It’s a -(Man’s)-Woman’s World Professor Ramos Blog

It’s a -(Man’s)-Woman’s World Women in general are stereotyped in not only literature, but in film and music, making it even more frustrating when that woman is of color. Especially lately with the way American mentality has changed towards Mexican immigrants. Sandra Cisneros uses two short stories to represent main role models in Hispanic culture and how that has changed who these women became. Cisneros not only uses the two figures, La Llorona and La Malinche, to represent two women, Clemencia in â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican† and CleÏÅ'filas in â€Å"Woman Hollering Creek,† but she also transforms these roles to change the outcome of the original figures and their traditional happy endings. Cisneros metamorphosizes these women’s personalities to modernize them to a balanced, relatable scenario, so that these stories can enlighten a realistic representation of true women’s nature. In â€Å"Woman Hollering Creek,† Cisneros uses the protagonist CleÏÅ'filas to foretell a story of isolation by moving across the border to America. CleÏÅ'filas tells of her fantasies she has watched on telenovelas. Cisneros is quick to illustrate her naivety, how love can blind a person to red flags in toxic relationships. â€Å"She has to remind herself why she loves him,† showing how she tries to fit her life into the classic happily ever after scenario, even all the while her husbands abuse grew stronger and repetitive (Cisneros 49). CleÏÅ'filas tries to find excuses even though inside, she emotionally already acknowledges that something has to change. She was confused in her inner dialogue because in Hispanic culture, its taboo to be without a husband, she was scared to be judged for having children without the father. Again, Cisneros writes in â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican† to show Clemencia’s young naivety as well as she explains her affair, â€Å" I was honored that he’d done me the favor. I was that young† (76). Both these women experienced expectations of implemented Hispanic role models, but also Cisneros shows a change to these stories’ outcomes of betrayal and murder. Cisneros then remolds this naivety by expressing their awareness of these blurred fantasies with reality. Cisneros also uses certain stream of consciousness to express the complicated inner dialogue of this metamorphosis taking place. In â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican,† Cisneros writes about Clemencia’s affair with her teacher, â€Å"he took me under his wing and in his bed, this man, this teacher, your father† (76). Not only does this dialogue show her blurred perspective of boundaries, but it also offers the ultimate co-dependency these women experienced due to their naive perceptions. She shows this in â€Å"Woman Hollering Creek† as well, â€Å"this man, this father, this rival, this keeper, this lord, this master, this husband till kingdom come† (Cisneros 49). This style of writing that Cisneros uses shows the progression out of naive perspectives into strong women. CleÏÅ'filas has the happy ending instead by choosing to go home to her father and brothers. Clemencia healing after letting go of the satisfaction of telling Drew, her ex-lover of her mis deeds, causing her to regain her power as an individual. These role models, or these originally represented women, being La Llorona and La Malinche. La Llorona is a ‘weeping woman’ that lingers near bodies of water, looking for her dead children. The story begins with a woman, who is married to a rich man with two children. When their marriage falls apart, she sees him with another woman. Enraged she drowns her children but immediately regrets it. Now, for all eternity she visits bodies of water in search for her children (The Curse of La Llorona). CleÏÅ'filas represents La Llorona in the same way their marriages fell apart because of men’s infidelities; cheating, lying, and abusing. If, in the end, the doctor at her pregnancy checkup didn’t help her escape from that toxic situation, she may have had the same break in sanity. When CleÏÅ'filas in the beginning once wondered if the woman that the creek was named after was hollering from â€Å"pain or rage† (Cisneros 47). Her thinking how funny the name was at first, because she was naà ¯ve still. As her story progresses, she slowly caves into this solitude as she thinks, â€Å"La Llorona calling to her. She is sure of it†¦Listens. The day sky turning to night. The baby pulling up fistfuls of grass and laughing. La Llorona. Wonders if something as quiet as this drives a woman to darkness under the trees† (Cisneros 51). This thoughtful trance is induced after years of abuse has been endured, and her power already lost. Her mental state is almost possessed by this creek that she thinks is calling her. With this, Cisneros simultaneously creates a modern La Llorona, one with a happier ending, but also joins the protagonist CleÏÅ'filas side by side with La Llorona to show the better choices, escaping instead of staying to become murderous, that could be made. Instead of leading CleÏÅ'filas to murder herself and child, she led her to escape, and possibly create a new better life. La Malinche’s story, on the other hand, is a woman associated with betrayal and being the mother of Mexico. It’s said in folklore that La Malinche was a master of the two languages Spanish and Mayan, after her Aztec people sold her as a slave, and later as one of twenty wives, to the Spaniards. Because of her skills she often attended political meetings with the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. Hernan Cortes rebuilt the Aztec Mayans into what is known as Mexico because La Malinche warns Cortes of an Aztec plot to destroy the Spanish Army, resulting in its failure and slaughter of her people. Which is why she’s associated with being a traitor and the mother of Mexico because of the Aztec empires rebirth as Mexico (La Malinche). As before, Cisneros uses Clemencia in â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican† to represent La Malinche. Clemencia abuses her power to use her ex-lovers’ son to impose revenge on her dead mother and post lover. She states that â€Å"my mothers’ memory is like†¦ if something already dead dried up and fell off, and I stopped missing where she used to be.† This goes to show that Clemencia disliked her mothers actions, of cheating on her father, causing resentment towards her. In that same way, La Malinche may have resented being sold as a slave by her own people. Yet, by Clemencia not resolving her issues with her mother, she inevitably became the mother she so disliked. One of the main things that bothered Clemencia was that her mother began to see another man, while her father was sick and dying. Still, Clemencia, as an adult, did something similar by sleeping with Drew, her ex-lover, on the night that his wife was giving birth. Clemencia felt betrayed by her mother, then by her lover who manipulated his place of power, and finally by herself by doing exactly what was done to her. In the story of La Malinche, she was first betrayed by her own people, being sold as a slave, and when her people betrayed political alliances with the conquistadors, then later she betrayed her people by fooling their plan, causing their slaughter. Yet, instead of ending Clemencia with a murder charge, she leads her to gain some power back by sleeping with her ex-lovers son and extinguishing her revenge. This may not be a traditional sparkles and glitter outcome, but its transformative nature did allow her to gain power without the complete annihilation of a mass of people. Both these women faced strong implications from traditional cultures, causing them to become the stronger version of themselves for the better. Cisneros uses tales of previous female Hispanic figures to not only grasp the need for more positive outcomes, but to also communicate the struggle of power dynamics in toxic relationships, and how certain choices can lead to happy endings that these women desire. Just not in the traditional sense of happy endings, for Clemencia to escape her abusive husband and CleÏÅ'filas to establish dominance over Drews abuse in power. Bradley, Laura. â€Å"The Curse of La Llorona: The Real Legend Behind the Horror Film.† The Curse of La Llorona: The Real Legend Behind the Horror Film, Vanity Fair, 19 Apr. 2019, vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/04/la-llorona-real-mexican-legend-curse-of-la-llorona-movie. Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. Random House, 1991, New york â€Å"La Malinche.† Spanish Conquest of Mexico Don Quijote, donquijote.org/mexicanculture/history/la-malinche/.

