NSA
In the 1940’s, the United States and the UK formed a joint intelligence program which later added secondary partners Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The program became known as SIGNIT. Its purpose was the interception and sharing of global electronic communications through a common set of methods and terminology. One of the first collaborations occurred in 1941 when the US delivered a model of the Japanese PURPLE machine, a communication encryption device to British codebreakers at Bletchley Park. In return, the British gave the U.S. representatives an assortment of advanced cryptological equipment, including the Marconi-Adcock high-frequency direction finder. (World-Information.org). The alliance grew, and by the Cold War in the 60’s, in order to gather any and satellite based communication, a new project, named ECHELON, was instituted and run by the young intelligence agency, the NSA.
ECHELON is still going strong, although to what degree and to what end is unclear. And therein lay the problem. The fourth amendment protects American citizens from search and seizure without probable cause and a warrant. England possesses similar laws against violations of citizens. In 1967 the Supreme Court held that the 4th Amendment covered both physical searches as well as electronic surveillance, but there was no precedent for whether the Amendment would hold should the matter at hand be one of national security.
Senate Committees in the late 70’s starting pushing this issue, and initiating extensive investigations into domestic surveillance. Out of these investigations came the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to regulate and standardize procedures for foreign surveillance domestically. However, there was no provision for any intel gathered beyond our physical borders. This essentially provided a loophole for allied nations to share collected data, gathered abroad, on each others citizens while still remaining legal. Yet even this was not enough for big government. After 9/11, they got their wish. Under the guise of the “war” on terrorism, Bush was able to secretly push through “National Security Presidential Directives,” effectively unleashing surveillance on our own people.
As one would assume, something of this magnitude would not stay secret for long and the story leaked to the press and the New York Times ran stories about thousands of US citizens phone calls that were tapped without warrant. The stories started a maelstrom of response.
The ACLU has created a watchdog group, and even the European Parliament launched an official inquiry, sending emissaries to the US on a fact finding mission under clouds of speculation that ECHELON is secretly being used to gather intelligence on European industry, civilians, and even not-for-profit relief organizations.
The NSA themselves have spin control on their site in the form of a “Responsible Citizen” page. It lauds itself on its approachability to the American public, the need for oversight committees, and respect for citizens’ trust. Yet this magnanimous nature falls apart with even the slightest provocation, as one would expect. The People for the American Way Foundation after being denied access to NSA records under the Freedom of Information Act, ended up suing the agency for the documents it says should be available to the citizenry. The NSA states the records would jeopardize national security. Ironically, the People for the American Way Foundation weren’t looking for names and locations. They only wanted information about the program structure; how many wiretaps? Who reviews them? The advocacy group argued that the law can't be used to protect the government from disclosing details about illegal programs.
Bits and Bytes nugget
I had a few smaller aha moments during today's lab. One of these aha moments was finding out why byte is spelled by a Y as opposed to an I. I had wondered why this was once or twice in my fluency voyage and now I know. I usually just chalked it up to computer lingo. However, there is a very practical reason behind it. The change was made so that
bytes and bits would not be confused do to a typographical error.
Another smaller aha moment I had came with the explanation of of how the related nominal numbers to binary and mentioned that counting has the same intervals. The only difference is that binary numbers are counted by a base of ten as opposed to a base of 2 for nominal numbers. I have been trying to think of a easy, but precise way to try and convey this concept in my lab next week I understood the process, but was having a hard time figuring out how to get it across to the audience and now I know how to do this. Although, I now I do not have to go into as much depth next week and can just skim over it since it has already been covered.
I found the dice boggle game to very helpful in reinforcing the concept of of digitizing. I think that it really helped to get across the main concepts behind digitizing and it did it in a simple and fun way.
