a patient before it arises. If doctors treat diseases in earlier stages of the diseases, it can be cost-effective as well.
How Big Data improves patient outcomes
In the past, Big Data for medicine and healthcare industry was very expensive. But today, the technology has elevated and healthcare industries are collecting organizational data electronically via different resources. This data is converted into readable forms. From that data, healthcare professionals produce data-driven solutions for their patients and improve patient outcomes in different ways:
Types of healthcare data
Medical records are just one type of data in the healthcare IT solutions industry. According to the CDC report, approximately 883.7 million people visit office-based clinics annually in the United States. Over 85% office-based physicians use electronic medical record systems for collecting patient data. There are many types of data:
- Medical records
- Dental records
- Surgical records
- Behavioral data (for example, a patient’s diet)
- Biometrics (for example, a patient’s blood pressure)
- Living conditions.
Role of AI in healthcare
Here are a few benefits AI can provide the healthcare sector with:
- Artificial intelligence helps people interact with the chatbot which works on the AI algorithms.
- AI enables doctors to diagnose the patient with digital designs.
- It also helps in identifying the drug factors in molecular structure by examining the image data. It also helps the radiologists to examine the image and diagnose the patients.
- With the use of Big Data, you can personalize the patient’s data and treatment.
What is AI in healthcare?
AI in healthcare means that people train machines to perform medical tasks the same as humans do. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning expertise are used in the medical field to enhance the productivity of the clinics and manage the hospital systems. A prominent purpose of AI in the medical field is to produce medicine and diagnose patients with the latest technologies.
Artificial Intelligence helps in saving the lives of patients, enhancing the ways of diagnosis for doctors, and hospital management in less time and cost. Here are some ways to reduce errors in AI and save lives. After this section, you will also learn about the different companies that use AI to develop new medicines.
PathAI helps in cancer diagnosis
PathAI develops Machine Learning (ML) technology to help in cancer detection. The main purpose of PathAI is to reduce the errors in cancer diagnosis and develop some new technologies for medical treatment. It has worked with drug development companies such as Bill & Melinda Gates to grow the AI sector in healthcare.
Buoy Health for symptoms checking
Buoy Health is an AI-based symptom checker that uses some exceptional algorithms for patient treatment. It is like a chatbot. You can share your diseases with it and it will return to you with some diagnosis suggestions.
Enlitic for actionable insights
Enlitic is used to develop Machine Learning tools to help in radiology diagnosis. Many organizations use this Deep Learning platform to examine unstructured data sources like blood tests, images, and history of patients to give practitioners better results of patients’ real-time records.
Freenome AI to detect cancer
Freenome uses AI to examine blood tests of patients and detect earlier cancer in the human body. It also uses new methodologies to develop new treatments for different types of cancer.
Developing new medicine with AI
The drug development industry is booming and increasing the costs of new medicines with the help of AI. It costs about $2.6 billion to put each drug through clinical trials and only 10% of the drugs are taken to the market. Pharmaceutical companies are taking notice of the efficiency, accuracy, and knowledge of AI. In 2007, one of the biggest AI breakthroughs came in drug development when a robot named Adam completed a research task on yeast.
In this section, we’ll elaborate on the companies that use AI to develop new medicines.
- BioXcel Therapeutics is a company that uses AI to examine and produce new drugs and medicines in neurosciences and immuno-oncology. It helps find the new medicines and make some innovations in the existing medicines for the new patients.
- BERG is a biotech platform that maps developed medicines to speed up the discovery of new ones. With traditional R&D, BERG can produce solid medicines that can cure serious diseases. They have discovered some rare links between different chemicals in the human body.
- XTALPI has combined AI with quantum physics to predict the chemical properties of drug design and production. This company has claimed to predict the crystal structure of the molecules within the days.
- Atomwise is a biotech industry that uses AI to develop medicines for fatal diseases. Atomwise makes some innovative solutions to take over diseases like Ebola in the future.
Big Data and AI have influenced healthcare greatly. Big Data management helps healthcare institutions get the medical records, treatment records, history, and other data. This data enables practitioners to make better decisions for their patients. Big Data also assists different healthcare institutions and medical researchers to get solutions for pandemic situations in the future. AI uses this data and provides the medical industry with great robotic machines for diagnosing diseases.
In the past, doctors were unable to diagnose minor injuries in the head. But AI and Machine Learning make it easy for practitioners to get a better understanding of minor head injuries.
To put it simply, Big Data artificial intelligence made healthcare development companies more useful and advanced. Giant biotechnology companies are producing innovative drugs and medicines for patients. They are using AI technology to develop some medicines that can fight against rare and fatal diseases. All these companies have the primary goal of making robotic machines that can work automatically to reduce paperwork. Those machines decide based on their data and algorithms.
Danie Bloom is a digital marketing expert. He has helped several brands grow from nothing to a successful name in the past few years. He believes smart work and business values go a long way for success. He is currently working with Invozone a multinational software development firm.
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Expert systems and KM are a natural team
Like ballgames, peanuts and Cracker Jack
Although many knowledge management efforts have incorporated artificial intelligence into their processes, the potential synergy between the two fields has not yet been achieved. Areas in which artificial intelligence have benefited KM include help desks and loan application software, which are usually expert systems, autonomous agents and natural language search engines. However, the strengths of each discipline could be more effectively used by the other, to the benefit of both.
Knowledge management was raised as a key issue several years ago at the Third World Congress on Expert Systems, held in 1997 and sponsored by the International Society for Expert Systems. In a report on the meeting published by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Jay Liebowitz notes that presenters recognized the need for companies to use knowledge management techniques and to consider knowledge asset management. However, he points out that CEOs face challenges in measuring and valuing knowledge.
Expert systems are an ideal way to convert both tacit and explicit knowledge into a form that is available to many users, a key process in knowledge management. The implementation of expert systems involves systematic and well-established procedures for representing the knowledge of experts, a process referred to as knowledge engineering. Yet knowledge management efforts often struggle with eliciting and documenting tacit knowledge. At the same time, data warehouses, a mainstay of knowledge management, are a valuable source of information that may not always be used effectively in expert systems.
Many of the large, complex and expensive expert system authoring tools of the mid-1980s have fallen by the wayside. Those that remain are more modest in cost and relatively easy to use. Among them is Exsys, produced by the company of the same name which was introduced in 1983. Exsys has been used to develop thousands of expert systems, and the company plans to introduce a Web-enabled product called Corvid later this year. Exsys and Corvid are each priced at about $12,000.
In 1993, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) began developing Expert Advisors, a series of expert systems based on Exsys. The Advisors addresses health and safety issues in areas such as asbestos and fire safety. Impetus for the initial product originated from the Small Business Administration's Office of Chief Counsel for Advocacy, which urged OSHA to find new ways to help small businesses in interpreting government regulations. OSHA has worked with trade associations, unions and government agencies to respond to suggestions for expert systems in a variety of fields.
Users of Advisors answer questions about their work place, practices, materials and other topics. Advisors determines the hazards that are present and the OSHA regulations that apply. In addition, Advisors can generate legally sufficient plans of action for implementing appropriate procedures and handle administrative tasks such as preparing required letters.
But why use an expert system tool rather than just programming the decision tree?
"A key reason," says Edward Stern, facilitator for Expert Advisors, "is that an expert system shell allows us to lay out the logic of the regulations so anyone can see it clearly (without a lot of programming code). When we issue an Advisor, we need to get approval from a range of people, from technical staff to lawyers." Without a clear presentation of the underlying rules on which the system is based, it would be virtually impossible to get concurrence from the various parties. In addition, an expert system tool allows the subject matter experts, rather than programmers, to control the development of the product and to change it.
The series has attained the hoped-for goals by capturing the knowledge of the most experienced staff, some of whom have left OSHA.
"One of our senior epidemiologists is now at the Mine Safety and Health Administration," says Stern, "and an expert in lead is now at the Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Nevertheless, we have not lost their insights and understanding of the regulations."
The OSHA Expert Advisors program was one of 25 entries (from an initial group of 1,300 entries) selected in August as finalists in the Innovations in American Government awards program of the Ford Foundation and the Harvard JFK School of Government.
Selecting the right problem is essential for success. Dustin Huntington, president of Exsys, points out that the problem must be bounded and have real-world answers, but the answers do not need to be absolute.
"Expert systems can also handle uncertainty," Huntington notes, "and this capability distinguishes them from simple tree diagrams." For example, an expert system designed to help consumers select a camcorder could come up with the best match based on user input, even when the request was not a perfect match to any single product. It would not have to come to a dead-end and report that no product was a fit, as a simple database search might. That produces a much better emulation of the interaction that would occur with a human salesperson. Expert systems can, however, call up information from databases, which allows new information such as prices changes to be reflected in the decision without changing the rules.
A good application for large enterprises would be an expert system that advises employees on what their benefits will be when they retire. An expert system can integrate the rules for employee benefits with information from a database such as salary and length of employment. The availability of an expert system would save time for HR staff, which might be answering nearly identical questions over and over, and would improve employee access to that information.
Product configuration is also a good application. One of the earliest uses of expert systems was in medical diagnosis, and work continues in that arena.
Among the other currently available expert system development tools is XpertRule, from U.K.-based. Attar Software. XpertRule has been used in systems throughout the world to perform such functions as detection of in-store fraud in retail stores and guidance for contamination control at NASA. A companion product, XpertMiner, detects patterns in data and provides a graphical environment for developing the data mining process. XpertRule is priced at $1,995 for the development tool, with various options available for runtime licenses.
The Haley Enterprise offers Eclipse, a rule-based expert system, and Case-based Problem Resolution (CPR), a case-based tool. Both products are geared toward knowledge management solutions and have applications in customer relationship management (CRM). Eclipse, for example, has been incorporated into IBM's Visual Banker, a sales force automation solution that assists financial institutions in intelligent cross-selling and other CRM functions. | <urn:uuid:cef4f066-9190-404f-88c2-ada340144863> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.kmworld.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9199 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337480.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004054641-20221004084641-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.959578 | 1,335 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A controversy in Arizona is a portent of future public-policy fights.
In Arizona this week, a state legislator named David Livingston stirred a controversy about DNA that may be a portent of privacy nightmares to come. A law he proposed would have forced many residents to give samples of their DNA to a state database, to be stored with their name and Social Security number.
If passed, “many people—from parent school volunteers and teachers to real estate agents and foster parents—will have no choice but to give up their DNA,” The Arizona Republic reported. “Any DNA in the database could be accessed and used by law enforcement in a criminal investigation. It could also be shared with other government agencies across the country for licensing, death registration, to identify a missing person or to determine someone’s real name.”
A public outcry followed. In response, the bill was amended to require DNA “only from professionals who care for patients with intellectual disabilities in an intermediate care facility.” That focus is most likely due to a recent, widely reported crime: Weeks ago in Phoenix, police collected DNA from employees at a medical facility where a woman in a coma unexpectedly gave birth, identifying her alleged rapist.
All 50 states maintain the DNA of at least some convicted criminals. And members of the military must give DNA samples to ease identification in battlefield deaths.
Some go so far as to advocate forcing everyone to submit DNA samples to the government for storage. In 2002, for example, Nature published a commentary arguing that “the most logical and fair practice—and also the most controversial—would be to DNA-test all individuals at birth. This would not only act as a deterrent from crime for all members of the community, but would make the task of catching criminals easier for police. If the correct safeguards are in place to protect civil liberties, why should a proposal to test everyone at birth be a frightening one? On the other hand, if the correct safeguards are not in place and the fears are justified, why are we daring to test anyone at all?”
There are two primary dangers of a universal DNA database. First, as Christine Rosen once wrote, DNA “provides an inescapable means of identification, categorization, and profiling” that is uniquely revelatory:
DNA is a person’s “future diary.” It provides genetic information unique to each person; it has the potential to reveal to third parties a person’s predisposition to illnesses or behaviors without the person’s knowledge; and it is permanent information, deeply personal, with predictive powers. Taken together, the coming age of DNA technology will change the character of human life, both for better and for worse, in ways that we are only beginning to imagine—both because of what it will tell us for certain and what it will make us believe. To know one’s own future diary—or to know someone else’s—is to call into question the very meaning and possibility of human liberty.
Second, imagine a permanent database of information that powerful. How long do you anticipate that trove would exist before being breached by nefarious actors? My assumption is that all permanent databases of sufficient size and value will be hacked eventually—and sooner rather than later, when the security infrastructure is designed and maintained by IT bureaucrats in state governments.
What if adequate safeguards are in place? I do not grant the possibility—not that the risks have stopped millions of consumers from voluntarily submitting their DNA to databases maintained by private technology corporations, as is their right.
Arizona should reject even the watered-down proposal. A person shouldn’t be compelled to give a DNA sample in order to work in an intermediate-care facility. And passing that requirement into law would raise valid slippery-slope concerns.
More intriguing is a provision in the original proposal, since amended, that would have authorized “the medical examiner’s office in each county to take DNA from any bodies that come into their possession.” The Arizona Republic wrote that “collecting DNA from the dead could solve some longstanding cold cases.” That’s a public good—one that could conceivably spring wrongfully convicted people from prison. And DNA from the dead could presumably have research value, too.
On the other side of the matter are the privacy rights of the dead. Do the dead have any privacy rights? Do their extended family members? Perhaps the best path is putting people in DNA databases at death rather than at birth. For now, however, public policy in the United States is gradually heading in the other direction. | <urn:uuid:bee753c3-8814-47e4-b932-0f7b8dbdfa9e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2019/02/dangers-mandatory-dna-database/155028/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337631.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005140739-20221005170739-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.956091 | 945 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Almost every aspect of our daily lives is driven by data. The way we communicate revolves around data. We live in the information age where most things we do can be quantified or subject to a certain collection of data. Marketing entities, data analysts, and even us as the consumer use data to communicate to each other. Companies use data to market goods and services, and consumers use data to decide on what products and services are the best. As the information age continues to expand the data center industry also continues to grow. There are many data centers around the world, and several of these data centers are extraordinary in size and/or build.
There are many data centers around the world, but the United States has the most. As of February 2021, the United States has 2,653 data centers (35% of the world’s total). The next country with the most in the United Kingdom at 451. Germany has 442 data centers, Canada has 279, the Netherlands has 274, Australia has 272, France has 248, and Japan has 199.
The United States has data center hubs in several different cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and San Francisco. These cities have become some of the main data center hubs around the world because of their proximity to a highly populated metropolitan area. Proximity is one of the most important aspects of a data center’s connectivity. The connection is faster, and if there is a disaster or an emergency of some sort the response time would be faster than in other rural areas.
A data center is a facility made up of networked computers and storage that many companies use to organize, process, and store their data. Because we live in the information age, the physical footprint of data centers can be quite large.
As of September 2020, the largest data center is The Citadel in Tahoe Reno, Nevada. This gigantic data center spans 7.2 million square feet of physical space. It also has one of the largest single data center buildings measuring 1.3 million square feet of space.
The second-largest data center is found in the Hubei province in China. The Range International Information group data center is 6.3 million square feet. This enormous data center is almost as large as the United States Pentagon.
The world’s third-largest data center is the Switch SuperNap data center. This large data center is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, and measures 3.5 million square feet.
Rounding off the top five largest data centers in the world are the DFT data center in Ashburn, Virginia measuring at 1.6 million square feet, the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah which measures in at 1.5 million square feet. These data centers are massive operations that require a large staff and a substantial budget. The smallest data center on this list requires about $40 million each year on electricity.
Data centers come in various shapes and sizes. This next group of data centers may not be the largest, but they are some of the most interesting data centers in the world. One of the most unique data centers in the world is the Google Data Center in Hamina, Finland. The company converted a 60-year-old paper mill into 86, 110 square foot data centers. This data center is also mainly powered by renewable wind energy and is cooled completely by a high-tech cooling system produced by seawater.
The Pionen Data Center in Stockholm, Sweden is built in an old civil defense center 100 feet below the White Mountains Sodermalm borough. The solitary entrance is a door only accessible through a tunnel. This data center incorporates a greenhouse and a large saltwater fish tank to help employees feel like they are above ground.
Microsoft’s Project Natick is also one of the most unique data centers in the world. This underwater data center is powered by offshore renewable energy. This 40 ft. long data center that contains 12 racks and 864 servers takes liquid immersion cooling to another level. The entire data center is submerged underwater.
There are several other unique data centers around the world including one built in the arctic circle, another built-in 19th-century cathedral, and more. The data center industry is finding new ways to power, secure, and store the world’s servers.
The best data center for you or your business may not be in one of the largest data centers in the world. The best data center location may not be in a retrofitted paper mill or a civil defense center 100 feet inside of a mountain. The best data center location may not be under the sea, the arctic circle, or a 19th-century cathedral.
One of the most important factors regarding the best data center locations is proximity. This means several different things. The data center should be close in proximity to your business and close in proximity to your customers and consumers. This is why the large metropolitan areas are also known as data center hubs. Your business may or may not be located in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and San Francisco. But there is a good chance that many existing and future patrons will be in one of these large metropolitan areas.
Location is one of the most important factors in choosing a data center provider. Finding a data center provider in these metropolitan areas won’t be difficult, but one thing you shouldn’t neglect when choosing a data center is the provider itself. If you’re looking for a data center in Los Angeles or any of the cities mentioned above, Colocation America has data centers in all 8 major cities. Connect with us today. | <urn:uuid:c90aa0fa-bbdf-412b-9a3c-6f6e0e818647> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.colocationamerica.com/blog/best-data-center-locations-2 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337889.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006222634-20221007012634-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.935522 | 1,166 | 2.875 | 3 |
Schedule and plan more effectively with arrow diagrams
Blog: Monday Project Management Blog
When planning projects, you need to consider a lot of variables that can be challenging to account for. As a project manager, you know that creating a timeline and workflow that’s as accurate as possible is key to successfully meeting deadlines and keeping all stakeholders happy. Understanding all potential risks and roadblocks that could extend your timeline is tedious, but breaking your project down into individual tasks can make the process easier.
That’s where arrow diagrams come in. Arrow diagrams let you break a larger project down into smaller tasks, and then outline each one based on task dependencies so you can get a better idea of your timeline. For each task, you can better understand issues that could potentially push back your timeline, and then plan your time and resources accordingly. An arrow diagram is also a visual tool that can help bring more transparency to your project planning process, so team members remain on the same page.
In this article, you’ll learn what arrow diagrams are, why they’re important, and how you can implement them in your project planning process. While we can’t promise you’ll be able to predict every potential issue in every project, we can promise you’ll be able to create a more defined workflow that enables better problem-solving and decision-making moving forward.
What is an arrow diagram?
An arrow diagram is a visual tool that allows you to view the relationship between your project’s tasks. By providing a detailed sequence of all involved tasks (big or small), arrow diagrams can create a realistic workflow that accounts for foreseeable delays, roadblocks, or bottlenecks within your project.
The arrow diagram uses arrows and circles to develop this visual workflow chart and outlines the dependency between activities. For example, if you have two tasks you can do simultaneously, you’ll stack them within the arrow diagram. However, if you need to complete one task before another can begin, you’ll link them with an arrow, one behind the other.
Arrow diagram is just one of many names used to describe this type of chart. Others include:
- Arrow Programming Method
- Activity Network Diagram
- Activity Chart
- Critical Path Method Chart (CPM Chart)
- Node Diagram
“Arrow diagram” is a part of our Project Management Glossary — check out the full list of terms and definitions!
Why are arrow diagrams important?
Arrow diagrams can help solve several problems for project managers. For starters, they show the predecessor and successor tasks for every other task within your project. Predecessor tasks are those that need to be done before a given task, while successor tasks are those that follow a given task. Being aware of these tasks can help create an accurate timeline for the project, generally represented in a range of hours, days, or weeks. With each task laid out and dependency relationships defined, you’re also able to better account for potential issues within your project. Plus, you’re more empowered with respect to resource allocation decision-making. However, the most significant reason arrow diagrams are important is that they help define a project’s critical path.
Understanding a project’s critical path is crucial because it allows you to give stakeholders an understanding of how long things may take. While every project manager hopes to meet their final deadlines ahead of schedule, using the latest possible completion time as a starting point allows time for potential errors without derailing your completion date.
Types of arrow diagrams in project management
There are two types of arrow diagrams you might use in project management: activity on arrow diagrams (AoA) and activity on node diagrams (AoN). These two types of arrow diagrams are similar in how they’re created but their primary focus differs.
An activity on arrow diagram (AoA) focuses on events, whereas an activity on node diagram (AoN) focuses on tasks. Although both diagram types can be useful in project management, AoA diagrams are more commonly used when developing project workflows and critical paths.
Activity on arrow diagram
An activity on arrow diagram is the most commonly used in project management because each node represents tasks within your project. The arrows connecting the nodes represent how long each task takes based on the length of the arrow. Therefore, the longer the arrow, the longer a given task takes. The downside to an AoA diagram is that it only shows finish-to-start task dependencies instead of all four dependency types.
Activity on node diagram
An activity on node diagram is also called a precedence diagram because it shows the relationship between different project activities. In an AoN diagram, you can be more detailed in your planning by outlining all four types of dependencies — finish to start, start to start, finish to finish, and start to finish. When outlining your AoN diagram, the nodes represent activities while the arrows show how the various activity connect with one another.
Regardless of which type of arrow diagram you use, understanding the best practices for creating them can help you achieve better results.
Best practices for creating arrow diagrams
Utilizing best practices when creating your arrow diagrams can help you achieve greater transparency and higher accuracy in your workflow estimations. Here are a few best practices to consider:
- Be as detailed as possible: Although you don’t want to overcomplicate your diagram, being as detailed as possible can help you create more realistic timeframe estimations. Including enough detail can also help you identify potential resource problems ahead of time so you can allocate additional time, people, or tools, as needed.
- Make your diagram clear: You want all stakeholders to be able to read your arrow diagram without you needing to explain what it says. To this end, avoid unnecessary industry jargon or abbreviations. If you need to use industry jargon, include definitions either on the side of your diagram or in parentheses next to the word in question.