How Many Seconds Are There in a Day A Week A Year

How Many Seconds Are There in a Day A Week A Year SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Ever wondered how many seconds there are in a day? How about a week? A year? Thanks to Rent, we might know the number of minutes in a year (525,600), but how many seconds is that? Whether you’re trying to get even more granular about how you measure a year or you’re just trying to figure out how many seconds are left until summer vacation, this guide will teach you how many seconds are in a day, a week, a year, and beyond. Not only will we teach you how to calculate these problems, but we’ll also give you a handy chart to keep track of them. Read on to find out how to swap one unit of time for another! All the numbers on a clock represent different aspects of time, all of which come back to seconds. What’s a Second? Before we get into how many seconds there are in a day, let’s talk about what a second is. A second is our base unit of time- base, but not smallest. A base unit is a unit defined on its own terms upon which other units are based. That means that all our other units, such as minutes, hours, nanoseconds, and so on, are all based on seconds. We talk about hours in terms of minutes, but minutes are based on seconds, bringing us back to the base unit. A second used to be based on the Earth’s rotation cycle, with one second being 1/86,400 of the average solar day. Now that we know more about how the Earth rotates- and that the speed at which it rotates is slowing down- we now use a more accurate method. We base a second off of the radiation cycles of a caesium-133 atom, often called an â€Å"atomic clock.† Because our astronomical year varies in length, we also sometimes add â€Å"leap seconds† to the clock to keep better time, or we’d eventually end up with time being way off of where it should be. Adding seconds is infrequent, and doesn’t actually change the time- all it does is keep us consistent. But those single leap seconds matter, keeping us on track so that a few missed seconds doesn’t become a missed minute or hour or day over time. The hands on a clock move in seconds, minutes, and hours, which are all, in some ways, measures of seconds. How Many Seconds in a Day? Now that we know what a second really is- an arbitrary measurement of time used to calculate other, larger units of time- we can start thinking about how many it takes to make up all the other time units. How Many Seconds in a Minute The largest unit after seconds is a minute. There are 60 seconds in one minute. Why? Nobody’s really sure, but it goes all the way back to ancient Babylon. How Many Seconds in an Hour You may already know that there are 60 minutes in an hour, but how many seconds is that? To figure it out, we’ll need to multiply. 60 seconds in one minute and 60 minutes in one hour means that $1 \hour = 60 * 60$. Calculate that out and you’ll find that 1 hour = 3,600 minutes. How to Calculate Seconds Back and Forth It takes some memorization, but it’s not hard to calculate seconds into minutes, hours, days, or even years; you can even go in reverse! For example, if you know that something will take 120 seconds but aren’t sure how many minutes that is, you simply divide by 60, the number of seconds in a minute. Likewise, if you want to know how many seconds are in three days, first you’ll need to calculate how many minutes there are in three days. Three days is 72 hours ($24 \hours * 3 \days$), equivalent to 4,320 minutes ($72 \hours * 60 \minutes$), or 259,200 seconds ($4,320 \minutes * 60 \seconds$). You can do this for really big numbers, too. How many seconds are in a month? Well, the average month is 30.42 days. A day is 24 hours, so the average month is 730.08 hours ($30.42 \days * 24 \hours$). 730.08 hours is equal to 43,804.8 minutes ($730.08 \hours * 60 \minutes$), or 2,628,288 seconds ($43,804.8 \minutes * 60 \seconds$). ...in a second .. in a minute ...in an hour ...in a day ...in a week ...in a month ...in a year †¦in a decade ...in a century Seconds 1 60 3,600 86,400 604,800 2,628,288 3.1536 Ãâ€" $10^7$ 3.1536 Ãâ€" $10^8$ 3.1536 Ãâ€" $10^9$ Minutes $1/60$ 1 60 1,440 10,080 43,804.8 525,600 5.256 Ãâ€" $10^6$ 5.256 Ãâ€" $10^7$ Hours $1/3600$ $1/60$ 1 24 168 730.08 8,760 87,600 876,000 Days $1/86400$ $1/1400$ $1/24$ 1 7 30.42 365 3,650 36,500 Weeks $1/604800$ $1/10080$ $1/168$ $1/7$ 1 4.3 52 520 5,200 Months $1/2628288$ $1/43804.8$ $1/730.08$ $1/30.42$ $1/4.3$ 1 12 120 1,200 Years $1/(3.1536 Ãâ€" 10^7)$ $1/525600$ $1/87600$ $1/365$ $1/52$ $1/12$ 1 10 100 Decades $1/(3.1536 Ãâ€" 10^8)$ $1/(5.256 Ãâ€" 10^6)$ $1/3650$ $1/520$ $1/520$ $1/120$ $1/10$ 1 10 Centuries $1/(3.1536 Ãâ€" 10^9)$ $1/(5.256 Ãâ€" 10^7)$ $1/876000$ $1/36500$ $1/5200$ $1/1200$ $1/100$ $1/10$ 1 Key Tips for Time Conversions It’s not a big deal if you can’t memorize this whole table- most people can’t tell you how many seconds are in a decade off the top of their head. But the calculations are simple math- you just need to know the basics! One Minute = 60 Seconds One Hour = 60 Minutes One Day = 24 Hours One Week = 7 Days One Year = 52 Weeks One Decade = 10 Years One Century = 10 Decades It can be difficult to figure out how many days or weeks are in a month, because months vary in length between 28 and 31 days. If you find yourself needing to figure things out on a more exact basis, use the number of days in the specific month you’re looking for rather than trying to use an average. If a specific month won’t work and you just want an overall sense of the number of days in a month, for example, you know that there are 365 days and 12 months in a year. Divide $365/12$ for 30.42, the average number of days in a month. You don’t have to memorize it- just solve it out! Likewise, you can divide the number of weeks in a year, 52, by the number of months in a year, 12, to get 4.3, the average number of weeks in a month. What’s Next? Ready for more big numbers? Check out this guide to how many zeros there are in a billion and beyond! If you just want to test your calculation skills, these math games are great for fifth graders! Converting seconds to minutes and beyond requires a solid grasp of multiplication- if you need a little help with memorizing your times tables, our multiplication guide will help you out!

Designing Production Systems Process Selection and Capacity Planning Essay

Designing Production Systems Process Selection and Capacity Planning - Essay Example It also aims to discuss some practices that made it a better or a different manufacturing company. Rockwell Automations Marion plant is located in the western part of North Carolina. The plant started its operations in 1996 with a total land area of 174,000 sq feet. Its major products include "mounted spherical and tapered roller bearings with shaft sizes ranging from 1 3_16 inches to 5 inches. These bearings go into such things as mining machinery, fans and other air-handling equipment, waste treatment equipment, forest products processing equipment, food processing machinery and metals processing equipment." (John S. McClenahen) The production floor of the plant is divided into two major areas, which has a total of 20 manufacturing cells. In the front area 16 manufacturing cells producing 351 products which comprises 80% of the plants total sales revenue. At the back are remaining 4 cells, producing items that comprise the remaining 20% of the plant's total sales revenue. This is also called the build on demand area. To date, the company still continues to help manufacturers worldwide succeed through their industrial information control and information solutions, giving them the competitive advantage they so rightfully deserve. Leading companies did not become model companies wi... And Rockwell Automation's Marion plant was never an exception. Basically, the plant is lean, with its processes and practices tailored to fir into the JIT systems. The details of their practices are described in the following context. A. Competitive Edge The practice that made Marion plant unique is in its circle of analysis and improvement of its products and processes. An article published in IndustryWeek described this process. "This cycle begins with product data analysis, moves to describing the current value stream, then to charting the future flow of the value stream, proceeds to achieving the goals by taking tools from the toolbox and comes back to data analysis again. Along the way, product and process priorities get set and action timelines are established." (John S. Mclenahen) Data and figures of the product and its processes provide very important information as to where production is heading and what areas can still be improved. However, these data and figures will only remain as data unless utilized properly. And the Marion plant people have all the tools and resources necessary, books and literature, to assist them in this aspect, especially when something comes up. Even then, these tools will also become useless if the people who have access to it do not use it or do not have the expertise and experience to use it. Marion plant employees are empowered employees. Empowered employees enable companies to reap positive rewards. In a book entitled Empowering Employees, the authors excerpted an article from Oraganizational Dynamics ("Seven Questions Every Leader Should Consider," A Autumn 1997) authored by Robert Quinn and Gretchen Spreitzer. The excerpt cited four characteristics that

Effective Marketing Planning Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Effective Marketing Planning - Assignment Example formation on step by step ideas and concepts required to achieve the results that are set monthly, weekly or quarterly and identifying the individuals that are responsible for each particular task; and implement, track and modify the marketing plan, this will give information on the implementation of the marketing plan and tracking all the results. The information on modification and change of the plan are derived from this step (Edwards, 2008). The effective marketing planning requires full research of the marketing environment. With an intense research on the marketing environment, effective marketing planning will obviously result. Through following the outlined market plan development above, a well thought marketing plan that have mechanisms of tracking required to modify and analyze the plan as may be needed is achieved. A market research will ensure that the company direction is identified. From a marketing environment, a marketing plan can be informal or formal, however, the r esearch identifies who the company clients are and where they access their information from, as well as how to deliver the company marketing message to the customer (Forth Sector Development 2007). As discussed earlier, an effective marketing planning requires research on marketing environment. There are therefore various considerations made in such research. Some of the things considered in marketing environment research include: insights on the reasons why potential customers may choose the company, this includes the core requirements that the company offering will meet; the target customers, this includes information that relates to the number of potential customers, market characteristics of the target clients; the company competitors, this includes the competitors that the company will... This essay stresses that the effective marketing planning requires full research of the marketing environment. With an intense research on the marketing environment, effective marketing planning will obviously result. Through following the outlined market plan development above, a well thought marketing plan that have mechanisms of tracking required to modify and analyze the plan as may be needed is achieved. A market research will ensure that the company direction is identified. From a marketing environment, a marketing plan can be informal or formal, however, the research identifies who the company clients are and where they access their information from, as well as how to deliver the company marketing message to the customer. As the discussion declares an effective marketing planning requires research on marketing environment. There are therefore various considerations made in such research. Some of the things considered in marketing environment research include: insights on the reasons why potential customers may choose the company, this includes the core requirements that the company offering will meet; the target customers, this includes information that relates to the number of potential customers, market characteristics of the target clients; the company competitors, this includes the competitors that the company will need to take the customers from; and statement of the company brand positioning for the target clients.