Virtual Reality
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Ken Sochats of the University of Pittsburgh SIS Department to discuss virtual reality and its role in society and education. My FLAG group was doing a presentation that included some discussion of virtual reality and I was wanted to be as prepared as I could to this part of the presentation. During this meeting I had many aha moments. I had previously only thought of virtual reality being used for mainly entertainment purposes. That was until Mr. Sochats informed me of all of the interesting and informative things Pitt was doing with virtual reality and took me through a tour of many of his projects.
Like me, many people think of weird helmet and glove combos or modern video games when they think of virtual reality and yes these are form of it. However, the real splendor of virtual reality comes through its use in training and educational programs. The virtual reality team at Pitt has virtual training simulation that have a complete to scale interactive image of the Pittsburgh City Buildings that EMTs can use for emergency response training. EMTs can virtually run through the buildings and learn danger zones and general building layout. This allows these EMTs to be properly trained and be familiar with the Pittsburgh governmental building without having to disturb work lives of city employees.
Another important simulation that Mr. Sochats showed me was of a nuclear powerplant. This simulation can be used by young engineers who wish to be trained in the field of nuclear power. This simulation was necessary to create because after accidents like 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl the amount of people who pursued careers in nuclear power greatly decreased. Presently, there is a mini-crisis going on because many of the engineers who have the knowledge and know-how are retiring. Therefore, it was important to create this simulation with input from these engineers before the knowledge was lost forever. You can not just waltz into a nuclear powerplant and walk around, but with this new simulation you can receive a personal virtual tour from the Westinghouse CEO and top engineers themselves and have them share their wealth of knowledge with you.
virtual reality really is an up and coming field that has yet to reach it's full potential as the book mentions. I was a bit skeptical at first and thought that it was just for video games, but I now believe that it has the ability to change the way we learn and live.
Computers only do what you tell them to!
The lab this past week actually made me rather deflated. I had spent the past 10 years always blaming my computer every time it seemed to have a bug or any other type of malfunction. I thought it was just that, a computer malfunction. In truth more than 90% of the time "computer malfunction" is due to human error. I suppose that deep down inside I knew that more often than not the malfunctions were human and not machine, but I was completely caught off guard by the fact that the percent was so high.
I felt that it was very helpful to have the three different types of error (wrong data, wrong command and logical design error) identified and explained to increase understanding of the type of errors that may have been made. You have to know what you are trying to fix before you can solve the problem. I also was comforted by the fact that there is new software on the market that can help rather clueless users, like myself, debug their computers once we have fouled them up.
Also the providing of helpful websites and the step by step process of debugging has already helped me to debug my computer when I recently needed help navigating a problem. I have seen almost this exact step by step process used before in other aspects of life and problem solving, but never with computers. In my recent experience it is definitely just as useful in diagnosing and fixing computer problems as it is in other aspects of life. I also found that viewing the source, as the gigamanics suggested really helped.
Zero-day no more!
Websense is about to change the way the world thinks about computer protection. Having seen a flaw in the way that anti-virus protection works today, Websense has come up with a new way to protect against zero-day hackers taking advantage of computer vulnerabilities.
Searchsecurity.com defines zero-day exploits as: "one that takes advantage of a security vulnerability on the same day that the vulnerability becomes generally known. Ordinarily, after someone detects that a software program contains a potential exposure to exploitation by a hacker, that person or company can notify the software company and sometimes the world at large so that action can be taken to repair the exposure or defend against its exploitation. Given time, the software company can repair and distribute a fix to users. Even if potential hackers also learn of the vulnerability, it may take them some time to exploit it; meanwhile, the fix can hopefully become available first." ( Engelke, C. 2006)
By being able to recognize possible
malware, Websense will have a definite advantage over today's anti-virus software. As pointed out in the article, viruses are becoming more advanced everyday and hackers are moving away from more traditional code. To continue using regular anti-virus technology to protect against the new strains of malware would be like sending the Ross Township police force to Iraq to patrol. It is true that the police force has guns and could regulate to a certain degree, but to really get the job done you need tried and true soldiers.