- Be consistent: As a visual tool, arrow diagrams rely heavily on the shapes (or nodes) and arrows to relay a message. Be consistent in the shapes, sizes, and colors you use in your diagram to create a clearer, more coherent visual aid.
- Get a second set of eyes on your diagram: It helps to have someone look at your arrow diagram after you’ve completed it. A fresh pair of eyes may be able to identify errors or areas where other potential issues could arise.
Pairing these best practices with a project management platform can help you create arrow diagrams that are even more efficient, transparent, and accurate.
Map processes and procedures with arrow diagrams on monday.com
Although the creation of arrow diagrams isn’t available on monday.com, our project management software has various features and capabilities that can make the process easier. For example, you can outline your projects in detail using a Gantt chart or kanban board. Add tasks to your list and rearrange them based on precedence or priority before transferring the information to your arrow diagram. Having a virtual workspace for your planning and brainstorming phase can help reduce errors and give you an actionable, detailed workflow you can use once your project has launched.
Detailed project tracking via customizable dashboards can instill more confidence around creating future arrow diagrams by providing detailed information on how your team did (or didn’t) adhere to your estimated critical path. Key performance metrics allow you to see where your team performed best and where they ran into issues — all valuable learnings you can consider when moving forward.
Of course, monday.com’s Work OS provides several key features that don’t directly assist with your arrow diagram creation but save time that can be spent focusing on these visual aids. For example, our Work OS allows you to automate everyday tasks and routine approvals so you can focus on what matters most. workdocs also allows real-time collaboration between your project’s team members and creates storable, printable, and shareable work documents.
While the above has hopefully given you a reasonable understanding of arrow diagrams and how you can best apply them to your project management efforts, we’ve covered a few key highlights in the FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
How to make an arrow diagram
To make an arrow diagram:
- Create a comprehensive list of all the tasks required to complete your project.
- Determine the correct order in which you should complete the tasks.
- Diagram the network of tasks horizontally, with the earliest tasks to the left and concurrent tasks stacked on top of each other.
- Recheck your work and add any “events” or problems that may impact your workflow to your diagram.
What is an arrow diagram?
An arrow diagram is a visual workflow tool that you can use to determine a project’s critical path and define task dependencies. Arrow diagrams also allow project managers to define any foreseeable issues within the project and plan their deadlines accordingly.
What process is represented by the arrows in the diagram?
The arrows in the diagram represent how much time a task or activity will take. The longer the arrow, the more time it will take.
Create more effective plans and schedules with arrow diagrams and monday.com
As a project manager, you can use arrow diagrams to help create more realistic timelines and greater transparency within your project. You can also use them to determine your project’s critical path, which is generally the safest useable option when giving timelines to stakeholders. Although monday.com doesn’t offer arrow diagrams, we do have several features and capabilities you’ll find helpful in the process. In addition, the monday.com Work OS can also help you create a flexible project workflow that you can use once you’ve launch your project.
The post Schedule and plan more effectively with arrow diagrams appeared first on monday.com Blog. | <urn:uuid:4a77456e-652e-4ca2-925b-d4eb14979076> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.businessprocessincubator.com/content/schedule-and-plan-more-effectively-with-arrow-diagrams/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334871.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926113251-20220926143251-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.909833 | 2,038 | 3.046875 | 3 |
See an alternate opinion: Debian vs. Fedora
by Bruce Byfield
Debian Linux and the Fedora Project are among the most influential Linux distributions of all time. Not only are both Debian and Fedora among the top ten for page hits on Distrowatch, but many of the other top ten are derived from them. But why would you pick one over another?
To be honest, the differences are fewer than they were fifteen years ago. In 2003, when Fedora began, Debian was the main representative of the .deb package format, and Red Hat, Fedora’s predecessor, represented the .rpm format, and your Linux experience was very different depending on which you chose. Since then, the differences have diminished, but there are still subtle differences that might influence your choice.
However, those differences no longer include package management. Around the turn of the millennium,.debs were alone in resolving package dependencies, but .rpms added the feature long ago. Today, contrary to old myths that refuse to die, using Fedora’s dnf command to install packages is roughly equivalent to installing packages with Debian’s apt- get. Even the comparative slowness of yum, dnf’s predecessor, has become irrelevant as the change of tools becomes complete.
Where differences do exist is in the organization, governance, available system architectures, package repositories, and default installations. These differences may affect your choice, or simply be necessary to know to avoid uncertainty.
Debian vs. Fedora: Organization of Projects
Debian is a self-contained community-based distribution, while Fedora acts as a testing ground for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS. Although much of Fedora’s governance is community-based, Red Hat appoints some positions on the Fedora Council, including the Project Leader.
By contrast, the Debian Project Leader is voted on yearly by Debian maintainers, and decisions about Debian are referred to a technical committee, as well various groups such as the mirror managers. Large policy decisions may be set by referendum. In general, Debian is known for its innovative governance, including voting by a Condorcet method, which compares the votes for each possible result against every other result. Whether Fedora or Debian is more difficult to say, given that Fedora is partly controlled by Red Hat, while Debian is a meritocracy in which only official package maintainers have a vote.
Debian vs. Fedora: Hardware Architecture and Software Releases
Versions of Debian include ten different hardware architectures, including 32 and 64 bit Intel chips (called i386 and amd64 for historic reasons), Apple, and two different ARM ports that support everything from singleboards like the Raspberry Pi to main frames. By contrast, Fedora focuses on 32 and 64 bit Intel. However, a search will uncover versions for Apple and ARM (including Raspberry Pi). Recently, too, Fedora has started offering as a standard download Atomic, a version designed for working with containers.
All Fedora releases are maintained for about 15 months, while Debian usually offers partial support for the previous release under the name of oldstable. Debian also has a project whose goal is to ensure support for each new release for five years, in imitation of Ubuntu’s long-term support policy.
The main difference is that Fedora releases on an average of every six months, except for the occasional delay. Debian, though, places a far greater emphasis on quality, refusing to release until its high standards are met. Often, Debian has grown seriously out of date by the time a new version is released.
Debian vs. Fedora: Package Repositories
The use and relationship of package repositories can be obscure in both Debian and Fedora. Core Debian for each release is maintained in a repository called Stable, which is generally the choice for servers. However, because the interval between stable releases can be as long as two or three years, many users prefer to use the Testing or Unstable releases. These names are relative; Ubuntu, for example, is based on packages from Testing or Unstable, and many home users dip regularly into them as well. Still, problems can occur, such as when Debian is making a major technological change such as the switch to Systemd.
Other Debian repositories exist to keep the Stable release patched and current, such as Updates and Backports. There is also Experimental, whose packages are uploaded by way of introduction and can sometimes be unreliable.
The core of all these repositories is called Main. However, Stable, Testing, and Unstable also contain Contrib for software that is free- licensed, but requires proprietary software to run, and Non-free, which contains proprietary packages such as Flash or some video drivers. Of all these, only Main is tested for a release, although in the process Contrib and Non-free are generally improved, as well.
In Fedora, development is done in Rawhide, a repository roughly equivalent to Debian Experimental. From Rawhide, versions for workstations, servers, and containers are produced. A branch of Rawhide becomes the fedora repository, the approximate equivalent of Debian Unstable, or perhaps Debian Testing. Updates patches and maintains fedora, and is developed in updates-testing.
All these repositories contain only free-licensed software. Unlike Debian, Fedora has no semi-official provision for other software. This arrangement suits those who restrict themselves to free software, but can be inconvenient for others. Consequently, a number of third party repositories have emerged, including RPM Fusion, and RPM Livna. These repositories sometimes conflict with each other or the official Fedora release, and should be used cautiously, and apart perhaps from Fusion and Livna, should not be mixed.
Even with the emphasis on free-licenses, the software selection in both Debian and Fedora is immense. Fedora includes just under 20,000 packages, while Debian is frequently estimated to have 40-50,000 packages. But whether that estimate includes duplicates for different architectures is never stated.
At any rate, neither Debian nor Fedora users are likely to run out of packages in a hurry. You might, find that Fedora has more recent packages, but, after twenty-five years of Linux development, the difference between an older and latest package is not as great as it used to be.
Debian vs. Fedora: Default Installations
Myths about the difficulty of installing Debian long ago ceased to be true. The modern Debian installer is more detailed than the installers of some distributions, and a little rough looking, but no more difficult to use. A graphical version is available, but offers no advantages over the text or speech-based installer. However, the expert installer is ideal for difficult installs, offering detailed choices that can sometimes make the difference between failure and successful installs.
In comparison, Fedora’s Anaconda installer has become so minimalistic that I sometimes have difficulty in knowing what to click next. Unlike Debian’s installer it requires a minimum of user input — which is fine, except when you run into problems and need more options.
Fedora 25, the latest version, is distinguished by being the first major distribution to use Wayland, the replacement for the ancient X Window System that manages Linux’s graphical interfaces. However, this is more of a technological triumph than anything a user is likely to notice, except for an apparent increase in speed.
What users are more likely to notice more is that Fedora defaults to a GNOME desktop. For years, GNOME was also the default for Debian, but in version 8, the latest version, the installer offers half a dozen desktop choices. You can get the same choices in Fedora after doing the main install, but Debian’s choice during installation is more convenient, as well as more in keeping with the preferences of modern users.
Debian vs. Fedora: Making a choice
Debian and Fedora do many things differently. Yet once the average user deciphers these differences, most can be satisfied with either one.
Sometimes, an unexpected situation might make your choice obvious. A difficult install, for example, will lead you to Debian. Yet more often, the choice between these two popular distributions depends on what you value. On the one hand, if you require stability, then Debian might be your choice — although you might, instead, find a more polished version of Fedora in Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS. On the other hand, if you want the latest releases and innovations, then Fedora might serve you better.
Similarly, if you want to use proprietary software, Debian’s Contrib and Non-Free repositories should cause fewer problems than the third party repositories that surround Fedora. Or perhaps a distribution like Debian that is free of corporate influence is more to your taste, or a minimalist installer like Fedora’s.
Still, no matter which you choose, you can be reasonably confident that you can’t go too far wrong. Admittedly, Debian can look somewhat rougher fresh from the install, but, functionally, the differences today between the two distros are few, and growing fewer. Both are mature operating systems, polished by a long series of releases, and well-suited to most users’ needs and preferences.
Next page: an alternate viewpoint on Debian vs. Fedora
by Matt Hartley
Debian and Fedora both offer a lot to those who want to learn more about Linux. Both distros are considered to be more advanced than newbie friendly distributions, however, they also target completely different types of users. This article offers a contrast between the two distributions.
Debian stable, unstable and testing
One of the first things that makes Debian different from Fedora is that it’s broken up into three release branches: Stable, Testing and Unstable. Debian stable is suitable for mission critical tasks that need to work, period. The Stable branch is great for some server tasks that can get by with modern security patches, yet have older versions of software.
Debian can also be used for desktop PCs using the Testing branch. This provides users with packages from the Unstable branch, but the packages have been tested as suitable for Debian Testing. This leaves us with Debian Unstable. This branch of Debian is where packages go to receive testing end up. It’s not really suitable for anything other than testing and upstream development into other Debian branches.
Fedora Workstation, Server and Atomic
Fedora is a very popular Linux solution among those who work in IT. The reason for this of course, is its Red Hat roots and cutting edge approach to providing tools for developers.
Fedora Workstation is often the first choice among those in Linux IT. It’s reliable, yet offers access to bleeding edge packages and a first class Linux community. Fedora Server is a popular choice for those needing an environment with a more cutting edge base than say, CentOS/Red Hat, while still offering many of the same tools and work flows as found in a typical Red Hat environment.
Then we have Fedora Atomic. This is where those looking to utilize containers go in Fedora. If this is you, then this is the Fedora release for you. It’s entire purpose is to run containerized applications well and it does this quite reliably.
Debian vs Fedora: packages
At first pass, the easiest comparison is that Fedora has bleeding edge packages while Debian wins in terms of the number of those available. Digging into this issue deeper, you can install packages into both operating systems using the command line or a GUI option.
Fedora uses DNF to install, remove and maintain packages on your installation. Some of the commands available with DNF include: install, remove, update, upgrade, autoremove, clean, reinstall, distro-sync, makecache, plus many more options. DNF is available by default for modern Fedora installations and is widely considered a “replacement” for the YUM command.
Debian’s APT command makes use of dpkgfor managing packages. APT also has options for CLI and GUI usage. Some of the common APT commands include: install, remove, -f install (fix install), autoclean, check, update, upgrade, apt-cache, search, among a number of others.
So why use APT vs dpkg? The most straight forward answer is because APT handles dependency management well. That said, there are occasions where running “dpkg-reconfigure foo” is necessary after something went wrong somewhere with a package setup.
There are always going to be software titles missing from the default provided Fedora repos. In cases like this, you might find yourself using Fedora’s COPR repositories. Basically, they’re very similar to Ubuntu PPAs. Adding them to your Fedora installation will allow you to install and maintain updates for software provided by each COPR repository. Debian differs here as they don’t provide PPAs or COPR-like repositories. In most cases, you’ll either have to add a special repo or instead, install the deb package itself.
Fedora and Debian both support individual package types. These packages are known as Fedora RPMs and Debian deb packages. What’s neat about both of these package types is you can use conversion tools like “alien” to turn packages from one type to another. So using alien, one can take a Debian deb package and convert it into a RPM package.
In terms of software availability, Debian has the most overall packages that can be installed. In terms of choosing an RPM vs a deb package, I honestly don’t see much of a difference here. So long as the package meets its dependency needs, I can’t really say one is better than the other. I will say however that software repositories are preferred over individual packages. This goes for both Fedora and Debian. The reason for this, is functionality upgrades that are usually provided and keep things secure with said updates.
Fedora and Debian: security
Fedora was one of the earliest adopters of a kernel feature called SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux). While Debian also offers support for it, Fedora provides it enabled by default. This security feature was initially created by the US government and later on, Red Hat jumped into the project to provide further development.
Unless you’re in IT, odds are this isn’t a security feature that’s really something you’re going to be that interested in. So the best security is to keep iptables setup correctly, use a non-root user and keep up with this security list. Setting aside the fact that SELInux is enabled by default, I think security comparisons between the two distributions are matters of opinion. Generally, most people will point to Fedora as being the most hardened, secure of the two distros. I’d counter with Debian being far more stable. Even if you choose Debian Unstable I’ve found it to be more stable simply because packages are being tested far longer and with greater focus. That’s not my opinion, that’s my personal experience with both distros.
So to be completely fair, I will give most secure ranking to Fedora overall. But I do so only because of SELinux and the enterprise minded approach to the distro setup.
Choosing Debian vs Fedora
I like both distributions of Linux. Both Debian and Fedora have a ton to offer anyone willing to take off the “training wheels” and really explore what these distributions can do. Based on my experience, Fedora generally makes for a better desktop. Let me say this again, with a disclaimer:
As someone who has primarily used Debian-based distros for must of his Linux enthusiast years, I feel out of these two distros that Fedora makes more sense overall for someone serious about running an up-to-date Linux desktop.
I feel strongly that Debian’s shining light is that it’s a great base for Debian-based operating systems. Debian by itself can leave something to be desired in terms of package age. Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly happy to run Ubuntu or Debian Testing as a daily driver. But most of you reading this, are probably looking more for something that is crazy stable – then Debian is a great choice.
What say you? You might be wondering why I couldn’t work Arch or Mint into this comparison, right? Kidding aside, I’d be interested in hearing which distro you prefer between Fedora and Debian. Hit the Comments, let’s talk about it. | <urn:uuid:a4002e67-f121-4286-bacf-24323d311333> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.datamation.com/open-source/debian-vs-fedora-3/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335058.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927194248-20220927224248-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.943739 | 3,399 | 2.578125 | 3 |
RAID 5 is a data backup technology for hard disk drives that uses both disk striping and parity. It is one of the levels of RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks, originally Inexpensive Disks. RAID was developed in the 1980s and has multiple iterations, of which RAID 5 is just one. IBM has held the patent for RAID 5 since the 1980s.
RAID 5 Technologies
Disk striping was first introduced in RAID 0, the initial version of RAID. It distributes all the data in the array across multiple disks. Disk striping quickly proved to be an unreliable backup technique, though, because if one disk failed, the data on it would be lost, and there was no way to recover the lost files.
Disk mirroring, which technology professionals often associate with RAID, is a common technique for creating disk redundancy. Data is completely copied from one disk to a second that mirrors it. RAID 5 doesn’t use disk mirroring, however; it combines disk striping and a data-checking technique called parity.
Parity ensures that data transfers correctly, since errors can cause bits from files to be lost. Parity uses bit checking, through checksums, to manage data’s safety. Disk striping does not provide a reliable backup system, but parity is designed to interpret data when it’s lost.
Disk drives that use parity are able to reconstruct missing data based on all the information from the other drives. They do it mathematically, through an XOR operation, using the information they have and what remains on the other disks to rebuild the lost data.
An array using parity will typically need about a full drive’s worth of capacity dedicated to the parity data. However, RAID 5 parity is spread among each drive, unlike RAID 4, which stores it all on one disk. This provides added security (not all parity data is lost if that drive fails). Also, a general note about disk drives is that the exact amount of room available on a disk may not be what’s advertised, because formatting RAID configurations takes some of that space.
What are Advantages of RAID 5?
RAID 5 is one of the most popular iterations of RAID. It combines two disk technologies to minimize data loss and increase read performance. Because RAID 5 uses disk striping, it has faster read speeds than other iterations of RAID. The data is spread across the drives, so the drives can be read at the same time. Though disk striping isn’t a reliable backup technology on its own, RAID 5 also uses parity to check data for accuracy and replace it when needed.
RAID 5 only requires three disk drives, so it’s a good redundancy solution for small disk arrays. It’s also one of the more inexpensive redundancy backup solutions.
What are Disadvantages of RAID 5?
RAID 5 is good for smaller arrays, but it’s not ideal for large-capacity disks or servers. Large disks in particular take a long time to write. If one disk encounters a failure, and the array uses RAID to rebuild the data, it could encounter another issue before the rewrite process has finished. RAID 5 isn’t intended to withstand more than one disk failure, so two could take the entire array down.
Disk failure is likely for HDDs, and because RAID 5 only allows for one total disk failure, it isn’t a good solution for large arrays, nor should it be the only backup solution for the files stored on the disks. Many data storage experts don’t believe RAID 5 is a good backup solution for hard drives any longer, since hard drives are susceptible to disk failure and more than one disk failure would cause data loss.
RAID 5 for SSDs
Though it’s not talked about as often, RAID 5 can be used for solid-state drives, which are non-volatile memory storage devices that are much faster than hard drives. SSDs are also less likely to fail than HDDs, and they have faster read speeds, which would make the rebuild process faster.
If using parity to rebuild data, SSDs are susceptible to a second failure for a much shorter period of time. They’re less likely to encounter multiple unrecoverable read errors (UREs) at once, while HDDs are much more likely to encounter multiple UREs in a rebuild.
The only potential problem is that when an SSD does eventually fail, it’s likely that the other one in the array will also fail around the same time if they have the same lifespan. So if you’re employing RAID 5 for your SSDs, you might want to consider using drives that aren’t the exact same age. Using different drives could cause other problems, such as compatibility issues, but drives failing at the same time could cause entire data loss. | <urn:uuid:2ace7204-a28b-4e84-a08a-151699a43d6d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/hardware/raid-5/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335304.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929034214-20220929064214-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.939314 | 1,006 | 3.90625 | 4 |
The five brief differences between GDPR and Personal Data Privacy Bill
The Indian Government Has Recently Introduced the Indian Privacy bill, 2019. Ostensibly the bill was considered as an Indian version of the General Data Protection Bill which the European Union Introduced in 2017. However, there are some major differences between the GDPR and PDPB. This article discusses five brief differences between GDPR and PDPB.
Legal Basis for Processing of personal Data
The EU GDPR has laid down six legal bases for the processing of personal data. Namely, Consent, Legitimate Interests, the performance of a contract, Legal Obligations, Life protection and Public Interest. On the other hand, the Indian Privacy bill has laid Consent, Legal Obligations, Medical emergency, Health services, protection of individual safety and Employment reasons. Further, the Indian Bill has specifically mentioned the clause for the reasonable purpose specified by regulation. The primary difference between both the regulations is GDPR has explicitly given provisions for the performance of a contract as a legal obligation which was absent in Indian PDPB. On the other hand, The Indian Privacy bill has explicitly provided provisions regarding Health and Employment reasons.
According to GDPR processing of data without consent is permitted unless it overrides the Interests of the Data Subject. Further, it was the controllers’ responsibility to determine and assess the purpose of collecting data without consent. Indian Data Protection bill lays the responsibility to assess the data collection under reasonable purpose to Data Protection Authority of India. Therefore, the Indian Data Protection bill, 2019 was significantly more stringent than the EU GDPR where such responsibility was held in the hands of the Data controller.
Conditions for processing of sensitive data
GDPR has provided 10 Legal bases for the processing of sensitive data. They are Explicit consent, exercising the right to employment, Life protection, legitimate activities, legal claims, medical emergencies, scientific research & and substantial interest specified by law. On the other hand, the Indian Privacy bill has laid the same grounds for the processing of both sensitive data and personal data. However, specified some provisions like the consent should be obtained explicitly. Further, the Indian Data privacy bill has provided that some cases can be exempted if authorised by the Data Protection Authority of India (e.g., Research Activities)
According to Indian Data Privacy law, the Significant data fiduciaries shall need to register with the Data Protection Authority of India. A Data Fiduciary is notified as significant data fiduciary by taking account of the factors like high volumes of data, the sensitivity of data, company revenue, the risk involved and use of new technologies which was specified by DPA. However, there was no such provision in European Union General Data Protection Bill.
