Monday, September 30, 2019

Scene Analysis: Sexuality in Blue Angel

In Josef von Sternberg’s film Blue Angel, female sexuality is defined through the character Lola Lola. The lead female character is captured using select subject-camera distances that seem to make her appear powerful and in control. The medium shots of Professor Rath and the full shots of Lola Lola during the first â€Å"falling in love again† performance are used to compare the emotional male character to the empowered female character, and therefore illustrate the evolving sexual identity of women.The scene begins with a full shot of Lola Lola performing in front of a large audience. Her posture and attire are fully captured by the camera as she sings to the crowd. With her hands on her hip, she performs confidently in an outfit that emphasizes her figure. The camera suddenly shifts to another full shot following Professor Rath to his reserved seat. Because the beautiful singer mesmerizes him, he must be ushered to his seat above the crowd. Again, a full shot captures the performer before she is interrupted for a formal introduction of Professor Rath.The first medium shot in this scene shows the Professor wildly looking below at the crowd. A scanning full shot of the crowd is quickly given before returning to a seemingly happy Rath. Once again Lola strolls around the stage with her hands on her hips; the camera follows her as she sits down and sings to the delighted professor. Although the camera zooms in slightly for a three-quarter shot, the viewer is able to see her streamline body, while she enchants the main character.Rath is filmed from the waist up once more and is visibly consumed by his emotions, while the singer w is captured fully in a slightly seductive position. The camera shifts to a peculiar three-quarter shot of the clown and a musician. From this view, the camera follows the clowns upward gaze as he looks upward at Professor Rath. The camera is slightly distanced from the sitting professor, so the viewer may see a tall sculpture portraying the female body. The Professor becomes visibly uncomfortable by the artwork and awkwardly shifts in his chair until his eyes fall back onto Lola Lola.The camera then switches back and forth between full shots of the alluring singer and medium shots of the entranced man; she appears to be seducing him confidently from the stage as he bashfully watches from afar. The scene closes with a medium shot of the enthralled professor who has truly been captivated by the brazen performer. Throughout the scene, the female character is distanced more than the performer since she is not as emotionally vulnerable as the male lead. Lola remains in control throughout the entire performance, and she effortlessly evokes a response from the man watching her.Professor Rath visibly struggles with the decency of the club. Although the woman singing to professor excites him, the man is slightly uncomfortable with certain aspects of Blue Angel. The subject-camera distances used in Lola’s first performance of â€Å"Falling in Love Again† adds to the movies theme of female sexuality during the Weimer Republic. Full shots capture Lola’s ability to seduce the old professor, while medium shots emphasize his reactions and emotional response. This scene

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Hugo Cabret Movie vs. Book

In The Invention of Hugo Cabret vs. Hugo, the element of character relationships in the book and the movie are developed very differently. One example of this would be the addition of completely new characters in the movie that were not in the book at all. The director, Martin Scorsese, creates new characters, which add and build upon the relationships and add side stories to the plot line. Instead of cutting some of the plot as adaptations usually do, the film actually added additional story lines (Lee).He adds the characters in the train station with the dachshunds that create a romantic vignette in the movie that was not in the book. The director also creates the girl at the flower shop that ends up in a romantic relationship with the Station Inspector. In addition, the relationship between the Station Inspector and Hugo differed as the Inspector is much more present in the movie than in the book. There are more scenes depicting the Station Inspector chasing Hugo in the movie for dramatic effect. Scorsese also adds drama by including the Station Inspector's menacing dog in the chase scenes.Specific to the movie, the Inspector has a metal prosthetic leg, which provides a vulnerability that he seems to be overcompensating for with his intimidating exterior. The character differences between the book and the movie could be due to the desire of the director wanting to add his own insight and personal elements to the story rather than using Brian Selznick's literal interpretation. Since the media forms of literature and film have different interpretive elements they must be presented differently.For instance, in the movie Scorsese adds more dramatic effects by providing additional character relationships and plotlines. Also, since the movie is targeted towards all audiences, he includes the element of romance with his character relationships in order to appeal to the adult audience. Another character relationship to be noted would be the relationship between Hugo and the automaton. Even though it is an inanimate object, Hugo clearly forms a relationship with this machine as it is the only part of his father he has left.Hugo is very determined to repair the automaton as he believes his father may have left him a message through it, which gives him hope and the desire to fix it. Hugo takes great care of the automaton and in the film he carries it like a baby because he cares for it so much. Since his father’s death, Hugo has been left with no family therefore the automaton almost becomes his family as it meant so much to his father. Both appealing in their own forms of media, the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret and the movie Hugo have several contrasting elements, which provide unique depictions of the same story.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Marketing Planning and Promotion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing Planning and Promotion - Essay Example Focus provides businesses with the main and unique selling proposition that enables marketing planning to target the prospective audience. According to Barney Jopson, recession affects mostly the middle tier businesses. Therefore, this paper will seek to examine critically the current value of middle market brand and provide carefully argued recommendations about how to improve their prospects (Jopson, 2011). During the financial crisis people in the west made changes in their shopping system. Some of them believed it was an emergency response to the prevailing hard economic times whereas others reacted due to anticipated fear of it. Financial institutions have been able to bounce back from difficult economic times however; people’s habits of shopping have not yet shown signs of complete reverse to the previous ways. As such, Jopson, in his article believes that this trend is causing the middle market fashion a big deal of difficulty to handle. Following the financial hard tim es, most of the American and European shoppers started directing most of their expenditure at the opposite side of the retail scale. This happened because, shoppers wanted to scavenge for the lowest-prices which were available on the other end of retailers. This meant that they were able to save adequately in order to go on with splashing out on the odd lavishness (Jopson, 2011). With this respect, Barney analyzed the current value of the middle market brand as undergoing hard financial times since, as elaborated in this paragraph; shoppers are spending much on lower retail spectrum thus depriving the middle brands of their market share. Having lost market to the lower retail spectrum, middle market brands continue to record figures of wilting sales due to the crude version of financial difficulties. Nevertheless, middle market brands have depicted one fine distinction in the past three years that this category has become curiously compelling zone for ultra-hip designers. They have been able to launch what they particularly call diffusion lines by shedding prejudices as well as inhibitions. As a result, they have made middle market brands more affordable, off the rack and wear products through their so-called diffusion. With reference to Barney’s literature, the president of Loeb Associates and a veteran retail consultant Walter Loeb puts across that middle market brands are doing bridging lines because of the fact that their prospective clientele is in a saving frame of mind and hiking prices is unreasonable. The analytical sense derived from this middle market practice is that these companies want to improve the underlying system of communicating with their customers. By so doing they stand to risk big time because they might end up diluting their core brand and shoppers may end up perceiving them as dumping down. Nonetheless, for the middle industry intellectuals, this move is comprehensively tacit since it is an alternative way of extracting new rev enue torrent out of the already established investment brand. By engaging in bridging lines, middle market brands are reaping benefits form the investments made while establishing and broadcasting the distinctiveness and fascination of this core brand. As a theoretical and practical method of improving customer relations, middle market brands are using influential broadcasting channels that are premiering attraction and appeal for this new core brand (Jopson, 2011).

Friday, September 27, 2019

CONTRACT LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

CONTRACT LAW - Essay Example According to Sir Frederick Pollock, contract is â€Å"A promise or set of promises which the law will enforce2 In the general conclusion of a contract, we can understand that various elements are essential in the creation of a contract which includes an agreement, consideration, and intention to create legal relations, form, capacity, legality and other such. â€Å"A valid contract requires: (1) an agreement; (2) an intention to create legal relations; and (3) consideration (unless the Contract is made by deed). Whilst each of these three requirements receives separate treatment, they must in reality be looked at together.3 When all these are in existence, we understand that a contract is in operation. â€Å"In addition, a contract consists of various terms, both express and implied. A term may be inserted into the contract to exclude or limit one partys liability (the so-called â€Å"small print†). A term may also be regarded as unfair. A contract may be invalidated by a mistake and where the contract has been induced by misrepresentation the innocent party may have the right to set it aside.† 4 This is an enforceable law the violation of which is considered serious offence and, thereby, requiring penalty and consequences. â€Å"If one party has made a statement to the other about the subject matter of the contract, in some systems he may become liable for breach of contract (non-performance) if what he says turns out to be incorrect.† 5 Therefore the party that violates the contract is normally bound to receive its consequences. â€Å"A non-performance which is not excused may give the aggrieved party the right to claim performance, recovery of money due, or specific performance, to claim damages, to withhold his own performance, to terminate the contract and to reduce his own performance.† 6 In this background let us consider the two cases given for discussion. To consider the first case of contract violation

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Electric Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Electric Industry - Essay Example The competition in the electricity industry is not as complex as it seems. What has happened is players have always believed that one electricity firm can supply the entire demand at a considerably lower cost than multiple electric firms serving the appropriate market. From this basis they conclude that electric transmission and distribution must always be to be regulated, since in the absence of energy regulation, transmission and effective electricity distribution owners may not face enough competition in the industry to ensure prices are kept low to consumers and to attain economic efficiency in electricity transmitting and distributing. This is, however, the case with many other natural monopolies in the industry. Natural monopolies exists where the largest supplier in an electricity industry, often also the first supplier in a market, has a significant cost advantage over other real or potential competitors; this has always tended to be the case making competition in electricity industry seem complex. The same is the case in the same industry where fixed costs prevail, generating economies of scale that are huge in relation to the market size, as is the case in water and electricity services. This has led to complexity as these electricity firms take advantage of economies of scale and causes problems of bureaucracy and inefficiency. As with all monopolies in electricity market, monopolies who have gained their position on natural monopoly effects could be involved in behavior that abuses their market position, which always leads to calls from various consumers for government regulation. Encouraging competition in the electricity industry is not as complex but requires massive investment by private sector investment as the initial capital is many times massive thus discouraging players and this minimized competition. This would especially start with deregulation that normally lacks monopoly, and these go a long way in encouraging new

Various songs between 1830-1960 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Various songs between 1830-1960 - Assignment Example I have listened to Jelly Roll Morton as I like blues and jazz and he plays a mean piano. I like the way the instruments interact. This kind of music reminds me of a book I enjoyed once by Machael Ondatje , Coming Through Slaughter, about a jazz horn player who blew his lip out when he went nuts and played until he could not play any more. La Paloma is an old Mexican folk song I also remember hearing as a child. It is a beautiful melody, and I never expected to hear it played as jazz. I guess the melody lends itself to improvisation. I never thought about it as anything other than a pretty folk song and I sure never dreamed that Jelly Roll Morton ever played it, though I guess it would have been very popular for afternoon parties, a la Stephen Foster. 3. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, â€Å"Dipper Mouth Blues† (1923) I have to find more of these guys. I think that’s a real early Louis Armstrong playing the muted trumpet. The clarinetist is really mellow. At the time whe n this was recorded, the music was real, no digital augmentation and I love the complexity of this jazz, but I do with it had the fuller sound of stereo. My ears like the depth of modern recordings. I wonder how they ever got that name. It sounds like the name of a fish. I wonder how much music we missed, because the players were racially segregated? 4. Original Dixieland Jazz Band, â€Å"Tiger Rag† (1917) (on APM CD) I have only heard later versions of this tune, I think by Louis Armstrong’s band,. The chorus is very familiar, but I do not really remember the rest of the music. I went looking and found a version with Art Tatum on piano. I did not know anyone’s fingers could move that fast. 5. Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five, â€Å"West End Blues† (1928) Wow, this is one I had not heard. The rhythm is very regular like for dancing, but the instruments are really clear with solos on the horns. I have not heard many trombone solos. It sounds like a low Dix ieland, with the combined instruments and voice sort of having a conversation. The piano sounds like one that has tacks on the hammers. I think that was called honkey tonk piano. It is a great sound and reminds one of the places where this music was played. I get a vision of taverns, bars and some upper scale clubs playing this music. Great trumpet solo by Louis Armstrong. I have liked some things I heard with him playing, but I did not know he was such a great musician. 6. Jelly Roll Morton, â€Å"Black Bottom Stomp† (1926) It is really great that some people are sharing their old 78 records on Youtube. I would never have heard some of these. This tune really showcases dance rhythm Dixieland. The instruments sound a little strange, like maybe they are using mutes on some of the horns. 7. Guy Lombardo, â€Å"We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye† (lyrics) I heard this by Frank Sinatra, but I like the one by Guy Lombardo better. It has more style. The old Sinatra record is a sim ple dance tune with only an interesting solo on a high pitched xylophone. It is a happy love song., while many of this time were very sad. I guess girls really like sad songs and they bought most of the music. After all, it was girls who wanted to dance in these times. It was an acceptable way to touch. There was no television then, so these radio shows were really popular among middle and higher class people. It was happy entertainment, and I prefer the big band sound. 8. Bing Crosby, â€Å"Out of Nowhere†