The Issues Concerning Identity Theft Essay Example for Free

The Issues Concerning Identity Theft Essay Abstract â€Å"Identity theft has been around since the Internet became more than just the stuff of science fiction. The benefits of being in the Network has been undisputed but it has its drawbacks especially recently†. The increasing sophistication of hacking technology and the ever-widening use of web-based communication have made the danger of identity theft loom even larger in the horizon. Recent statistics illustrate just how serious the situation is with cyber criminals increasingly focusing on small companies and individuals, who are considered soft targets. Countermeasures are fighting a losing battle and experts state that individual vigilance is the only really effective way of stemming the flood. Introduction There was a movie in 1992 starring Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley, called â€Å"Sneakers.† They played the parts of college computer geeks who managed to hack into a government computer system as a sort of teenage prank and got caught. Later in the movie, the character of Ben Kingsley becomes a high-powered high-tech executive determined to rule the world with the use of information technology that could hack into any system in the world. At the time of the movie, such scenarios were the stuff of science fiction, but that is precisely the situation today. The dependence on cyber infrastructure has become so ingrained into everyday life that vulnerability to attacks takes on new dimensions. The consequences of this vulnerability are far-reaching, as indeed information has become the new currency in this fast-paced, Web-based world. But ensuring the security of digital information is fraught with difficulty, as hackers and programmers are coming up with smarter and more destructive ways to wreak havoc with both public and private networks. One type of malware that illustrates the increasing sophistication of malicious code uses a JavaScript tool called NeoSploit. It can attack a system using seven distinct exploits that could be customized depending on the specific weakness of the system it is currently attacking. It is double obfuscated so that it easily evades most automated detection. It is a â€Å"smart† bug and adaptable as well. [33] The concept of identity theft is not new. Anybody with a computer and access to the Internet have been warned never to reveal personal information to unverified sources and to keep avoid financial transactions online unless the site is vouched for a by a reliable verification site. But identity theft is so much more, and recently, there has been a disturbing rise in incidents of identity theft beginning in 2004. The threat to networks has become more complex, as illustrated by the distributed denial-of-service attacks in 2000 and the 2001 CodeRed worm. [30] The cost to consumers and businesses of identity theft is significant. According to the Federal Trade Commission, it has been maintained at more than $50 billion in the US alone. [18] Such occurrences are not only occurring in the US, however. In South Africa, Standard Bank local and foreign clients were choused out of thousands of rands by a Trojan installed in public internet cafà ©s which captured bank information. In France, a 2005 report described how terrorists routinely used stolen identities forged onto false identity documents. [26] The effect of such security breakdowns on e-commerce is particularly horrendous. Such enterprises rely on the trust and confidence of their clients that their confidence will be secure during online transactions. It only takes one instance of invasion for clients to shy away from doing further business. This paper investigates the issues pertaining to the technology behind identity theft, the countermeasures being enacted to prevent it and the current unresolved problems. Requirement Analysis To more fully appreciate the problem, a definition of identity theft may be in order. Identity theft was first coined as part of the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998, better known as ID Theft Act. It is defined as a criminal act to: â€Å" †¦knowingly transfer or use, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law.†[1] Because of the increasing sophistication of ID theft techniques, the US Federal Trade Commission felt it incumbent to provide more specific definitions of what constitutes an â€Å"identity† or â€Å"identifying information†, to wit: â€Å"(a) The term ‘identity theft’ means a fraud committed or attempted using the identifying information of another person without lawful authority. (b) The term ‘identifying information’ means any name or number that may be used, alone or in conjunction with any other information, to identify a specific individual, including any (1) Name, Social Security number, date of birth, official state- or government-issued driver’s license or identification number, alien registration number, government passport number, employer or taxpayer identification number. (2) Unique biometric data, such as fingerprint, voice print, retina or iris image, or other unique physical representation. (3) Unique electronic identification number, address, or routing code. (4) Telecommunication identifying information or access device.†[1] Looking at what comprises identity, it seems highly possible that at one point any one using the Internet or a private network will disclose one or more of the data above on a daily basis because it is almost impossible to go through a typical day without at least once using a network application such as an ATM machine or logging on to an e-mail service. Going to a hospital or school and it is highly likely an RFID is required in some form, whether as a school ID or a medical card. Schools are especially vulnerable to attack because security is not particularly high on the list of priorities for school districts working with a budget. The benefits that accrue from digital technology in the school setting is massive, but there has been no corresponding enthusiasm for establishing even the most basic of security measures. The fact is, cases such as the schools in California and Florida in which students themselves hack into the unsecured database for a prank or for profit, or the Ohio student who accidentally deleted student records which had not been backed up, are not unusual. Some of the most iconic movies are about tech savvy students who pull a fast one on uptight school administrators or against terrorists. However, in real life, security breaches for academic and medical records of students are carry consequences just as serious as those for government and corporate information. [43] It is not surprising that with the rapid digitization of information databases in all sectors, there are more and more incidents reported of some type of invasion. In 200 Techniques used in Identity Theft Physical methods computer and backup theft direct access to information dumpster diving, or searching trash theft of a purse or wallet mail theft and interception shoulder surfing skimming dishonest or mistreated employees telemarketing and fake telephone calls Internet-based methods hacking and unauthorized access phishing, or the use of spam and mirror sites pharming, or interception between an IP address and the target server. redirectors advance-fee fraud or 419 fraud fake IRS form keylogging and password stealing There has been such emphasis on Internet-related security breaches that the fact escapes most people that identity theft can happen physically as well as over the Ethernet. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were more than 300 breaches in security in companies involving the loss of data storage tapes that contained the information of more than 20 million people in 2006. However, cyber-crimes is much harder to prevent because it can be done off-site and insiduously. It is also harder to detect because often the theft is done in small batches. Source: http://www.eset.eu/press_release_threats_march McAfee Avert Labs recently released a report called â€Å"Identity Theft† that identified keylogging, malware that keeps track of keystrokes to capture passwords and other sensitive information, as the tool being increasingly used to perpetrate identity theft. The report also tracked the occurrence of phishing attacks which increased 250% from January 2004 to May 2006. [26] In March 2007, ESET reported that the top malware threat was the Trojan keylogging malware called   Win32/PSW.Agent.NCC, followed by Win32/Netsky.Q or simply Netsky P, which has the power to replicate and to spread itself as an attachment through e-mail. In third place is Trojan Win32/TrojanDowloader.Agent.AWF which is used to download malware that creates botnets that in turn creates spam and disruption-of-service attacks. [4] The use of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) bots, a string of codes or independent program that attaches to the IRC channel of a system and appears to be just another user, by hackers has been developed to be transmitted through IM, mass mailing and peer-to-peer communication. While useful for managing channels, maintaining access lists, and providing access to databases, it has become dangerous in the hands of malicious users, who activate the bots to infect and reside in systems with a view of passing on confidential and sensitive information. It is difficult to detect and to clean because the bot is configured to disable anti-virus software and firewalls. Moreover, bots can edit registry entries to hide its presence. [44] Avenues used for Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud Individuals find themselves victims of credit card fraud when they transact with smaller merchants online merchants that utilize generic shopping cart software and failing to keep up with the latest software security patches. Web-based vulnerabilities, which provide cyber-criminals the soft patches in which to invade and infiltrate, is found in many different Web-based applications because of the failure to be vigilant. One example is that of Cellhut.com which uses third party Website security provider Hackersafe which is supposed to have passedthe FBI/SANS Internet Security Test. But experts are circumspect regarding the effectiveness of these tests as evidenced by the number of reports of fraud, which is actually only a part of the actual number of cases that actually occur. Small online companies are not required to report all incidents, making statistical data difficult to gather. [17] E-mail as a gateway In 2003, the number of spam or jank mail outstripped the number of legitimate e-mail in corporate America, indicating an unrelenting onslaught on computer defenses. Malicious code such as SoBig, Mimail, and Yaha, which wreaked havoc on personal computers and servers alike,   was disseminated through e-mail. As a reaction, companies allocated 8.2% of corporate budgets were earmarked for cyber-security but the economic lure for hackers have made them more inventive and devious as well. Phishing, the art of deceiving unwary users with cleverly disguised e-mail, has become the fastest-growing non-violent crimes against banks. One sneaky example was that of Swen, an e-mail virus that masquerades as a Microsoft security fix, complete to the last detail so that it looks authentic. The unwary unleashes the virus in the system when the message is opened or previewed. It then breaks down firewalls and antivirus, leaving the system open to infiltration. Instant Messaging, Instant Invasion Instant Messaging or IM has also become popular of late because it is, well, instant. Many companies believe they have increased productivity significantly with the use of Yahoo Messenger, Skype, MSN Messenger and AOL Messenger. However, these may bring more than messages into the picture. IM allows users not only to exchange messages but to transfer files as well, which may have malware or a virus riding on it. It also provides backdoor access to hackers because IM bypasses firewalls and gateway perimeter scans. The peer-to-peer network is especially open to exploitation because of this bypass, and the worms spread rapidly, testing at 10 to 20 seconds in some tests. Some antivirus software that work on the desktop level have some success in catching these worms, but only in restricted cases. Another way for hackers to open a portal is to hijack the connection using a man-in-the-middle attack and impersonate the hijacked user. The hacker is then in a position of trust and may solicit information from the unsuspecting person on the other end. The use of a network sniffer could also steal information from an open portal during an instant messaging session, and a trojan is not even needed. This is especially dangerous in a corporate network. [37] Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) The use of VoIP has the potential security risk as that of most data streams. While it may seem to be much like a telephone service, the architecture for VoIP is not the same as the conventional telephone line, where security is more established and any interception will require a physical presence on the specific telephone wire or PBX. VoIP transmits the voice as a data stream, similar to that of any other web-based application, and is vulnerable to the same kind of invasion or interception. The defense against such invasion is through the same combination of firewalls, antivirus and   encryption. [23] Because VoIP is comparatively new, it is still in its early stages of development, and has not excited the same attention for identity thieves as other forms of data exchange, although there are some spyware the specifically targets VoIP. Cookies Cookies are normally written by a website into the computer’s harddisk to store personal data about the user relevant to the application which stores the text-only code. Flaws in the generation of the cookie identity has been identified by Security researcher Michal Zalewski as potentially vulnerable to hacker attack because the overwrite protection feature can easily be bypassed and allow malware to remotely plant user information on another persons computer that can be accessed remotely when the user visits specific websites. [35] Malware is more than just malicious in that it is motivated by economic gain rather than any kind of grudge or misdirected sense of humor. A more appropriate term for these economic-driven malicous software is spyware. Spyware is much more focused and quite destructive because it can reside in a system for weeks or even months before it is discovered. Aside from the fact that transmits confidential information to its creator, it also slows down computers if enough of them reside in the system, even disbling some applications from working at all. There is loss of productivity as well as information. Sometimes it is simply annoying, popping up as adware or altering the home page to redirect the browser to specific websites. It sometimes masquerades as an end-user license agreement and most users just click on it as a matter of course, inadvertently allowing the spyware to be embedded in   the system. Whichever form it takes, it cuts down on productivity, uses up RAM and CPU resources. [27] Many IT professionals consider spyware the top security threat as revealed by a WatchGuard Technologies survey in 2005. Consequently, anti-spyware software is also on the rise, making it the top security technology for 2005. Since people make money from it, it is most likely that hackers would bring it up to the level of a serious enterprise. Particularly vulnerable are banks and financial institutions, such as PayPal, which was targeted by a variation of the Mimail worm. The pathogen redirected the user to a false PayPal verification window which then asked for sensitive financial information. PayPal had hitherto enjoyed a reputation for reliability, so the potential to victimize a large number of people makes the strategy particularly effective. The tendency to use a few core applications is another reason hackers are so effective: they only need to focus on circumventing the security of a few systems to ensure a good haul. [25]One of these core applications is Microsoft’s Windows. The vulnerabilities of these products are more numerous than ever, mostly because its widespread use has made it the target of concentration for   many hackers. And though improvements in the security features in the products have managed to deflect more than 100,000 variants of the malware circulating, it requires more vigilance on the part of the caretaker to maintain the system to the leading edge of the available updates and security patches.   [36] There has even been evidence that cyber-criminals have become loosely organized, expert hackers working together with spammers and fraudsters to extend the sophistication and reach of the attacks on peer-to-peer networks. The focus is now on compromising integrity rather than the random destruction of files and networks. The treasure in this hunt is for information, and since there is no immediate, discernible damage, it is only when the credit card bills come in or the security system springs an alarm that the invasion becomes apparent. In the instances that a pathogen succeeds in infiltrating a good system, more damage is done than its predecessor, and true to the nature of its name, the virus appears never to completely die, but rather to go into stasis, just waiting for the next improved bug to re-activate it in an evolved state, such as the Phatbot in 2004 which exploit known and newly-discovered vulnerabilities in multi-frontal attacks. [36] Profile of a Cyber Criminal [26] Organized crime groups The involvement of organized crime groups has served to coalesce otherwise individual hackers. The motive for the involvement is not only profit but to establish a supply of readily available identities to be used in the course of their criminal activities. Terrorists It has been established that terrorists use various identities to avoid detection by government agencies that are on the alert for their appearance in under their true identities. They acquire employment and obtain financing for their activities. One instance was reported in Spain where a terrorist cell made purchases with the use of stolen credit cards and used fake passports and travel documents to open legitimate bank accounts to finance their operations. Petty criminals These are the freelancers, out to make easy money and with no other motive but money. [26] Literature Survey of Solutions Research grants In 2002, $877 million in government grants were earmarked to fund the Cyber Security Research and Development Act and H.R. 3400, the Networking and Information Technology Advancement Act that would beef up the network security of vital infrastructure. The ATT Foundation has also made contribution by providing grants in 2004 to the University of Texas at Dallas and Syracuse University to support cybersecurity research. Similarly, National Institute of Standards and Technology gave a grant to George Mason University School of Laws National Center for Technology Law and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. to collaborate on what is know as the Critical Infrastructure Protection Project. â€Å"The project is aimed at providing outreach and education, serve as a pool of knowledge, and development of special programs for small businesses and information sharing†.   [41] However, the grants are part of a reaction to 9/11, which seeks to promote research in counterterrorirsm and national security. The problem of identity theft is much closer to home, or at least need not be on the scale of national security. Generally, identity theft can occur to as small as the scale of a home computer. A report by Internet security solutions provider Preventon has shown that in the UK, approximately 67% of   the surveyed consumers manage their own security software, mostly anti-virus, firewalls or anti-spyware software. However, only 22% considered â€Å"phishing† a serious threat to their security. New Products For financial call centers, a product has been developed by EMC’s Security Division called the RSA[R] Adaptive Authentication for Phone, which seeks to provide a reliable authentication protocol for telephone banking as required by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Councils Authentication in the Internet Banking Environment guidance. It is an offshoot of the RSA Adaptive Authentication for Web in use by 35 of the largest financial institutions and banks in the world. The system makes use of the voice biometric solution based on Vocent technology and Nuance’s voiceprint engine. It is designed to conduct a risk-based assessment by analyzing voiceprint and user behavior based on predetermined parameters during retail and commercial banking transactions. Aside from the technology, users of the product will also have access to the database of the RSA eFraudNetwork community which has fraudster profiles. [10] There has been some opinion that an overlap approach may be more effective, where a combination of firewalls, intruder protection and detection and vulnerability testing be used in concert instead of isolation. [25] A software that goes one step further is PCImmunity, which is designed to combine the security features of Norton, McAfee, SpyBot, SpySweeper, Ad-Aware, ZoneAlarm, Avast, and AVG while supplementing them with a restart feature in cases where one or more of the active applications is deactivated by a hacker or virus. One of its maintenance features is the automatic update of these software and the daily scans of anti-spyware software. [14] Two projects that are geared towards anticipating industrial-grade security measures for VoIP has been initiated by the VoIP Security Alliance, or VOIPSA, which aims to establish a â€Å"threat taxonomy† and and a list of VoIP security requirements These protocols will be of particular use for session border controllers, or SBCs, which serves as an intermediary between the unique architecture of VoIP and web-based protocol that would otherwise be incompatible with VoIP. VoIP with SBC    Source: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/general/bulletin/software/general/3001_pp/3001_p24.jpg Other functions of the SBC is to enable network address translation, VoIP peering and compliance with   the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.   Security-wise, SBCs as the â€Å"man-in-the-middle,† is theoretically in a good position as the front-liner for any unauthorized access or interception. SBCs also serve to mask the presence of VoIP systems and softswitches and other devices. However, the integrity of its security features has yet to be rigorously tested. [40] The JavaScript malware that confounds most automated detection needs special treatment, using decoding tools such as NJS, SpiderMonkey or Rhino which separates the malware from the browser tool at the command-line level after cleaning up the HTML. It decodes in layers until the malware is completely stripped of its code. The tools are based on JavaScript and designed to be a re-entrant. It is not guaranteed, however, because such tools have limitations and it is only a matter of time before hackers find a way around it as well. [33] Another breakthrough that is a double-edged sword is a framework being developed by security expert Roelof Temmingh called Evolution. Though still in its infancy, the framework can be used as both a hacker’s tool as well as a security application. What it does is to use any identity information and extract other hidden data. For example, it can transform a domain into e-mail addresses and telephone numbers with the use of the Whois domain name lookup service, so hackers need only one type of information to get a whole slew of information. It can also identify targets for client-side attacks and war-dialing ranges. In the interest of security, however, Evolution can be invaluable in various ways. It can be used as a footprinting to identify phishing sites and identify alliances with weak security postures. In the long run, however, Evolution can be used to illustrate the future capabilities of hackers and research to pro-actively counteract such developments would be of immense benefit. [33] The important development from a security standpoint is that many companies are finally coming to terms with the magnitude of the battle before them. In a conference in Phoenix, the focus was on new products that were designed to renew the onslaught on incidents of phishing, adware and spyware spurred on by Web 2.0. Products such as NewsGator Hosted Solution allows companies to put an RSS aggregator in their websites, eliminating the need to get feed directly from the original content originator. For security compliance, LogLogic produced the appliance-based solution LogLogic 3 r2 that allows tracking of Microsoft Exchange log activity to identify security risks. [16] One product with added features was announced recently by Barracuda Networks which helps identify spam messages even if it is being sent by an apparently innocuous e-mail address. The Spam Firewall e-mail security appliance is now able to analyze sender behavior, facilitating reputation analysis. When a previously normal nehaving e-mail address suddenly stars unloading massive amounts of email, it is presumed that it has been infected by a botnet and turned into a spam server. [20] DIY Security Protocols With the rise of DIY security came the development of self-help websites that provide security tips and information as well as recommended freeware for downloads. One such website is the Gibson Research Corp. website (www.grc.com) headed by Steve Gibson. He provides three suggestions: Stealth or hide seldom-used ports, of which a typical system has 65,000 for an internet scanner to exploit. Disconnect services not in use, which Windows provides and connects by default but which only represents a vulnerability. Bind only the modem to the TCP/IP. Windows binds all network resources to the Internet by default as well, such as a shared printer, which is unnecessary and potentially dangerous. Among Gibson’s offerings that have provided some security is Shields Up! and LeakTest scans, and Gibsons DCOMbobulator, Shoot the Messenger, Socket-Lock, UnPlug n Pray and Xpdite make security a little tighter.   Another website that may bear investigation is The Human Firewall (www.humanfirewall.org) which focuses more on companies. [36] In IM, the best way to prevent identity and other information theft is to use an IM service that allow encryption. Unnecessary file tranfers via IM should also be restricted. Another suggestion is the use of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) as an alternative to joining an e-mailing list. The RSS feed is secure because here is no need for an e-mail address, it merely gets the desired material from the feed’s server. It makes the inbox and spam mail easier to manage as well as reducing the risk of spyware infiltration. [31] To confound IRC bots, McAfee experts suggests the use of IRC servers in constructing and IRC honeypot and a network sniffer. The sniffer identifies the IRC channel used by the malicious bot and the IRC honeypot routes all IRC channels to pass through it and an outbound query is allowed. A rogue bot will try to home into the attacker’s IRC server and the honeypot then issues commands to unistall the bot. [44] Enterpise Security Governance On the executive level, the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) reports in â€Å"Governing for Enterprise Security† that the need to address information security as an enterprise-level governance concern is paramount. It identified several characteristics that define a company that employes governance in enterprice security: Security is given the same importance as other aspects of business; Security is part of the organization’s strategic planning cycle; Security is considered an integral part of all enterprise functions; Key executives and network staff alike have an appreciation of the responsibilities and issues involved in network security. Because of the prevalence of confidentiality breaches in the corporate world and the high costs involved in such breaches, an enterprise with a strong, healthy respect and care for the security of the information in their care but still with the ability to communicate efficiently and effectively with their clients will come across as a company that can be relied on and trusted. [29] ATT’s Research Labs president Hossein Eslambolchi agrees that security cannot be an afterthought, and states that the state of network security is so pathetic that hackers can bring down a whole network with very little effort. [13] Government Initiatives The US government has come to realize the real threat of security and information breach, especially when it involves government agencies. Several intitiatives deal with ensuring vigilance in both public and private enterprises that deal with network security. E-Government Act 2002, a privacy assessment mandate that is designed to protect the personal information of citizens who volunteer their data on government sites, is touted as one of the most significant privacy guidelines. The aim of the mandate is to ease the government into e-government, overcome resistance to change and to emphasize the need for cyber-security and privacy as well as coordination concerns. [21] Another government mandate is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which came into effect in April 2005 which regulates the use of e-mail and other Internet-based communications by health professionals in efforts to secure sensitive medical information. The guidelines are particularly focused on some key points that may arise in a clinician-patient communication. The rule of thumb is that the e-mail is mos probably not secure, and ealth professionals should not solicit confidential patient information via email, nor should patients supply such information. If it is absolutely imperative, the guidelines require tat such e-mail be encoded and encrypted. In cases of sharing benchmarking information and statistical data, it would be advisable to take out pertinent patient information as much as possible. There are 18 HIPAA Patient Identifiers that should be taken out, a list available on the HIPAA website (www.hipaa.org). [3] With regard to schools, some efforts at the district levels are being made to establish some security guidelines to protect the integrity of school records. The Consortium for School Networking, together with the Mass Networks Education Partnership in Allston, Mass., has produced the Cyber Security for a Digital District