Indian Data Privacy Bill has perspicuously mentioned that Significant data fiduciaries must submit their data processing to annual audit by independent auditors qualified by the Data Protection Authority of India. Such Auditing shall assess the performance of data fiduciary through “Data Trust Score. Further, Data Protection Authority is empowered to direct the data fiduciary to conduct an audit if he believes there can be any harm to the data. EU’s GDPR has not provided any such provisions. Rather the processor must agree to audit provisions in the contract with the controller.
Therefore, to conclude the primary differences is that Indian Data Protection laws emphasise more on Personal Data protection whilst EU’s GDPR mostly Business-driven. The range of government interference in data protection frameworks like policy monitoring, profiling of sensitive data was much more consolidated in Indian data policy, which on the other hand EU’s law is mostly Organisation driven. Nevertheless, the EU’s GDPR is criticised for being excessively Stringent and imposing many obligations on the organisations. On the Other hand, Indian Data Law is criticised that the bill gives substantial authority to the government. Both the European union’s general data protection regulations and Indian data privacy law emphasise greater data protection and best privacy practices like Data Accounting, Data policy formulation, Maintaining Inventory and so on.
Is your organisations sensitive information safe? Get a cybersecurity assessment now, to know your current state of data security. | <urn:uuid:260b96c8-e88d-477f-bb48-5dc70f031e2a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.consultantsfactory.com/article/gdpr-vs-pdpb | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335469.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930113830-20220930143830-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.923023 | 859 | 2.59375 | 3 |
“Digital transformation” must be one of the most used — and the most misused — words in corporate IT at the moment. Though everything from automating email outreach to configuring AI-powered cybersecurity platforms has been called “digital transformation”, at the most fundamental level digital transformation can be defined quite simply: it is the practice of integrating technology into your business.
When looked at in this broad way, it’s possible to see that any process of digital transformation relies on a few key components. One is the expertise available to you to design digital systems, and a second is the computational resources available to you. A third, and for most organizations the most important, is the type and amount of digital storage available to you.
This is because almost all of the systems and processes involved in digital transformation rely, to a greater or lesser extent, on data storage. Some “merely” require you to increase the storage available to you. Others all but necessitate the development of novel storage architectures such as a data fabric. In this article, we’ll look at each of these technologies in turn, and explain their implications for data storage systems.
If you have not already deployed edge systems in your business, it’s a fair bet that you will be required to in the near future. Many new types of interface, and above all voice-activated systems, process such huge amounts of data on an ongoing basis that they require data to be stored and processed close to where they are being generated and used. The process of moving computational and storage resources closer to front-line devices is known as edge computing.
At its core, edge computing is all about managing data storage. Merely creating storage space sufficiently close to the edge can be a challenge, and managing this data to avoid undue duplication can also be difficult. For this reason, it’s very important that organizations have rigorous storage infrastructure in place before they make the move to edge computing.
The “hybrid cloud” is another one of those phrases that is currently beloved of IT consultants, and another that actually denotes a simple idea when you come down to it. Hybrid clouds are storage architectures that make use of both public cloud systems and on-premises clouds.
Though hybrid clouds are often thought of as a way of integrating systems, the truth is that without careful management they can have the opposite effect. At the most fundamental level, hybrid clouds divide data storage repositories from each other, and fragment your data by definition. That’s why, alongside hybrid clouds, we’ve seen the rise of software-defined storage — a way of hiding the complexity of hybrid cloud models for those users who don’t need access to the inner workings of your data architecture.
Read more: Making Storage Work Across Hybrid Clouds
Unstructured data has always created challenges for software engineers, but this is about to get a lot worse. The amount of unstructured data that organizations need to store is about to explode. In part, this is due to the increased reliance on social media platforms and media-heavy marketing and website content. This means that even website backups now consist of huge amounts of pictures, audio, and video content that can’t be neatly slotted into an efficient database.
There are several responses to this challenge. One of the newest, and arguable one of the most powerful, is object storage. This is a storage paradigm that seeks to retain the relationships between elements of your data structure, while at the same time offering you the flexibility to move data around as required. Moving to an object storage approach is therefore invaluable for companies looking to push their digital transformation activities to the limit.
As digital transformation processes continue across many sectors, even the idea of the “backup” is changing. Five years ago, most companies saw their backups as an insurance policy against accidental loss or (if they were aware of such things) ransomware attacks. This typically meant copying the contents of hard disks to other hard disks, which then languished deep in the server room of corporate offices.
Now, we are starting to recognize that backups have a value beyond mitigating data loss. It’s now possible to run analytics on your backed up data, for instance, while your primary data store is being used by your customers and staff. This makes analytics much more efficient, but only if the physical infrastructure that underpins your backups is fast and adaptive enough to be used in this way.
Move to a more modern form of backup, in other words, and you’ll not only find that your backups are more secure — they might actually become useful as well.
Most digital transformation processes, by their nature, require access to data at a faster rate than the manual processes they are replacing. For this reason, one of the most important things that organizations can do to prepare for digital transformation is to upgrade their data storage infrastructure before they start to plan digital transformation.
Thankfully, there are no lack of options in this area. If you haven’t looked at the data storage options available to you for a few years, you might be surprised as to how much things have moved on. Many organizations, for instance, are now looking at expanding their use of NVMe (non-volatile memory express) flash storage, sometimes as a complete replacement for “traditional” hard drives.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, any process of digital transformation will rely on the data storage you have in place. This means that successfully transitioning to digital processes will always involve upgrading your storage infrastructure, learning how to use software defined storage, and maybe even a radical rethink of the way you store data.
Read next: 6 Developments in Healthcare Data Storage | <urn:uuid:6e0114c1-ec64-44e0-9b73-262e7294e131> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/management/the-vital-role-of-data-storage-in-digital-transformation/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335469.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930113830-20220930143830-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.944514 | 1,190 | 2.515625 | 3 |
February 21, 2017
On September 20, Krebsonsecurity.com, the blog of renowned cyber security journalist Brian Krebs was overwhelmed by a huge distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. It was initially fought off by engineers from Akamai, the content delivery network managing his site. Unfortunately, this attack was the largest Akamai had ever seen and the resources required to fend it off continued to grow at an alarming rate. When the performance finally started to affect Akamai’s other customers, they had to uncouple Krebs’ site and withdraw their protection.
Krebs’ site was down for several days while he sought out a new relationship with Google and their Project Shield, which protects organizations from DDoS attacks. During the onslaught, his site underwent an estimated 620 Gigabits (~16.5 DVDs) per second of traffic. While this may not be the biggest attack ever, it is still massive. The curious thing about it is that a large portion of the traffic was formed to appear like Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) data packets. This is a protocol that allows two peers to share information directly, instead of over a public network.
Most of the largest DDoS attacks had previously used DNS reflection. These types of attacks work by sending spoofed packets to a victim computer. The packets have a spoofed return address set to a specific target computer, which results in lots of victim computers all responding to a target computer simultaneously. Given enough victims these types of attacks can bring down even the most well defended targets. Unlike these attacks however, GRE traffic can’t be spoofed. This means that the attack against Krebs’ site required a large amount of hacked systems. The culprit turned out to be a botnet of compromised Internet-connected devices. Why hack a computer that is more likely to be secure when you have an insecure connected device just begging to be broken into?
Several days later, Hack Forums revealed the source code for this IoT botnet. Named “Mirai,” the malware spreads through devices that are protected with hard-coded or default usernames and passwords. These devices are infected with malicious software and turned into “bots,” which can be commanded by a central server to launch DDoS attacks—which are much more difficult to defend against.
According to Verisign, DDoS attacks increased by 75% in the first half of 2016, and the largest single attack in 2016 was more than double the size of the previous year. The Mirai botnet has given us a glimpse at how destructive unsecured devices can be. With the number of connected devices on the rise (estimates range from 20.8 billion to 1 trillion by 2020…it’s going to be a lot), we realistically expect these attacks to only get worse from here.
For many connected devices, security is often added as an afterthought, if it all. If you have a device connected to your network it is entirely possible that it could already be part of a botnet. One of the primary reasons for this is that many devices ship with the same default passwords…and they don’t require owners to ever change them. That’s like being able to open every door in your neighborhood with the same key!
It gets worse. Some of the poor hygiene highlights of these devices include:
Some devices can’t even update their firmware because of storage constraints–even if a security flaw has been identified. Other devices lack the processing power to host security software. This is very concerning, considering that these devices typically collect at least one piece of personal information. Think about how many devices you have and how much personal data is floating all around you.
Flawed security implementations and authentication mechanisms are also common in IoT devices. Samsung’s RF28HMELBSR Smart Fridge has an insecure SSL implementation that doesn’t validate certificates. This allows for MitM (man-in-the-middle) attacks. Boom, there goes your social media credentials–is having the Internet on your fridge really worth a Facebook hack?
It isn’t just fridges being hacked. How about your car? Security researcher Troy Hunt discovered a weakness with the Leaf Smartphone app that didn’t authenticate users. This allowed hackers to control multiple parts of the car, including the cooling system. An attacker could use this vulnerability to drain the battery and strand the user, but because the Leaf has such short range, this attack is limited.
There is a worrying lack of security standards when it comes to IoT devices. If these devices are unable to communicate their errors with the rest of the network, why are the connected? The connected device scene is very similar to the problematic times of the 90’s–the days of cowboy code. Rather than improving upon common libraries, many manufacturers are reinventing the wheel. Standardization is still a long way away, but we need better security protocols now. Until that day comes, it’s important to be educated about the limitations of your devices and what you can do to protect yourself.
The best way to keep yourself safe is to minimize the damage that can be done if one of your devices is compromised. Someone breaking into your smart TV is likely using it as a foothold to penetrate further into your network. Some advice to stay safe:
While a range of devices could potentially be used to form a botnet, these were the most common ones involved in the DDoS attack on Krebs’ website:
Some brands that popped up in Krebs’ analysis included:
Even if you don’t own anything listed above, you may still have a device that is part of a botnet. All it takes is one device to compromise you. Use the following steps to clean a device you suspect may be infected:
Because their security is woefully inadequate, IoT devices are excellent targets from which to stage large-scale DDoS attacks. There has been little to no regulation of manufacturers, which means companies often produce insecure products simply because it is cheaper to do so. On the bright side, the industry is moving towards standardization and has recently proposed a security labeling system to better educate consumers.
These attacks are relatively cheap to stage and incredibly expensive to defend. Even the 800-pound-gorilla Akamai had to drop Krebs’ blog to protect their bottom line. Now that this code is readily available to anyone with an Internet connection, these IoT attacks are set to become more common and evolve even further (see?).
As the threat landscape continues to change, it is important to keep up with developments and respond accordingly. If an attack like this can bring down an esteemed security journalist for a few days, imagine what it could do to an unprepared business. Are you prepared? | <urn:uuid:1ee3cd41-c243-4eda-9037-3c4b61bc245f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://jacobianengineering.com/blog/2017/02/underwhelming-security-internet-things/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336921.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001195125-20221001225125-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.964813 | 1,401 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Position Sensors for Robotics
A key element of any successful robot is the collection of sensors and communications networks that enable the control system to accurately monitor the spatial orientation of its mechanical components–arms, grippers, actuators etc.
The position sensors built into these systems must provide high levels of accuracy to enable the precise positioning of parts or tools. They must also have excellent dynamic response to provide the control system with real-time feedback of rapidly moving components. Reliability is a must, of course, even when the robot operates in a harsh, wet, dirty or hot environment. And, they should be reasonably inexpensive, especially for smaller robots where lower purchase and operating cost is a key competitive feature.
Rotary Encoders–Position Control Mainstays
Rotary encoders are transducers that are designed to measure the rotation of a mechanical component (shaft, axle, etc.) and send a digital signal to the control system. For robots that mimic a human arm, with ‘shoulder’, ‘elbow’ and ‘wrist’ joints, rotary encoders located at each of these joints provide the control system the information it needs to accurately position each section of the arm. For mobile robots such as the autonomous transport vehicles that can goods through crowded warehouse or factory spaces, rotary encoders enable the control system to keep track of speed, distance traveled and steering.
Collaborative Robot Working in a Shared Space (Photo Courtesy of Universal Robots A/S)
Until recently, the ‘gold standard’ for rotary encoders for robots was instruments based on optical measurement techniques. These devices are built around a ‘code disk’: a glass or plastic disk mounted on the encoder’s shaft with a concentric pattern of transparent and opaque areas printed on its surface. A light source is located on one side of the disk and an array of photocells on the other. As the disk rotates, a coded pattern of light will fall on the photocells, generating a digital ‘word’ representing the absolute angular position. Optical encoders have excellent dynamic response and resolution. However, to achieve high levels of accuracy, the code disk needs to have a relatively large diameter. Optical encoders can also be sensitive to humidity (which can fog the code disk) and mechanical shock and vibration loads. This can limit their suitability for harsh environments. Optical encoders also require extremely tight tolerances with respect to the alignment between the code disk and the photocell array, which makes them relatively costly.
Check Out: Top Robotics Technology Companies
Magnetic encoders were introduced a little over a decade ago as an alternative to optical encoders. They are more compact, less susceptible to dust and moisture and more tolerant of shock and vibration loads. Magnetic encoders have a small permanent magnet mounted on the rotating shaft, with Hall-effect sensors on the body of the encoder to measure the position of the magnet. The Hall-effect sensors were originally developed for the automotive industry for ABS and traction control systems. In their original form, the Hall-effect sensors didn’t have the accuracy required for precision robot controls. However, by combining the output of several Hall-effect sensors through sophisticated signal processing algorithms, POSITAL-FRABA has achieved resolutions as high as 17-bits, with accuracies and jitter good enough for closed loop control of high-speed dynamic control systems.
Kit Encoders–Alternative Packaging for Rotary Position Feedback
Traditionally, most encoders have been sold as self-contained units with their own housing, shaft and shaft bearing. Kit encoders are basically the core measurement elements of magnetic encoders, offered as separate components. In this form, they can be easily installed inside the casings of motors or other machines, saving both space and cost. These rotation sensors can provide both commutation signals (essential for brushless DC motors) and accurate rotary position measurements.
All of the sensors, drives, (motors) and actuators that make up a robot system need to communicate with the controller hardware. Simple point-to-point wiring can be adequate for basic robots, but as the number of connections increases, it becomes increasingly attractive to use a network-style communications system. So-called fieldbus systems use a shared wiring backbone that simplifies wiring and controller interfaces. Fieldbus technologies date from latter decades of the last century and were designed for individual machines, work cells or small factories with a limited number of nodes.
Reliability is a must, of course, even when the robot operates in a harsh, wet, dirty or hot environment
Ethernet technology has been adapted for industrial use. It is more scalable than fieldbus, offering opportunities for higher levels of system integration across the entire factory complex. A limitation or ‘classical’ Ethernet is that the instantaneous delivery of data packets cannot be guaranteed. This can be a serious problem for industrial processes where potentially dangerous situations need to be identified and responded to in near real-time. Several enhanced Ethernet variants have been developed for industrial use that provides priority routing for critical alarm messages.
Check out: Top Sensor Technology Companies
Sensors provide robots (and many other ‘smart’ machines) with an important element of ‘awareness’ of their position in space and of their relationship to any objects or people who share this space. As sensors become more capable–more accurate, reliable and sensitive, we will see them enabling more versatile and competent automatic machines. Much of the enhanced capabilities are coming about through a combination of faster and more powerful hardware (especially microcontrollers) and more intelligent software. The future is exciting–and coming at us very quickly! | <urn:uuid:b1e3edd2-cbf0-4210-ab5a-f84894806aa1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://robotics.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/position-sensors-for-robotics-nid-26424-cid-75.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336921.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001195125-20221001225125-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.934427 | 1,186 | 3.453125 | 3 |
The Serverless architecture, or serverless computing is a software design pattern in which a third-party hosts the apps, removing the need for hardware management by a developer and server software. The apps are split into individual functionalities, which could be individually invoked and scaled.
Software architecture provides companies a way to manage services, as well as apps without handling the actual server architecture. While the name ‘serverless’ is there, it however doesn’t mean that servers are entirely out of the picture. Instead, serverless since you no longer need to manage infrastructure.
The responsibility instead falls on the cloud service providers. With managing server out of the way on their end, organizations could concentrate on developing a product and achieve their business aims and goals.
Short History of Hosted Services
Since the early days of computing, in which software ran on giant mainframe computers, software systems have tremendously evolved. With the coming of more personal, smaller computers, and networking technologies, often, the computing work was forked between centralized servers, which do the heavy lifting, as well as the so-called clients more focused on results presentation.
With the web in the picture, the division of labor is only magnified, up to a point wherein a server concept had become a computer whose job is serving up information on the web. As computers become more and more powerful, it became more likely that server tasks won’t need a dedicated computer to do them, which led to the next phase of evolution, and that is virtualization.
Virtualization, what is it All About?
Virtualization is the use of software for sharing resources of a computer among various independent operating systems, in essence, numerous servers in one. What constitutes the concept of a server has altered from hardware to software.
At the services phase evolution, you still need to perform server managed tasks. Although you may not be responsible for hardware concerns, such as network cards and hard drives, you nevertheless had to configure as well as maintain the OS and install, configure, and maintain all other software, including database and web server.
The Current Serverless State
Software development outsourcing today also make use of the serverless architecture to craft software solutions. In general, serverless today refers to an app or an API, which heavily relies on micro-services, with code hosted on FaaS or Function-as-a-Service platforms. FaaS platforms example include Microsoft Azure Functions, AWS Lambda, and Google Cloud Functions.
The AWS Lambda is a serverless computing platform of Amazon introduced in November 2014 and one of the earliest offerings of FaaS. It enables users to write functionalities in virtually any language, which could be invoked from most other services of AWS. Serverless apps for instance could be built with the API Gateway, for handling web requests, Aurora for database, and Lambda functions for business logic.
With the configuration, you pay only for the compute time used in handling a request, as well as database storage. Since functions are directly accessible and independent, services could be used by a lot of apps.
Serverless Architecture, the Pros
The Serverless architecture provides a lot of pros not just for end users but for software development outsourcing services as well. The advantage of the architecture could influence your workflow as well.
1. Augmented Scalability. With serverless architecture, you need not worry on the ability to scale with traffic volumes automatically. Also, scaling depends on the users’ location and their network connection. Providers or serverless app development services have points of presence around all users, diminishing delays, and enabling apps to do as they should, wherever the location may be.
2. Lesser Costs. With a serverless architecture, you only get to pay what you use, without costs on hardware and unused services. One of the main benefits of going serverless is reduced cost. If services are not heavily utilized most of the time, the ‘pay-as-you-go’ model provides optimal resource use without having to pay for idle server time.
3. More attention to User Experience. Users care about features, not the infrastructure. Companies could dedicate more effort and time to boost customer-facing elements without server maintenance to worry about. A quality UX design is paramount if you want to keep the users engaged with an app.
4. Lesser Worry. With a serverless architecture, you need not worry if the latest security was applied. Now that the servers are in hands of a third-party provider, you need not worry anymore on patches and fixing bugs.
Serverless Architecture, the Cons
Despite all the great things that the serverless architecture could bring, there are instances when traditional architecture comes on top. Some of the possible cons to going serverless include the following.
1. Unsuitable for long-term projects. Serverless is terrific for short-term processes, but for processes that need to run constantly, you could end up paying more for compute time, instead of paying for a reserved instance. Furthermore, a task like uploading big files of video would need additional functions.
2. Vendor Lock-in. The moment you give control to third-party service providers, you will no longer have control over the hardware, updates, and the run times. This could cause consistency issues, and limit available resources. Committing to a service provider means you’ll be in it for the long term.
If you create an application on a serverless architecture, and want to change to a different vendor, then switching is difficult. It’s very hard and you may have to re-engineer your app should you wish to do so.
3. Cold-start penalty. You get to pay only for what you utilize. However, if a function is not often used, you’d be charged with a penalty in a dramatic performance. Hosted functionalities could suffer from a cold-start penalty, and could be extremely slow for the first time that they are called for a while.
You can however attempt to lessen cold starts through keeping functions precise and small, as cold starts grow with memory and size of code. This helps keep functions warm.
4. Complex. In a serverless app, the function is steep. Serverless units of integration are much smaller than other architectures. This needs more time in organizing functions so they would work in line with data. Moreover, there could be issued in versioning and deployment.
To Sum Up
A serverless architecture overall is a new tech that we’d be seeing more in the not-so-far future. As more organizations look for innovative ways of maximizing cloud investments, they are looking into serverless computing. | <urn:uuid:d854b2b6-8099-48ae-8d94-6ff1f399ff40> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://resources.experfy.com/software-ux-ui/choosing-a-serverless-architecture-for-application-development/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337398.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003035124-20221003065124-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.945633 | 1,373 | 3.484375 | 3 |
That impact is now a little larger. Researchers from Graz University of Technology, including one of the original Meltdown discoverers, Daniel Gruss, have described NetSpectre: a fully remote attack based on Spectre. With NetSpectre, an attacker can remotely read the memory of a victim system without running any code on that system.
All the variants of the Spectre attacks follow a common set of principles. Each processor has an architectural behavior (the documented behavior that describes how the instructions work and that programmers depend on to write their programs) and a microarchitectural behavior (the way an actual implementation of the architecture behaves). These can diverge in subtle ways.
Read more: Ars Technica | <urn:uuid:7b63be6b-02f1-4bed-916e-be6f94cf5d27> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.globaldots.com/resources/blog/new-spectre-attack-enables-secrets-to-be-leaker-over-a-network/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337398.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003035124-20221003065124-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.944733 | 275 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Providing access to education is no easy task. Knowledge is continually evolving, and designing the coursework in a way that’s most useful to the participants takes preparation, time, and a close analysis of what the goals of the training are.
Whether you’re giving your clients information on how to use your products and services, need internal training for business partners, or want to get new hires up to speed with current business operations, having instructional design experts on your team can pose a significant benefit.
What Do Instructional Designers Do?