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Critically examine the characteristics,tactics, opponents and policy Essay

Critically examine the characteristics,tactics, opponents and policy impact of the NRA(National Riffle Assoc) - interest group operating in the USA today - Essay Example These include army officers, police officers and sheriffs while they also participate in occasions meant to compete in shooting skills. The organization has set programs meant to keep off violent criminals’ incorporation with the law. These programs include CrimeStrike that was introduced in order to eliminate gangs and other unwanted people from the streets of America and be convicted as per the crimes they commit. The other program introduced is the Eddie Eagle meant for children that creates public awareness on the importance of observing the laws stipulated against possession of guns and how to protect one self. This program gives warnings such as Stop or Don’t Touch signs put at places where these guns are kept in the house. Other programs educate adults such as skilled hunters, shooters and people who possess ammunition for the sake of their safety such as security gourds. Most foreigners have been surprised by the way most Americans prefer to own guns. Antagonists view the Second Amendment as stated by the constitution on the ownership of guns as a cause for the problem. The statement reads that as well as a military officer lawfully allowed to posses a gun, then owning guns has to be a right to all and must not be prohibited. There have been recent debates on ways of controlling guns to the public but this has brought no change in US we daily find shooting cases on the media. This evidence shows that there is a very strong correlation between violence and accessibility of ammunitions. Some federal laws initiated in 1970s due to the assassinations of high people in government for instance Martin Luther King. Later other policies were also set up as a result of several assassination cases. It is for these reasons that Brandy Bill has to take time while issuing out guns to the public. This helps to analyse the

Monday, September 23, 2019

Technology and Human Error in Aviation Term Paper

Technology and Human Error in Aviation - Term Paper Example Thus, every sector in the aviation system must find all facets where computers may be leveraged on to their advantage. Use of Computers in Aviation Systems To most, computers are for games, research, online business, sending e-mails, or downloading and uploading files. But in the aviation system, computers hold the life of the crews and passengers. A small hitch on the computer’s program might result to an aerial accident. Computers have various uses in modern aviation. These may be used to design aircrafts with better capacity, performance, and state of the art equipments. It can spot the parts of the aircraft that need maintenance, repairs, and modifications. Computers can read the codes of the system that has malfunctioned. Moreover, it may identify the geographic location of the aircraft and monitors its flight, and process data and communication transmission between ATC (air traffic controller) and pilot, among air traffic controllers, and among flight crews. It may ensur e airport and aircraft safety against accidents, unpleasant incidents, and delays; and give automatic weather reports so as to warn pilots of the coming weather conditions. Technology allows for accurate calculations and computations useful in designing aircraft and saves important data on maintenance and inspection history and some other specifications related to the plane. These data are used to check if the plane is still fit to fly or not (Dhillion, 2007). Analysis of Human Error How tragic is the effect of human error in aviation? About 70 – 75% of aviation accidents are attributed to human-related errors (Hall, 2003). When one diverts from what is accurate, then that may possibly constitute human error (Dhillion, 2007). It is considered human error when one fails to do what is expected from him or her. Structures of error are developed to identify its origin and reasons according to these different perspectives by Weigman and Shappel (2003). The cognitive perspective ta rgets the pilot’s skill on decision-making and choosing strategies, ability to solve problems during flight, and capability to comprehend and respond to stimulus and commands on hand. To reduce the mental workload of the pilot and to avoid accidents, a checklist is advised. This is also a ground for skill-based and decision errors (Weigman and Shappel, 2003). The ergonomic perspective suggests that even if all the reports would identify human-related error as the primary root of accidents, in this systems perspective, it hardly or rarely points to human as the cause. At the start of developing and designing the system and equipment, human factors are already considered. Accidents occur when a mismatch transpires between man, machine, and the environmental components. Problems arise when there are stressors in the part of human like anxiety and hazardous attitudes (Weigman and Shappel, 2003).. Moreover, the behavioral perspective states that rewards, motivations to work safely , the threat of punishment for failures, and past experiences can greatly influence the performance of an individual. According to Reason (1997, 2000), people who violate rules are motivation-driven people. They need to be rewarded when they follow safety rule and the lack of tangible reward for this individual will tend him to twist or break rules. Although this is unacceptable logically,

Sunday, September 22, 2019

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Essay Example Harry’s argument easily wins him over and he is totally changed person after the meeting. â€Å"The few words that Basils friend had said to him--words spoken by chance, no doubt, and with willful paradox in them--had touched some secret chord that had never been touched before, but that he felt was now vibrating and throbbing to curious pulses.† But the worldly and satanic wisdom of his mentor makes him break the heart of the innocent soul. He feels remorse at first but again justifies himself in the light of Machiavellian morality of Lord Henry. Lord Henry is the evil angel of the story .Every moment the hero is close to repentance, he appears from nowhere and through his devilish speech changes the mind of Dorian. One is wonderstruck at the callousness of both Henry and Dorian they show at the death of Sibyl. â€Å"What is done is done. What is past is past." The yellow book is another diversion provided to him by Lord Henry. This book further goads him to indulge in â€Å"all the passions and modes of thought that belonged to every century except his own.† Now Evil in him is in its true attire. Under his influence, the friends meet destruction. He murders his once beloved Basil as he exposed the ugliness of Dorian’s soul .The portrait is a surrogate of soul, so when he sins his soul is changed . Even in the end to avoid the pangs of consciousness, he resorts to opium. He seems to be following Henry’s philosophy â€Å"To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.† When Dorian has ominous hallucinations about his possible end, all his fears are dispelled by Lord Henry who declares that destiny is too wise or cruel to send us omens. The bad influence of Lord Henry even subdues the feelings of guilt created in Dorian’s heart. His resolve to reform himself is diverted to some other thoughts. The damnation is complete .The inherent evil in the

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Writing an Article Summary Essay Example for Free

Writing an Article Summary Essay The first step to writing a summary of a specific reading material is, of course, to read the whole article. This is easier said than done because reading is not just scanning the whole page. It is about devoting time to understand the paper and digesting the whole article. Re-reading may also be needed to be familiarized with general information, hypothesis, results and interpretations found in the article. Reading the article is followed by taking down notes. Here, plagiarism should be avoided by all means. There is a world of difference between taking down notes and taking down notes properly. Sometimes, a sentence appears plagiarized even when the author did not intend do, all because of the improper ways of taking down notes. Note taking is also important in creating the outline or backbone of the summary that is about to be written. After this, the actual writing of the summary is next. In writing the draft, it is important to follow the order from the original text. The topic sentence must be mentioned first, followed by an explanation on why the article is a must-read. If there are methods, terms and variables and results included in the article, they, too, should be explained. This is the chance to omit sentences or information which the article can do without (Sweeney and Hooker, 2005). Critiquing the study comes next, where scouting for areas which need improvement is done. Here, questions about the credibility and value of the summary should be raised. Critiquing is a way to make sure that the summary is helpful, ethical and significant. It shows why it needs to be done. The fifth step is editing, which is a means to double-check the summary for accuracy and completeness. If the summary lacks important information, add some. If anything sounds redundant, cut it. Editing is about ensuring that the style of the summary remains to be intelligent. Wordiness, informal language, grammatical slips and misspelled words and misrepresentation should be looked after. The main purpose of editing is making sure that the summary is acceptable, readable and focused (Greenway, 1997). References Greenway, W. (1997). Writing a Summary. Youngstown State University. Retrieved July 9, 2008 from http://iws. ohiolink. edu/~sg-ysu/sumwg. html. Sweeney, T. and Fran H. (2005). Streamlining the Summary, Perfecting the Precis. Webster University Writing Center. Retrieved July 9, 2008 from http://www. webster. edu/acadaffairs/asp/wc/summary. html.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Global Threat Cyberterrorism