program (www. securedistrict.cosn.org) which provides administrators with an outline of what constitutes a secure database. [43] However, cost is still a major consideration for many school districts, one that has no immediate solution unless administrators and school boards alike are convinced of the importance of cyber-security in the schools. There have been some suggestions that law enforcement agencies take a more offensive take on cyber criminals and ISPs that host such activities, but this move is fraught with legal and ethical issues. Cyber crime is difficult to pin down because it is nealy amorphous in character. Unless it is proven without doubt that such a person or ISP is knowingly involved in the commission of cyber crimes such as identity theft, any law enforcement actions against what may prove to be an innocent party who may in turn be victims themselves would be ineffective. A recent development has been an unprecedented move by the US District Court in Alexandria, Va. On behalf of Project Honey Pot of anti-spam company Unspam Technologies, a $1 billion lawsuit was filed against spammers as well as those who harvest e-mail addresses for spammers. The lawsuit is the first and largest of its kind made possible by the efforts of members of Project Honey Pot who have been able to gather enough data to prosecute the alleged perpetrators with the use of the honey pot software, which identifies spam mail and IP addresses of the e-mail harvesters. The gathered data will enable prosecutors to subpoena ISP records for the involved IP addresses and its owners. The results of this litigation could well provide cyber criminals at least a pause in their activities. [28] Outstanding Issues One of main problems with countering unauthorized invasions is the lack of government spending on network security. Moreover, universities are churning out an inadequate supply of graduates with enough knowledge in network security to come up with practical and effective counters to what hackers can come up with. According to National Academy of Engineering (NAE) president William Wulf, there are perhaps about 200 serious computer security researchers in the US. Academic research is also notoriously slow in coming out with publications, much too slow to be of practical use in the rapid development of cyber-crime. Much of the brain drain is due to the demand of private enterprises, which pays a lot better than academic research, for talent to staff short-term projects that has nothing to do with security research. Purdue University Professor Eugene Spafford characterizes the attitude to security issues as most people view insurance. Software Engineering Institute’s Timothy J. Shimeall agrees as senior technical staff member of its Networked Systems Survivability Program. Not enough attention and resources is being devoted to security issues until it becomes a problem. For those who are involved in academic research in security, most are theoretical, with little or no practical basis, according to Columbia University computer science professor Salvatore J. Stolfo. [30] Another issue that has yet to be addressed is the management of the distributed-computing environment, in which the traditional, centralized concept of a security perimeter, known as the Orange Book architecture of the US Department of Defense’s Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria, is of little use. What is needed is long-term, systemic, non-theoretical view of the problem, rather than disaster management and short-term product cycle thinking. A survey, called the Risk of Sharing, of 300 companies in the US, UK and Australia revealed gaps in the business communications process due mainly to lack of process auditability, inadvertent exposure of confidential data, review cycle inaccuracies and resource loss through dealing with spam, amendments and approvals. [5] It has also been observed that many companies fail to make full use of the security softwar they already possess, and the reason for this appears to be data overload. When security software provides audit information for instances of attempts at invasion, it spews out a lot of information, much of it extraneous. Systems analysts must figure out which are the significant entries out of thousands of entries, and some companies resourt to outsourcing the work. [25] Conclusion The story of infected networks and compromised information has become all too familiar, a state of affairs that has begun to make itself felt with a vengeance. Of particular concern is the increasing number of incidents of identity theft. It is of concern to the individuals and corporations that are directly affected by it, but it is also a matter of national security, especially since the onslaught of terrorist attacks on the US. One side of the hackers economics is selling of legitimate identities to identified individuals who are persona non grata in the US. Identity theft is should thus be a priority for individuals, business entities and government agencies alike. Efforts by researchers to come up with defensive foils to stem the malware tide have met with mixed success as each step to successfully battling existing threats is countered by newer, more sophisticated and more dangerous threats. The economics behind the hacking industry has become huge as the world becomes more and more enmeshed in the cyber world, and the opportunities for profit is increasing as more and more industries are hooking up. However, the benefits of being connected still outweighs the drawbacks and the key to maintaining equilibrium is vigilance. On the far end of the security spectrum is government agencies that exact compliance for security regulations to deter cyber crime. Businesses follow suit as required because it is also to their benefit to do so, although many small companies have resistance because they have yet to feel the squeeze of an all-out hack attack. Big enterprises are more in the picture because they are bigger targets, although hackers are migrating more and more to softer targets whose resistance to regulations make them more vulnerable to attack. On the other end of the spectrum is the individual user, whether in the office or home setting. It is the responsibility of each user to be aware of the dangers, whether they are hooked up to local area network with the potential to infect from two to 50 other terminals because of a security suite that lacks maintenance, or the home user with an address book full of friends and family which has the potential of spreading malware with the ease of a click of a mouse. The tools to combat malicious cyber crime is available but users need to be educated about their responsibilities. Users need to be vigilant about their computer use, with their e-mails, with their IM sessions, even with their browsing behavior. As Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker, â€Å"with great power comes great responsibility.† Being interconnected has unleashed great power, and the responsibility to harness this power for the common good is very much in the hands of each user. Acknowledgment References â€Å"Bill authorizes $877 million for cyber security research.† Communications Today. December 7, 2001. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BMD/is_228_7/ai_80639935 â€Å"CinTel develops a network security solution that enables content filtering proxy.† EDP Weekly IT Monitor. August 8, 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0GZQ/is_30_46/ai_n14939952 â€Å"Do your e-mails comply with new security regs? HIPAA regs cover security and confidentiality.† HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement. May 2005. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NUZ/is_5_12/ai_n13759944 â€Å"Global threat trends in March 2007.† com. April 3, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eset.eu/press_release_threats_march â€Å"New research uncovers security and audit risks.† International Journal of Micrographics Optical Technology. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4077/is_200501/ai_n1363351 â€Å"Organisations fear network security threats from Instant Messaging.† Internet Business News. October 3, 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from   http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2005_Oct_3/ai_n15658965 â€Å"Research by prevention reveals UK home PC user are turning to DIY security.† Internet Business News. July 6, 2005. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2005_July_6/ai_n14724817 â€Å"RSA survey reveals online security concerns.† Internet Business News. August 22, 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2005_August_22/ai_n14924483 â€Å"Security appliance protects consumer data with encryption.† ThomasNet, Incorporated. February 27, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PIL/is_2007_March_19/ai_n18727208 â€Å"Security system strengthens phone authentication processes.† Product News Network. November 13, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PIL/is_2006_Nov_13/ai_n16836088 â€Å"Security.† Telecom Asia. August 2003. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FGI/is_8_14/ai_108312261 â€Å"Security.† Telecom Asia. December 2004. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FGI/is_12_15/ai_n9481318 â€Å"Security.† Telecom Asia. June 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FGI/is_6_16/ai_n16879846 â€Å"Software automates and maintains PC security programs.† Product News Network. September 28, 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PIL/is_2005_Sept_28/ai_n15636236 A paper that is focused on a current security research issue of your own choosing. â€Å"RSS network optimization, fraud prevention tools take demo stage.† eWEEK.com. February 6, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1920117,00.asp?kc=EWNKT0209KTX1K0100440 â€Å"ID thieves turn sights on smaller e-businesses: for online shoppers, security seals no guarantee that hackerts aren’t watching.† Washingtonpost.com. September 28, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NTQ/is_2006_Sept_28/ai_n16753298 â€Å"Can ID theft be solved with more regulation?† eWEEK.com. February 8, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2092459,00.asp Prince. â€Å"Report shows spike in online identity theft.† eWEEK.com. January 16, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2084453,00.asp [20]  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   C. Garretson. â€Å"Barracuda Networks enhances reputation analysis technology with behavior data.† Network World. April 17, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/041707-barracuda-e-mail-security-appliance-profiling.html Webb. â€Å"Government IT Review.† Washingtonpost.com. October 2, 2003. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NTQ/is_2003_Oct_2/ai_108454056 Chandler. â€Å"Storage services for data security: big business byte for enlightened operators.† Telecommunications Americas. August 2005. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NUH/is_9_39/ai_n15631277 Khun, T. Walsh and S. Fries. â€Å"Security considerations for Voice over IP systems.† January 2005. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930. Sweeney. â€Å"Focus turns to network security: while many consider the telecoms infrastructure a vulnerable target for terrorists, the more immediate threats are attacks by individual hackers and authors of malicious code, which are presenting new security challenges for service providers.† Telecom Asia. January 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FGI/is_1_16/ai_n9772934 Shein. â€Å"Spy vs. spy: companies are spending billions on network security, but staying ahead of hackers may be a pipe dream.† CFO: Magazine for Senior Financial Executives. February 2004. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3870/is_2_20/ai_113051525 Paget. â€Å"Identity theft.† McAfee Avert Labs. December 15, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from www.mcafee.com McPartlin. â€Å"Somebodys watching you: spyware has come in from the cold to become corporate Americas top security threat.† CFO: Magazine for Senior Financial Executives. Summer 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3870/is_9_21/ai_n15787661 Vijayan. â€Å"E-mail harvesters hit with $1 billion antispam lawsuit.† Computerworld. April 26, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/042607-e-mail-harvesters-hit-with-1b.html Whitley. â€Å"Report stresses security governance.† Internal Auditor. October 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4153/is_5_62/ai_n15763501 [30]  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   L. Paulson. â€Å"Wanted: More Network-Security Graduates and Research.† Computer Science at the University of Virginia. February 1, 2002. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.cs.virginia.edu/csnews/show.php?artID=79 Seltzer. â€Å"Security watch: Windows wireless threat†¦not.† PC Magazine. January 2006. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200601/ai_n16015170 Seltzer. â€Å"Security Watch: Windows, Firefox, Winamp, all report flaws.† PC Magazine. February 2006. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200602/ai_n16043071 Vaas. â€Å"Tools will help personalize ID theft by 2010.† eWEEK.com. April 19, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2115879,00.asp Vaas. †JavaScript attacks get slicker.† eWEEK.com. April 18, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2115638,00.asp Hines. â€Å"Cookie holes expose browsers.† eWEEK.com. January 31, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1917283,00.asp Hogan. â€Å"Not-so-good fellas: keep the bad guys at bay with these steps to improve your companys computer security.† Entrepreneur. June 2004. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_6_32/ai_n6055133 Hindocha. â€Å"Instant insecurity: security issues of instant messaging.† Security Focus. January 13, 2003. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1657 Roberts. â€Å"FBI computer crime survey finds widespread attacks.† eWEEK.com. January 20, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1913633,00.asp Roberts. â€Å"IBM predicts 2006 security threat trends.† eWEEK.com. January 23, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1913864,00.asp Poe. â€Å"VoIP industry moves to bolster network security: new group to define requirements.† America’s Network. May 2005. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DUJ/is_5_109/ai_n15622587 Roach. â€Å"Cybersecurity research at two schools gets boost from ATT Foundation.† Black Issues in Higher Education. July 1, 2004. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_10_21/ai_n6145384 Roach. â€Å"Virginia universities team up on nations cyber security; focus on public policy and law gives research effort unique focus.† Black Issues in Higher Education. June 20, 2002. Retrieved April 26, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_9_19/ai_89077199 Lafee. â€Å"Cyber security at the distriCt level: are you ready to prevent unlawful, unauthorized or simply misguided use of your technology?† School Administrator. April 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JSD/is_4_62/ai_n13667747 Thomas and N. Jyoti. â€Å"Defeating IRC bots on the internal network.† McAfee Avert Labs. February 6, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from www.virusbtn.com