Creating effective coursework requires experience in the industry as well as a masterful understanding of learning design. These professionals typically:
- Design learning management systems
- Develop eLearning resources
- Generate learning content such as tutorial videos and text
- Review feedback from participants and tweak current courses accordingly
- Research new practices in corporate training
Instructional design in training and development has become its own dedicated occupation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cites that the category boasts over $64,000 per year in salary and often requires a master’s degree.
These individuals not only create new instructional content for businesses but also ensure that participants can implement the knowledge well in the field.
Types of Instructional Design
There’s no single method of instructional design, and many organizations find value in different options. The following are some of the most popular approaches to instructional design.
- ADDIE. Standing for “Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation,” ADDIE is the most popular of all the methodologies. Each stage focuses on the subsequent steps of developing a training program that takes into account the intended outcomes and any feedback after the course.
- SAM. In recent years as business becomes more complicated, there has been a push for more agile methods of instructional design. One of them was Michael Allen’s Successive Approximation Model, which uses short instances of design work that builds a quick first product and improves upon it piece by piece.
- ASSURE. Built for blended learning applications, ASSURE stands for “Analysis, Stating the Goals, Selecting the Media, Using Technology, Requiring Performance, and Evaluation.”
- Gagne’s Nine Events. A rather uncommon approach comes from back in 1965 that stated that certain mental conditions must be present for learning to occur. The “Nine Events” explain instruction in the context of cognitive factors.
There are far more, too, such as the Kemp Instructional Design model, Merrill’s Principles of Instruction, and the Dick and Carey Model. Do your research if you’re interested in the many ways to produce quality educational content for your business.
The Steps of Instructional Design
No matter the type of instructional design you choose, all methods involve the following common components.
Why are you building new instructional materials? Are your intended participants often confused at work? Are they underperforming because of a lack of knowledge about your business’s processes?
If you work in sales training instructional design, for instance, it may be because the company’s sales team fails to deliver positive consumer experiences. Develop the goals of your training program that will guide how you design your coursework.
It’s time to start designing the coursework and materials you will use in your physical and virtual training. Generate presentations, aids, guides, or eLearning solutions if you’re searching for instructional design software training. Implement your training program in the field.
In the end, determine how successful your efforts have been. Did it generate a measurable impact on business efficiency? Continue tweaking your program according to performance metrics and participant feedback to maximize the return on investment you get from instructional design. | <urn:uuid:bfdca1f6-d967-4b67-aaa1-79e2065e0c61> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cloudshare.com/virtual-it-labs-glossary/what-is-instructional-design/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337971.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007045521-20221007075521-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.921337 | 780 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Across the United States, we’ve seen many communities deploy something they are calling “forced innovation.” A worldwide pandemic expedited the need for advanced wireless technologies to reimagine traditionally face-to-face interactions such as telemedicine, remote learning, and city services. Here, we put a spotlight on a few of these stories as a way to help educate, share, and inspire other communities to adopt similar solutions.
Smart Education: Mobile Hotspots, State of Georgia. Scenario: When Georgia’s schools moved to remote learning during COVID-19, the shift highlighted that many children in the state lack access to the high-speed internet required for online learning. According to the Georgia State Department of Education, over 80,000 student households cannot access a wireline service. How could the state most effectively use CARES Act funding to increase digital equity? The power of 4G networks and mobile hotspots offered one solution.
Solution: To deploy these hotspots in a way that would serve the most students, the department had to answer many questions: Where were there gaps in connectivity? Where should they place the transmitter devices, and what carrier networks should they use? The department used Ookla® Cell AnalyticsTM to find answers. Signal strength and quality are essential for remote learning, especially when multiple students are using the same hotspot for the same virtual classroom. Cell Analytics data helped the department evaluate the coverage and signal strength for all network operators in the area, as well as cell site locations to determine the optimal locations and carriers for the mobile hotspots.
Result: Georgia deployed 2,500 buses with 4G hotspot devices to provide high-speed internet to students all over the state, guided by Cell Analytics data on the best locations to park the buses. This expanding program is allowing children who lack home internet services the ability to connect to virtual classrooms and continue their education.
Smart Transportation: Navigating a Safe Return to Public Transit. Public transit’s ability to efficiently move many people at the same time is one of its great strengths—and became one of its greatest drawbacks in 2020. Moving forward, transit agencies must make their services as safe as possible and restore public confidence in the transit experience. Transit systems from BART in San Francisco to the Los Angeles Metro have been evaluating new technologies for the future, from thermal cameras for employee temperature readings to AI/deep learning-powered video analytics to understand occupancy levels, wait times, and adoption of safety protocols. They’ve also been using smart transportation solutions to protect employees and customers today. For instance, BART’s 15-step plan includes:
- Contactless payment: Riders can load funds onto their Clipper cards online before their trip or arrange for auto-loading. This reduces lines at ticket vending machines and reduces customer touchpoints. Looking ahead, BART plans to eventually eliminate the sale of paper tickets at some stations and expand the official BART app for parking from five stations to all stations.
- Data transparency: BART has shared daily ridership numbers and train car loading data to address riders’ fears of crowding. This information is not yet available in real time but is communicated frequently on BART’s website and through social media in an easy-to-read format to help riders make informed decisions about their trips.
- New technologies and industry best practices: BART is looking at transit agencies around the world to evaluate the safety, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of solutions such as ultraviolet disinfecting and how practical implementation would be for its system.
Smart Utilities: Drone-Powered Water Tank Inspections, Nationwide. Scenario: Every three to five years, utility water tanks typically receive a comprehensive inspection. Inspection teams take the tank out of service and drain the water to examine the interior for structural integrity, sanitation, safety, and security. Between these routine inspections, inspectors use cherry pickers or scaffolding to look for corrosion or coating issues. These methods have many drawbacks: tanks taken out of service, billions of gallons of water lost to spillage, multiple trips to the site, and safety concerns for inspectors, to name a few.
Solution: AT&T found a solution: using drones and remotely operated vehicles to capture real-time information on water tank integrity. Such secure IoT connectivity, supported by a video analysis platform, could help utilities keep tanks in service, reduce inspection time and avoid unnecessary risk of injury.
Result: By reducing operational costs, increasing inspection safety today, and collecting valuable data for asset maintenance tomorrow, the connected drone remote operation vehicle solution offers great potential to help utilities save water, energy, time, and money.
To hear more of these success stories or learn more about how advanced wireless technologies are connecting our communities, please visit smartcities.ctia.org. | <urn:uuid:2634ef55-c7ae-4c4b-9540-76db741fe74f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://enterpriseviewpoint.com/how-forced-innovation-is-shaping-our-connected-communities/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.944016 | 973 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Account takeover causes online identity theft, when criminals steal personal information stored in online accounts. With stolen accounts and information, hackers can for example buy goods with your credit card or take loans in your name. To take over your accounts, hackers need your password and username. Here are 5 ways they can steal them.
Billions of records of personal information are stolen in data breaches every year. The leaked passwords and usernames are often just what hackers need to commit account takeover. Because most people use the same login details on multiple accounts, hackers will try to access other online services with the same leaked passwords and usernames.
Hackers can break in by simply trying out different passwords to find the one you use. To speed up the process they use programs that can test tens of billions of passwords — in a second. This way any 8-character password can be discovered in approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Criminals can also just ask victims for their login details. This is done through phishing scams, in which unsuspecting victims are lured into giving their data. Phishing attempts can be done through emails, SMS, scam websites, malicious phone applications, chat conversations, phone calls and so on.
Malware and viruses can do multiple things. A typical function is stealing information from the victim’s device. Many viruses can record your keystrokes when you type in your passwords and others spy on your browser and hijack bank information. You can prevent this with antivirus software.
Your internet traffic passes many servers before reaching a website. If someone on the route intercepts your traffic, they can see everything you do on the internet. This includes your passwords and usernames. Typically, these man-in-the-middle attacks are done through public Wi‑Fi networks or infected home internet routers. You can protect yourself with trustworthy VPN software.
F-Secure TOTAL is a cyber security package that protects you from multiple online threats and helps prevent criminals from stealing your information. In addition to antivirus and VPN, it now includes ID PROTECTION, a handy password manager that monitors your online identity 24/7. When a data breach including your personal information is detected, you will be the first to know.
You can try it for free for 30 days completely on us, with no credit card required. | <urn:uuid:a0ef43ce-f930-46f7-a471-7d0a582d8719> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.f-secure.com/us-en/home/articles/how-account-takeover-happens | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.919439 | 471 | 2.671875 | 3 |
With the rapid rate of evolution within technology, why are we still using passwords? Why has password-based authentication remained part of almost every application and system?
The answer lies in the simple, positive attributes of passwords that are not found in other authentication methods.
Even as advancements in device-based and biometric authentication allow us to imagine a world without passwords, a closer look reveals some limitations and gaps that will make it hard to move completely beyond passwords.
The reality is that passwords will be around for the foreseeable future. With that acknowledgment, we can explore why passwords will continue to be used and how we can improve password-based authentication.
What Makes The Password Unique
Even before the advent of Internet, the Password was the standard authentication method to access computer systems. Let’s explore what makes it unique:
Passwords are the most affordable and scalable authentication option
When developing any authentication system, cost needs to be part of the equation. Even when it might be deferred to users, cost still matters.
Because the password is nothing more than a piece of information to be kept secret, it has no material cost. Compare this with alternative authentication methods that rely on individuals having access to a relatively expensive piece of technology. This can be a device, where possession itself is the authentication. Or it could be sophisticated sensors that are used for biometric or behavioral patterns detection.
Any authentication factor that requires sensors or hardware is an incremental cost beyond the cost of a password – which is zero. If the organization will have to bear all those costs on behalf of their users, many services will find the investment required to be cost prohibitive.
One solution is to rely on a technology or device that the user already owns, like a smart phone with a fingerprint sensor. However, a social media company that has an economically diverse set of users may not be able to rely on every user owning a smart phone.
This brings us to the next issue of compatibility.
Passwords are the only solution with no compatibility issues
For an authentication solution to be universally effective, it has to work for everyone. Yet there is no authentication standard that will work across all devices, all versions, and all operating systems.
Only the password can be considered a universal authenticator.
If an organization wants to try to increase the compatibility within as many different environments as possible, the costs will increase even further.
Organizations that can’t or don’t make this investment end up excluding some user populations or revert back to the password as a universally compatible solution.
Passwords don’t jeopardize user privacy
The continuous collection of personal data has made privacy a major concern in our society. When forms of identity, like biometrics, are used to authenticate, it is a privacy risk.
Passwords work for authentication with nothing more than an entirely anonymous string of characters. There is nothing in the password that uniquely identifies the user. Compare that to other authentication methods that use something as personal as a scan of someone’s face.
Consider the example of a social media application used by reporters to share information that is unpopular with the government. Privacy and anonymity may be an essential requirement. In these cases, a facial scan, a phone number associated with a mobile device, or some other form of personally identifiable authentication, are not acceptable.
Many individuals are rightfully concerned about revealing more personal information than is required, especially in light of data breaches.
Should authentication systems require users to reveal biological markers?
Even when the organization handling the authentication process is trusted, many reasonably worry that this type of personally identifying information (PII) could accidentally fall into the wrong hands.
Thank about the fate of those affected by the Office of Personnel Management hack, which exposed the records of 20 million government employees, 5.6 million of which included fingerprint files.
Authentication factors that jeopardize the privacy of the user should be optional. The user should be allowed to determine the trade-off of privacy for convenience.
Passwords don’t return false results
The password is unique in that the input is either exactly correct or not correct at all.
The particular string of characters you input will always produce the same response, a definitive and deterministic response.
By contrast, biometric authentication mechanisms and risk-based data points rely on pattern matching. These systems are based on comparing against a new sample that may not be identical to the original. This is called a probabilistic model.
Examples of probabilistic models include looking at a current voice sample, fingerprints, typing pattern, location information and computing a response in terms of the likelihood of a match.
The challenge is that the inherent variability of the samples combined with unexpected environmental factors makes them far from exact indicators.
Voice detection can be diminished due to background sound. Fingerprints may not be accurately captured due to a wound or contaminant. Typing patterns may change based on environment. Unusual travel may trip up location patterns. All these situations can produce incorrect results in one direction or the other.
False negative results block authorized users from gaining access, leading to frustration, lost productivity and lost revenue. False positive results are even worse. They allow access when they shouldn’t. Neither is good for business.
Passwords are the first factor in MFA, 2FA and Adaptive Authentication
One way to increase reliability is to combine multiple authentication factors. By evaluating user, system, and environmental attributes together the confidence in the guess can be increased.
These multiple dimension approaches are described as risk-based or adaptive authentication systems. These solutions all use passwords as the first factor of authentication.
Setting aside the cost, compatibility and privacy concerns noted above, these risk-based or adaptive authentication approaches are not considered sufficiently reliable without the password factor.
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) specifically refers to risk-based or adaptive authentication, saying in their recent FAQ “These solutions do not currently count as a valid authenticator in and of themselves” and “Until we have a good way to define the requirements to properly execute these approaches, “risk-based” and “adaptive” techniques are considered added controls to digital authentication.”
Part of the reason the password is often included in a multi-factor solution is because it doesn’t suffer the same problem of false negative and false positive results.
Passwords don’t rely on publicly available information
Any key that is used for authentication needs to be kept secure. Yet, many of the biometric attributes used for authentication are not secure because they are exposed in every day life. There are data gathering methods and social engineering techniques to obtain nearly any biometric attribute imaginable.
NIST describes the problem of biometrics this way: “Biometric characteristics do not constitute secrets. They can be obtained online or by taking a picture of someone with a camera phone (e.g., facial images) with or without their knowledge, lifted from objects someone touches (e.g., latent fingerprints), or captured with high resolution images (e.g., iris patterns).”
It’s also useful to consider that your fingerprint, voice scan or other biometric data is just data that’s been converted and stored by a computer system that can be breached.
The solution to preventing biometric impersonation is to make devices that can detect the attempt and avoid being fooled. But as we have seen in the news, as soon as a new biometric verification method is devised, cyber-criminals can find a way around it.
Passwords are easier to replace when compromised
Anything used for authentication may at some point need to be replaced because it is lost, stolen or becomes otherwise compromised. This is especially important after a large data breach.
In these cases, replacing an authentication should happen as quickly as possible and not cause the user or the organization a lot of unnecessary effort.
Authentication solutions that rely on a device may require the device to be replaced with the time and costs that implies. However, an authentication system that uses your unique biometric characteristics makes replacement far more difficult. Where do you get a new set of fingerprints?
The password is often chosen for authentication because it is by far the easiest authenticator to replace if compromise is suspected.
The user is the weakest point in password authentication
Like any security system, the human element introduces weaknesses.
Individuals rarely exceed the very minimum that systems require. Convenience trumps security. With passwords, users are fairly poor at identifying good password practices.
Systems administrators have tried to overcome this problem by creating password policies that encourage “strong passwords” with an assortment of characters.
However we’ve discovered from the billions of exposed credentials that users follow very predicable patterns. As a result, cybercriminals have created dictionaries that use these patterns and compromised passwords to be able to quickly crack encrypted passwords in offline attacks that can run through billions of possibilities every second.
People then reuse their password across multiple websites because it is easy to remember. Knowing this fact, hackers take username and password combinations compromised in one data breach and use credential stuffing attacks to determine other sites where the credentials are valid.
The responsibility will always belong to the organization
Because the user is the source of the problem, we really can’t expect them to become the solution. Ultimately the result and the blame roll up to the organization. Fortunately, there are several things that the organization can do to improve the outcome.
Using a layered approach
There is clear evidence that combining multiple and different layers of security provides the best protection overall.
For some, the focus on multi-factor has meant an emphasis on the “what you have” layer in the form of a secondary device that asks you to confirm the authentication is valid.
However there have been many incidents of failures of 2-factor authentication and NIST has completely removed two-factor authentication using SMS-based messaging from their recommendations.
The key message to remember is that no single factor alone is impenetrable and that each layer should be secured as much as possible.
Hardening the password layer
In many ways, we’ve failed to move forward from the password security practices that we know are not working.
NIST has created new passwords guidelines that recognize these weakness and put the responsibility on the organization to remove complexity and enforce better practices.
Two solutions can be applied to dramatically harden the password layer:
1. Organizations can screen new passwords and restrict any that are known to be compromised or easy to guess. Once a password is compromised anywhere it should be considered an unusable key. By eliminating passwords found in cracking dictionaries and enforcing a minimum length of at least 8 characters, their passwords will be nearly impossible to crack even if their database is compromised.
2. Organizations can control access when the username and password combination was previously compromised. When an exact credential set has been exposed in any data breach, any account that uses that credential set can be immediately accessed.
These two approaches represent a substantial evolution in password security and can dramatically harden the password against the most common attack methods in use today.
Encouraging users to help themselves
Efforts to educate and change users’ behaviors have been shown to produce limited results. The list of worst passwords is not changing year-over-year and users are starting to get security fatigue.
But the one thing that users should be encouraged to do is use a good password manager. These tools help users with the task of managing multiple passwords, confirming passwords are strong enough, checking against reuse, and even using system generated passwords which are better than the ones they pick for themselves.
Attackers will always find ways to uncover the vulnerabilities in any security system. If alternatives to passwords become a new standard, cybercriminals will have the incentive to shift their focus in that direction.
Despite all the hype around other forms of authentication, passwords remain the most broadly deployed authentication solution. While we can be frustrated with password authentication’s limitations, until a suitable replacement is available, we should be applying all practical measures to improve password security and help it evolve. | <urn:uuid:66f32db3-50e4-4885-bbbb-3e4727f90ac4> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.enzoic.com/can-passwords-really-replaced/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336978.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001230322-20221002020322-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.931971 | 2,491 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Fault injection, also known as glitching, is a technique where some form of interference or invalid state is intentionally introduced into a system in order to alter the behavior of that system. In the context of embedded hardware and electronics generally, there are a number of forms this interference might take. Common methods for fault injection in electronics include:
Clock glitching (errant clock edges are forced onto the input clock line of an IC)
Voltage fault injection (applying voltages higher or lower than the expected voltage to IC power lines)
Electromagnetic glitching (Introducing EM interference)
This article will focus on voltage fault injection, specifically, the introduction of momentary voltages outside of normal operating conditions on the target device’s power rails. These momentary pulses or drops in input voltage (glitches) can affect device operation and are directed with the intention of achieving a particular effect. Commonly desired effects include “corrupting” instructions or memory in the processor and skipping instructions. | <urn:uuid:0d98e28b-26a4-43fb-a53c-4f17d3295386> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ioactive.com/research-into-the-concrete-effects-of-fault-injection-on-processor-state/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337516.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004152839-20221004182839-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.910322 | 213 | 3.34375 | 3 |
LinkedIn was breached in 2012 with a reported 6.5 million user accounts compromised. LinkedIn sent a request to known hacked users advising them to change their passwords. However, on May 16, 2016, 117 million LinkedIn accounts–reportedly from the 2012 hack–were found to be up for sale on a hacker site. LinkedIn stated that after the initial 2012 breach, they added enhanced protection, most likely adding the “salt” functionality to their passwords. However, if you have not changed your password since 2012, you do not have the added protection of a salted password hash. You may be asking yourself–what on earth are hashing and salting and how does this all work?
When creating a site that collects and stores user accounts, it is critical to ensure that passwords are properly protected. Because there are so many ways to crack passwords, including guessing (typically by using social media to figure out birthdays, pets’ names, favorite sports teams, etc.), dictionary attacks, and the use of rainbow tables (which we’ll go into later), it is more vital than ever to employ unique salted password hashing, which is in compliance with current cybersecurity industry standards.
First, let’s understand how this all works. When a user first creates an account, they enter a password in plain text, such as “1234”. The password “1234” is then hashed and stored in the system. Hashing is a mathematical algorithm that takes a plain text password and turns it into a set of letters and numbers. There are several methods of hashing. One method is called Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA1) (which is what LinkedIn had reportedly been using at the time of the 2012 hack) where a plain text password runs through a mathematical cryptographic algorithm that turns and stores the text password (“1234”) into a set of numbers and letters that look like this:
Therefore, the password should never be stored in the database as plain text, but rather as a stored hash. When a user logs into their account by entering their text password “1234,” the hash of the password is checked against the stored hash of the password. If the hashes match, the user is allowed access. If the hash does not match, the user will not be able to gain access. When using the SHA1 method, without adding the salt, the plain text password of “1234” will always create the same hash, meaning “1234” will always hash to the following SHA1 hash value:
In theory, a hacker who has stolen user accounts that use the SHA1 mathematical algorithm with non-salted hashed passwords should not be able to use the hash to get the original text password. However, the bad news is that there are ways to reconstruct the text string from the hash. If a hacker has access to a database that has a SHA1 hash dictionary that has already been converted into the password plain text string it equals, they will have easy access to the password.
It would look something like this:
If the hacker cannot succeed in cracking passwords through brute force or by guessing the passwords, there are other methods that can be used, such as lookup tables and rainbow tables.
Lookup tables provide hashes that have already been computed and stored in a password dictionary with their corresponding plain text password string such as the ones listed in Figure 1 above.
Rainbow tables are lists of known hash values that equal a plain text password, somewhat like Figure 1 above. Rainbow tables work in a similar manner to Lookup tables with a few minor differences—mainly that they sacrifice hash cracking speed to reduce the size of lookup tables. What is important to take away is that both lookup tables and rainbow tables have databases of plain text passwords and the exact hash string that matches each password.
The reason lookup tables and rainbow tables work is because each password has been hashed exactly the same way. This means that if SHA1 has been used and two people have the password “1234”, the password hash will be identical.
If I go to a website such as http://sha1.gromweb.com/ which uses an SHA1 dictionary that has manypre-converted hashes, I can find the password I’m looking for:
Next, I will enter the hash from the password “1234”:
After clicking the reverse button, I come up with the hash string:
You can also choose to reverse the hash value to get the password text string as shown below:
It is really that simple. I was able to get the password by simply taking a millisecond to retrieve the password from a website. Kind of scary.