Global Threat Cyberterrorism By inner government policy writers, analysts, and the public. The social and global tactics that terrorist cells use, the countries that support terrorist groups, and the policies and procedures that have been used to counter terrorist actions by the target countries are all becoming unmanageable, billions are being spent in security measures but the whole concept is untraceable and can easily change, it is essential to keep the publics confidence. The information age or the technological era is magnificently shaping the way in which terrorists operate; new technologies mean newer weapons with more destructive powers, more ways to cause death and damage. Not only the types of weapons and targets the terrorists select, but also the ways in which terrorist cells have cemented their internal structure and the operation of their organisations (Zanini and Edwards, 2001, p. 30). According to Zanini and Edwards, terrorist organizations are using information technologies, such as computers, telecommunication devices, software, and the Internet to organize and coordinate activities (2001, p. 30). Criminality and Cybercrimes are now continually originating from new technologies, such as the Internet, wireless communications, military sciences this all in all creates many challenges for law enforcement around the world (Sussmann 2000). Responding to Cyberterrorism and investigating computer-related crimes pose challenges for law enforcement, as well as the legal system. There are many loopholes with the justice system that enables those with malicious intent to evade capture. The internet can be of so much use to terrorists, first of all, the communication that can be done over the internet is endless and alot more harder to trace then conventional ways of communication. Electronic mail has become one of the cheapest, quickest and anonymous as well as effective ways of communication today, to communicate with any part of the world. So overall the terrorists of this world are able to use the internet as a platform to communicate and swap information and messages to further their cause. General information on targets like maps and instructions are widely available, terrorist organisations can make their own WebPages to promote their ideologies, distribute propaganda and recruit sponsors or supporters. As being a platform for propaganda they are able to reach the public directly and make their existence known in international circles. Terrorists can also obtain funds through the internet, using services such as PayPal and western union; people can deposit monies anonymously so it is perfect for terrorist organisations to operate. In recent times after atrocities such as September 11th and Afghanistan you have often seen terrorists put up film footage on the internet to promote their groups, when terrorist cells kidnap any westerners, they will publicise their crimes by recording beheadings and playing them live on news sites for the world to see. According to news reporters from NBC who have been abducted previously by Al-Qaeda, claim that within their fortress of caves they have large banks of computer servers, communications devices and mass storage data discs. Hamas are another group that use advanced technology for their cause; they reportedly use 128 256 bit encryption for their files and communications. The more a country is technologically advanced, the more vulnerable it is to attack against its infrastructure, at the last count the number of computers that the USA have installed is just over 180 million, at least 5 times the number that of Japan, seven times as much as in Germany and twice as many as all of Europe combined. US computers account for 42% of the worlds computing power, whilst China represents only a meagre 1% and Russia 8%. The objective of this paper is to provide a general overview of the research; First of all, we look at the critical concepts of this research. These concepts are terrorism, cybercrime, information warfare, and Cyberterrorism. Definition of the Concepts Terrorism Defining the word terrorism itself constitutes problems. The problems that occur when Defining terrorism is the difficulty to have an agreed upon definition of terrorism. In other Words, there is no consensus in the international arena as to what terrorism comprises. No statement has been made to clarify the concepts under which the terrorism heading falls into. The problem emerges from the fact that terrorism is solely a political issue which means A terrorist for one country could be a freedom fighter for another. Furthermore, as Laqueur claimed in 1977 â€Å"It can be predicted with confidence that disputes about a comprehensive, Detailed definition of terrorism will continue for a long time, that they will not result In consensus and that they will make no noticeable contribution to the understanding of terrorism. â€Å" While the statement seems to be vague in character, the true statement of terrorism is in fact much closer to the truth then imagined. Of course the Human Rights Act and other international agreements set the scene for the standards in terms of human rights; but the non existence of procedures for the use of responding to terrorism creates confusing, irregularity and severe turmoil. On top of this, any such effort that is taken by a country which is targeted by cyber terrorists may not have a desired effect since other countries may not consider that group as a terrorist organisation. In terms of legal stature, by not having any by laws as to what Terrorism constitutes, while country 1 may deem a specific act as terrorism, country 2 may judge the action to be a meaningless computer mistake. Enders and Sandler define terrorism as â€Å"the premeditated use or threatened use -of extra-normal violence or force to gain political objectives through intimidation or fear† (1993, p. 829). The US Department of State defines terrorism as â€Å"premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national Groups or clandestine agents usually intended to influence an audience† (1999). Classes of Information warfare Many authors have written substantial articles on the subject of Cyberterrorism and such activities, the subject itself is deemed to a very grey area with mostly myths and hear say, obviously hackers do exist and they can cause serious and malicious damage to an infrastructure but not all are convinced of their overall threat, many authors publish hard hitting texts to drive the point home that our world is at risk from this ruthless wave of technological storming.In his book, Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway: Information Warfare, Winn Schwartua, talks about the concept of information warfare in comparison to everything around us including politics, economy, power, fear, survival and harmony. He has even led claims that information warfare and information age weaponry will replace bombs and bullets, which are not restricted to the governments of superpowers (Schwartua 1996, p. 16). Schwartua also proposes the classification of information warfare. According to him there are three types of information warfare: Class 1: Personal Information Warfare. This includes attacks against an individuals privacy. Cyber attacks on the personal computer or wireless devices or use of private information about an individual are possible examples of personal information warfare. Class 2: Corporate Information Warfare. This classification involves large corporate companies of magnitude and focuses on the issues of competition between companies, industrial espionage, misinformation, sponsors, shareholders etc Class 3: Global Information Warfare. This type of warfare is â€Å"waged against industries† (p. 195). This level of warfare is waged by the most elite individuals through Internet and other computer network systems according to Schwartau (1996). According to Monge and Fulk (1999), the use of new age computing advancement and various wireless communication devices has led to the establishment of networks in three ways: Firstly, the new technologies have enabled terrorist cells to reduce the transmission time of their encrypted messages so that members of the organization can communicate faster. Secondly, new technologies also reduced communication expenses. Obviously before the internet, as the same with all of mankind, sensitive communication was done by either word of mouth or by coded messages. Not only have new advancements in technology visibly reduced the length of transmission time and considerable expense, but have also significantly increased the scope and complexity of the information due to the combined technologies. Terrorist organisations have now gained their own independence, whereas a time once existed where terrorist and fundamentalist groups were once linked with governments due to lack of financing now have the platform to better finance themselves due to the broader scope of the internet. Zanini and Edwards compare the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), who are considered to be more politically and hierarchical in contrast to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and al-Qaeda, these are considered to be more recent forming and less hierarchical groups more intent on bloodshed then political uprising. Dispersed groups find that the advantages of the new technologies eliminate normal problems gained through distance. In particular, using the World Wide Web for communication amongst the cells can not only increase the flexibility of peoples time. In fact, these technologies may enable terrorists to operate from nearly any country in the world (Zanini and Edwards, 2001, p. 38). We are seeing that terrorists gain momentous advantage from new technologies and that the world cannot prevent much, due to the general era that we are in, everyone has access to anything as long as funds are available. The internet provides the best and most effective communication dial-ups between the terrorist organization and its members. Weimann identifies eight different ways that terrorists use the Internet: Psychological Warfare, Publicity and Propaganda, Data Mining, Fundraising, Recruitment and Mobilization, Networking, Sharing Information, Planning and Coordination (2004). Different terrorist organisations have different causes so the web sites they setup can act with a purpose of a communication channel between the various members of the organisation, the supporters and those anonymous sympathisers of the organization, Through this channel, terrorist groups can broadcast their harsh messages to the world stage and have regular updates to their recent campaigning and recent activities. They often use the Web site to justify their violent sadistic murders and killings. These Web sites are a platform to the whole world and can lead to recruitment of potential supporters, and target population or government entities (Weimann 2004). In addition to being a communication method between terrorists and the public, advanced tools, such as; Cryptography Steganography These types of advancements are used by terrorists to convey their messages to the world around them. Here we look at these two tools in more detail; Cryptography Bruce Schneier describes the act of Cryptography as â€Å"the art and Science of securing messages† (as cited in Taylor et al., 2004, p. 29). The method is a process of â€Å"extreme strong encryption† of the data transmitted between sources to a target. Even though this technology can be useful to those in the private and public sectors it can also be an explosive and damaging weapon to hide information from law enforcement agencies. (Slambrouck, 1998). Denning argues that the threat to law enforcement and government agencies is widespread; she explains four ways that the encrypted data presents danger: 1) It will hinder the intelligence community from getting foreign intelligence critical to national security (Denning, 1997). 2) The intelligence community will have hard time retrieving vital Information about any given investigation, 3) It may avoid the law enforcement from gathering evidence to convict offenders, 4) The law enforcement community may be unable to avoid attacks or any harm. (Denning 1997) Members of the group Al-Qaeda have been using the newly advanced computer technologies to communicate and relay information to sub-coordinates around the globe, it has been heard in social circles that Al-Qaeda love the internet as they are able to keep in real time with all information even though they are based within caves in mountainous regions. According to some research forensics evidence that was collected and compiled after the September 11th attacks shows that terrorist cells often used the internet for their vigorous planning before the attacks. Overall the internet is a source of great value to all those who use it whether it maybe for a student at university or a terrorist with plans to blow up an airliner, information is free and in abundance. Terrorists especially from the Arab continent frequently upload their propaganda and messages via news channels as it is the quickest way to get publicised. Most commonly used is the Jazeera TV network, an example of the use of news channels by terrorists is the final message sent to Mohammed Atta of Al Jazeera by the two senior members of Al- Qaeda 3 weeks before September 11th, 2001 attacks, what was sent was a simple code that showed the four targets the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill which were referred to as faculties† in the message. The communication said, The semester begins in three more weeks. Weve obtained nineteen confirmations for studies in the faculty of law, the faculty of urban planning, the faculty of fine arts and the faculty of engineering.† Many other political and terror organisations within Europe and America use an encryption program known as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), an easily downloadable program that provides basic and stronger encryption to use within coded emails for intelligence sharing. Steganography Steganography is the art of hiding data within objects such as Documents, pictures etc files (Collin, 1997). It is a wide method used by many organisations as a simple way to hide information from those who do not have the clearance to view but it can also be severely exploited by terrorist organisations. This technology relies on â€Å"security-by-obscurity,† basically the person will know that a message is hidden within and once he accesses it he be able to read the hidden information behind the veil. From the exterior appearance, a picture would be entirely perceived as a normal picture, but an encrypted message can be extracted from that picture if the person knows where to look. Obviously there are some major drawbacks to technological advancements, computer memory is very hard to completely erase and often leave a trail for law enforcement agencies to use against criminals, For instance, in Turkey, towards the end of 2000, practically a thousand members of the radical group, Hezbollah, were arrested in a serious of raids and taken into custody, and allegedly about 20,000 pages of documents were recovered from computer archives (Aras Bacik, 2002). Fund Raising and Promotion In todays day and age, terrorists have so much available to them, websites are full of propaganda and due to the advancements in software language barriers are no problem to overcome (Weimann, 2004). The information that the terrorist Web sites usually give is usually about general history, their activities, their ideology and political statements, current news regarding their activities, as well as information about their targets, often they will also give out rogue information on targets which will get the security services into a twist, but this information is designed to mislead. The way in which the Internet is used to raise money by terrorist organisations is a good example as to how information technology can provide new ways to fund their operations. Cost of Cyberterrorism. Between 1993 and 1995, there were 40 threats made directly to banks in the US and Great Britain. It is reported that in January 1999, a investment bank paid roughly ten million pounds after receiving a threat against their computer systems, the hackers reportedly crashed a computer in order to show the seriousness of their intent, the bank gave in and paid them off, knowing that the authorities were helpless to act and if their systems did crash there would be alot more then 10 million pounds worth of losses. It is estimated that in United Kingdom, during the three years between 1993 and 1995, terrorists gained more than 400 million pounds (Statistics on Cyber-terrorism, 2000). The Security Industry Survey carried out in 1999 largely showed that the number of companies that were successfully penetrated went up from 12% in 1997 to 23% in 1998. Malicious code is used by hackers which attack systems is devastating as the code mutates and leaves systems vulnerable to attack. The most costly malicious code attacks were Low Bug in 2000 at $ 8.75 billion and Code Red at $ 2.62 billion (Wiederin, Hoefelmeyer, and Phillips, 2002) The consequences of cyber terrorist attacks are not as devastating as the physical terrorist attacks, at least until now. For example, cyberspace provides opportunities for e-bombs and cracking down a Web site but the ramifications of these acts seem less significant than the effect of a physical bomb killing hundreds of people in a matter of seconds, such as the bomb attack in Nairobi in 1998 and Oklahoma City in 1995. Regarding the potential attacks outlined by Collin, they would be difficult to execute, because of the human factor in these processes. For example, even if it is possible to hack an air traffic control station, there are pilots who have been trained to double-check unusual commands. Cybercrime Cybercrime can be looked on as computer-related activities which are illegal and or destructive, the sole object points at thievery, dishonest means of obtaining cash or leading others to stray by the attacking of infrastructure. Cybercrime can be conducted through global electronic networks† (Thomas and Loader, 2000, p. 3). Cybercrime can be defined as a crime committed in a cyber environment, including the Internet, computer networks, and wireless communication systems. In other words, cybercrime involves crime committed through use of the personal computer. Cybeterrorism is the word given to acts of malicious intent with the convergence of Cyberspace and Terrorism, networks, servers and computers alongside data storage are constantly at threat from unlawful attacks, for an attack to qualify under the Cyberterrorism heading it should result in violence against persons or property, at the minimum it shouild cause or generate fear. Acts upon infrastructure, economic loss, plane crashes and explosions are all forms of Cyberterrorism. Cyberterrorism and Cybercrime makes the job for law enforcement even harder ,law enforcement and policy makers already struggle under immense pressure to meet targets and maintain the peace proving a safe environment for the public. Due to the nature of cyber-criminals rerouting their trail through international countries, a response to such a malicious threat requires international cooperation involving participation of all concerned parties . However, society today is cased within the technological bubble, everything is controlled by computers and vulnerability emerges from increased reliance on technology, lack of legal measures, and lack of cooperation at the national and international level represents major obstacles toward effective and immediate response to these threats. In all the sheer lack of global peacekeeping in terms of responding to cyberterrorism and cybercrime is the general problem. Pollitt (1997) defines Cyberterrorism as â€Å"the premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.† Terrorists and cyber criminals will spend sometimes months to exploit vulnerabilities in a system, all the time remaining undetected and hitting key sectors including technical, legal, Political, and cultural, as well as defence. Such a broad range of vulnerabilities can be dealt with by Comprehensive cooperation which requires efforts both at the national and international level. Expert opinions suggest that cyberterrorism is split into three general classifications; Disruptive and destructive information attacks, Disruptive and destructive information attacks Facilitation of technology to support the ideology, and Communication, Fund raising, Recruitment and Propaganda Terrorist use for the Internet Terrorists use the internet for mainly communication, essentially covert operations and as a means for a new command and control infrastructure. Access to information via the Internet and the world wide net, as well as maps for target locations and applications that will help with encryptions and monitoring. Technical data is widely accessible on the net for weapons and bomb construction. Use of the internet as a platform for distributing propaganda on terrorist groups and causes, and related recruitment of individuals, Examples of Attacks In 1998, what was once known as the first attack by terrorists against a countries computer systems was when Tamil guerrillas jammed the servers located at all Sri Lankan Embassies with 800 emails a day over a 2 weeks period with messages such as â€Å"We are the Internet Black Tigers and we are doing this to disrupt your communications† The statement couldnt have been more true, everything stops, whilst security specialists comb the networks using off the shelve virus removers and other software to get rid of the spam. During the Kosovo conflict in 1999, NATO computer systems were targeted in a huge blitz by several eastern European countries in a protest to object against the bombings. Businesses and public organisations with ties to NATO were targeted and considerable money was lost in the turmoil. More recently Estonia was hit by a spate of terror acts from Russia in what is deemed a Cyberterrorism act of vengeance for the movement of a Soviet-era war memorial commemorating an unknown Russian who died fighting the Nazis. Government websites that normally received 1000 hit a day were getting 2000 hits per second, causing the servers to crash and be shut down for hours, even days and weeks. The public just think that a few guys with nothing better to do sit on their pcs and create viruses and mess around, but there is no actual threat to physical life but this is a myth, the business world and people within are often exposed to grave harm. Another example showing the problems of hackers infiltrating web sites and Web site defacement was between attackers from Pakistan and India. At the time of much unrest between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir in 1999, both countries computer geniuses also fought in the cyber world. Pakistans experts hacked the Indian Army Web site www.atmyinkashmir.org and left anti-Indian statements about the Kashmir issue. The Indian Government, in retaliation, cut off all network access to the Web site of the prominent Pakistani newspaper, Dawn (Varma, 1999). Processes of attack Different forms of attack are available to hackers and those who wish to deface or destroy data, they use malicious code attacks: â€Å"Malware.† The term malware represents the combination of â€Å"malicious† and â€Å"software† (Furnell, 2000, p. 143). There are different types and processes of malware attacks. The common forms of malware attacks are viruses, worms, Trojan horses and software bombs. These are examined in detail in the following section. Internet worms or Viruses These viruses and worm programs are designed to imbed themselves within the codes of programs and lie dormant till the hacker requires them to destroy or shit down computers; they can hijack the computer and can copy and destroy email lists and address books. Communication devices such as mobiles and PDA are also hot items to target. Viruses: Brunnstein, Fischer-Hubner, and Swimmer define a virus as â€Å"a non-autonomous set of routines that is capable of modifying programs or systems so that they contain executable copies of itself† Furnell, 2000, p. 144). Viruses are malicious software that has the ability to replicate themselves, the virus will attach itself to other applications and software and slowly spread as infected files and disks are used by users. With every new host, the malicious virus inserts itself and executes its payload, they are often weird and strange warning messages or look like innocent files when clicked can wipe all the files from the hard drive (Taylor et al., 2004). A brilliant example of how a virus can be very expensive is the much publicised I LOVE YOU virus. ICSA, a computer security company estimated the cost of the I LOVE YOU virus to be up to 1$ billion (Miastkowski, 2000). Worms: Unlike Viruses, worms do not attach themselves to other software programs. They exist entirely as separate programs and they can spread themselves automatically (Stephenson, 2000, p. 37). Trojan Horse Trojan horses: Hackers and attackers will often use Trojan horses to gain access to important and highly sensitive data information, often a Trojan is used where access is restricted and the hacker is lucky enough to find a ‘Backdoor basically a loop within the code for access, for example, the targets password is captured by the dormant Trojan, it will replicate it, and forward it to the hacker. There are differences between viruses and Trojan horses, firstly the Trojan horses will not replicate or infect any other files on the hard disk. Secondly, the Trojan Horse can stand alone without any attachment to other applications and programs. And finally, the target source may not always be entirely aware of the fact that a maliciously intended Trojan horse was sent to him or her. Basically Trojan horses can be sent with under covert means where the intended target perceives it to be harmless, like an email attachment that looks conspicuous enough and looks safe enough. For example, the attacker may send a message that may be interpreted as friendly information for the receiver, such as a link to a competition etc Phlooding This is a new wave of attack used by hackers and fraudsters to simultaneously launch geographically distributed attacks that targets a businesss authentication or network log-in structure, with the goal of overloading its central authentication server, these attacks have originated from all across the globe, they bombard a wireless Access points (APs) with login requests using multiple password combinations which have the ability to severely slow down logins and critically interfere with broader network operations causing major security breaches. Security specialists reckon businesses with multiple office locations served by a single identity management server could be particularly vulnerable to Phlooding attacks. Malware Programmes such as the ‘Trojan Horse hides a malicious code within a document that will in turn collect usernames and passwords for email accounts amongst other information, These programs can download programmes without the user knowing and relay attacks against other computers remotely. An infected computer can be controlled by the attacker and directed to carry out functions normally available to the systems owner. Hacking Nowadays increasingly the method of attack most favoured is the art of hacking, to use the knowledge of codes and programming to access systems to find secrets. Government computers in Britain have a network intrusion detection system, which monitors traffic and alerts officials to misuse or anomalous behaviour. Botnets These are compromised networks that the attacker can exploit. Deliberate programming errors in the software can easily remain undetected, Attackers can exploit the errors to their advantage to take full control of the computer remotely. Botnet can be used to steal information from highly encrypted computers or to collect sensitive information such as credit card numbers by ‘sniffing or logging the keystrokes of the victims keyboard. Software Bombs This software acts like a bomb connected to a detonator, which may contain an execution of a program. The malicious code may be hidden in a program, and once the program is activated, malicious code becomes activated. For example, a sacked employee who feels dissatisfied with the employer who has access to internal software may upload and hide a software bomb in the companys payroll program. In 1992, an employee of the United Kingdoms Chilworth Communications was convicted of planting a logic bomb before his resignation in September 1990. The bomb was triggered in October 1990 and damaged important files that cost the company more than $50,000. (Larry Greenemeier, InformationWeek, June 12, 2006) Keystroke Loggers This is a device that can be fitted to the keyboard or an application that can be installed on the computer that automatically records every key that is typed on the keyboard, obviously all information such as passwords, email, basically anything that is typed on the keyboard will get logged and then accessed by the third party. Denial of service Attacks Overloading a computer system with data so that it can no longer function. This is the method allegedly used by the Russian hackers which targeted the Estonian government computers in May. Phishing and Spoofing This is a system of attack designed to trick an organisations computer user to reveal passwords and confidential data such as card details. Those that use this method impersonate a trusted source such as a bank or a well known service to persuade the victim to hand over the details in complete faith. IP spoofing: After overloading the system, an attacker can pretend to be an authorized system, while blocking the actual systems service. Since the flooded system cannot respond to the inquiries, the unauthorized system will receive all of the legitimate Computers packets (Stephenson, 2000, p. 46). Force Multiplier Effects Different types of Cyberterrorism may also be used to multiply Cyber-terrorists commit acts of terrorism simply for personal gain or sometimes out of boredom. A less known group known as Chaos Computer Club was discovered in 1997. They had created a simple Active X Control for the Internet that could trick the Quicken accounting program into removing money from a users bank account

Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Meaning of What Are Years? by Marianne Moore :: Poems, Poetry Analysis

In the poem â€Å"What Are Years?†, Moore clearly expresses her perception of life. Moore states that no one can truly understand the nature of their guilt or innocence. Everyone is â€Å"naked† to the dangers of existence. Moore defines courage as â€Å"resolute doubt,† having the ability, or the the "strength of spirit", to keep going even when defeated. To be strong, one must accept their own mortality. One must accept the reality of death and yet keep fighting to live. Although we are all imprisoned in a world of mortality, we must fight every day to give meaning to our life. We must live as if we were never going to die! Moore begins the last stanza with an ambiguous â€Å"So†. Although one has a heightened awareness of mortality, one â€Å"behaves,† one keeps the ego disciplined. This is the same concept as that of the caged bird who, though held captive in a cruelly small space, continues to sing with all his heart. Despite the bird's lack of â€Å"satisfaction† because of his loss of flight and freedom, he knows â€Å"joy†.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Underground To Canada : Mammy Sallys Version :: essays research papers

Underground to Canada : Mammy Sally's Version As Mammy Sally was cooking this lady called Nina who also worded in the kitchen said "I found a passage way out o' here." Mammy Sally looked shocker. "But if we get caught Massa Simms gonna whip us until our day are done workin'. "Said Mammy Sally. But, Nina was Strong and Fearless and said "I don't care I'm sick of the way those people treat us I goin' to Canada. Mammy Sally stood there for a while and in came Massa Simms with his whip. And said "You ladies gonna be standin' for a while" Mammy Sally looked frightened and said "No sir we were just talking about what's for diner," "So Said Massa Simms "what's for dinner", "well" said Mammy Sally "potatoes and corn" "what else" said Massa Simms Mammy Sally had a scared look on her face "What else"?! Yelled mass Simms" well I guess I can cook some bread" said Mammy Sally, "Same bread that would be nice" Some break that would be nice" Said Massa Simms. A Couple of hours passed and Mammy Sally getting ready to set the table for dinner when in came Nina and she said "So have you thought it yet" " no" said Mammy Sally. The next day Nina woke up early she put on here rags and took some food from the kitchen and woke up Mammy Sally and Mammy Sally said "if we get caught "I know I know" interrupted Nina " we gonna get whipped tell our days are done working." Well at least you know" said " Mammy Sally and they left. "So said Mammy Sally" Where is this secret passage you were talking about" you'll see" said Nina. When they got to the secret passage Mammy Sally said, "We aint gonna get out with out getting caught. Nina looked awkwardly at Mammy Sally and said "she is safer than the underground railway" "how can you ? it "said Mammy Sally. The secret passage was a hole through the ground and first went Mammy Sally after went Nina. When they got out Nina said " Smell the fresh air of freedom." "yes soon we will be back there and we wont be working in the kitchen we'll be getten whipped." It was getting and Mammy Sally and Nina were walking all day and they were very tired, so they decided to stop and rest. After they rested they ate and began walking again. It was down when they came to a cabin and the knocked on the door they

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Postcolonialism Essays -- Literary Analysis