From Hacking to Cyber Terrorism Essay -- Computers Software Hackers Es

From Hacking to Cyber Terrorism Introduction Information technology (IT) is evolving everyday and our day-to-day life is becoming more and more dependent on it. In this twenty first century, we cannot imagine ourselves without emails, online banking systems and health care systems and without World Wide Web. In other words, evolution of IT has given a modern, technologically advanced and convenient life to the society. But, over the time we are also observing explosive growth in the darker side of the IT - regarding hacking and cyber crimes. Activities like unauthorized computer intrusion, denial of service (DOS), stealing computer passwords and secure data; causing damage to computer systems and databases and causing damage to individuals/society are not very rare these days. As we go further on this paper, we will see different aspects of hacking, from harmless (simply looking around thru web) to dangerously harmful (cyber-terrorism). Irrespective of harmless or harmful, we need to understand is it ethical and how does it impact the global world. This paper is intended to discuss the ethical issues and moral values involved with this darker side of information technology. This paper also includes discussion on the good side of hacking and how hacking can lead to serious cyber crimes and causes harm to world community. What is a computer hacker? The definition of the computer hacker can be described as follows, 1. In programming, a computing enthusiast. The term is normally applied to people who take a delight in experimenting with system hardware (the electronics), software (computer programs) and communication systems (telephone lines, computer networks etc). 1 2. In data (information... ...Security† - Dorothy Denning and Frank Drake, From Chapter 2, Computers, Ethics and Social values by Johnson and Nissenbaum. 5. â€Å"Computer Security and computer crimes† From Chapter 7, Case Studies in Information and computer ethics by Richard Spinello 6. Hacker Crackdown - By Bruce Sterling http://www.lysator.liu.se/etexts/hacker/ 7. Computer Hacking and Ethics by Brian Harvey http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/hackers.html 8. Hacking: Ethical Issues of the Internet Revolution http://blacksun.box.sk/tutorials.php/id/155 9. Cyber-terrorism http://www-cs.etsu-tn.edu/gotterbarn/stdntppr/ 10. â€Å"Frameworks of ethical analysis â€Å" From Chapter 2, Case Studies in information and computer ethics by Richard Spinello 11. Soren Kierkegaard http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard 12. Are hackers terrorists? http://zdnet.com.com/2102-11-528326.html

Fast Fit Case Study

1. FastFit Case Study FastFit Sporting Goods is a successful New England regional supplier of sporting goods to the high end consumer market. They sell an exclusive selection of equipment and apparel to men and women who exercise and pursue outdoor activities on a regular basis. They operate five (5) upscale retail stores in the New England market that offer a high level of customer attention, with a headquarters (HQ) is in Burlington, Massachusetts, and a single warehouse, distribution, and eCommerce fulfillment center in Haverhill, Massachusetts.Most of their products are purchased from two suppliers, Winter Gear Distributers outside of Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston Fitness Supplies in Marlboro, Massachusetts. FastFit has expanded successfully in the New England area over the past five years. However to expand nationally as a major retailer, they need to improve the scalability of their operations (stores and warehouses). A key part of their strategy is to leverage informati on systems to automate and improve operations, to strengthen management controls, and to enable significant growth while maintaining the â€Å"high touch† customer experience.A diagram of their complete non-Web based operations follows. See figure 1. [pic] Figure 1: A Schematic diagram of FastFit Sporting Goods Operations The Initial Set of Case Study Questions The simple system diagram below may be used to answer the following questions. The questions should be answered using your common sense and knowledge of retail processes because we have all bought things at a store. Be specific about the items of information, where they are captured, stored and used.How the information flows or is moved within FastFit may be shown by the student adding labeled arrows added to the diagram below. See figure 2. Figure 2: Starting Point for a System Diagram of FastFit Business Information Flows A General Question 1. Mark the main flows of goods and money in the diagram (above). Use single headed arrows and employ a key or table of descriptive elements to explain your answer. Customer Questions (focus on the customer and FastFit process flows, i. e. the front end of the diagram) 2. ) List the specific items of information that are usually gathered at the POS (Point of Sale terminal or cash register) and recorded when a customer checks out (excluding obtaining the identity of the customer which is covered in Q3)? b) What are three important uses of this information at the store by the store manager and by headquarters management – a total of six uses? 3. a) What are some ways to obtain the identity of the customer at the POS and to associate this â€Å"identity† with more detailed information about the customer? b) What business actions could FastFit then take based upon this additional information? . Assume HQ is responsible for replenishing inventory at the stores. a) What information is needed and how is it used to decide what to send to each store? b) Where does the information come from? c) Why didn’t we have each store decide what to order from the warehouse? Supplier Questions (focus on the FastFit and Supplier process flows, i. e. the back end of the diagram) 5. a) Draw a system diagram that shows the key information and product flows between FastFit (HQ and Warehouse) and a supplier, including the steps for ordering and invoicing and label each flow descriptively.This diagram will have three circles. b) Compare your drawing with the diagram showing the flows between the customer and the store and explain why the former is more complicated. 6. Assume that FastFit headquarters receives and pays invoices from suppliers. a) How do they decide whether to pay and how much to pay? b) From where do they get the information to make this decision? eCommerce Set of Case Study Questions 7. Describe three geographic locations from which customers can submit orders and any information technology components customers would need (on their end) to accomplish this ordering activity. Location |Information Technology Component | |Home |Server | | |Desktop | | |Laptop | | |Routers | | |Web Server Application | |Road / Anywhere |Smart Phones | | |Web | |Work |Laptops | |School |Routers | | |Web Server Application | 8. a) Describe the information technology components FastFit needs to interact with customers on the web. [Hint: Locate a detailed explanation of e-commerce system platforms in the course textbook and/or web search. ] b) At what geographic location within FastFit would you place these information technology components and why? a) |IT components | |Application providers for the purchase and sale of goods |Software applications | | |Web software | | |Security software | | |Database | |Technology infrastructure providers that enables e-commerce |Routers | | |Storages | | |Servers (web and commerce) | | |Data centers | | |Hardware | | |Networks | from MD PowerPoint session 20 9. FastF it is planning to invest significantly in its e-commerce platform to increase online ordering. Describe three technology features/capabilities that should be included in the platform and provide business justifications for each feature. |Technology feature/capability |Description |Business Justification | |Browser |Program that a user uses to interact with web|Users have access to the Business from | | |servers on the internet |anywhere.Increase costumer contact with | | | |store. | | | |Improve operations by making store more | | | |accessible to customer. | |Web Server |Program that communicates with many browsers |Allows for multiple users to interact with | | |at the same time using http, by processing |the web page at the same instant. | |and responding to their requests |Increase number of transactions being | | | |processed at the same time | |Commerce Server |Computer that provides a business with |Allows transactions to be completed through | | |web-based programs that disp lay products, |the web. | | |support online ordering, implements a |Enables consumers to receive information | | |shopping cart, record and process payments, |about products.Automates inventory | | |and interface with inventory-management |management | | |applications | | *from MD PowerPoint session 20 10. a) What does the Haverhill order fulfillment center do? b) Describe the information needed at the warehouse to provide fulfillment services. c) Describe the information created or changed/updated during the course of an e-commerce business transaction. a) i. Warehousing ii. Order processing iii. Finding the item ordered iv. Packing order v. Shipping it to the right address b) Fulfillment Service |Information Needed | |Warehousing |Inventory information | | |Warehouse capacity | | |Warehouse organization | | |Suppliers information | |Order Processing |Order Information | | |Item ordered and amount ordered | | |Inventory information (items and quantity) | | |Consumer Informat ion | |Finding the item ordered |Warehouse structure information | | |Item ordered code | |Packing order |Order Information | | |Ending inventory Information | |Shipping order to right address/store |Consumer Information | | |Delivery/Shipping Information | *Vendorseek. com c) i. Costumer Address for delivery ii. Order payment confirmation iii. Consumer Confirmation of order iv. Consumer email contact v. Consumer confirmation of delivery date