So what can we do? This is where salts comes in. This type of hack can be prevented by employing a unique salt which will make each plain text password converted to hash different. This way no two identical passwords will have the same hash. A salt is a unique string of bytes that is included with the password in each hash calculation. If done properly, salts makes lookup tables and rainbow tables ineffective (at least at the present time). However, it is important to use salts correctly. It is crucial to use a unique salt every time a user and account/password is created and when a user changes their password. In other words, never use the same salt for each password and hash.
Here’s a great depiction of how the password “foobar” without a salt will always hash to the same hash string:
Here’s the salting process and how the password “foobar” now has a unique hash string:
So if both users, John and Sean, have the same SHA1 plain text password string “1234”, we have established that without a unique salt, the hash will be the same.
Remember, without a salt, the hash for the password “1234” will be hashed to identical hash strings:
However, by adding a unique salt each time, the hash will be different. This is a simplified example, but by going to a site like http://online-code-generator.com/sha1-hash-with-optional-salt.php which allows you create hashes with or without salts based on a plain text password, you can see that the hashes are different.
From this site, I chose to use the password “1234” and a salt string of characters before the string:
Notice how the hash is now different for the password“1234” than it was without the salt added:
However, remember to always use a different salt each time. In the next example, I again used the password string “1234” and the same salt string and once again put the salt before the string:
Notice the hash string is exactly the same as the prior example. This is because I used the same text string with the same salt in the same location:
Now, what if I use the same text password and choose to use a different salt string of characters? Will this make the hash string different and unique? Let’s see below:
And the result:
If you guessed that it would be different, you were correct. Notice that the hash string is different even though the text password “1234” is the same. This is a vital point to understand. You must always use a different salt string of characters for each and every user plain text password string, just in case two users end up entering the same password string.
You now have a basic understanding of how hashing and salting work. Please use these techniques to help keep your site and user passwords better protected.
- Always use a strong mathematical hashing algorithm. Some research will help determine which one will work best for you.
- Always make sure your system is set up to use a unique salt string every time a user enters a text password or changes their password so that you can help thwart attacks such as lookup and rainbow tables.
- Make sure that you have password security awareness practices in place and a system set where your users must create complex passwords. (Inspired eLearning offers many courses that discuss password best practices. Please find more information by checking out our security awareness training options.
- Make sure that you follow current cybersecurity standards and require users to change their passwords on a regular basis.
- Have users use different passwords for all of their various accounts.
For more information please go to www.inspiredelearning.com/security-awareness
Source for Figures 1 and 2:
By Tyler Cohen Wood | <urn:uuid:ee6f2b08-274b-41c0-ae6e-a5d5e0c1c733> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://inspiredelearning.com/blog/the-linkedin-hack-understanding-why-it-was-so-easy-to-crack-the-passwords-2/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334915.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926175816-20220926205816-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.926264 | 1,905 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The X-47B stealth drone, designed to fly missions on its own, represents something of a breakthrough in robotic technology.
Robotics is one of the fastest growing and most innovative fields in government's use of technology. From NASA's X1 robot that is helping people to walk, to the Marine's AlphaDog that is ready to climb mountains loaded down with gear, to the Wave Gliders that are helping NOAA combat climate change in the Arctic Ocean, robots are literally everywhere.
But all of the robots so far require some form of human interaction for anything beyond basic functions. That could be changing with the Navy's new X-47B stealth drone, which will be able to takeoff and land from an aircraft carrier, fly a mission and report back to operators without needing a human to watch over the whole process, and without a human pilot, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Robots, particularly military ones, have started to show signs of intelligence. The 501 Packbot, for example, can find its way back to its controller if the radio connection is broken. But those are baby steps, and it appears that the X-47 is nearly fully grown. It's undergoing sea trials over the next several months aboard the USS Harry Truman, the Navy says.
The ultimate goal of the project is to have an operator be able to use something as simple as drop-down menus and a point-and-click interface to assign the X-47 a mission. Then the aircraft can launch itself, perform the mission, and return to base, which could be an aircraft carrier. The person who assigns the mission does not need to be a pilot, and doesn't have to monitor the plane at all once the mission is given, though current procedure calls for a human to oversee all operations.
The X-47 instead relies on a set of senses developed by Northrop Grumman to help it navigate the skies. It has accelerometers, altimeters, gyroscopes and, of course, a Global Positioning System receiver. It's also got a brain of sorts to help it make decisions in the field.
As robots go, the X-47 is quite large, at 62-feet long. It weighs 14,000 pounds when empty and sits 10 feet high. It is designed in a stealth, no-tail pattern, with special materials so that it can avoid radar as it travels. It can also carry up to 2,000 pounds of ordnance to protect itself in the air or to kill targets on the ground.
One would think that building such an intelligent robot, capable of feats such as carrier landings and making decisions during missions would be tough, but NextGov reports that Navy didn't run into any real challenges in the development of the aircraft. The X-47's brain is managed by 3.5 million lines of code, and existing technology makes up its senses.
The use of autonomous drones will likely raise concerns that they could go awry, possibly attacking something other than military targets. The Pentagon requires that all weapons other than those designed for use in cyberspace need be built to rigorous standards and have human oversight to avoid that from happening. And the Navy stresses that the X-47 is not carrying any weapons, though it is outfitted to be able to do so.
But from a technology standpoint, the more significant factor here is that the X-47 is almost a true robot, which is generally defined as a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. That means that the X-47 is probably the first real robot in military service, or at least it comes the closest to the futuristic type of robots popular in sci-fi movies.
That said, a lot is riding on the X-47 program. If it's successful, then count on it being the first in a long list of thinking machines, whereas failure could set the program back significantly. It is rare that we can identify a turning point while it's actually happening, but the X-47 going into service is a moment whose importance can't be overstated. Everything after it will make the world a different place. | <urn:uuid:631862d5-3906-4e5b-8a38-fe43485f390a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://gcn.com/emerging-tech/2012/12/is-navys-new-drone-the-first-real-military-robot/281039/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335059.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928020513-20220928050513-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.958696 | 841 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Tech companies, privacy and vulnerabilities: How much transparency is enough?
Views and opinions published in this article are intended to foster productive thought and discussion around challenges in the cybersecurity industry. Views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Infosec.
In late June 2020, a story was published by Vice’s Motherboard technology investigative platform with a revelation that sent shockwaves through the privacy and security communities. In 2017, Facebook hired a cybersecurity company to develop a new exploit for a security-focused operating system — a zero-day. Once completed, the social media brand then passed the exploit on to the FBI through an intermediary, which the FBI then used to track down and eventually arrest a child predator.
Followers of security and privacy will likely recall that this isn’t the first time that the FBI shared headlines with a private cybersecurity company over the use of zero-day exploits in order to support their law enforcement duties. A year prior, in 2016, the FBI battled with Apple in court to get their help in unlocking the phones of the San Bernardino terrorists, but ultimately paid an unnamed cybersecurity firm to use a zero-day
During the 2016 court battle with the FBI, Apple and many of their rivals, including Amazon, Samsung, Dropbox, Microsoft, Yahoo and even Facebook, fought for the security of their customers’ privacy. Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, stated that “privacy is a fundamental human right.”
In the years since this high-profile court case, Americans’ concerns surrounding private companies and their right to privacy has only continued to grow. In fact, only 9 percent of American social media users “were ‘very confident’ that social media companies would protect their data.”
According to Pew Research, about half of users were not at all or not too confident their data were in safe hands. However, according to the same 2017 Pew Research study, about seven in ten American adults (69 percent) claim that they use some kind of social media platform.
So what do these two conflicting narratives reveal about security and privacy in the hands of global technology giants? Should the specific circumstances of this case allow for such tailored development and use of a zero-day by Facebook and the FBI? This article will attempt to explore some of the key questions surrounding the 2017 incident.
Facebook, the FBI and a GNOME zero-day
After years of hard investigative work on behalf of several law enforcement agencies, a California man who went by the online alias Brian Kil was still at large harassing and extorting teenage girls. Kil, whose real name is Buster Hernandez, used Facebook to force young girls to send him nude pictures of themselves and threatened them with violence against them and their friends and family if they did not listen to his demands.
To help hide his identity and keep investigators off of his online tracks, Hernandez used a computer operating system popular with journalists and their sources known as Tails. This automatically routes internet traffic through the mis-attributable Tor network so it cannot be traced back to the user, keeping them anonymous.
According to the Vice article, there was a vulnerability in the Tails video player, Gnome. An unidentified cybersecurity research company used this vulnerability to create a zero-day exploit, which Facebook paid “six figures” to help develop and deliver. Through an intermediary, Facebook then passed on the zero-day exploit to the FBI. Once in hand and armed with a search warrant, the FBI was able to use the exploit against the vulnerability in the Tails Gnome video player to collect and reveal the true IP address of Hernandez.
Per the article, the Tails and Gnome developers had no previous knowledge of the vulnerability or that the FBI had used a specialized exploit until the Motherboard team reached out to the platforms for their comment. There were, however, plans to fix the bug in an upcoming patch that has since been released.
Security and privacy: Key questions
While the players and the scenario will be different, it’s safe to assume that this will not be the last time there will be a case involving technology giants, law enforcement and vulnerability exploitation that privacy advocates will flag. And, as always, the line between law enforcement and privacy will continue to be a fine one.
On one side of this debate, there are those that say that this was a one-off, highly specific incident with an unusual set of circumstances that are unlikely to occur. Additionally, the bug in the operating system has since been patched. On the other side, privacy advocates draw a strict line with the idea of a global technology platform helping to reveal details of one of its users as a scary and unprecedented milestone.
What is certain, however, is that this incident raises a number of key questions for security professionals to consider.
Should Facebook have been involved in making and paying for the zero-day exploit?
According to an interview published in a Digital Privacy News article published about the incident, a Facebook spokesman noted that, “The only acceptable outcome to us was Buster Hernandez facing accountability for his abuse of young girls.” The statement from Facebook continued, “This was a unique case, because he was using such sophisticated methods to hide his identity, that we took the extraordinary steps of working with security experts to help the FBI bring him to justice.”
And while no one doubts the FBI’s authority and need to take down criminals and suspected terrorists through any means within the boundaries of US law, including lawful hacking, privacy advocates have trained their ire on Facebook. Additionally, according to the Vice article, the FBI did not know of or ask Facebook to partner with the cybersecurity research firm to develop the exploit.
In fact, Facebook is one of more than 80 companies that have signed the Cybersecurity Tech Accord. This “promotes a safer online world by fostering collaboration among global technology companies committed to protecting their customers and users and helping them defend against malicious threats.” However, by being involved in the development and funding for the zero-day exploit and not alerting Tails developers, Facebook looks to stand in direct contract to the principles of the Accord that they signed on to.
Should Facebook, the FBI and the cybersecurity firm have disclosed the vulnerability to Tails or GNOME after the arrest?
A second key question raised by the Vice articles focuses on if Facebook, the FBI, and the cybersecurity firm — or one of the above — should have alerted Tails or GNOME of the vulnerability after the criminal was arrested? According to a statement in the Vice piece, over three years later, notification of the media player exploitation has not been made to either company.
While the cybersecurity research firm that participated in the development of the zero-day was not named, they are likely (as in the case of Facebook and the FBI) long-term participants in the industry’s tradition of disclosing vulnerabilities to the source code developers and the larger technology community so a fix can be rolled out.
The Vice article notes that some of Facebook’s drive to develop and indirectly deliver the zero-day was driven by the expected patch of the vulnerability in an impending fix and that they therefore did not need to share it with Tails. However, Tails states that there is no way to know for sure if the bug is still of concern without more details about the exploit itself.
“The only way for Tails to be sure that every single aspect of the zero-day is indeed fixed already is to learn about the full details of the zero-day,” a Tails spokesperson said to Vice. “Without these full details, we cannot have a strong guarantee that our current users are 100 percent safe from this zero-day as of today.” In other words, it is possible that the flaw relied on a chain of other flaws that may still be partially unpatched, leaving other users of the platform at risk.
Should the FBI use exploits from private companies?
A final key question raised in the wake of the article focuses on whether the FBI should be using exploits developed by private companies. The FBI’s interest in and use of lawful hacking is becoming better understood recently and, as in the San Bernardino case and the investigation into the 2019 shooting at a naval base in Pensacola have shown. the federal law enforcement agency is becoming increasingly more adept at doing so.
But is what happened in this case different? According to three Facebook sources that spoke with Vice, an intermediary passed the tool on to the FBI, who then obtained a court-ordered search warrant to have one of the victims send a modified video file to Hernandez. So while the FBI acted in their role as a lawful authority, should they have used the Gnome zero-day? And should they have notified Tails prior to or after their use of it?
Privacy advocates could be concerned with the government taking an active role in using a zero-day exploit without notifying Gnome, especially since the flaw could have been identified by others with more nefarious intentions to commit crimes against other law-abiding Gnome users. What is certain, however, is that questions like these are not unlike those citizens, law enforcement and privacy advocates debate when dealing with the FBI’s use of informants, undercover agents, wiretapping and other specialized law enforcement tools.
Bringing it all together
To privacy and security experts, the answers to these questions are very straightforward: Facebook should not have been involved in developing and distributing a zero-day exploit that could reveal private information about one of their customers. In the case of the San Bernardino terrorists, as Apple argued, there is no way to make their platforms or zero-days identified against them only effective against “bad guys” — so they should not be used at all, in case they end up in the wrong hands. Finally, the fact that the vulnerability was not disclosed via the usual channels further scares privacy advocates.
However, does the fact that Facebook was targeting an extremely bad criminal that was using its platform using a zero-day exploit that they understood to be imminently patched qualify as enough of a unique set of circumstances to allow for common security practices to be broken? And does this situation, combined with the fact that the zero-day exploit was not paid for by the FBI, but was provided through an intermediary with the knowledge of Facebook, save the FBI from any blame given their use of a lawful warrant?
Where do you stand on these issues?
Tech rivals join Apple’s legal fight against FBI, Business Standard
The CERT® Guide to Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure, Carnegie Mellon University
Cybersecurity Tech Accord, cybertechaccord.org
Facebook Hires Firm in Hack to Help FBI Find Child Predator, Digital Privacy News
Trainee on Military Base Mounts Deadly Attack, The New York Times
Does the F.B.I. Need Apple to Hack Into iPhones?, The New York Times
Americans’ complicated feelings about social media in an era of privacy concerns, Pew Research Center
Statement from Tim Cook, Twitter
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Microbial Fuel Cells
Now, Binghamton University researchers developed the next step in microbial fuel cells. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are a bio-electrochemical system operates an electric current by using bacteria and mimicking bacterial interactions found in nature.
The researchers created a battery that runs on a drop of saliva. The battery can use diagnostic applications even in extreme conditions where normal batteries don’t function.
Researcher Seokheun Choi develops micro-power sources used in resource-limited regions to the power point-of-care (POC) diagnostic biosensors. He created several paper-based batteries and microbial fuel cells.
On-demand micro-power generation require especially for POC diagnostic applications in developing countries, said Choi. Those applications require only tens of micro watt level power for several minutes, but other energy harvesting technologies are too expensive. Also, they pose environmental pollution issues.
Choi and his team created a high-performance bacteria-powered battery by building microbial fuel cells contain freeze-dried Exoelectrogenic cells which generates power when adding saliva.
The proposed battery generated reliable power with just one drop of saliva, supplying on-board power that could use the next generation of disposable, paper-based POC diagnostic platforms.
The proposed battery has competitive advantages over other conventional power solutions because the biological fluid for on-demand battery activation readily available even in the most resource-constrained settings. Also, the freeze-drying technology enables long-term storage of cells without degradation or denaturation. Choi is focused on improving the batter’s power density so that more applications can be powered.
The freeze dry allows the cells to be stored for a long time before using, which would allow them to be stocked in medical clinics around the world. The other benefit is that the biological fluid needed to activate them is readily available anywhere at any time.
Currently, the battery produces only a few microwatts of power per square centimeter, but researchers working on boosting the output. The microbial fuel cells connected with power things like LED lights, but researchers working on making the battery more robust to power other devices.
More information: [Advanced Materials Technologies] | <urn:uuid:e0009fe9-7cd1-4cb0-89b2-f90f8cabde7f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://areflect.com/2017/08/09/binghamton-university-researchers-design-a-saliva-powered-battery/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930181143-20220930211143-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.90547 | 453 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Domain Name System (DNS)
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a database that matches website names with their corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Specifically, the framework maps the written alphanumeric name people use to find a website to the numerical IP address that a browser uses to find a site.
DNS begins with the practical notion that people surfing the web have no desire or realistic ability to reach websites through knowledge of byzantine IP addresses. Therefore, the service was instituted to enable the growth of the Internet as a feature that makes it commercially viable.
Browsers and other ancillary services depend on DNS to rapidly provide the data required to connect users to remote hosts. DNS mapping is disseminated all through the web in a chain of command of power.
Governments, universities and enterprises register their own groups of IP addresses grouped by an alphanumeric domain name. They additionally ordinarily run DNS servers to deal with the mapping of those names to those addresses.
"Check out one of the domain seller websites to see if the URL you want is available. I use GoDaddy for DNS lookups of what's available." | <urn:uuid:2bb046f0-510a-4377-8cab-75b2e14c2b4f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.hypr.com/security-encyclopedia/domain-system | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930181143-20220930211143-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.911709 | 237 | 3.5 | 4 |
Amazon Alexa can be used in the healthcare industry but it is limited because of its non-HIPAA compliance. Although that may change in the near future. At this time, AWS, Amazon’s cloud platform, supports HIPAA compliance. Amazon’s voice recognition technology may also be used much more extensively in healthcare. However, before Alexa could reach its real potential, it must become HIPAA compliant first.
Alexa unquestionably has huge potential in health care. Doctors can use it for patient notes transcription or for virtual assistance in the clinic. Approximately 30 million households in the U.S already use Alexa. The technology can be conveniently used for remote patient monitoring and create more engagement in patients’ personal healthcare.
Some healthcare organizations have started exploring the use of Alexa. WebMD made an Alexa skill to deliver its web content material to consumers via their Alexa devices at home. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) experimented with Alexa’s features in an inpatient setting, while not using actual patient data. That pilot test produced very telling results. BIDMC plans to utilize Alexa in a clinical setting once appropriate safeguards have been designed and if Amazon is all set to sign a business associate agreement (BAA).
Boston’s Children’s Hospital (BCH) is similarly pilot testing Alexa to send out information to its medical team, but only non-identifiable health content was sent without a BAA with Amazon. BCH has also designed an Alexa skill called KidsMD. It allows parents to ask questions about health conditions and get guidance on common health issues.
Merck encouraged creators to come up with revolutionary ways of using Alexa to help diabetic patients. Hence, the Alexa Diabetes Challenge was introduced in April 2017 to help the 27.5 million American patients with type 2 diabetes.
Effective remedies can be accessed and when combined with lifestyle changes, patients could enjoy longer and healthier lives. However, self-management is hard for patients, specially for those just diagnosed with the disease. Amazon wants ideas about patient-centric solutions using the Alexa voice recognition technology.
Oxana Pickeral, Amazon Web Services’ Global Segment Leader for Healthcare & Life Sciences said that HIPAA is a matter that need to be sorted out before Alexa could be widely used in health care. She pointed out how the Diabetes Challenge demonstrated the potential use of this technology. So, Amazon is presently considering how to address the issue of HIPAA for Alexa.
Since the work has been completed on AWS, the basics are all set. However, until the right safeguards have been integrated with Alexa and the Lex platform, HIPAA-covered entities can’t use the voice recognition technology in conjunction with protected health information.
Amazon is definitely working on the HIPAA compliance of Alexa, however a BAA must be signed. Or else, it’s not allowed to use Alexa with identifiable health information in a healthcare setting. | <urn:uuid:32bc8732-ebc5-4c50-9ea1-56e04c51fd09> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.hipaanswers.com/non-hipaa-compliance-of-amazon-alexa-limits-application-in-health-care/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337723.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006025949-20221006055949-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.943621 | 596 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Cancer is a pervasive problem that is becoming more prevalent in the United States and abroad. Oncologists are investing in new technology to improve treatments for their growing number of patients. In recent years, healthcare experts have discovered that artificial intelligence is one of the most promising forms of technology in the field of oncology.
The number of benefits of AI in the field of oncology is almost too numerous to list. However, some of these benefits are so promising that they warrant discussion. Here are some of the top benefits of artificial intelligence for treating all types of cancer.
Personalized radiation treatments
Radiation has been one of the most common and effective forms of treating cancer for many years. However, oncologists have historically been unable to take all necessary patient variables into account when determining whether a patient should receive radiation treatments, duration of the treatment, the number of treatments they should undergo in a given interval of time and the ideal dose of radiation.
The Cleveland Clinic has recently started incorporating AI into its radiation treatments. Oncologists at the Cleveland clinic have been using electronic health records and medical imaging data to get a better understanding of patient at risk factors. They developed machine learning algorithms that rely on this data to develop radiation treatment plans for cancer patients.
This AI-driven approach to cancer treatment has proven to be remarkably effective. The success rate is reportedly over 95%.
These artificial intelligence models are likely to improve over time. According to the Lancet Digital Health publication, the original model relied on scans from 944 patients suffering from lung cancer. These models will eventually start to evaluate the outcomes of patients and offer more effective recommendations. They might also be able to evaluate the long-term health implications of radiation, so they can find a balance between providing clinically effective treatments and minimizing the risk of side effects.
Minimizing toxicity of radiation
Researchers from MIT have started developing new AI technology to improve outcomes for patients with cancer. While most oncologists are looking to use AI to more effectively eliminate tumors, these researchers are focusing on an equally important objective. They are trying to reduce the toxicity of cancer treatments to minimize the risk of devastating side effects.
The team of artificial intelligence scientists at MIT have taken a rather novel approach to their research. They borrowed a concept from the field of behavioral psychology known as reinforced learning. They developed a number of AI automatons that contribute to machine learning approaches. These AI bots are giving incentives to find better outcomes with available data.