Postcolonialism is a critical approach in literary studies that deals with the experience of â€Å"exclusion, denigration, and resistance under colonial control† (Waugh 340). It concerns itself with the reaction that is incited due to colonialism, which is the taking over and expansion of colonies by people from another colony. In essence, postcolonialism deals with the ways race, identity, culture, and ethnicity are represented after an area has been colonized. Postcolonialism pays particular attention to the response of the oppressed, which can be both radical and subtle. Claude McKay, a Jamaican-American poet, wrote â€Å"America† during the Harlem Renaissance, and although it was before the postcolonial movement, it exemplifies many postcolonial ideas. â€Å"America† deals heavily with the dual ideas of love and hate. In the first four lines of the poem, the narrator shows his extreme distaste for America. But, while he hates her, he also is forced to depend on her as well. In the first line, the narrator states, â€Å"Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,† which tells the reader that he relies on America for food and sustenance. It also plays on the idea of America being the â€Å"mother role:† feeding a child that depends on her to live. We are thus led to believe that the narrator acknowledges that America is keeping him alive, even though she does so with bitterness. He goes on to write, â€Å"And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, / Stealing my breath of life, I will confess† (Lines 2-3). Here, readers should notice how the narrator feels America is stealing his life and draining his spirit. In a time where America was supposed to be providing freedom and equality to blacks, he is instead having his culture and his background robbed from h... ...lonial writers and critics find ways of answering the colonial oppressor back by exploiting the struggles over meaning which take place within the texts of empire themselves†¦ they ridicule and refute how they themselves have been represented. Moreover, crucially, in doing so they express their own subjectivity, their own perceptions of the world.† In â€Å"America,† McKay has done just this. He openly and honestly writes of his struggles, of the struggles faced by most blacks during this time. He depicts the double consciousness and in-between that he experiences being a hyphenated American. He is also not afraid to stand back, to use America’s strength to give him the power to fight against this hate. Although the poem ends on a more melancholy note, with the future of America looking bleak, McKay shows that, even then, there is still a small hope for the future.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Essay

The tone of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set by the theme of madness and deception. The death of Hamlet’s father and the appearance of his ghost to his son sets into motion a series of events that end in leads to the near total destruction of the Danish court. No one proves to be safe from the pervasive nature of their own guilt, real or imagine, as the character’s fall victim to Hamlet’s madness and the king’s deception. Revenge and fear, in particular, play central roles in the eventual conclusions of the play, as it provides a vehicle for the concepts of madness and deceit, as well as the bloody and darkening shadow that falls upon Denmark itself. Even before he sees his father’s ghost among the castle walls, the seeds of suspicion and disgust have already grown to fruition within Hamlet’s mind. All that is needed to touch off this dark depression into full-blown action is a spark. This spark comes in the form of the deceased king, who gives voice to his son’s suspicions. It’s interesting, given the full blown form that Hamlet’s madness later takes, to consider that the conversation between father and ghost may have been a delusion. Though it’s hard to write off the apparition itself as false, since it is the guards who first see the ghost walking silently, the conversation between father and son is private and serves to provide justification for Hamlet’s later actions. In this way, it’s possible that this conversation was simply the beginning point for Hamlet’s growing insanity. From this first act, the other events fall in quick succession as though predicted. Death becomes a central almost fated result of the lethal mixture of Hamlet’s growing insanity and the guilt of the king There is a fine line between Hamlet’s realities and his delusions, as shown in the truth of his uncle’s deceit. It’s important that the tragedy of Hamlet begins and ends with death, providing a full-circle to the King’s murder of his brother and Hamlet’s own revenue and death. This is due in part to the larger significance of death both as an ending and a beginning. The tragedy of Hamlet itself begins and ends with death while the dead themselves provide witnesses. It’s important to note that even as the death should be released by the chain of events, they are not allowed to truly rest. From Hamlet’s father the king, to Ophelia’s drowned memory, they are allowed little reprieve. Instead their deaths act as cataclysms for more tragedy and death. It is Ophelia and Polonius’s deaths that cause Laertes to meet his death at the end of Hamlet’s poison-tipped blade. Connected to the idea of revenge, the dead are fuel to the fire and darkness that seep into the minds and actions of all involved. Given the heavy presence of death, it is no wonder that the images of darkness and the adjective â€Å"black† is repeated throughout the book. It seems to be almost an eternal night in Hamlet’s Denmark. There is no comfort. There is no hope, only sadness and death. Revenge, madness, and pride are connected in Hamlet through their common dark designs and darker endings. The need for revenge, which is bred from Hamlet’s encounter with his father’s ghost and eventually drives his madness, is not justice. This revenge is part duty, part self-preservation. Hamlet is lost in his new role in his family, with his mother’s marriage to his uncle and the usurpation of the crown from Hamlet’s own head. In taking action against his uncle, Hamlet is defending the honor of his family and attempting to reclaim his own self which has been lost (I. iv. ll. 21). With the new developments, Denmark itself has become a prison (II. ii. ll. 241), and he is a prisoner to the awareness of his position and the growing need to exact revenge. It is important to make the distinction between the two, revenge and justice. Hamlet is seeking to right the wrong of his father’s death, at first through revelation but then when this fails through violence. There is not the sense that Hamlet expects to escape his own death in the process of exacting revenge but at the same time there is the maddened sense of invincibility about him. He hopes to regain part of himself in destroying his uncle, however, he is already lost to his own fear and insanity. The concept of blood is important throughout the play, both in literal form in showing the brutality of Hamlet’s actions, and as representative of family. The physical presnece of blood is seen throughout the play in the deaths of even those who do end in bloodshed, like Ophelia;. The final scene in Act V is the bloodiest, with the deaths of Laertes and Hamlet, the wounding of the King, and the poisoning of the Queen. That final scene is also a good example of the power of blood, in the family sense, as Hamlet finally gains resolution in the deception of his uncle and his mother’s marriage and Laertes himself is able to avenge his sister and father. However, the concept of family goes much farther back in the play, to the very beginning with the first appearance of the dead king, still linked to his son and the tragedy of his blood, who himself is heard by Hamlet to call for revenge. For Hamlet, the concept of blood is perhaps the most sensitive and the core root to his own madness. A chief source of hurt pride for Hamlet is the marriage of his widowed mother to his uncle. In Hamlet’s eyes, not only has the new king usurped the role of his dead (murdered) brother but he has also taken over his brother’s position in the Queen’s bed. This is not a difficult idea to understand; Hamlet obviously feels a strong loyalty to his father and to the idea of his own succession. However, Hamlet’s constant condemnation of the King and Queen’s marriage being â€Å"incestuous† shows more about Hamlet than his mother, who is constantly condemned by her son for the marriage. The king is Hamlet’s paternal uncle and therefore, unrelated to the Queen except through the marriage of his deceased brother, Hamlet’s uncle. Therefore there is no real incest going on between the newly married couple but rather a joining of past and present. Instead Hamlet is showing an intolerance to change, that when divorced of his uncle’s treachery, is not quite as damning. However, true to the form of the play, the marriage has been built upon the dark deeds of the King. Their marriage is a deceptive continuity, the Queen herself innocent to the dark deeds of the King. She is not wholly innocent, as she ignorantly believes in the innocence of the new King. While she obviously loves her son, in sensing and fearing Hamlet’s growing restlessness and insanity, she does in a manner turn away from him. Seeing only death in her son’s countenance, it is understandable that she would ally herself with the calm presence of the new king. However, there is something of a resolution between mother and son. When the queen drinks the poison, the King has prepared for Hamlet, she joins the ranks of the innocent dead. Like Ophelia, the Queen becomes a kind of martyr to the ulterior motives of royal ascendency and the revenge of her only son. Though the King may have had larger ideas of their marriage, the Queen’s tragedy seems to be a belief in hope. In remarrying she is hoping to continue her life and in Hamlet she sees hope for her love and affection, even as he rejects her. Without the morality of justice, Hamlet’s revenge fails to provide any resolution. While death is certainly an end and a recurrent theme throughout the play, the persistence and skewed senses of madness prevent the carnage of the Danish court from representing an absolute ending. Instead, there simply seems to be no one else to truly die, no one else to suffer within this narrative of tragedy. Hamlet’s madness had acted in a way to bring about the complete destruction of all he’d ever held dear, it spent not only the resolve of it’s master but everything which it touched. The court of Denmark is withered but no longer a prison to Hamlet as he can depart in death as he was never able to in life. Though Hamlet finds his revenge and his end, he does not find true peace. Fueled by his own depression and anxiety, the injured pride of a fallen son, Hamlet instead creates a cycle of violence and fear which in the end even he falls prey to.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Media Bias

On September 11, 2001, the citizens of the United States witnessed a horrific attack on two symbolic buildings in New York City. These tragic events have galvanized the creation and implementation of a myriad of prejudicial and unconstitutional policies designed to provide the illusion of national security while simultaneous creating more instability and animosity between the West and the Middle East. In the wake of 9/11, a multitude of Americans have been overtaken by hysteria and fear. These emotional responses have been generated and intensified by the virtually unanimous Islamophobic propaganda that has been perpetuated by the main stream media. As a result of the media’s anti-Islam campaign, Americans have been persuaded to distrust Muslims, instinctively categorize Muslims as terrorist or potential terrorist, as well as sacrifice essential civil liberties. Scapegoating theorist may argue that this portrayal of Arabs and Muslims is one of the ways the U. S. overnment is attempting to blame this group of individuals for the economic and societal woes that plague 21st-century-America. In addition, many would argue that decades of excessive Western consumption, along with globalization have contributed to a complicated, unjust, and turbulent geopolitical and economic climate, which has created a Western need for Middle Eastern dominance. Regardless of their true motives, we can clearly witness the media’s hostile categorization of Arabs and Muslims as predominately terroristic or potentially terroristic. The New York Post published a cartoon depicting two Muslims, who are complaining to the Associated Press about the NYPD conducting surveillance of their apartment while they are simultaneously constructing IED’s. The suspects are also surrounded by other weapons, as well as ammunition, and contraband. This cartoon exemplifies prejudice, discrimination, and racial profiling, which contribute to a national hostility toward Arabs and animosity between ethnicities and social classes. The ensuing tensions that foment as a result of the media’s propaganda campaign provoke more instability and violence into American society. Further complicating American culture is the increasing number of Arabs and Muslims who are immigrating to the New World. For years, the United States has accepted refugees from various tumultuous Middle Eastern territories, which are suffering from perpetual cultural and political chaos. Unfortunately, while many are granted refugee status, they are also facing political and religious persecution in America. The influx of Arabs into the United States and the terror hysteria created by the main stream media has spawned a new era of nativist xenophobia. Richard T. Schaefer reports the frequent stereotypical portrayal of Arabs and Muslims in the media in Racial and Ethnic Groups Census Update. The author states that, â€Å"rarely are Arab and Muslim Americans shown doing â€Å"normal† behavior such as shopping, attending a sporting event, or just eating without a subtext of terrorism lurking literally in the shadows† (Schaefer, 296). This pervasive and persistent misrepresentation of Arabs and Muslims has intensified and propagated the animosity most Americans have toward this group. In addition to presenting Muslims in a derogatory manner, the cartoon also attempts to justify the necessity of sacrificing civil liberties for supposed security. This cartoon asserts that the NYPD is conducting surveillance because it is instrumental for securing the U. S. and preserving Western civilization as we know it. In this cartoon, the NYPD may be viewed as an exemplary entity employed in the â€Å"War on Terror† and New York City may represent all major cities in the United States, or the United States as a whole. This cartoon demonstrates the media’s attempt to guide public opinion toward accepting the increasingly aggressive behavior of the police and the state department by exaggerating instances of terror plots on American soil, as well as fabricating instances of governmental counter-terror success. A large faction of the media attempts to portray the majority of Arabs as terrorist, and would argue that cities are vulnerable targets of these diabolical individuals. As a result of this propaganda, Americans are lulled into slowly forfeiting their inalienable rights while obtaining a deceiving feeling of safety. The media is a powerful force contributing to the ebbs and flows of social norms and cultural opinion. The aforementioned cartoon provides an example of the media’s efforts to persuade the public and control the masses.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Notes for Nursing Eyes and Ear