A Strange Encounter

It was a conventional evening at the Gladwyne Pharmacy. Preparing for our closure, I was organizing the register receipts from the day to save myself from ancillary labor the following morning. 6:57PM: only three more minutes before I can finally return home after an extensive, demanding afternoon. Contrary to the ordinary occurrence, our regular last-minute customers were not swarming in the door. Initially, I took this as a good sign: today may mark the first time I get off work punctually. But, lo and behold, my expectations did not match the true exposition.A man walks in: at least my height, possibly taller, and significantly stronger. He was completely unfamiliar to me; I assumed he must not be from the area. He flounced his way in my direction as if under heavy influence of drugs or alcohol. A strong scent of whiskey filled the air as he neared. Instantaneously, I knew this man would be a problem. â€Å"Give me these drugs now! † he clamors as he slams his gargantuan fi st on the counter. It unfurls to reveal a crumpled sticky note with a short list of narcotics written upon it in pencil.I briskly replied with the standard protocol response for a situation such as this: â€Å"These drugs require a proper doctor-written prescription for us to give them to you. † I could ascertain that he was not satisfied with my rejoinder. This is where my once-regular day at work began to look more on the abysmal side. With an even more irate expression on his face than before, the man reached with his other hand towards his waist. At this point he was obviously insinuating towards his possession of a weapon. Unreasonably, he demanded to speak to one of our administrators.I informed him that none of them were present, but if he so wished I could contact them via telephone and have him speak directly to them. This was outrageous to the man, and for some reason engendered even further aggravation from him. Our only pharmacist on duty that night had been eaves dropping from the beginning, and thought it necessary to call our owner. She came out and politely handed the man the phone with our owner on the line. A second later, the phone was in pieces on the ground. The man approached me again, this time with a newfound ambition in his eyes.Noticing that both of our register drawers were ajar, he enjoined that I give him all of their contents. â€Å"I’ll take all of the money or all of these drugs, or you will have a problem! † I rapidly fabricated this retort: â€Å"You, sir, are the one with a problem: the local police are en route as we speak. † Without hesitation, the man bolted out of the pharmacy, and was arrested later that night for DUI. I was commended and received a pay-raise for my bravery. That improbable night I learned never to succumb to another person’s demands, even if your life depends on it.

5 Superstar Female Sociologists You Should Know

5 Superstar Female Sociologists You Should Know There are many female sociologists who do important work around the world, on topics ranging from the achievement gap, to global consumption patterns, to gender and sexuality. Read on to learn more about 5 superstar female sociologists. Juliet Schor Dr.  Juliet Schor  is arguably the foremost scholar of the sociology of consumption, and a leading public intellectual who was awarded the 2014 American Sociological Associations prize for advancing the public understanding of sociology.  Professor of Sociology at Boston College, she  is the author of five books, and co-author and  editor of numerous others, has  published a multitude  of journal articles, and has been cited several thousand times by other scholars. Her research focuses on consumer culture, particularly the work-spend cycle- our tendency to spend more and more, on things that we don’t need and that won’t necessarily make us happier. The work-spend cycle was the focus of  her  research-rich, popular companion hits  The Overspent American  and  The Overworked American. Recently, her research has focused on  ethical and sustainable approaches to consumption in the context of a failing economy and a  planet on the brink. Her 2011 book  True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans Are Creating a Time-Rich, Ecologically-Light, Small-Scale, High-Satisfaction Economy makes the case for shifting out of the work-spend cycle by diversifying our personal income sources, placing more value on our time, being more mindful of the impacts of our consumption, consuming differently, and reinvesting in the social fabric of our communities.  Her current research into collaborative consumption and the new sharing economy is a part of the MacArthur Foundations Connected Learning Initiative. Gilda Ochoa Dr.  Gilda Ochoa  is  Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Pomona College. Her cutting edge approach to teaching and research has her regularly leading teams of college students in community-based research that addresses problems of  systemic racism, particularly those related to education,  and community-driven responses to it  in the greater Los Angeles area. She  is the author of the 2013 hit book,  Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian Americans and the Achievement Gap. In this book, Ochoa thoroughly examines the root causes of the achievement gap between Latino and Asian American students in California. Through ethnographic research at one Southern California high school and hundreds of interviews with  students, teachers, and parents, Ochoa reveals troubling disparities in opportunity, status, treatment, and assumptions experienced by students. This important work debunks racial and cultural explanations for the achievement gap.   Following its publication, the book  received two important awards: the American Sociological Associations  Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award for Anti-Racist Scholarship, and the Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book  Award from  the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She is the author of numerous academic journal articles and  two  other  books- Learning from Latino Teachers  and  Becoming Neighbors in a Mexican-American  Community: Power, Conflict, and Solidarity- and co-editor, with her brother Enrique, of Latino Los Angeles: Transformations, Communities, and Activism.  To learn more about Ochoa, you can read her fascinating interview about her book Academic Profiling, her intellectual development, and her research motivations. Lisa Wade Dr. Lisa Wade is a preeminent public sociologist in today’s media landscape. Associate Professor of Sociology at Occidental College, she rose to prominence as co-founder and contributor to the widely read blog Sociological Images. She is a regular contributor to national publications and blogs including  Salon, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Slate, Politico, The Los Angeles Times, and Jezebel, among others. Wade  is an expert in gender and sexuality whose research and writing now focuses on hookup culture and sexual assault on college campuses, the social significance of the body, and U.S. discourse about genital mutilation. Her research has illuminated the intense sexual objectification that women experience and how this results in unequal treatment, sexual inequality (like the orgasm gap),  violence against women, and the socio-structural problem of gender inequality.  Wade has written or co-written over a dozen academic journal articles, numerous popular essays, and has frequently been a media guest on radio and television. In 2017, her book American Hookup was published, which examines hookup culture on college campuses. With Myra Marx Ferree, she  has co-authored a textbook on the sociology of gender. Jenny Chan Dr. Jenny Chan  is a  groundbreaking researcher whose work, which  focuses on issues of labor and working class identity in iPhone factories in China, sits at the intersection of the sociology of globalization and the sociology of work. By gaining hard-to-come-by access to Foxconn factories, Chan has illuminated many of the things Apple doesnt want you to know about how it makes its beautiful products. She is the author or co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, including a heartbreaking and analytically shrewd piece about a Foxconn suicide survivor,  and is writing a book with Pun Ngai and Mark Selden, titled  Dying for an iPhone: Apple, Foxconn, and a New Generation of Chinese Workers. Chan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and was previously a Lecturer at the University of Oxford. In 2018, she became the Vice President of Communications for the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Labour Movements. She has also played an important role as a scholar-activist, and from  2006 to 2009 was the Chief Coordinator of Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) in Hong Kong, a leading labor watch organization that works to hold corporations accountable for abuses happening in their global supply chains. C.J. Pascoe Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon, Dr. C.J. Pascoe is a leading scholar of gender, sexuality, and adolescence. Her work has been cited by other scholars  over 2100 times and has been widely cited in national news media. She is the author of the  groundbreaking and highly regarded book  Dude, Youre a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, winner of the 2008 Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association. The research featured in the book is a compelling look at how both formal and informal curricula at high schools shape the development of gender and sexuality of students, and how in particular, the idealized form of masculinity boys are expected to perform is premised on the sexual and social control of girls. Pascoe is also a contributor to the book  Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living  and Learning with New Media.   She is an engaged public intellectual and activist for the rights of LGBTQ youth, who has worked with organizations including Beyond Bullying: Shifting the Discourse of LGBTQ Sexuality, Youth in Schools, Born This Way Foundation, SPARK! Girls Summit, TrueChild, and the Gay/Straight Alliance Network. Pascoe is working on a new book titled Just a Teenager in Love: Young People’s Cultures of Love and Romance and is a co-founder and co-editor of the blog Social In(Queery).