Many experts believe that this approach will be useful in other fields as well. The admiration for this work is not limited to the field of AI development. Biologists with little training in AI are praising the research as well, including Nicholas Schork of J. Craig Venter Institute. MIT News contributor Rob Matheson reported on Schork’s opinion on the role of AI in healthcare.
“Schork adds that this work may particularly interest the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is now seeking ways to leverage data and artificial intelligence to develop health technologies. Regulations still need be established, he says, “but I don’t doubt, in a short amount of time, the FDA will figure out how to vet these [technologies] appropriately, so they can be used in everyday clinical programs.”
AI is the future of cancer treatment
Healthcare professionals should also be cognizant of AI technology helping radiologists. By definition, radiologists have always led the field by introducing the most advanced and innovative technologies. Many technology companies are developing solutions that will improve cancer patient treatment, as well as assist physicians and improve their efficiency. AI is one of the most promising forms of technology to treat nearly every type of cancer, and these will continue to be developed to address these growing risks. | <urn:uuid:2da8e99f-2a72-412c-8d61-e8e3c35d54f5> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.crayondata.com/ai-provides-the-foundation-for-major-breakthroughs-in-cancer-treatments/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.958453 | 768 | 3 | 3 |
You gotta give hackers credit for their creativity. After years of plain old computer hacks and brute-force attacks, the world’s cybercriminals are getting with the times and stepping up their games. You can see it in their unusual phishing scams, as well as hacks on devices like cars and smart home products.
And just when you think you have their strategies figured out, they go and change things up again. In the next 10 years, odds are you’ll fall victim to a hacker’s clever tricks. Tap or click here to see how you can tell if your phone or computer has been hacked.
But if you think car and smart home hacks are crazy, you won’t believe what cybercriminals will be capable of with ultrasonic tech. A group of researchers recently discovered a way to break into phones using sonic frequencies no one can hear, and hackers worldwide might be getting some nasty ideas.
Siri is always listening … for hackers
Researchers at St. Louis Washington University developed an advanced hacking technique that uses ultrasonic frequencies to unlock smartphones without having to touch them. This includes iPhones as well as Android devices made by Google, Motorola, Samsung and Xiaomi.
Their method, dubbed “SurfingAttack,” can unlock a variety of different phones from different manufacturers with nothing more than an ordinary table and an ultrasound device.
The device is programmed to give audio commands at a frequency the human ear can’t pick up. Unfortunately, most smartphones can hear this ultrasonic audio and react to commands.
By transmitting ultrasound through the surface of the table, the researchers were able to easily activate Google Assistant and Siri, as well as command them to take photos, make calls and retrieve two-factor authentication codes. In other words, it’s a perfect silent hack.
Watch the video below to see SurfingAttack in action.
Scary, right? Thankfully it’s not as bad as you think.
Wait, this awful hack isn’t anything to worry about?
At the moment, no. There is no evidence this kind of attack has been used by hackers in the wild. And even if it was, hackers would need to lug around a hefty ultrasonic device without getting caught.
What’s more, the range doesn’t extend very far. Researchers needed the phone on the same table to make the method work.
This is similar to the “malicious lightning cable” developed by a white hat hacker last year. It’s a powerful device for sure, but ultimately, it’s too impractical to be used in real-world hacking situations. Tap or click to see how this clever hack worked.
Methods like the malicious cable and the ultrasonic hack exist more as “proof of concept” demonstrations than serious threat assessments. They are researched to show weaknesses in existing devices, as well as lay the groundwork for other entities like spy organizations to take note.
Seriously, can you imagine some government agent wiretapping a phone with a sleek, portable ultrasound device? This kind of tech may have been exclusive to movies for years, but it’s high time we realize our tech may be more advanced, and simultaneously more vulnerable, than we think. | <urn:uuid:c3fd0731-dac3-452d-9799-0c93e33300c2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.komando.com/security-privacy/ultrasonic-smartphone-hack/709648/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00564.warc.gz | en | 0.943431 | 668 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Everyone’s talking about encryption. Within the past two years, there have been some 13 major data breaches involving public and private sector organizations.
These cyberattacks cost U.S. businesses and agencies as much as $400 billion a year in direct damages and post-attack disruption to daily operations, according to an estimate last year from the British insurance company Lloyd’s.
One thing all of these events have in common is that sensitive information — personal, financial or medical — was stolen or exposed.
What’s needed is a way to protect the data itself. Many organizations employ data-at-rest security to protect sensitive information. This helps when equipment is lost or stolen. However, relying solely on this method is not sufficient. As CNBC reported on Verizon’s 2016 Data Breaches Incident report, 30 percent of all data breaches in 2015 were “due to worker negligence like delivering sensitive information to the wrong recipient or the insecure disposal of personal and medical data.”
The requirement to protect the data itself is reflected in a statement in the Cybersecurity Act of 2015: “Encrypt or otherwise render indecipherable to unauthorized users of ‘sensitive and mission critical data stored by the agency’ or transiting agency information systems.” I think it’s time we listen.
Why Data Encryption Matters
In order to do so, we need to extend data protection beyond organizational borders, enabling protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), Federal Tax Information (FTI) or any other type of data shared with partners, suppliers and outsourcers.
This will solve the issue of advanced threats by protecting data at rest, in motion and in use across different systems. We must address security gaps in coverage and complement capabilities of existing tools in order to integrate with different platforms.
One event illuminating the extent of the wave of cyberattacks was the August 2014 hacking of the Department of Health and Human Services' server. This was a “denial of service” (DoS) attack that occurred across numerous websites, including Healthcare.gov, preventing user access. Federal officials said consumer information was not compromised, but the incident was a big scare to those who had signed up or were applying for healthcare plans.
One might ask what a DoS event has to do with encryption, and that’s a legitimate question. The answer is this: A DoS is often used as a distraction tactic to tie up security personnel while the attacker is searching the network for tantalizing data they can steal. Encrypted data is useless to them.
As soon as the government was notified, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team took immediate action to remediate the situation. While the response was prompt, the event was a rude awakening for the government. It also brought federal agencies a step closer to taking smarter, more effective security measures.
But one more incident happened to press the need for improved data security. The Office of Personnel Management breach of 2015 was the most massive and far-reaching cyberattack in U.S. government history. The attackers stole the sensitive personal data of about 20 million current and former federal employees and contractors. After the extent of the damage caused by the breach became apparent, there was a call for reforming how the government (and other large organizations) manage their security.
According to the HPE Cybersecurity Risk Report of 2016, sensitive data is vulnerable to attack and most data protection techniques shield only stored data. But recent advances in encryption techniques can protect data no matter where it resides, how it is transported and even how it is used without impeding mission performance.
Securing Data Anywhere
The key to improving security isn’t in building more perimeter-type defenses such as firewalls, but in securing the data itself through a more comprehensive approach.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a new Advanced Encryption Standard mode called format-preserving encryption (FPE), which is critical in protecting sensitive data. FPE works by encrypting all or portions of many types of data, such as Social Security and credit card numbers, while preserving their format (e.g., 16 digits or 3-2-4) to make them useless to hackers, but still usable by those with a need to know. FPE is able to secure data as it is captured, processed and stored across a variety of devices and systems used by the public and private sectors.
The NIST standard also makes it much easier to apply encryption across government agencies, because it works with existing data types and does not require expensive data architecture upgrades. HPE assisted in developing the core specifications of this innovative technology. The NIST standard helps mitigate risk, while keeping an organization’s existing IT infrastructure intact and much easier for federal officials to utilize.
Commercial organizations in the banking and retail markets have used FPE for years to protect and manage authorized access to selective customer data. With NIST approving this new standard, government organizations will now be able to protect agency data from becoming accessible to attackers or mistakenly disclosed to an employee or contractor.
This technique is part of a broader government effort to improve security, such as federal CIO Tony Scott’s 30-day Cybersecurity Sprint. Scott’s Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP) is helping push comprehensive cyber strategies forward. It states: “The Cybersecurity Sprint team’s review made clear that we must continue to double down on this Administration’s broad strategy to enhance federal cybersecurity and fundamentally overhaul information security practices, policies and governance.”
Although there is not one single solution to solving cyber threats, encryption provisions and strict policies are reinforcing better security in today’s world. In the end, the NIST approach and the encryption mandate in The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 are critical, necessary initiatives. Encryption technology has come a long way, and tools like FPE expand the arsenal of defenses that federal agencies can use against cyberattack. | <urn:uuid:4d8f225d-d151-4e49-b07c-a8a9796ba8ea> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2016/09/how-federal-agencies-can-improve-cybersecurity-better-data-encryption | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334579.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925132046-20220925162046-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.941039 | 1,237 | 2.859375 | 3 |
It may sound hard to believe, but in just a few decades our cities will increase in population by 50%. If you thought your city centre was crowded now, just wait! The population densities that the UN has forecasted to occur by 2050 should make us stop and think: With all those people, and cars, how will we be able to maneuver from place to place? How will we, or our children, be able to get to a school across town, or to a museum downtown?, says Jonathan Seelig, is co-founder and executive chairman of Ridge.
The goal of many city planners around the world is to use innovative technologies, including cloud-based IoT (Internet of Things) devices, to evolve our metro areas into “Smart Cities” in which space and time are utilised with extreme efficiency. Cities will use these smart solutions to improve the urban experience for its many inhabitants. Transportation systems, perhaps the most essential element in any livable urban space, will be the beneficiary of this technological evolution.
Let’s take a closer look at the promise of smart cities and IoT. But before I go any further, let’s get some basics defined first.
What exactly is a smart city and the IoT?
A smart city uses the IoT and ICT (information and communication technology) to enhance infrastructure and services in order to streamline the daily operations of the city. Cities can implement smart solutions using IoT connected devices and sensors to collect data and use such data to improve decision making.
A smart city can be characterised by:
- Infrastructure that is intertwined with advanced technologies/IoT connectivity
- The ability for the population to interact with the smart city ecosystem
The Internet of Things is crucial for the smart capabilities of a city. From internet-connected buildings and vehicles to IoT-based fleet management, these technologies allow for city officials to both have a comprehensive view of the state of the city and remotely manage its operations. Policy makers can use the insights gained from the data from the IoT devices to implement smart solutions that benefit the city.
Now that we know what a smart city is, let’s delve deeper into how smart transportation technology contributes to it.
The many uses of IoT in smart transportation
Here is a list of just a few examples of how the Internet of Things can transform transportation within cities:
- Smart traffic management: The IoT helps control traffic more efficiently. IoT-based smart traffic lights and sensors can automatically sense high volumes of traffic, and adjust the duration of the traffic lights accordingly to ease congestion.
- IoT for smart parking: Cities can use IoT sensors to track which parking spots throughout the city are left unoccupied. This data can then be used to track congested and empty areas, and ultimately optimise parking for prime efficiency.
- IoT for public transportation: IoT technology can improve public transportation by providing an accurate ETA for trains and buses, as well as using traffic data to optimise the bus transportation routes.
- Smart city infrastructure upkeep: Cities can embed smart sensors in their bridges and roads that monitor their condition, which enables them to promptly repair any damage or wear and tear.
All in all, these applications of IoT within transportation provide the smart city dwellers with a more efficient, comfortable traveling experience within their city. They will spend less time sitting in traffic, and get to their destinations faster.
Advantages of using IoT in transportation
There are many positive benefits of incorporating IoT into transportation systems.
- Environmental benefits: If the public transportation system available is efficient, less people will own cars and use the public transportation system instead. That combined with smart traffic management will lead to less congestion overall within the smart city. With less exhaust and CO2 emitted from cars, the air quality of the city improves and there is less of an environmental impact coming from the city.
- Better service: For example, if the infrastructure within the city is maintained on a timely basis due to the IoT smart sensors, there will be less of a need for major construction projects. Not only does this save a large amount of taxpayer money but also the infrastructure of the city will be safer and more durable, allowing for a better living experience for the city’s inhabitants.
- Increased efficiency: With a well functioning transportation system, the efficiency of the entire system increases. With less construction and traffic congestion, the inhabitants of the city can arrive at their destinations faster.
Disadvantages of using IoT in transportation
On the other hand, there are some drawbacks to consider in integrating IoT into a city.
- Internet connectivity: Because the entire system is based on Internet connection, the city is at the mercy of Internet connectivity. If the Internet is slow or down completely, essential operations might be interrupted.
- High costs: Although these technological advancements are likely to save money for the city in the long run, the initial cost to buy into and transition to a smart city are high. Installing and maintaining thousands of sensors is expensive!
How does the cloud fit in the smart city and IoT?
IoT devices are always running and recording, and as a result, produce vast amounts of data. This huge amount of data needs to be stored somewhere, and these devices themselves do not have the capacity for it. The cloud has the capacity for it though: its unlimited storage and powerful performance capacity make it the ideal match for IoT device storage. The cloud enables cities to store and compute the data from their IoT devices.
To read more about IoT’s relationship with the cloud, take a look at the blog post on the topic here.
Cloud connectivity is crucial for smart cities. It’s necessary for all of the various components of the smart city to be in communication with each other to provide an experience for the city residents. This is uniquely possible with cloud computing capabilities.
When it comes to different types of clouds, distributed clouds are the most appropriate for supporting the smart city. Their highly localised platform is designed to support massively distributed workloads, such as IoT technologies, more than a large public cloud provider. With a distributed cloud’s hyper-low latency and endless scalability, cities can fully upgrade to a smart city equipped with IoT devices with full confidence.
The author is Jonathan Seelig, is co-founder and executive chairman of Ridge. | <urn:uuid:6b5b7902-79a8-4a04-8784-0d88a495d2bd> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.iot-now.com/2022/05/13/121283-iot-smart-cities-transportation-we-can-live-with/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334579.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925132046-20220925162046-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.942521 | 1,292 | 3 | 3 |
In this article, we explore how a well known US government research laboratory is using a connected power management solution to help validate and improve power usage efficiency (PUE). This is helping them prepare today for the addition of new supercomputers, while meeting sustainability and resilience objectives into the future.
Moving data center sustainability forward
Though data center efficiency has progressively improved, the Uptime Institute predicts that ‘demand will substantially outpace the gains from efficiency practices over the next five years.’
Marc Garner of Schneider Electric recently noted that, as sustainability rises to the top of corporate and consumer agendas, “the data center industry is becoming increasingly accountable and has a key role to play in driving sustainable operations.” Under this lens, data center sustainability should be vigorously pursued, while still keeping operations running 24/7.
The US Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy provides a wide range of efficiency advice for data centers. In fact, the Department of Energy (DOE) supports other agencies and national laboratories in this effort through its National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program.
The program encourages best energy management practices – including the use of efficiency metrics and benchmarking. It also offers a certification process that recognizes best-in-class performance for new or existing data centers.
Achieving greater data center sustainability in challenging circumstances
One of the US government’s leading laboratories includes a large and secure supercomputing facility. This facility is used to perform a variety of modeling and simulation projects, under the direction of the DOE.
The supercomputer facility currently consumes more than 10 MW, but energy consumption is forecasted to increase by more than 20 MW when new next-generation supercomputers come online in a few years.
To prepare for this substantial increase, the cross-functional facility team – comprised of facilities, operations, sustainability, and utility personnel – wanted to find every way possible to improve the energy efficiency of the computing facility data center.
To better manage their energy use, the facility team needs to accurately measure it. Though already equipped with some sensors and meters throughout their power distribution system, there was still a lack of full visibility to overall energy use.
In addition, they had been spending a lot of time manually collecting energy data and calculating PUE every quarter. PUE – an industry-standard metric that compares energy consumption to overall data center energy consumption – is regularly reported back to the DOE.
This process was clearly not sufficient. To better understand and improve their efficiency, they needed data from more points, in real-time, to provide greater granularity and accuracy. And they wanted this data to be collected and analyzed automatically to reduce workload and avoid human errors.
Smart power management helps validate efficiency
The facility team chose an EcoStruxure™ Power solution from Schneider Electric. EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert software continuously captures energy consumption values from an expanded collection of smart energy meters, power quality meters, and circuit breaker trip units.
The system is configured to automatically calculate PUE on an ongoing basis, as well as track many other power and energy characteristics including power quality and energy efficiency
Using this new system, the team was able to validate that the yearly PUE of the computing facility was below 1.2, which is about 30 percent more efficient than the average data center. This meant that they were well on their way to meeting the data center sustainability and efficiency goals set by both the lab itself and the DOE.
Armed with these new intelligent analytic tools, the facility team was confident they could improve further.
Encouraging energy-efficient behavior, and proudly advertising success
The best way to get others to support your efficiency initiatives is to share the responsibility. The facility team had a vision to present energy-efficiency statistics to all maintenance and support personnel to help encourage efficient behaviors and generate ideas for improvement.
The team closely collaborated with the Schneider Electric engineering services group to develop a comprehensive custom-tailored, dynamic energy dashboard. The dashboard displays energy consumption broken down by computing, cooling, and office space, as well as PUE.
With this part of their program in place, the facility team then wanted to share their successes with the many prominent guests that visit the facility. Working again with Schneider Electric, a second customized and simplified dashboard was created to showcase sustainability performance in the operation center and visitor lobby.
Data-driven decisions enable continuous improvement
Active energy management means staying on top of performance while always looking for new opportunities to improve.
The new power management solution is helping the facility team to expose energy inefficiency and waste and then make data-driven decisions regarding which projects to prioritize to deliver the biggest impact.
Powerful visualization tools help analyze the types of loads that consume most of a facility’s energy. In this facility, it means cooling the supercomputers.
The computing facility cooling towers have been using almost three million gallons of water per month and running large energy-hungry cooling compressors.
The facility team can now easily calculate the PUE improvement that will result from gradually replacing computing equipment with alternatives that use warm-water cooling. Other opportunities are also being investigated.
These plans are also being shared with the DOE and other DOE National Laboratories. Not only will this help facilities teams work together to develop best practices, but it will also provide the ideal platform for this laboratory site to promote its achievements in meeting conservation and sustainability objectives.
With so many institutions competing for funding, this may help the facility team secure additional budgeting dollars to further their research and their efficiency programs.
Reducing risk of downtime and costly repairs
Of course, energy efficiency and sustainability are high priorities, but so is ensuring operations stay resilient.
The EcoStruxure Power solution provides extensive insights into critical power networks that help minimize downtime, confirm backup generators are running reliably, and optimize maintenance to get the most out of energy assets while saving money.
Advanced alarm management gives operations personnel early warning of risks, while power quality event analytics help quickly isolate problems. This includes identifying whether the source of a power anomaly was internal or external (e.g., a lightning strike near the facility).
To learn more about Schneider’s EcoStruxure solutions, click here.
More from Schneider Electric
As 2022 draws closer will a digital drawing board be the new norm?
A whitepaper covering the different environmental sustainability metrics for data centers, and how to implement them in your own facility
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Networks allow computer systems and applications to communicate with one another. When networks fall or services are interrupted, the effects are felt far and wide and can result in severe service disruptions and economic losses.
As a result, network monitoring is a mission-critical role for businesses. Visibility into network performance is critical for network engineers to be proactive and spot issues before they cause disruptions.
Monitoring, a subset of network management, detects slow or failing computer network components before they cause problems. Servers that are crashing, freezing, or overloaded, as well as faulty switches, routers, and other troublesome parts, can all create network interruptions or failures. The network monitoring system’s role is to notify the network administrator as soon as a malfunction occurs that causes an interruption.
Network monitoring tools are commonly used by administrators to monitor and manage their networks. With network monitoring services, users can monitor network performance and assess if a web server is properly linked to worldwide networks and working as intended. Many network performance monitoring solutions can visualize networks and applications from start to finish.
Process of Using Network Traffic Monitoring System
Identifying the devices to be watched and the performance metrics is the first step in efficient network monitoring. The next step is to select a suitable monitoring interval.
Because routers, servers, and switches perform mission-critical services, they must be monitored more frequently. To put it another way, internet traffic monitoring intervals are determined by specific factors and usage and should be selected based on the circumstances. Users can customize their alerts with the greatest systems.
All components of IT infrastructure, including connection, network, and security systems, should be included in a network monitoring design. It should, in theory, give administrators a single picture of the network, allowing them to monitor devices in real-time and perform network maintenance, problem identification, reporting, and resolution.
System administrators, network administrators, and IT managers should all receive reports from web traffic monitoring tools. A secure network monitoring solution should also be simple to use and have basic drill-down and reporting features.
How Does it Work?
The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model breaks down the functions that allow computers to communicate and receive data. Information can be exchanged between two systems, such as two computers or apps, using networks. To be transported across a network, data must pass through each component of the OSI, using different protocols, starting at the physical layer and finishing at the application layer. Network monitoring gives engineers visibility into numerous network components, allowing them to troubleshoot network problems at any layer.
Foundation of Networking Monitoring
Monitoring network devices is essential for ensuring that they are available, up, and functioning when they are required. Because devices, no matter how tough they are, might fail, availability is commonly expressed as the percentage of time the device is up and functioning during a given period. As a result, if a gadget went down one day out of every 100 for any reason, it would be judged to have 99 percent availability.
An inaccessible device might choke the entire network traffic because device availability is practically identical to network uptime. A single component’s failure or poor performance can create bottlenecks that slow networks down significantly.
Standard Network Devices
- Routers Connect the networks. For example, connecting a private network to the Internet. A router acts as a dispatcher, deciding which path information should travel. Routers are devices that allow people to connect to the Internet. Routers are Layer 3 devices that communicate with each other.
- Switches Connect the networks. For example, connecting a private network to the Internet. A router acts as a dispatcher, deciding which path information should travel. Routers are devices that allow people to connect to the Internet. Routers are Layer 3 devices that communicate with each other.
- Firewalls Protect networks. Incoming and outgoing traffic is controlled by rules implemented by a firewall. This protects the link between a trustworthy private network and a public network like the Internet.
- Servers Networks deliver programs and information to users. Applications and data are stored on servers. A server is a replica of a running application. Servers acknowledge and reply to user requests. When you visit a website, for example, a webserver “serves” webpages to your local device. Other sorts of servers include email servers and database servers.