Chapter 51 and 52- Understanding the Sensory System- Med Surgical- EYES External eye structures Eyelids-protective cover for thr eyeball * Has a thin transparent membrane called â€Å"conjunctiva† Eyelashes-keep dust out of eyes Each eyelid has a lacrimal gland at the upper outter corner of the eyeball Question: how do tears come in front of the eyeball? A: small ducts bring tears to the front and blinking help spread the tears over the surface Q: what enzyme inhibits the growth of bacteria on the surface of the eyes?A: tears have enzymes called lysosome How to collect tears? Tears from Lacrimal canalsdrain into lacrimal sac nasolacrimal ductnasal cavities Question: How do we do a nursing assessment of the eyes? Answer: Inspect and palpate of the external eye Internal Anatomy of the Eye Eyeball Layers: Outer Sclera Middle Choroid Inner Retina Choroid layer: Prevents glare Ciliary Body: Circular Muscle changes the shape of lens Circular Iris: Dilates, Constricts Pupil Eyeball C avities Vitreous Humor: Holds Retina in PlaceAqueous Humor: Nourishes Lens/Cornea Retina: Lines Posterior Eyeball Contains Rods (Light) black and white Cones (Color) for Vision Fovea: Most Acute Color VisionOptic Nerve: Transmit Image Color Blind * Retina: Lines Posterior Eyeball, Problem with * Cones (Color) for Vision * Usually can not see colors red, green, blue or a mix of these colors. * Mostly men * Genetic predisposition Internal Eye The retina is a light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye that covers about 65 percent of its interior surface.Photosensitive cells called rods and cones in the retina convert incident light energy into signals that are carried to the brain by the optic nerve. In the middle of the retina is a small dimple called the fovea or fovea centralis. It is the center of the eye's sharpest vision and the location of most color perception. Eye Movements: There are 6 intrinsic muscles that moves the eyeball are attached to the orbil and outter surface of the eyeball The cranial nerves that innervate these muscles are: * Oculomotor 3rd * Trochlear 4rth * Abducens6th EYEBALL has 3 layers . Outter fibrous tunic( sclera and cornea) -sclera- white part of the eye/cornea- no capilliaries and 1st part refract light rays 2. Middle vascular tunic(choroid, ciliary body, and iris) * Choroid=has BV and dark pigment melanin(prevent glare)/anterior of chroid is mmodified into ciliary body and iris 3. Inner nervoous tunic (Retina) * Lines 2/3of eyeball, has rods and cones, photoreceptors, fovea= only see color b/c only has cones. * Rods are more abundant toward periphery vision see best at night at side of visual field Nursing Assessment forCranial Nerves of the eyes by eye movements: Physiology of Vision: * Involves Focusing of Light Rays on Retina and transmission of Subsequent Nerve Impulses to Visual Areas of Cerebral Cortex * Light rays strike the retina, it stimulates chemical RX in rods and cones. Retinal( a receptor) bonds to a protein cal led a opsin. In rods, the light rays stimulate the breakdown of rhodopsin into opsin and retinal resulting to chemical changes and generates a nerve impulse for transmission. Cones have a similar RX that takes place.Nursing Assessment of the eye and visual status: * Peripheral vision/by confrontation – how far you can follow the light while looking straight. decreases as age increases * Visual Fields- * Full peripheral fields * Movements in all 6 cardinal fields of gaze * Corneal light reflex test ( light is at the same place in both pupils) * Cover test- steady gaze ** Also test with Snellen’s chart- read from smallest letter to biggest. 20/20- the vision is normal 20/70visual impairmentit takes the eye 70 ft to read what a normal eye is able to 20/200legal blindness * THE E chartpt that has literacy problemsask to indicate what direction E shape figure. Muscle Balance and Eye movement Instruct pt to look straight ahead and follow examiner’s finger w/o moving h ead. Examiner moves finger in the 6 cardinal fields of gaze, coming back to each point of origin between each field of gaze * Patient follow examiner finger w/o nystagmus(involuntary rapid movements of the eyes vertical, horizontal, or rotary) pt have adequate extraocular muscle strength and innervations Corneal reflex test assess muscle balanceshine penlight toward cornea while pt stare straight ahead.The light reflection should be at the same place for both pupils Cover Test- evaluate muscle balance Pupilary Reflex PEARRL- Pupils, Equal, Round, and, Reactive, to Light PERRLA- Pupils equal round reactive to light accommodation Pupils should constrict when pen light is shownconsensual response Test for ACCOMONDATIONability of pupil respond to far and near distances. * Pt, focus on object that is far awayexaminer observe size and shape of pupil 5 inches away * Pt focus on near object examiner observe size and shape of pupil 5 inches away * NORMAL= eyes turn inward and pupil constrict Internal Eye Examination * Only for advanced practitioner * LPN explains procedurePt should hold head still looking at a distant object. The instrument called â€Å"opthalmoscope† will maginify structure of eye to see internally. The bright light might be uncomfortable for the pt * Intraocular Pressure- tonometer testing using a puff of air to indent cornea and measure pressure. Above normal range may indicate glaucoma Diagnostic Tests for the EYE Culture- ordered when exudate from eye are present/rule out infection * Fluorescein Angiography- Asses for dye allergies B4 starting/ fluorescence dye inject into venous system * Electroretinography- evaluate difference of electrical potential between cornea and retina in response to wavelengths and intensities/contact electrode on eye to check rods and cones * Ultrasonography- eye instill with anesthesia drops, and perform ultrasound with transducer probe/picture by sound * Radiologic Test- Xray, CT, MRI to view bone and tissue aro und eye * Digital Imaging- take digital pictures of retina in 2 seconds/ eyes don’t need to be dilated VISUAL FIELD ABNORMALBILITIES A. Normal vision B. Diabetic Neuropathy C. Cataracts-blurry D. Macular degeneration- can’t see middle E. Advanced Glaucoma- can only see middle AMSLER GRID: Q: What are we testing? – Used to identify central vision distortions and blind spots * If you can see the middle dot in the grid then you pass Nursing Assessment of the Eyes- SUBJECTIVE DATA * Family History * Glaucoma * Diabetes General Health * Trauma to Eyes * Medications * Data on Visual Acuity * Double Vision * Difficulty seeing things near? Far? Visual Acuity * Snellen’s Chart/E Chart/Rosenbaum * Visual Impairment – 20/70 * (You must be at 20 feet to see what a normal person sees at 70 feet) * Legal Blindness – 20/200 or Less with Correction Question: A patient is diagnosed with a refractive error and asks the nurse what this mean. What would be the appropriate explanation by the nurse? A: You will need corrective lenses in order to see clearly RERACTOR ERRORS: – Bending light rays as they enter the eye 1. Emmetropia: Normal Vision A. Hyperopia: FarsightednessEyeball is too short, causing image to focus beyond the eyeball (Can see objects far away) B. Corrected with convex lense C. Myopia: Nearsightedness (can see near objects) D. Corrected myopia * Astigmatism: Unequal Curvatures in Cornea * Presbyopia: Loss of Lens Elasticity Normal aging after age 40 become- farsighted Astigmatic Mirror If you a â€Å"typical† astigmatic, you may see the lines near the horizontal are clearer and darker than the lines vertically. You may also find the lines near the horizontal are spaced further apart and the vertical spaced closer together. You might also find the inner circle in not quite round. Nursing Assessment for the EYE: * Usually test for children Corneal Light Reflex * To test for lazy eye or strabismus: * A condition in which the visual axes of the eyes are not parallel and the eyes appear to be looking in different directions. Nursing Assessment of the eye OBJECTIVE DATA * Pupillary Reflex * Pupil size ___ mm * PERRLA? * Pupils * Equal * Round * Reactive to * Light and * Accomodation * Consensual? – reaction of both pupils when only one eye is expose to change in light intensity EYES CHANGE AS WE AGE * Decreased Elasticity of Lens: Presbyopia * Difficult peripheral vision: Narrowed visual field * Decreased pupil size and response to light * Poor night vision * Sensitivity to glare Yellow lens – harder to differentiate colors * Distorted or poor depth perception * Decreased lacrimal secretions or tears Eye Health Promotion Regular Eye Examinations Nutrition for eye health * Eye Protection * Safety goggles * Sunglasses * Avoid eye strain from computer use * Keep contact lenses clean * Eye hygiene is hand hygiene! * Eye irrigation INFECTIONS AND INFLAMMATION 1. Conjunctivitis â€Å" PINK EYE† * Inflamed conjunctiva * Cause: virus, bacteria, or allergic RX * S/Sx: red conjunctiva, crusting exudate, itchy or painful eyes, excessive tearing * Tx: Antibiotic drops or ointments 2. Blepharitis- inflammation of the eyelid margins, chronic inflammatory process 3.Hordeolum- eyelid infection due to staph abscess in the sebaceous gland at base of eyelash 4. Chalazin- eyelid infection2nd type of abscess form in connective tissue of eyelid 5. Keratitis- inflammation of cornea Blindness- complete or almost absence of the sense of light aka visually Impaired * Types include Glaucoma and Cataracts GLAUCOMA Pathophysiology: abnormal pressure in the eye causing damage to the optic nerve Most common: Primary (primary open-angle vs. acute angle-closure glaucoma) * Secondary caused by infections, tumors, or trauma * Third kind: congenital Risk factors: family hx, African-American race Signs and Symptoms: Acute angle-closure: unilateral and rapid onset; severe pain, blurred vi sion, rainbows around lights, nausea and vomiting * Primary open-angle: bilateral and gradual onset, no pain, aching eyes, headache, halos around lights, visual changes not corrected by eyeglasses * Early detection may require tx to PREVENT optic nerve damage during asymptomatic period. Medications/Prescriptions: * Cholinergic agents (miotics) * Cause pupil constriction * Isopto (carbachol) * Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors * Slow production of aqueous fluid * Diamox (acetazolamide) * Adrenergic agonists * Slow production of aqueous fluid * Propine (dipivefrin) * Beta blockers * Slow production of aqueous fluid * Timoptic (timolol) * Surgery, if treatment is not successful. CATARACTS * Pathophysiology: opacity in the lens that can cause loss of vision; light can’t get through to the retina * Ultraviolet rays damage lenses over time. S/sx: painless, halos around lights, difficulty reading fine print, difficulty seeing in bright light, sensitivity to glare, double vision, hazy vi sion, decreased ability to see colors * Tx: Surgery: surgical removal of clouded lens and replacement or accommodation with special eyeglasses or contact lenses Pt Teaching after Cataract Surgery: * Make sure you make arrangements for a ride. * You may need to instill eye drops or take pills to help healing and to control pressure inside your eye. * You will need to wear an eye shield or eyeglasses to help protect the eye. * Avoid rubbing or pressing on your eye. * Try not to bend or lift heavy objects because bending increases pressure in the eye. * You can walk, climb stairs, and do light household chores. Macular Degeneration Pathophysiology: It’s age relatedleading cause of visual impairment in US adults older than age 50 * Deteriorate in the maculaarea where retina light rays converge for sharp, central vision, needed for reading and seeing small objects * 2 types of ARMD * Dry (atrophic): photoreceptors on the macula fail to function and aren’t replaced secondary to advancing age * Wet (exudative): retinal tissue degenerates allowing vitreous fluid or blood into subretinal space; new blood vessels form -; subretinal edema -; scar tissue * LIMITED CENTRAL VISION Dry: cellular debris accumulate behind retina Wet: blood vessels grow behind the retina Without treatment the retina can become detached * S/sx: Dry: slow, progressive vision loss of central and near vision * Wet: sudden onset of central and near vision, blurred vision, distortion of straight lines, dark or empty spot in the central field of vision * Tx: * Dry: no treatment * Wet: argon laser photocoagulation EYE MEDICATIONS: Ophthalmic antibiotics * Bacitracin * Erythromycin Cholinergic agents (miotics) * Carbachol * Pilocarpine Beta blockers timolol NURSING CARE: * Post a sign over bed or door that identifies the patient’s visual status * Identify and announce yourself as you enter the room and leave the room * Ask the patient, â€Å" Is there anything I can do for you? â⠂¬  * Orient the pt to the room Keep objects in the same location on the bedside table at all times per patient preference. * Explain procedures before you begin * Tell the pt what you are doing before you touch them * At mealtime, explain location of food like the hands of a clock (your milk is at 2 o’clock) * Keep call light within reach! Do not play with the Seeing Eye dog that is working * Teach patient how to properly administer eye drops and/or ointment. * Teach patients to get regular eye examinations. * Allow patients to talk about their anxiety and fear. * When ambulating with the patient place the patient’s hand on your elbow. * Assist blind patient with objects such as audio books or watch with audio.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Phishing Attack