Though I believe that ultimately this new technology will be a good thing I am not entirely sure I am willing to put all my faith into it at this application. As with all new technology I think that it needs to be tested a bit more. I am not completely convinced that this application will be able to only find zero-day hackers. The program only looks for certain suspicious behaviors and so it is entirely possible that it could target code that does not have malicious intent. However, there is no doubt that many of the anti-virus programs on the market are inadequite in providing proper virus protection and therefore I welcome this new technology, at least for the most part.
The skinny on IBM's new tech. w/ Thin Clients
IBM is revolutionizing the way most American workplaces think about server-based computing and their ability to use it. With the new program described in this article, companies will be able to save themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in underutilized equipment cost and lost IT time because of constant and repetitive updates to multiple terminals. However, the benefits to the organization do not end there. By using a server-based computing system the companies' network will be more reliable and more secure.
Every year companies spend thousands of dollars purchasing and updating technologies that often go unused by the people using those machines. Even if these purchases and updates are necessary, many man hours must be used to install these updates on each computer. However, when using a thin client model, the operators need only load the add-ons into the server and they can be distributed throughout the system, streamlining the process. Also, this same process allows the company to cut down on the number of licensing permits they must buy for their software. Companies can buy less licenses because user privileges can be shared through the whole system. IBM can help customers more easily meet their needs, and their budgets, by allowing customers to use existing software until it needs to be replaced and then rolling out the new
thin client machines.
You can also take comfort in the fact that IBM is not only pushing this software onto the public, but has also began to utilize it in their own system. They have determined the immediate need within the enterprise and have implemented over 4,000 machines. If it is good enough for IBM to use in their own system then I am sure it will be good enough for me to utilize in organization in which I may work or manage.
Access milestone
I learned a great deal today in Breen, Elly and Jeremy's lab about all the wonderful things you can do with Microsoft Access. Although, I have to say that I was a bit deflated by the fact that the presentation could only be loaded in "read only." I really was looking forward to really exploring all the different functions that Snyder outlined in his chapter. The group did a great job under the circumstances and I was still able to take away a great deal from their presentation.
One of the main things that I learned during the presentation was completely accidental. I was unaware the Access programs could be misinterpreted as viruses or malicious software by a computers anti-virus system. I know that the group did not intend for this to be part of their presentation, but it was definitely a valuable nugget of information to pass along. It would be very embarrassing in the future to spend hours working in on a project in Access only to have it not load when you are about to give the presentation.
I also took a great deal of information away from their attempted demonstrations of how to project, select, union, difference, product, and join. It was almost as helpful just to see how the action would look when I are finished as it would have been to do the commands myself.
nugget: freedom of information blocked again...for now
Freedom fighters in the battle for information tried to take another step forward on Oct. 17. On that day the Electronic Frontier Foundation, (
EFF), filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice after two failed attempts to gain access to the FBI's "Investigative Data Warehouse" (IDW). Or at the very least, information about the parameters needed to be met to gain access to the database, through the FOIA, which we have discussed at length in class. The IDW contains 560 million photographs, biographical info., location and financial data about the American people. Most of which was collected without these people's knowledge or permission.
The FBI has failed to file public notice as is required by the Privacy Act of 1974. In my opinion this is just another example of the government abusing the trust the American people have put in it under the what has become the black hole of "national security." I am sure if you asked the FBI why they were withholding the information from the American people they would say that is was for the America's own good and protection. I, however, believe that this could not be further from the truth. By withholding information from the American people the FBI is crippling the people's ability to truly protect themselves. As we have discussed often, people must act as their own first line of defense when it comes to what type of information about them and their doings exist out there.
I believe that the director of the FLAG Project put it best when he said, "Americans deserve to know what information is collected under what circumstances, and who has access to it, and what if this database contains false information about you? How would you correct that? These are serious questions that the FBI needs to answer" and "Transparency is critical to the functioning of our democracy, especially when the government seeks to hide activities that affect the rights of citizens, we have recently seen numerous instances where federal agencies have sought to conceal surveillance activities that raise serious legal issues."