Network Hardware Monitoring
Companies that manage datacenters or run on-premises workloads must guarantee that the physical gear that network traffic flows through is in excellent operating order. The physical, datalink, and network layers are usually included in the OSI model (layers 1, 2, and 3). This device-centric method of monitoring covers components for transmitting data, such as cables, as well as network equipment, such as routers, switches, and firewalls. A network device may communicate with other devices via many interfaces, and network failures can occur at any of these interfaces.
Functions of Network Monitoring
Network device monitoring performs the following functions:
Discover The discovery phase of network monitoring is the first stage. The routers, switches, firewalls, servers, printers, and other devices on the network are all discovered by network monitoring systems. Simply said, you can’t monitor the internet until you know what’s on it and how it’s all connected.
Map The administrator’s most essential diagnostic tool is his or her eyes. Visualizing their networks can make troubleshooting network problems much easier for them. Network monitoring software creates network maps to help network managers visualize their networks. Network maps provide a visual representation of the devices on the internet, their connections, and their current status.
Monitor Network management systems provide network managers with a wide range of monitor options. Our Network Monitoring Software comes with pre-defined device roles that define what is being watched. It allows administrators to change or establish new device roles as needed. As a starting point, network managers should monitor the “big five” for any device on the network. Ping availability and latency, as well as CPU, memory, disc, and interface use, are examples.
Other hardware components, such as fans and power supply in switches, and even the temperature in a wiring closet, are frequently monitored by network monitoring software. They can also keep track of HTTP, TCP/IP, and FTP services.
Alert Network Monitoring Systems notify administrators when something goes wrong. Email, SMS, and logging are all used to send alerts.
Network administrators can utilize the threshold-based alerting capability to respond to problems before they affect users, apps, or the company. Before the router fails, administrators can examine and respond. The NMS, for example, is set to emit an alarm whenever the CPU use surpasses 80%.
Performance indicators like CPU, memory, and interface are used later during the day. During peak usage periods, the thresholds may be surpassed for a few seconds or minutes. The network administrator prefers not to be troubled by minor hiccups. To avoid this, NMS notifications are configured with a time element.
Report Network administrators are constantly developing, assessing, and redesigning networks. For this life cycle, NMS systems provide real-time and historical monitoring data. Administrators can use this information to:
- Validate network architectures that produce the expected outcomes.
- Recognize trends that may influence the network’s capacity to deliver the performance that users, apps, and enterprises want.
- Determine and correct performance issues.
- Demonstrate that the network meets SLAs.
Why are Network Monitoring Tools Essential?
Businesses require networks, whether they are on-site or remote. Monitoring software is essential for:
- Ensure uninterrupted business operations by ensuring continual network uptime and optimum health.
- Every network device and interface’s performance, as well as their hierarchy, is revealed.
- At the machine and interface levels, execute performance metrics.
- Early detection of threats.
- Alerts can help you reduce downtime.
- Real-time network monitoring software that supports several vendors, is cloud-based, and scalable can keep a watch on your network 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and help you avoid disruptions. Its high availability techniques enable it to continuously monitor your network.
Most people consider live issue tracking to be the most important aspect of network monitoring. Remember that when it comes to network device monitoring, we’re more concerned with the status of switches and routers than with traffic flow.
When implementing network device monitoring, the goals of network performance monitoring and network traffic analysis become a little muddled because the statistics produced in the device management console include factors like device CPU and memory capacity and utilization, as well as the capacity and throughput of each port.
Although a network device monitor can measure network traffic capacity, the most significant aspects to consider with this type of monitor are all of the services and components of a switch or router that could go wrong. This includes operating system operations, which can start processes that ultimately hang or are abandoned.
A way of tracking difficulties within each piece of equipment considerably aids network device monitoring. This can be deployed as notifications in a monitoring tool’s dashboard. The majority of network performance monitors include the ability to set up an alert forwarding mechanism.
Because you don’t have to assign someone to sit and watch the monitoring tool’s dashboards for an alarm, the alerting system allows for unattended network monitoring. The notification will direct personnel back to the monitoring system and provide details on a network device fault that has been observed.
Throughput statistics are also collected by network performance monitors, and any of these measurements can have thresholds applied to them. If certain levels are exceeded, notifications are sent out. This allows you to address capacity concerns before they result in packets being lost or delayed. If you use time-sensitive apps like video conferencing or VoIP, this is very crucial.
Simple Network Management Protocol
The ideal approach for monitoring network devices is to use the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It offers a common report message format as well as processes for obtaining reports from all network devices.
Every manufacturer of network devices puts an SNMP agent on each piece of equipment since the SNMP system is so widely respected. This function is frequently disabled by default. However, this means that installing SNMP on your network requires almost no effort. The issue is that you are most likely missing an SNMP Manager. Most of the functionality of network performance monitors is implemented by acting as an SNMP Manager.
The Management Information Base is the standard reporting format in SNMP (MIB). This is a text-based layout with a code for each reporting value that, when dereferenced, generates a tree structure. An SNMP agent continuously examines the device hosting it for problems. Daily static information fields, such as make and model, are also included in the MIB.
The SNMP reporting process is triggered by a request that is sent out by the SNMP Manager. Because the request is broadcast, the SNMP Manager does not need to know the addresses of any of the devices on the network.
Because the SNMP Agent is installed on a network device, it receives all broadcast traffic. When the Agent detects an SNMP request, it sends back its current MIB. In the monitor’s console, the operational data becomes live activity readouts.
The “autodiscovery” function included in most network performance monitors is provided by the SNMP MIB. The monitor may assemble an asset inventory and create a network topology map using the information on the device, all of its active ports, and the device connected to each port.
The activity data displayed in the console is always up to date because the request and response cycle repeats itself. A network performance monitor will collect reports for each statistic and utilize them to create time-series graphs. Because the monitor is queried repeatedly, any network device that is added moved, or removed will be immediately detected and updated in the asset inventory and network map.
If an agent identifies a major problem, it does not need to wait for a MIB to be sent out via the SNMP protocol. A MIB is sent out in response to high severity concerns, and this proactive communication is known as a Trap. Trap messages are translated into alarms by network performance monitors. | <urn:uuid:77916808-cd63-4b86-9308-cd740253bd8b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.itprc.com/network-device-monitoring/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338213.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007143842-20221007173842-00764.warc.gz | en | 0.926476 | 2,559 | 2.578125 | 3 |
From 2.5-inch SATA drives to newer M.2 PCIe drives, SSDs (Solid State Drives) come in different shapes and sizes with different specifications. This article will take a closer look at these key specs to help users find the right type of SSD for their systems.
One of the key specifications of an SSD is its form factor. The form factor is the storage drive’s size, shape and physical specifications, so it is important to consider the amount of physical space available in the server setup when choosing an SSD. The most common types of form factors are:
2.5-inch: The 2.5-inch form factor is commonly used for storage drives, from HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) to SSDs. In server infrastructures that already house traditional 2.5-inch HDDs, users can seamlessly swap out 2.5-inch SSDs into the 2.5-inch bays of existing infrastructures while making minimal changes. A larger form factor at 3.5-inch is also available for enterprise-grade SSDs.
M.2: The M.2 (a.k.a Next Generation Form Factor) form factor is a significantly more compact form factor than traditional 2.5” drives. The newer form factor is around the size of a stick of gum, which makes it ideal for setups with space constraints. M.2 SSDs have number designations to indicate the physical sizing of the drive. Take for example, a M.2 2230 SSD. The first two digits represent the width, and the latter two digits represent the length of the storage drive, so the 2230 SSD would be 22 mm in width and 30 mm in height.
Another key specification to look at is the physical connector. Different types of motherboards will have different assortments of connectivity slots, so it is important to figure out which types of slots are available on the board before going forth with any SSD. The main types of physical connectors include:
SATA: The 22-pin SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) connector is ubiquitous on modern motherboards and is commonly used for traditional hard drives, so it should be a familiar connector type for users experienced with installing storage drives. Both 2.5” and 3.5” form factor SSDs use SATA connectors exclusively.
M.2: In addition to being a form factor, M.2 is also a type of physical connector used for storage drives. Newer motherboards are often designed with built-in M.2 slots. Unlike SATA storage drives, M.2 SSDs can be slotted directly into the motherboard without the need for connector cables. M.2 SSDs can utilize either SATA or PCIe interfaces, which will be explained in the following section. The distinction between the two types of M.2s is marked by the extra notch that is present on the SATA drive.
The bus interface of the storage drive is responsible for communication between the storage device and the PC. As such, it plays a significant role in how efficiently the SSD can transfer data back and forth between the two. The most commonly used interfaces include:
SATA: SATA interfaces are faster than its predecessors because it uses a serial connection that does not require synchronicity of the data. Although even the slowest of SATA SSDs are faster than the fastest HDDs available on the markets, SATA SSDs have transfer speeds that are bottlenecked at around 500 Mbps, so they are often outmatched by newer counterparts. Both 2.5” and 3.5” SSDs also utilize the SATA interface.
PCle: The PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) interface is a significant upgrade over the SATA interface. Whereas SATA is designed specifically as a storage interface, PCIe is an interface that connects directly with the CPU via PCIe lanes. It is used to link a wide assortment of components such as graphics cards, storage drives, and add-in cards. PCIe can deliver much faster transfer speeds than SATA at up to 1GB per second.
Communication protocols are essentially the “languages” that the bus interfaces utilize to communicate with the CPU. The types of communication protocols used by SSD interfaces include:
AHCI: The AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) communication protocol is a slower, more outdated protocol that is used with SATA drives. AHCI is gradually being phased out in the SSD market by its newer, faster counterpart, NVMe.
NVMe: The terms PCIe and NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) are often used interchangeably, but PCIe is a bus interface and NVMe is a communication protocol that works exclusively with PCIe. Compared to AHCI which was designed for traditional hard drives with mechanical moving parts, NVMe is designed specifically for storage drives and runs on top of the PCIe bus interface. NVMe requires less overhead from the CPU, meaning the CPU has to handle fewer tasks. NVMe also simplifies operations, reduces latency, and allows for significantly higher queue commands. With all of these features, NVMe optimizes the performance of PCIe SSDs.
Modern SSDs utilize NAND (Not AND) flash memory to store data even when not connected to a power source. The types of NAND flash memory include:
SLC/MLC/TLC/QLC NAND: Currently, the SSD market offers single-level cell (SLC), multi-level cell (MLC), triple-level cell (TLC) and quad-layer cell (QLC) NAND flash SSDs. The naming refers to the number of bits per cell. SLC drives are the fastest and most durable at a single bit per cell but are also the most expensive. MLC solid-state are slower at double the bits per cell. TLC drives are the middle ground in terms of speed and pricing at three-bits per cell. QLC drives are the most cost-friendly but also the slowest and least durable at four bits per cell.
3D NAND: 3D NAND is a newer technology that differs from the 2D technology that is used on the aforementioned NAND drives. Unlike its predecessor, 3D NAND stacks memory cells vertically in multiple layers. This allows for higher storage density per bit, which improves storage performance. It also increases the storage drive’s durability and reduces power consumption, making it a significant upgrade over traditional 2D NAND storage drives.
To summarize, popular SSDs can be generally categorized with the following specifications:
|Drive Name||2.5” SATA||3.5” SATA||M.2 SATA||M.2 NVMe|
Now that these specifications have been explained, users should have a clearer understanding of the differences between form factors, interfaces, and communication protocols.
Axiom is a leading provider of enterprise and client grade SSDs. To view our full lineup of OEM alternative SSDs, please visit: https://www.axiomupgrades.com/page/storage/. Contact an Axiom sales representative or visit our website for more details at https://www.axiomupgrades.com/ | <urn:uuid:bc85b857-e309-4f03-8306-e5fdf336e939> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.axiomupgrades.com/spotlight-detail/Understanding-SSD-specifications/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334987.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927033539-20220927063539-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.928772 | 1,532 | 2.875 | 3 |
Friday, 16 September, 2022 / 09:00 AM - 09:45 AM BST
Guest Keynote: Busting Myths About Being Female
New York Times Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker and Broadcaster, National Geographic Explorer, Guest Keynote Speaker
Lucy Cooke, zoologist and best-selling author of Bitch: A revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal, dispels Victorian sexist stereotypes and tells the truth about what it really means to be female with wild tales from the animal queendom. Female animals are much more than just carers or baby-makers. Discover how females, not males, are the wise, empathetic leaders of some of the smartest animal societies (elephants and orcas), how they dominate males (bonobos and lemurs) and are naturally competitive (meerkats), aggressive (hyenas) and promiscuous (pretty much all animals). Find out how females were the original sex and how some societies have dispensed with males altogether and taken over the world as a self-cloning sisterhood (lizards and insects and fish). Lucy’s revelations about will make you think differently about our perceptions and expectations of all female animals, including women.
Please Note: Based on availability and eligibility you may sign-up for the session via Conference Navigator after you register for this conference. | <urn:uuid:1fa79061-1b98-436c-9059-f4f7610d0892> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/emea/human-resource-uk/agenda/day | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334987.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927033539-20220927063539-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.900092 | 294 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Imagine getting a US$45 billion bill without knowing exactly how you ended up with such a big tab.
That’s exactly the situation facing Americans struck by identity fraud.
In 2007, the misuse of lost and stolen identity information cost $45 billion, an average of $5,574 per incident, according to Javelin Strategy’s 2008 Identity Fraud Survey Report.
There’s reason for both consumers and companies to be concerned.
Consumers bore only an average of $691 of that cost, and more than half paid nothing, said Mary Monahan, the Javelin Strategy analyst who wrote the report. However, unlike burglary or robbery, it’s not clear to most people how their identities are stolen — and some don’t even know the crime took place.
“Unfortunately, victims rarely know who it is or how it is that their identity is compromised,” said Jay Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center.
Sizing Up the Problem
In fact, just 35 percent of people who had suffered identity theft knew how it happened, Monahan’s report found.
Of those, 35 percent, the largest single category, reported that the theft was the result of a lost wallet.
Purchases — including in-store, mail-order and telephone — accounted for 23 percent of thefts, the next largest category. Unscrupulous employees can use small devices called “skimmers” to record credit card information, and sell or use that information to make new cards. ATM machines can also be equipped with such devices.
Employee fraud was involved in 17 percent of identity theft cases, according to Javelin’s research. Fourteen percent occurred in connection with online activities.
Eight percent of losses were attributed to viruses, worms or other computer malware designed to steal personal information, the company’s data show. Data breaches led to 7 percent of losses, while 6 percent were attributed to theft of mail, the report indicates.
Four percent involved consumers who fell for phishing attacks in which an attacker sends a message, typically by e-mail, purporting to be from a financial organization with which the recipient has a relationship, hoping the person will give up personal information and passwords in response.
Interestingly, the figures show that the Internet — widely feared as the den of all identity theft iniquity — is actually statistically safer than many long-standing purchasing methods.
Data breaches are big and dramatic, and often make headline news.
Through August of this year, 449 different breaches involving 22,091,338 records had been reported, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. In 2007, the organization documented breaches involving as many as 127 million records.
Still, as Javelin’s research shows, the likelihood that any one consumer will be the victim of theft as a result of such a breach is low.
The Specter of False Medical Records
Much of the identity fraud common today does not involve financial instruments. Rather, it involves health insurance information; or identity documents such as Social Security cards, which are needed to get a job; or driver’s licenses, which can help give criminals temporary cover.
“Probably 80 percent of all identity theft today is non-credit related,” said Tom Harkins, chief strategy officer for Secure Identity Systems.
Such fraud can be extremely insidious and potentially more threatening than typical financial fraud, said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy for Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Medical fraud can result in incorrect health information showing up on an individual’s medical record, which could lead to a potentially deadly mistake if that person should end up unconscious in an emergency room after an accident or sudden illness, Stephens said. It can also raise issues in trying to get health or life insurance coverage.
Thwarting such theft is difficult, but there are paid services that attempt to address the problem. Harkins’ company, Secure Identity Systems, claims it can catch many efforts to steal identities unrelated to credit by cross-referencing information databases to look for unexpected driver’s license applications, for instance.
Consumers can also opt for identity-theft prevention services, such as those offered by Debix and Lifelock. The companies maintain fraud alert reports on a person’s credit service, requiring creditors to contact the individual directly for confirmation that a credit application is legitimate.
Debix also includes an automated telephone system that includes security information designed to make it difficult for a thief to impersonate someone else over the phone.
Are the services worth it?
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse generally discourages consumers from subscribing to such services, Stephens said. Some consumers may benefit from paid credit-monitoring — say, those in the midst of messy divorce, whose angry spouses could use their personal financial information to wreak havoc. However, it is not worth the money to most, he said.
Consumers can do for themselves — and free of charge — much of what a company like LifeLock does for a fee, he said. That includes putting temporary fraud alerts on credit reports and taking their names off junk mail and preapproved credit offer mailing lists. Residents of all 50 states can also now stop new credit applications with a security freeze that can only be reversed with an identification number provided by the credit bureaus.
Still, credit freezes are inconvenient and impractical for young and mid-life adults busily buying homes, cars and other merchandise that requires quick credit approval, noted Mike Prusinksi, LifeLock’s vice president of marketing.
“Even a security or credit freeze can’t stop everything,” he commented. | <urn:uuid:fea6c9c5-bfb6-4929-9073-18db7c9711a6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/identity-fraud-part-1-a-45-billion-snowball-64636.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337432.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003200326-20221003230326-00164.warc.gz | en | 0.950781 | 1,179 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Secure your business with CyberHoot Today!!!
An Emergency Data Request (EDR) is a procedure used by U.S. Law Enforcement agencies to obtain critical data from service providers in emergency situations where there is no time to get a subpoena. In the United States, when federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies want to obtain information about who owns an account at a social media firm, or what Internet addresses a specific cell phone account has used in the past, they typically must submit an official court-ordered warrant or subpoena.
Virtually all major technology companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have departments that routinely review and process these requests. Such requests are only granted once proper documentation is provided and the requestor’s identity is verified out-of-band (not from the email requesting the data) as belonging to the actual police department or law enforcement agency.
The Hacker Angle on EDR
Similar to phishing attacks that create a critical sense of urgency hoping that’s the catalyst for action on the victim’s part, hackers are making data requests of these organizations claiming imminent harm or death will result from inaction. Many times, legitimate investigating officers make what’s known as an “Emergency Data Request” (EDR), which essentially bypasses any official review and does not require the requestor to supply any court-approved documents. If tech companies do not validate the requestor in such circumstances, the hacker wins and gets critical data required to carry out their attacks.
What does this mean for an SMB?
Lawmakers in Washington, DC, have introduced a Bill To Combat Counterfeit Court Orders that would improve the current system in place for sending EDRs. It would require all federal, state, and tribal courts to use a digital signature for orders authorizing surveillance, domain seizures, and the removal of online content. Digital signatures use encryption technology to prove the authenticity of documents and other data, which are widely used by the private sector, executive, and legislative branches. The bill provides funding for state and tribal courts to adopt widely available digital signature technology that meets standards developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Until something like that is in place and implemented, there are actions your company can take to verify the legitimacy of these data requests:
- Phone-Based Verification: Your organization’s Data Protection Officer (DPO), or similar role, must research the Law Enforcement agency making the request. Have them follow a process where they place a phone call to the Requestor’s Supervisor or department to verify the identity of the requestor and the validity of the request itself. Care must be taken to research the correct entity phone number and not use a number found on the request form or email as both could be spoofed by a fraudster.
- In-Person Verification of Government Issued Documentary: A requestor can provide a government-issued ID in person to the DPO to validate their identity. This brick-and-mortar method requires the review of a government-issued identification card or document, however, it is always wise to also call the Law Enforcement Agents’ office to validate the request. This method is only necessary if the Law Enforcement Agent needs immediate information where time is of the essence.
- Notary: A requestor can provide a notarized document to the company or DPO to validate their identity. This method requires the Notary to inspect a government-issued identification card or document and attest to that visual inspection in writing. Ideally, this method would be combined with #1 above – phone-based verification to provide two-factor-based identity validation. However, it is not required based on current protocols within GDPR or CCPA (though it should be AND is what CyberHoot vCISO practitioners do).
Once this has been done, additional steps can be taken to verify the authenticity of the request, they include inspecting the following items:
- Is the sending email address for this request accurate and appropriate (95% of these requests come from a .gov email address)?
- Is the Government Seal correct? If it is the first time you are seeing a Seal, please Google that agency’s Seal for reference and validation.
- Review the date of the request to ensure it is still a valid in-force SUBPOENA and/or FISA request as these requests do expire.
Once the request has been confirmed as legitimate and authentic, your organization can take action and complete the request as needed.
Additional Cybersecurity Recommendations
Additionally, these recommendations below will help you and your business stay secure with the various threats you may face on a day-to-day basis. All of the suggestions listed below can be gained by hiring CyberHoot’s vCISO Program development services.
- Govern employees with policies and procedures. You need a password policy, an acceptable use policy, an information handling policy, and a written information security program (WISP) at a minimum.
- Train employees on how to spot and avoid phishing attacks. Adopt a Learning Management system like CyberHoot to teach employees the skills they need to be more confident, productive, and secure.
- Test employees with Phishing attacks to practice. CyberHoot’s Phish testing allows businesses to test employees with believable phishing attacks and put those that fail into remedial phish training.
- Deploy critical cybersecurity technology including two-factor authentication on all critical accounts. Enable email SPAM filtering, validate backups, and deploy DNS protection, antivirus, and anti-malware on all your endpoints.
- In the modern Work-from-Home era, make sure you’re managing personal devices connecting to your network by validating their security (patching, antivirus, DNS protections, etc) or prohibiting their use entirely.
- If you haven’t had a risk assessment by a 3rd party in the last 2 years, you should have one now. Establishing a risk management framework in your organization is critical to addressing your most egregious risks with your finite time and money.