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the field of computer security, Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is a fraudulent e-mail that attempts to get you to divulge personal data that can then be used for illegitimate purposes. There are many variations on this scheme. It is possible to Phish for other information in additions to usernames and passwords such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, social security numbers and mothers’ maiden names. Phishing presents direct risks through the use of stolen credentials and indirect risk to institutions that conduct business on line through erosion of customer confidence. The damage caused by Phishing ranges from denial of access to e-mail to substantial financial loss. [pic] Fig 1. 1 the simplified flow of information in a Phishing attack 1. A deceptive message is sent from the Phishers to the user. 2. A user provides confidential information to a Phishing server (normally after some interaction with the server). 3. The Phishers obtains the confidential information from the server. 4. The confidential information is used to impersonate the user. 5. The Phishers obtains illicit monetary gain. Steps 3 and 5 are of interest primarily to law enforcement personnel to identify and prosecute Phishers. The discussion of technology countermeasures will center on ways to disrupt steps 1, 2 and 4, as well as related technologies outside the information flow proper. CHAPTER 2 PHISHING TECHNIQUES Phishers use a wide variety of techniques, with one common thread. LINK MANIPULATION Most methods of Phishing use some form of technical deception designed to make a link in an e-mail appear to belong to the spoofed organization. Misspelled URLs or the use of sub domains are common tricks used by Phishers. In the following example, http://www. yourbank. example. com/, it appears as though the URL will take you to the example section of the yourbank website; actually this URL points to the â€Å"yourbank† (i. e. Phishing) section of the example website. An old method of spoofing used links containing the ‘@' symbol, originally intended as a way to include a username and password. For example, http://www. oogle. [email  protected] tripod. com/ might deceive a casual observer into believing that it will open a page on www. google. com, whereas it actually directs the browser to a page on members. tripod. com, using a username of www. google. com: the page opens normally, regardless of the username supplied. 1 2 FILTER EVASION Phishers have used images ins tead of text to make it harder for anti-Phishing filters to detect text commonly used in Phishing e-mails. WEBSITE FORGERY Once a victim visits the Phishing website the deception is not over. Some Phishing scams use JavaScript commands in order to alter the address bar. This is done either by placing a picture of a legitimate URL over the address bar, or by closing the original address bar and opening a new one with the legitimate URL. [pic] Fig 2. 1 An website which does not shows real address bar PHONE PHISHING Messages that claimed to be from a bank told users to dial a phone number regarding problems with their bank accounts. Once the phone number (owned by the Phishers) was dialed, prompts told users to enter their account numbers and PIN. Vishing (voice Phishing) sometimes uses fake caller-ID data to give the appearance that calls come from a trusted organization. pic] Fig 2. 2 How Phishing Attack can take place CHAPTER 3 REASONS OF PHISHING Let's consider some of the reasons people fall victim to Phishing scams. TRUST OF AUTHORITY When a Phishing email arrives marked as â€Å"High Priority† that threatens to close our bank account unless we update our data immediately, it engages the same authority response mechanisms that we've obeyed for millennia. In our modern culture, the old markers of authority – physical strength, aggressiveness, ruthlessness – have largely given way to signs of economic power. â€Å"He's richer than I am, so he must be a better man†. If you equate market capitalization with GDP then Bank of America is the 28th most powerful country in the world. If you receive a personal email purported to come from BOA questioning the validity of your account data, you will have a strong compulsion to respond, and respond quickly. TEXTUAL AND GRAPHIC PRESENTATION LACKS TRADITIONAL CLUES OF VALIDITY Most people feel that they can tell an honest man by looking him in the eye. You can spot a â€Å"professional† panhandler before he gets to the fourth word in his spiel. Without clues from the verbal and physical realms, our ability to determine the validity of business transactions is diminished. This is a cornerstone of the direct mail advertising business. If a piece of mail resembles some type of official correspondence, you are much more likely to open it. Car dealers send sales flyers in manila envelopes stamped â€Å"Official Business† that look like the envelopes tax refund checks are mailed in. Banks send credit card offers in large cardboard envelopes that are almost indistinguishable from FedEx overnight packages. Political advertisements are adorned with all manner of patriotic symbols to help us link the candidate with our nationalistic feelings. E-MAIL AND WEB PAGES CAN LOOK REAL The use of symbols laden with familiarity and repute lends legitimacy (or the illusion of legitimacy) to information—whether accurate or fraudulent—that is placed on the imitating page. Deception is possible because the symbols that represent a trusted company are no more ‘real' than the symbols that are reproduced for a fictitious company. Certain elements of dynamic web content can be difficult to copy directly but are often easy enough to fake, especially when 100% accuracy is not required. Email messages are usually easier to replicate than web pages since their elements are predominately text or static HTML and associated images. Hyperlinks are easily subverted since the visible tag does not have to match the URL that your click will actually redirect your browser to. The link can look like http://bankofamerica. com/login but the URL could actually link to http://bankofcrime. com/got_your_login CHAPTER 4 ANTI PHISHING TECHNIQUES To counter the phishing threat, a number of anti-phishing solutions have been proposed, both by industry and academic world. The anti phishing techniques can in general be divided into three categories. 1. Spam Filters 2. Anti-phishing tool bars and 3. Password protection mechanism Spam Filters A class of anti-phishing approaches aims to solve the phishing problem at the email level. The key idea is that when a phishing email does not reach its victims, they cannot fall for the scam. Hence, filters and content analysis techniques are often used to attempt to identify phishing emails before these emails are delivered to users. Clearly, this line of research is closely related to anti-spam research [10]. By continuously training filters (e. g. , Bayesian filters), a large number of phishing emails can be blocked. This is because such emails often contain words that may be identified as suspicious tokens that do not frequently occur in legitimate emails (e. g. , ? update? , ? login? , etc. ). The main disadvantage of anti-spam techniques is that their success depends on the availability of these filters and their proper training. That is, when the user does not actively help in training the filter, the filter typically does not perform as expected. Furthermore, even when filters are trained well and a user rarely receives any spam or phishing emails, once a phishing email bypasses the filter, the user’s belief of the legitimacy of this mail is strengthened. Anti-Phishing Toolbars To identify a page as a phishing site, there are a variety of methods that can be used, such as white lists (lists of known safe sites), blacklists (lists of known fraudulent sites), various heuristics to see if a URL is similar to a well-known URL, and community ratings. The toolbars examined here employ different combinations of these methods. By using publicly available information provided on the toolbar download web sites as well as observations from using each toolbar we get a basic understanding of how each toolbar functions. Some of the toolbars that are used for anti-phishing are 1) eBay Toolbar The eBay Toolbar uses a combination of heuristics and blacklists. The toolbar also gives users the ability to report phishing sites, which will then be verified before being blacklisted. 2) GeoTrust TrustWatch Toolbar GeoTrust’s web site provides no information about how TrustWatch determines if a site is fraudulent; however, it is suspect that the company ompiles a blacklist that includes sites reported by users through a button provided on the toolbar. 3) Google Safe Browsing Google provides the source code for the Safe Browsing feature and says that it checks URLs against a blacklist 4) McAfee SiteAdvisor SiteAdvisor claims to detect not just phishing websites, but any sites that send spam, offer downloads containi ng spyware, or engage in other similar bad practices. The determination is made by a combination of automated heuristics and manual verification. 5) Microsoft Phishing Filter in Windows Internet Explorer This toolbar largely relies on a blacklist hosted by Microsoft. However, it also uses some heuristics when it encounters a site that is not in the blacklist. Users also have the option of using this feature to report suspected phishing sites 6) Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar The Netcraft toolbar also uses a blacklist, which consists of fraudulent sites identified by Netcraft as well as sites submitted by users and verified by the company. The toolbar also displays a risk rating between one and ten as well as the hosting location of the site. [pic] Fig 4. 1 Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar ) Netscape Browser 8. 1 It appears that the functionality of Netscape Browser relies solely on a blacklist, which is maintained by AOL and updated frequently. When a suspected phishing site is encountered, the user is redirected to a built-in warning page. Users are shown the original URL and are asked whether or not they would like to proceed. 8) Spoofguard Spoofguard does not use white lists or blac klists. Instead, the toolbar employs a series of heuristics to identify phishing pages. 9) AntiPhish AntiPhish is an academic solution which keeps track of where sensitive information is being submitted to. 0) Dynamic security skins Dynamic security skins is also an academis solution which allow a remote server to prove its identity in a way that is easy for humans to verify. Most of the tools that were tested used blacklists, but only half of them were able to identify the majority of phishing web sites. We don’t know the size of the blacklists used by each toolbar, nor do we know what heuristics are used by any of the toolbars other than Spoofguard. We suspect that the toolbars that performed best use larger and more frequently updated black lists. They may also use heuristics that allow them to detect phishing sites that haven’t yet been put on the blacklist. The only toolbar known to make no use of blacklists was Spoofguard. While it was able to identify the majority of phishing sites using only heuristics, it still missed some phishing sites and it had a very high false positive rate. Spoofguard could potentially be improved through the use of a whitelist, which would prevent the problems that occurred when phishing sites were visited before their corresponding legitimate sites. The whitelist would not necessarily need to be extremely large or updated frequently to be effective. Password Protection Mechanism A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource. The password should be kept secret from those who are not allowed for access. So, the major concern for any user is to safeguard his/her password. The password can be cracked with the attacks such as Guessing attack, Brute-force attack, Dictionary attack, Phishing attack etc. ,. Another problem regarding password is single password problem where the user uses a single password for both vulnerable sites and financial sites. The hackers can break into the vulnerable sites that simply stores username and password and apply those retrieved combination of username and password on high security sites such as banking sites. All these problems at a single stroke can be solved by hashing the master password using domain name as key on client side. Some of the applications/tools that use this powerful technique are 1) Password Composer This extension [25] puts a tiny red icon to the left of a password entry field. If one clicks on this icon, the password field is overlaid with a replacement input, where one can supply a single, secure password (Master Password). 2) Magic Password Generator This extension combines master password and the domain name of the site to make another unique password for that site. For advanced users, with a catchall address at a domain, just put â€Å"@example. com† (whatever one’s domain is) for the address, and MPWGen will make a different email for every site too. Alternately, use â€Å"[email  protected]†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and the value will be inserted after the + sign, for email accounts that support this feature, like gmail. ) Password generator Password Generator gets the hostname from the page's URL and mixes it together with one’s personal master password using a little cryptographic magic MD5. It always gets the same result if given that hostname and master password, but will never get that result if either changes. 4) Hassapass Hasspass automatically generates strong passwords from a master password and a parameter like domain name. The password generation is performed inside this very browser window in JavaScript 5) Genpass GenPass is a JavaScript/MD5 bookmarklet-based password generator. GenPass is no longer being updated. Presently consider using SuperGenPass; however, note that SuperGenPass is not compatible with GenPass—given the same input, they generate different passwords. 