Summer Term

So it is now Summer term. Sorry I have not been very active. So busy. Life has been so stressful. Still doing good in school, 3.89 gpa. This term may wreck that. I am convinced SQL is a tool of the devil. Really starting to hate that class.

So frustrated with it. Everything else has been good. Married life has been good too me, and I am happy to announce we have a bun in the oven. Due in February. After this term I have 6 more classes to get through. Two a term, way easier hopefully.

My first Youtube video,,

TAI CHI

I took Tai Chi this term, just to get my ass up and moving. I have not been able to make time to get to the gym (sleeping and studying keep getting in the way) and have been pretty sedentary thence I started going back to school. I took a few lessons a about 5 or 6 years ago and really enjoyed it. I have to say my only complaints about the college course is the room is a little small, and I wish the classes were longer, or more often. Really enjoying the class is basically what I am trying to say. I hope in the near future to be able to start taking classes at Oregon Tai Chi Wushu, my instructor speaks very highly of it.

Mid-Terms,,,,,,

Well Mid Terms have come, and so far so good,,,,,,I think. I have one more to go. Grades have not been posted yet but I feel like they went well, so far, and that's all that really matters right???

Well, I may feel differently once grades are posted, but till then I am living in the nice warm glow of self delusion.

Password Safety

So what have we learned this week,,,,I couldn't leave my blog at 13 posts

This week we covered how to steal all my information, (by making your e-mail look like it came from the school,)

 and that we will all die in a fiery nuclear holocaust thanks to Stuxnet. Happy World Domination!!

Stuxnet-Cyber Weapon or Misunderstood Digital Christmas Card?

So for those of you not in the loop, Stuxnet is a super virus, the first of it's kind cyber weapon. Found in industrial control systems of such things as nuclear power plants, air traffic control systems and many other key structures. What makes this virus so interesting is a few key facts that separate it from your run of the mill virus. It was made with a real security clearance, it's 20 times more complex then any known virus at the time, it has an array of capabilities, such as causing a nuclear plant to go into melt down all the while telling the operators everything was fine and it comes with a self-destruct feature among many other safeguards. It exploits multiple security gaps that the software creators are unaware of, often called zero-days, or 0-days. The virus originally targeted Siemens software by targeting Microsoft operating systems and networks then seeking out the Siemens Step7 software. There are 3 parts of Stuxnet, a worm that executes all routines related to the attack, a link file that automatically propagates copies of the worm, and a rootkit which hides all the malicious files and processes. Thence Stuxnet was first found, several similar programs have been discovered, such as Duqu, and Flame.

While no definitive person or group has been found guilty of creating Stuxnet many people believe it was a joint venture by Israel and the United States. It is believed to be the largest and costliest development effort in malware history, due to the team of programmers it needed to develop all the capabilities and the in-depth knowledge of the industrial processes. Documents from WikiLeaks and testimony from anonymous U.S. officials leave little doubt that both parties were involved. 

To make the world a better place Stuxnet is open source and free online for anyone to play with. Feel free to full fill your dreams of world domination by clicking here.

Frustrating Day

So one of my classes this term is "Internet in Depth" which is the reason I started this new blog. So far the class has been great, but at the same time incredibly frustrating. I am normally very non-trusting, cynical, and look for the worst in everyone. I know that's not the best outlook on life to have, and when I was younger I was quit the opposite. But life sticks it too you and you adapt and change. I have always been very skeptical of everything I see on the internet and love to punch holes in the lies and scams I come across. With this said, my professor has showed me my Achilles heal twice this term. I get fishing e-mails all the time, never fall for it, he sends me one and even though one part of my brain is screaming NO!!!!! I click on it anyways and enter my info. It's from the school, it has to be legit.

Dear Brian,

We are concerned that your Bobcat web account has been modified by an outside party.  In order for us to ensure that none of your classes will be cancelled (which could affect your financial status with the college) or other classes added, we need you to log in to your Bobcat account immediately and ensure that nothing has been changed.

COCC Bobcat Account Login

Please do this as soon as possible to ensure your classes continue as planned.

Thank you,

David Belluscini
Technology and Communications Coordinator
Central Oregon Community College

  Why oh why did I not listen to my bullshit detector? It was going off like mad, yet blindly I followed orders. Of course I am the type to stew on things so this is just eating at me, making it difficult to get my mind on task. Which is why I am blogging instead of doing homework. O.K. time to recite my mantra for a while, "don't trust anyone, don't trust anyone, don't trust anyone".

Fall Term

It's official, made the list!! Fall term 15 credits and working full time. 

Will AI replace the browser?

I believe the browser and AI will slowly meld into some new form. I don't believe we can fully get away from the browser, yet I can see were AI can lend it's self to helping create a slimmer, faster web browsing experience. There are people who due to disabilities are unable to use voice activated systems, at least at there current state. I can imagine a browser that is fully voice controlled in the very near future, but we will need some form of browser to view and interact with that information, and for the people unable to interact with the voice system.

While I have never used Siri or Cortana, I can see the appeal of the hands free, voice activated interface. With voice recognition continuing to improve, and the success of cloud technology, I feel this technology will become more and more apart of our daily lives. What is a cute trick you can do on your phone or tablet now, will soon become deeply integrated into all of our tech. They make refrigerators that text you when you are low on something, soon our all of our appliances will be able to interact with us in many new and helpful ways. Now while, I have been known to bash on the IoT, I think if this technology is done correctly it can really be a great tool for all of us. On the other hand it could be a disaster if not done correctly. As I have stated in previous posts, security and the users well being needs to come first. No one will want any kind of technology, no matter how "cool" it is, if they know there is a chance there being spied on, or in some way them, or there families safety is in danger. We also need to take a serious look at the infrastructures of our ISP's. They were not designed for users to have so many devices and are slow to catch up to the demand that end users are putting on the systems. When ipv4 was invented no one imagined we would be running out of IP's yet now we are scrambling to implement ipv 6. All of our nations ISP's are dealing with not only this conversion, but there quickly filling pipelines. Systems designed for 1 maybe 2 computers per house are now seeing 20+ devices per house and on top of that many of these devices are streaming, something unheard of when many of these systems were designed. No matter how many products we create, no matter how far we take AI or any other tech, it will only be as good as out aging infrastructure will allow it too work.