- Buy Cyber-Insurance to protect you in a catastrophic failure situation. Cyber-Insurance is no different than Car, Fire, Flood, or Life insurance. It’s there when you need it most.
All of these recommendations are built into CyberHoot the product or CyberHoot’s vCISO Services. With CyberHoot you can govern, train, assess, and test your employees. Visit CyberHoot.com and sign up for our services today. At the very least continue to learn by enrolling in our monthly Cybersecurity newsletters to stay on top of current cybersecurity updates.
CyberHoot does have some other resources available for your use. Below are links to all of our resources, feel free to check them out whenever you like:
- Cybrary (Cyber Library)
- Press Releases
- Instructional Videos (HowTo) – very helpful for our SuperUsers!
Note: If you’d like to subscribe to our newsletter, visit any link above (besides infographics) and enter your email address on the right-hand side of the page, and click ‘Send Me Newsletters’. | <urn:uuid:476698be-f446-4d58-9a80-dd0bfba41443> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://cyberhoot.com/cybrary/emergency-data-request-edr/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030331677.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924151538-20220924181538-00365.warc.gz | en | 0.920705 | 1,507 | 2.53125 | 3 |
In modern network architecture, most designs are redundant, often all the way through. Hosts uplink to two different ToR switches. Those ToR switches usually have two uplinks to a distribution layer or potentially more uplinks in leaf-spine designs. Spine switches uplink to a pair of core switches. Physical firewalls are deployed as clusters. Multiple connections are made from an organization to the Internet. Application delivery controllers are used as the connection point for clients, abstracting away the multiplied real servers that sit behind them.
All of this redundancy has one chief benefit — the elimination of single points of failure (SPOF). The term “SPOF” indicates a failure that, by itself, would cause a service interruption. When a SPOF is eliminated, that means that the IT engine is tolerant of that one component failing. Users should be able to continue working with minimal impact, despite the failure. Storage RAID is an example of this, where a single disk (and sometimes multiple disks) can fail in an array with no loss of data or interruption in service.
All of this redundancy in IT has the downside of adding complexity and cost to the overall design. Cost is what it is. An organization is willing and able to absorb the expense of redundancy, or it isn’t. For IT practitioners, the larger problem is that of complexity. The hardware and software required to make a system redundant is its own headache that can ironically introduce fragility into a system that it’s meant to bring robustness to. (See David Meyer’s talk on this topic if it piques your interest.)
One of the ways to reduce the complexity in redundant networking schemes is what I call the principle of same-same.
Simply put, “same-same” means that what you do in one place,
you match exactly in the other.
The best way for me to explain this is by way of example.
- When uplinking a host to two access-layer switches, use the same port number on both switches. If you plug the host’s first NIC into port 12 of ToR switch 1, plug the host’s second NIC into port 12 of ToR switch 2. In addition, port 12 on the ToR switches should have identical configurations.
- When configuring redundant switches, configure them identically. Both switches should have the same QoS, management, and routing configurations, consistent port descriptions, matching access-lists, etc.
- When specifiying redundant core switches, they should be identical hardware. If they are fixed configuration switches, they should be the same model, optioned identically. If they are chassis switches, they should have the same supervisor engines and line cards.
- When building a redundant network at a different data center, either for disaster recovery or for “active/active” application designs, the networks as a whole should be identical. Even if only used for DR, a second data center network needs to be counted on to behave identically to the first data center.
This approach to building out redundant physical networks helps to reduce overall system complexity.
First, troubleshooting becomes easier. For instance, an engineer that can count on a server being plugged into the same port on both ToR switches, both switches containing the same access-lists, etc., will have an easier time diagnosing a problem.
Second, performance is predictable. Mismatched network equipment means that performance of applications can vary depending on what path is taken through the infrastructure. When equipment is identical, there should never be a performance problem due to path, except in the case of a partial failure such as an optic going bad.
Third and related to the second point is that capacity planning is easier. Redundant network designs should never exceed 50% utilization on any particular path, assuming a dual design. The idea is that if one path fails, the redundant path will need to take the entire load. If the redundant path is a lower performing path either in raw speed or packet-per-second forwarding capability, its ability to handle a full load is compromised. Mismatched equipment makes capacity planning more difficult.
In summary, building network infrastructure “same-same” in multiple locations is one way to ensure that applications will perform consistently, no matter what pipes they are flowing through. In addition, an element of randomness is reduced in the system when redundant networks match identically. Reducing randomness reduces complexity – and that’s a good thing.
Redundancy is never the time to think, “I can put this old piece of hardware in place, because it’s just a backup.” Redundancy is NOT simply a backup. Rather, redundancy is the only thing keeping an organization moving forward in the case of an inevitable failure. Don’t think of redundancy as a the spare tire “donut” in the trunk, where you can keep going as long as you travel slowly enough. Rather, redundancy is the full-size spare that’s required for your applications to continue running at normal speed. | <urn:uuid:5560e347-f5c9-4867-b9d1-8a6495e95879> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ethancbanks.com/the-principle-of-same-same-in-physical-network-design/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030331677.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924151538-20220924181538-00365.warc.gz | en | 0.931135 | 1,050 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Object Detection and Identification in Video Analytics
What it is object detection and recognition
When it comes to video surveillance analytics, object detection and identification is a crucial component. This capability empowers operators to locate a specific object, such as a person, vehicle, or backpack, and then track it from frame to frame. The result? The ability to quickly identify the object through hours of footage, thereby giving security and police investigators critical forensic evidence; business owners much-needed insights; and more impactful applications for a diverse set of users.
To break it down, object detection is simply the ability to detect objects in video – however, this process is far from simple when executed by an advanced technology. The first step, “object extraction,” detects and tracks an object at any given time. Then, another technology called “background/foreground separation” is added, which identifies a static background of the scene.
The ability to extract objects from video and differentiate them from the backdrop against which they are detected, enables more sophisticated video analytic activity, such as forensic search, real-time alerting, or VIDEO SYNOPSIS® technology – which displays all extracted video objects simultaneously, so that the full activity of the hours-long scene can be viewed all at once, rather than in linear time.
How object detection and recognition works
So, how is object detection – and subsequent object recognition – made possible? Through artificial intelligence. We encounter artificial intelligence and deep learning throughout our day, through tools such as voice recognition or automatic translation services; deep learning is an AI-backed discipline by which computers learn through exposure to data and execute task such as identifying objects or recognizing an object throughout a video. In order for deep learning to be successful, you need vast amounts of data, which must be processed and annotated. This data is then used to train the network until it is able to repeat what it has been trained to do.
In terms of object detection and recognition, the training data (which, in the case of video analytics, is video itself), will be broken down to individual frames to extract every item or object and train the system’s deep learning neural networks to associate specific objects with their classification and attributes. For example, if investigators are looking for a missing child wearing pink pants, they can leverage video analytics to search video evidence for objects that the system can recognize are people wearing pants that are pink. The user would filter his or her search based on these attributes, and the video analytics software – having been exposed to large data sets of people, pink objects, and pants – would be able to answer a query against actual footage: ‘identify all instances of people wearing pink pants.’
In order to detect matches, the deep learning algorithm will need to know what pink is and will need to have been fed thousands of data examples of this color. This is repeated ad infinitum for as many objects are required.
It is not enough that an object be detected, it must also be tracked. For any video search – whether as part of a law enforcement investigation or a way to gain deeper business intelligence – it is important to be able to accurately follow the object from the time it enters the scene until the time is leaves the scene, even if there is an obstruction or crowd.
Once the object is detected and tracked, descriptive information (or metadata) can be applied to it to create a vast structured database of classified objects. This step is what allows the technology to quickly examine hours of footage to identify the specific object – or, in our example, the pink pants.
When is it used?
Object detection and recognition can be used before, during and after an event occurs. Reviewing capabilities allow for the investigation of an event that has already occurred. But real-time alerting can also be enabled, which allows for the response to an event as it is happening in order to identify objects of interest. Object detection and recognition also has applications beyond law enforcement. For example, a real-time alert can be set for a specific camera at the entrance of a construction site to ensure that everyone who passes is wearing a hard hat. If someone were not wearing the designated object, in this case an orange hard hat, an alert would be sent to operators who could then respond in real-time.
Object detection and recognition are important underlying technological capabilities that drive sophisticated video analytics for diverse business and security use cases. Want to learn how video analysis can streamline your day-to-day decision making with actionable intelligence? Take the BriefCam Business Case Assessment.
Signup to receive a monthly blog digest. | <urn:uuid:91630dbd-1f05-463e-a0a2-60382cbc9fd8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.briefcam.com/resources/blog/object-detection-and-identification-in-video-analytics/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337446.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003231906-20221004021906-00365.warc.gz | en | 0.946488 | 945 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Vaccines have distinct advantages over detection based defense mechanisms, so we developed a vaccine to protect from one of the most notorious ransomware families—STOP/DJVU. But unlike vaccines against biological viruses, malware vaccines are not particularly common. This article explains why.
Malware vaccines apply harmless parts of malware to a system to trick malware into malfunction. It is not a coincidence that the security industry adopted the term vaccine from medicine because there is a resemblence to medical vaccines which apply inactive or weakened parts of viruses to a person in oder to protect. But the analogy stops there. Malware vaccines do not improve the security reponse of the system.
The harmless malware parts that vaccines apply are often so called infection markers. Malware usually tries not to infect a system twice because this has unintended consequences. For that reason malware may place infection markers after a successful infection. If the malware finds such a marker, it will refrain from installing itself again. A vaccine just places those infection markers without the malware, thus tricking the malware into thinking it already infected the system (cf. p. 2 [wich12]).
Vaccines can use other things than infection markers, e.g., they may cause an error in the malware by providing invalid data. Some malware writes data into the registry or into files like encryption keys, configuration settings, C2C servers. A vaccine may place invalid data that causes the malware to crash, malfunction or simply not working as intended by the author. A simple example would be the application of a non-existing C2C server for remotely controlled malware. One well-described vaccine that crashed previous versions of Emotet with a buffer overflow is called EmoCrash [quinn20].
In case of the STOP/DJVU ransomware vaccine, the ransomware is tricked into not encrypting files anymore. Without file encryption there is no leverage to demand a ransom, thus, the main malicious behavior is disabled by the vaccine.
Another, albeit different case, is the Logout4Shell vaccine by Cybereason. This vaccine is a benign malware akin toWelchia worm. Benign malware has malware characteristics like worm-propagation or virus replication, or exploitation, but the payload is meant to fix a problem. Welchia worm got famous for using the same propagation mechanisms like Blaster worm to clean Blaster infections as well as patching vulnerable systems. Logout4Shell is similar to Welchia because it actively exploits the Log4Shell vulnerability in order to fix the security hole. The exploitation itself is problematic because the changes can be applied without consent of the system's owner. Cybereason states in a Bleepingcomputer article that the benefits outweigh the ethical concerns considering the severety of Log4Shell exploit.
Vaccines have some unique advantages. They are passive, thus, unlike antivirus scanning they have no performance overhead for the system. Depending on the malware they may also work on already infected systems by shutting down the malicious behavior of the dormant infection (p.3 [wich12]). Vaccines also work independently from obfuscation, packing, polymorphism, metamorphism or similar evasion techniques.
In a study from 2012 at least 59.4% of the malware samples used infection markers (p.4 [wich12]). This study is obviously outdated, but the only one I could find about infection marker prevalence. I do believe that the magnitude did not change and vaccines could be developed for a substantial amount of malware families.
Malware vaccines are actively developed by some security companies, e.g., Minerva, however, compared to other malware protection mechanism like signature based detection vaccinations seem rather unpopular. Why?
To understand this let's take a look at a specific vaccine first: The STOP/DJVU ransomware vaccine.
STOP/DJVU ransomware vaccine was created by John Parol and me. We published a tool on Github so that everyone can inspect and use it. Soon after publishing it, the tool got many false positive detections by antivirus vendors.
Additionally we added a section to our tool's readme to explain that systems are not entirely protected from STOP/DJVU ransomware after using this vaccine. The ransomware will still do things to the system that are not tied to encryption.
So the only thing that the vaccine prevents is the encryption and (for most files) renaming. It is not sure that the vaccine stays on the system because security products will likely remove it. STOP/DJVU ransomware itself may also get an update at some point so that the vaccine does not work anymore.
The main problem of vaccines is that they make a system look infected to other security products. Many of the more tech-savvy users use malware scanners additionally to their main antivirus product and these scanners detect infection markers as a sign of a prevalent infection. Not only do they remove these infection markers, they will find them repeatedly when the antivirus product re-applies them. That turns using the products alongside each other into an unpleasant experience for the user, who may come to believe that their main antivirus does not work against this threat, and that their system is never properly cleaned.
Forcing malware scanners to not detect such infection markers is a bad idea because this would eventually weaken their detection against real threats. These markers are actual infection signs and should continue to be detected as such. Hoping and preaching that users only use one security suite from one vendor is also not realistic. We have to live with cross-usage of other scanners.
Additionally vaccine protection is oftentimes silent, which means users will never know that there was an infection attempt. This is not desireable because users need to know that, e.g., the program they downloaded was a bad idea.
Malware vaccines may stay a niche defense mechanism for the everyday malware, but they are specifically useful to combat pandemic outbreaks. In that regard they are not different to medical vaccines.
[quinn20] James Quinn, August 2020, "EmoCrash: Exploiting a Vulnerability in Emotet Malware for Defense", www.binarydefense.com/emocrash-exploiting-a-vulnerability-in-emotet-malware-for-defense/
[wich12] A. Wichmann and E. Gerhards-Padilla, "Using Infection Markers as a Vaccine against Malware Attacks," 2012 IEEE International Conference on Green Computing and Communications, 2012, pp. 737-742, doi: 10.1109/GreenCom.2012.121. | <urn:uuid:621eb2c5-f6cf-424d-8ebd-0baff11fe7ef> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.gdatasoftware.com/blog/2022/01/malware-vaccines | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00565.warc.gz | en | 0.923071 | 1,339 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Oracle uses an optimizer to determine the most efficient way to perform each SQL command. For INSERT statements, Oracle tries to insert each new record into an existing block of data already allocated to the table. This execution plan optimizes the use of space required to store the data. However, it may not provide adequate performance for an INSERT with a SELECT command that inserts multiple rows. You can improve the execution plan by using the APPEND hint to improve the performance of large inserts. The APPEND hint tells the database to find the last block into which the table’s data has ever been inserted. The new records are then inserted starting in the first block of the new extent allocated above the table’s high watermark (HWM), which will be explained shortly. Furthermore, the inserted data is written directly to the datafiles, bypassing the data block buffer cache. As a result, there is much less space management work for the database to do during the INSERT, which means the INSERT may complete faster when the APPEND hint is used.
You specify the APPEND hint within the INSERT command. A hint looks like a comment—it starts with /* and ends with */. The only difference is that the starting set of characters includes a plus sign (+) before the name of the hint (but no spaces between the asterisk and the plus sign, otherwise the hint is ignored). The following example shows an INSERT command whose data is appended to the table (above the HWM):
The records from the BOOK_ORDER table will be inserted into the BOOKSHELF table. Instead of attempting to reuse space within the BOOKSHELF table, the new records will be placed at the end of the table’s physical storage space.
Because the new records will not attempt to reuse available space that the table has already used, the space requirements for the BOOKSHELF table may increase. In general, you should use the APPEND hint only when inserting large volumes of data into tables with little reusable space. The point at which appended records are inserted is called the table’s high watermark, or HWM—and the only way to reset the high watermark is to TRUNCATE the table. Because TRUNCATE deletes all records and cannot be rolled back, you should make sure you have a backup of the table’s data prior to performing the TRUNCATE. See TRUNCATE in the Alphabetical Reference for further details. | <urn:uuid:ba46a916-9d7a-4acb-914d-8a3a730d66c3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://logicalread.com/append-hint-improve-insert-performance-oracle-12c-mc06/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335276.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928180732-20220928210732-00565.warc.gz | en | 0.875829 | 510 | 2.828125 | 3 |
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) is a set of guidelines, best practices, and standards developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Its purpose is to help organizations develop, improve and maintain their cybersecurity strategy.
The NIST CSF also includes recommendations for how to detect, respond and recover from security incidents. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is generally considered to be the most trusted, and comprehensive security framework to date.
Benefits and Purpose of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
Adhering closely to the NIST CSF will give organizations assurance that there are no (or at least few) unseen risks and vulnerabilities. It will also help them maintain an accurate and up-to-date inventory of their critical assets, and determine which of those assets are a security risk. The NIST CSF will offer guidance on which tools are available to help organizations keep their critical assets secure.
5 Functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
The 5 functions of the NIST CSF are as follows:
The purpose of this function is to enable organizations to identify both digital and physical assets, including existing policies, and regulatory and legal documentation. Likewise, organizations must identify any supply chain risks and other external threats.
The Protect function is to ensure that organizations have implemented the appropriate safeguards to protect their critical infrastructure and assets. It focuses on Identity Access Management (IAM), which includes implementing robust authentication and authorization protocols to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data. This function also includes security awareness training, penetration testing, and any other relevant activities.
This function focuses on detecting potential or actual security threats in a timely manner, as well as gaining an understanding of their potential impact. It also includes continuously monitoring all systems and data for anomalous activities, and a means by which to monitor the effectiveness of the access controls in place.
The respond function describes the procedures and protocols for responding to security incidents. This includes developing and testing an incident response plan, communicating the incident to the relevant parties, conducting a forensic analysis to determine the cause of the incident, and carrying out mitigation activities to prevent the threat from reoccurring. The final stage of the response function is to document all relevant details, including a section about the lessons learned from the incident.
The recover function specifies the activities that should be performed in the aftermath of a security incident. Such activities include implementing the procedures for restoring systems to their operational state, reviewing existing strategies to ensure that they are fit for purpose, and ensuring that the incident was properly communicated to the relevant parties.
NIST Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Tiers
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is broken down into four implementation tiers, which are used to classify organizations according to how well their risk management strategies have been implemented. These four tiers are as follows:
Tier 1: Partial
Organizations that fall into this tier are considered to have an ineffective risk management strategy. The risk management processes are performed with little to no foresight or prioritization, and the organization in question lacks a deep understanding of its position in the supply chain, and the security relationships they have with its business associates.
Tier 2: Risk Informed
Tier 2 organizations have an information risk management strategy. While their risk management procedures are usually approved by management, they are not standardized across the whole organization, periodically tested, or treated as a top priority. Organizations in Tier 2 tend not to be open about the information they receive, nor are they likely to act on it.
Tier 3: Repeatable
Organizations that fall into Tier 3 have a formally approved risk management strategy, supported by a range of policies. These policies are regularly reviewed and updated when requirements change, or when there are changes to the threat landscape. Organizations in Tier 3 have a broad understanding of the threats they face, including threats associated with their supply chains. They also share information regularly with their business associates and even sign written agreements with them to ensure that they are aware of their risk management methods, and how they are enforced.
Tier 4: Adaptive
Tier 4 organizations have a cybersecurity program that is able to adapt according to new information, including the lessons learned from previous incidents. They are able to incorporate advanced cybersecurity technologies and practices, and budget for new and improved technologies as they emerge. Tier 4 organizations are able to monitor their systems in real-time and communicate risks effectively with all relevant stakeholders. They will have a comprehensive set of policies that specify how threats should be treated before, during, and after they unfold.
NIST Cybersecurity Framework Profiles
A Framework Profile is the customized adoption of the NIST CSF by an organization. It is essentially a tool that helps organizations align their current cybersecurity “profile”, with the requirements of the NIST CSF. By comparing their current profile against a target profile, they can identify gaps in their cybersecurity posture and identify areas that need improvement. | <urn:uuid:5ad3444f-901c-4e5f-8b51-f98afdf97d7a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.lepide.com/blog/what-is-the-nist-cybersecurity-framework/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335276.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928180732-20220928210732-00565.warc.gz | en | 0.952483 | 1,018 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Antivirus software is a class of applications that protect computers and remove malicious software or code designed to damage computers or data. Today, malware is evolving so rapidly that some estimate a new malware instance is created nearly every second. Conventional antivirus solutions alone are no longer as effective as they need to be in order to counter threats. For these reasons, many of today’s antivirus solution vendors are adopting methodologies that combine global scanning, human expert threat analysis, industry collaboration, cloud integration, and alerting services.
Protecting an organization’s digital assets against malware has become a challenge because of the sheer volume and diversity of the emerging threats. In the early days of the commercial antivirus industry – 1990s into the 2000s – most solutions employed a series of common techniques.
Signature-based detection identifies malware by comparing code in a program to the code of known virus types that have already been encountered, analyzed and recorded in a database. While useful and still in use, signature-based detection has become limited due to the continuous emergence of new viruses. To counter this problem, heuristic detection scans for suspicious characteristics that can be found in unknown, new viruses and modified versions of known viruses. Rootkit detection scans and blocks malicious code designed to gain administrative access to a machine, and real-time detection scans and monitors files as they are accessed.
When zero-day attacks began occurring, antivirus vendors had to develop and adopt new methodologies to counter the emerging threats. These next-gen approaches extend signature-based detection with behavioral detection, machine learning, sandboxing, and other techniques that are optimized to address threats such as malicious URLs, browser hijackers, advanced persistent threats, and phishing exploits.
The following trends and challenges are changing the way organizations implement cybersecurity:
The days when off-the-shelf antivirus software was good enough to keep an organization’s computers safe from viruses are long gone. Today, malicious coders and hackers are experts at evasive tactics that shield their activities. Therefore, in today’s cybersecurity landscape, the antivirus is just one of the many tools in an organization’s cybersecurity arsenal to keep the business safe. The antivirus solution should be implemented as part of the organization’s endpoint security solution that combines global threat intelligence and advanced threat prevention engines that address zero-day and other next-gen threats. | <urn:uuid:7b7fb08e-3729-4ded-a80c-6ec57a0ae3f9> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/threat-prevention/what-is-antivirus/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335609.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001101652-20221001131652-00565.warc.gz | en | 0.941814 | 487 | 2.953125 | 3 |
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