6) Password Hasher When the master key is given to Password Hasher and it enters the hash word into the site's password field. A hash word is the result of scrambling the master key with a site tag. Click on a # marker next to a password field or press the Control-F6 key combination when in a password field or choose Password Hasher from either the Tools menu or the right-click popup menu on a password field to enter the master key. ) Pwdhash Pwdhash is a browser extension that transparently converts a user's password into a domain-specific password. The user can activate this hashing by choosing passwords that start with a special prefix (@@) or by pressing a special password key (F2). Pwdhash automatically replaces the contents of these password fields with a one-way hash of the pair (password, domain-name). Based on t he features like application type, hashing algorithm, security, password strength, spoof proof, visibility to webpage, visibility to user etc. Pwdhash is the best among the above mentioned applications. But some of its disadvantages are as follows a) Invisible to user – Password hashing done by Pwdhash is invisible to user. If this extension stops working, user will not know about this, i. e. , passwords will not be hashed. b) Visibility of activation to webpage – Webpage gets the intimation about the activation of Pwdhash. This made Pwdhash vulnerable for JavaScript attacks. So webpage can put some efforts to know the original master password. ) Password availability as plain text – The master password is directly filled in password field given by webpage. i. e. , password is available in plain text. d) Easily spoof-able – As activation is visible to webpage and by using Alex’s corner method it is very easy to know the master password of user by f ake webpage. e) Affect on others / Affecting webpage – Pwdhash have some side-effects on websites. Any JavaScript attached with password fields will not work properly. For ex. keyPress event will not work properly. f) Not secure – Finally, Pwdhash is not looking so secured. CHAPTER 5 ANTI-PHISHING There are several different techniques to combat Phishing, including legislation and technology created specifically to protect against Phishing. SOCIAL RESPONSES One strategy for combating Phishing is to train people to recognize Phishing attempts, and to deal with them. Education can be effective, especially where training provides direct feedback. One newer Phishing tactic, which uses Phishing e-mails targeted at a specific company, known as Spear Phishing, has been harnessed to train individuals at various locations. People can take steps to avoid Phishing attempts by slightly modifying their browsing habits. When contacted about an account needing to be â€Å"verified† (or any other topic used by Phishers), it is a sensible precaution to contact the company from which the e-mail apparently originates to check that the e-mail is legitimate. Alternatively, the address that the individual knows is the company's genuine website can be typed into the address bar of the browser, rather than trusting any hyperlinks in the suspected Phishing message. Nearly all legitimate e-mail messages from companies to their customers contain an item of information that is not readily available to Phishers. Some companies, for example PayPal, always address their customers by their username in e-mails, so if an e-mail addresses the recipient in a generic fashion (â€Å"Dear PayPal customer†) it is likely to be an attempt at Phishing. E-mails from banks and credit card companies often include partial account numbers. However, recent research has shown that the public do not typically distinguish between the first few digits and the last few digits of an account number—a significant problem since the first few digits are often the same for all clients of a financial institution. People can be trained to have their suspicion aroused if the message does not contain any specific personal information. Phishing attempts in early 2006, however, used personalized information, which makes it unsafe to assume that the presence of personal information alone guarantees that a message is legitimate. Furthermore, another recent study concluded in part that the presence of personal information does not significantly affect the success rate of Phishing attacks, which suggests that most people do not pay attention to such details. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry and law enforcement association has suggested that conventional Phishing techniques could become obsolete in the future as people are increasingly aware of the social engineering techniques used by Phishers. They predict that Pharming and other uses of malware will become more common tools for stealing information. TECHNICAL RESPONSES Anti-Phishing measures have been implemented as features embedded in browsers, as extensions or toolbars for browsers, and as part of website login procedures. The following are some of the main approaches to the problem. Helping to identify legitimate sites Most Phishing websites are secure websites, meaning that SSL with strong cryptography is used for server authentication, where the website's URL is used as identifier. The problem is that users often do not know or recognize the URL of the legitimate sites they intend to connect to, so that the authentication becomes meaningless. A condition for meaningful server authentication is to have a server identifier that is meaningful to the user. Simply displaying the domain name for the visited website as some some anti-Phishing toolbars do is not sufficient. A better approach is the pet name extension for Firefox which lets users type in their own labels for websites, so they can later recognize when they have returned to the site. If the site is not recognized, then the software may either warn the user or block the site outright. This represents user-centric identity management of server identities. Some suggest that a graphical image selected by the user is better than a pet name Browsers alerting users to fraudulent websites Another popular approach to fighting Phishing is to maintain a list of known Phishing sites and to check websites against the list. Microsoft's IE7 browser, Mozilla Firefox 2. 0, and Opera all contain this type of anti-Phishing measure. Firefox 2 uses Google anti-Phishing software. Some implementations of this approach send the visited URLs to a central service to be checked, which has raised concerns about privacy. To mitigate the problem of Phishing sites impersonating a victim site by embedding its images (such as logos), several site owners have altered the images to send a message to the visitor that a site may be fraudulent. The image may be moved to a new filename and the original permanently replaced, or a server can detect that the image was not requested as part of normal browsing, and instead send a warning image. Augmenting password logins The Bank of America's website is one of several that ask users to select a personal image, and display this user-selected image with any forms that request a password. Users of the bank's online services are instructed to enter a password only when they see the image they selected. However, a recent study suggests few users refrain from entering their password when images are absent. In addition, this feature (like other forms of two-factor authentication) is susceptible to other attacks. Security skins are a related technique that involves overlaying a user-selected image onto the login form as a visual cue that the form is legitimate. Unlike the website-based image schemes, however, the image itself is shared only between the user and the browser, and not between the user and the website. The scheme also relies on a mutual authentication protocol, which makes it less vulnerable to attacks that affect user-only authentication schemes. 1 Eliminating Phishing mail Specialized spam filters can reduce the number of Phishing e-mails that reach their addressees' inboxes. These approaches rely on machine learning and natural language processing approaches to classify Phishing e-mails. 2 Monitoring and takedown Several companies offer banks and other organizations likely to suffer from Phishing scams round-the-clock services to monitor, analyze and assist in shutting down Phishing websites. Individuals can contribute by reporting Phishing to both volunteer and industry groups, such as PhishTank. LEGAL RESPONSES On January 26, 2004, the U. S. Federal Trade Commission filed the first lawsuit against a suspected Phisher. The defendant, a Californian teenager, allegedly created a webpage designed to look like the America Online website, and used it to steal credit card information. In the United States, Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005. Companies have also joined the effort to crack down on Phishing. CHAPTER 6 HOW ANTI-PHISHING SOFTWARE WORKS Anti-phishing software consists of computer programs that attempt to identify phishing content contained in websites and e-mail. It is often integrated with web browsers and email clients as a toolbar that displays the real domain name for the website the viewer is visiting, in an attempt to prevent fraudulent websites from masquerading as other legitimate web sites. Anti-phishing functionality may also be included as a built-in capability of some web browsers Common phishing tactics take advantage of a visitor by requesting them to link out to another site, asking that the enter personal information and passwords, or redirecting them to another site completely for registration. The process usually begins by sending out a forged e-mail that looks like it was sent from the company. Some tactics include saying an account has expired and needs to be updated, or has experienced unauthorized use and needs to be verified. Many banking and financial institutions become targets for these types of scams, and they can be a considerable threat to millions of account holders and users. Many leading web browsers and software programs have realized the impact of this trend, and have created programs that can limit the frequency of these types of scams. Micirosoft Windows Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2. 0, Google Safe Browsing, and Earthlink ScamBlocker are just a few programs that have reduced the risks involved. In Firefox 2. 0, Phishing Protection is always turned on and checks the sites automatically for any potential risks or hazards. The list is reviewed on a regular basis, and can be configured to Firefox Security settings for maximum control. When Phishing Protection in enabled, the sites are downloaded into a list and checked for any anti-phishing services. A warning sign will appear if any suspicious activity is detected. The Netcraft toolbar makes use of a risk rating system, allowing you the option of entering a password (or not). TrustWatch makes the Internet Explorer toolbar, and can help validate a Web site and provide a site report when needed. This option also allows you to review all suspected sites and find out which ones use SSL technology. Earthlink Toolbar with ScamBlocker will verify any popup messages that you may encounter as you visit a site, and can help you find out all the details on current phishing scams. Anti-phishing software is designed to track websites and monitor activity; any suspicious behaviour can be automatically reported, and even reviewed as a report after a period of time. Anti-phishing toolbars can help protect your privacy and reduce the risk of landing at a false or insecure URL. Although some people have concerns over how valuabe anti-phishing software and toolbars may be, security threats can be reduced considerably when they are managed by the browser program. Other companies that are trained in computer security are investigating other ways to report phishing issues; programs are being designed that can analyze web addresses for fraudulent behavior through new tactics, and cross-checking domain names for validity. The best and in most using Anti-Phishing Software is Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar Netcraft is an Internet Services Company located in the United Kingdom and is devoted to tracking online technology. Additionally, Netcraft has actively taken up the sole of patrolling the cyberspace to sniff out phishing emails. The antiphising toolbar from Netcraft not only protects you and your savings from phishing attacks but also lets you check the hosting location and Risk Rating of every site you visit. Once you download and install the toolbar, you join a giant neighbourhood watch scheme whose most alert and most expert members defend everyone in the community against phishing frauds. This antiphishing group working to protect you is one of the finest ways to fight phishing. This could be downloaded through internet [pic] [pic] Fig 6. 1 Downloading Netcraft anti-phishing tool bar CHAPTER 7 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING ANTI-PHISHING Advantages †¢ Protect your savings from Phishing attacks. †¢ When a Phishing website or phishing email appears it will informs to the user. †¢ Some Anti-Phishing software's also allows seeing the hosting location and Risk Rating of every site you visit. †¢ Anti-phishing software is designed to track websites and monitor activity; any suspicious behavior can be automatically reported and even reviewed as a report after a period of time Disadvantages †¢ No single technology will completely stop phishing. So Phishing attacks can not be completely stopped †¢ Even Anti-Phishing software's should be upgraded with respect to the Phishing attacks. CHAPTER 8 FEW SNAPSHOTS OF PHISHING WEBSITES [pic] Fig 8. 1 Phishing Peoples Bank Web site [pic] [pic] Fig 8. 2 Phishing US Bank Web site CONCLUSION No single technology will completely stop phishing. However, a combination of good organization and practice, proper application of current technologies, and improvements in security technology has the potential to drastically reduce the prevalence of phishing and the losses suffered from it. In particular: High-value targets should follow best practices and keep in touch with continuing evolution of them. Phishing attacks can be detected rapidly through a combination of customer reportage, bounce monitoring, image use monitoring, honeypots and other techniques. Email authentication technologies such as Sender-ID and cryptographic signing, when widely deployed, have the potential to prevent phishing emails from reaching users. Analysis of imagery is a promising area of future research to identify phishing emails. Personally identifiable information should be included in all email communications. Systems allowing the user to enter or select customized text and/or imagery are particularly promising. Browser security upgrades, such as distinctive display of potentially deceptive content and providing a warning when a potentially unsafe link is selected, could substantially reduce the efficacy of phishing attacks. Anti-phishing toolbars are promising tools for identifying phishing sites and heightening security when a potential phishing site is detected. Detection of outgoing confidential information, including password hashing, is a promising area of future work, with some technical challenges. BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] http://en. wikipedia. org/ [2] http://webopedia. com/ [3] http://computerworld. com/ [4] http://www. anti-phishing. info/ [5] http://lorrie. cranor. org/ ———————– Not the real address bar Not the proper domain for peoples. com