Everything You Need to Know About Adobe

Everything You Need to Know About Adobe Adobe is essentially a dried mud brick, combining the natural elements of earth, water, and sun. It is an ancient building material usually made with tightly compacted sand, clay, and straw or grass mixed with moisture, formed into bricks, and naturally dried or baked in the sun without an oven or kiln. In the United States adobe is most prevalent in the hot, arid Southwest. Although the word is often used to describe an architectural style- adobe architecture- adobe is actually a building material.  Adobe bricks have been used around the world, including near the muddy river areas of ancient Egypt and the ancient architecture of the Middle East. It is used today but also found in primitive architecture: mud bricks were used even before the grand ancient stone temples of Greece and Rome. Construction methods and the composition of adobe- the recipe- vary according to climate, local customs, and the historical era. Adobes strength and resilience vary with its water content: too much water weakens the brick. Todays adobe is sometimes made with an asphalt emulsion added to help with waterproofing properties. A mixture of Portland cement and lime may also be added. In parts of Latin America, fermented cactus juice is used for waterproofing. Although the material itself is naturally unstable, an adobe wall can be load bearing, self-sustaining, and naturally energy efficient. Adobe walls are often thick, forming a natural insulation from the environmental heat that creates and sustains the material. Todays commercial adobe is sometimes kiln-dried, although purists may call these clay bricks. Traditional adobe bricks need about a month of drying in the sun before they can be used. If the brick is mechanically compressed, the adobe mixture needs less moisture and the bricks can be used almost immediately, although purists may call these compressed earth bricks. About the Word Adobe In the United States, the word adobe is said with the accent on the second syllable and the last letter pronounced, as in ah-DOE-bee. Unlike many architecture words, adobe does not originate in Greece or Italy. It is a Spanish word that does not originate in Spain. Meaning the brick, the phrase at-tuba comes from Arabic and Egyptian languages.  As Muslims migrated across northern Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula, the phrase was transformed into a Spanish word after the eighth century CE. The word entered our English language through the colonization of America by Spain after the 15th century. The word is widely used in the southwestern United States and Spanish speaking countries. Like the building material itself, the word is ancient, going back to the creation of language- derivations of the word have been seen in ancient hieroglyphics. Materials Similar to Adobe Compressed Earth Blocks (CEBs) resemble adobe, except they usually do not contain straw or asphalt, and they generally are more uniform in size and shape. When adobe is NOT formed into bricks, its called puddled adobe, and is used like the mud material in cob houses. The material is mixed and then thrown in lumps to gradually create an earthen wall, where the mixture dries in place. In the Natural Building Blog, Dr. Owen Geiger,  Director of the Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building, contends that Native Americans used puddled adobe before the Spanish introduced adobe brick-making methods. Preservation of Adobe Adobe is resilient if well-maintained. One of the oldest known structures in the U.S. is made from adobe bricks, the San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe, New Mexico, built between 1610–1628. Preservationists at the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior provide guidance on historic preservation, and their Preservation of Historic Adobe Buildings (Preservation Brief 5) published in August 1978 has been the gold standard for keeping this building material maintained. Constant monitoring of deterioration sources, including the breakdown of mechanical systems like leaky plumbing, is the most important part of maintaining an adobe structure. It is the nature of adobe buildings to deteriorate, we are told in Preservation Brief 5, so careful observation of subtle changes and performing maintenance on a regular basis is a policy which cannot be over emphasized. Problems usually have more than one source, but the most common are (1) poor building, design, and engineering techniques; (2) too much rainwater, ground water, or watering of surrounding vegetation; (3) wind erosion from windblown sand; (4) plants taking root or birds and insects living within the adobe walls; and (5) previous repairs with incompatible building materials. Traditional Methods of Construction To maintain historic and traditional adobe, its best to know traditional methods of construction so that repairs can be compatible. For example, true adobe bricks must be assembled with a mud mortar of properties similar to the adobe. You cant use cement mortar because its too hard  - that is, the mortars cannot be stronger than the adobe brick, according to preservationists. Foundations are often constructed of masonry red brick or stone. Adobe walls are load-bearing and thick, sometimes braced with buttresses. Roofs are usually wooden and laid flat, with horizontal rafters covered with other materials. The familiar vigas projecting through the adobe walls are really the timber parts of the roof. Traditionally, the roof was used as additional living space, which is why wooden ladders are often propped up alongside an adobe home. After the railroads enabled the transport of building materials to the American Southwest, other roof types (e.g., hipped roofs) began to appear atop adobe brick buildings. Adobe brick walls, once in place, are usually protected by applying a variety of substances. Before an exterior siding is applied, some contractors may spray on insulation for added thermal protection- a dubious practice in the long term if it allows the bricks to retain moisture. Since adobe is an ancient building method, traditional surface coatings may include substances that seem odd to us today, such as fresh animal blood. More common sidings include: mud plaster, a mixture of elements the same as the adobe brick mixturelime plaster, a mixture containing lime, which is harder than mud, but more prone to crackingwhitewash, a mixture preservationists describe as ground gypsum rock, water, and claystucco, a relatively new form of siding for naturally dried adobe bricks- cement stucco does not stick to traditional adobe bricks, so wire mesh must be used Like all architecture, construction materials and methods of building have a shelf-life. Eventually, adobe bricks, surface coverings, and/or roofing deteriorate and must be repaired. Preservationists recommend following these general rules: Unless youre a professional, dont try to fix it yourself. Patching and repairing adobe bricks, mortar, rotting or insect-ridden wood, roofs, and surfacing agents should be handled by seasoned professionals, who will know to use matching construction materials.Repair any problem sources before beginning anything else.For repairs, use the same materials and building methods that were used to build the original structure. The problems created by introducing dissimilar replacement materials may cause problems far exceeding those which deteriorated the adobe in the first place, preservationists warn. Adobe is a formed-earth material, a little stronger perhaps than the soil itself, but a material whose nature is to deteriorate. The preservation of historic adobe buildings, then, is a broader and more complex problem than most people realize. The propensity of adobe to deteriorate is a natural, ongoing process....Competent preservation and maintenance of historic adobe buildings in the American Southwest must (1) accept the adobe material and its natural deterioration, (2) understand the building as a system, and (3) understand the forces of nature which seek to return the building to its original state. - National Park Service, Preservation Brief 5 Adobe Is Not Software Since the first Earth Day, people from all walks of life have found a calling advocating for natural building methods that will help save the earth. Earth-based products are naturally sustainable- you are building with the materials that surround you- and energy efficient. The folks at Adobe is not Software are just one of many groups in the Southwest devoted to promoting the benefits of adobe construction through training. They offer hands-on workshops on both making adobe and building with adobe. Adobe is more than software even in the high-tech world of southern California. Most of the largest commercial manufacturers of adobe brick are in the American Southwest. Both Arizona Adobe Company and the San Tan AdobeCompany are located in Arizona, a state rich in the raw materials needed to manufacture the building material. New Mexico Earth Adobes has been producing traditionally made bricks since 1972. Shipping costs can be more than product costs, however, which is why architecture made with adobe is mostly found in this region. It takes thousands of adobe bricks to construct a modest-sized home. Although adobe is an ancient method of construction, most building codes tend to focus on post-industrial processes. A traditional building method like building with adobe has become non-traditional in todays world. Some organizations are trying to change that. The Earthbuilders’ Guild, Adobe in Action, and the international conference called Earth USA help keep the mixtures baking in the heat of the sun and not in ovens run by fossil fuels. Adobe in Architecture: Visual Elements Pueblo Style and Pueblo Revival: Adobe construction is most closely associated with what is called Pueblo architecture. A pueblo is in fact a community of people, a Spanish word from the Latin word populus. The Spanish settlers combined their knowledge with the terraced communities occupied by the people already living in the area, the  indigenous people of the Americas. Monterey Style and Monterey Revival: When Monterey, California was an important seaport in the early 1800s, the population centers of the new country called the United States were in the East. When New Englanders like Thomas Oliver Larkin and John Rogers Cooper moved West, they took with them ideas of home and combined them with local customs of adobe construction. Larkins 1835 home in Monterey, which set the standard for the Monterey Colonial Style, exemplifies this fact of architecture, that design is often a mixture of features from different places. Mission and Mission Revival: When the Spanish colonized the Americas, they brought the Roman Catholic religion. The Catholic-built missions became symbols of a new way in a new world. Mission San Xavier Del Bac near Tucson, Arizona was built in the 18th century, when this territory was still part of the Spanish empire. Its original adobe brick has been repaired with low-fired clay brick. Spanish Colonial and Spanish Colonial Revival: Spanish style homes in the New World are not necessarily constructed with adobe. The only true Spanish colonial homes in the United States are the ones that were built during the long Spanish occupation from the 16th to 19th centuries. Homes from the 20th and 21st centuries are said to revive the style of the Spanish homeland. However, the traditional construction of a house in the medieval town of Calataà ±azor, Spain shows how this method of construction moved from Europe to America- the stone foundation, the overhanging roof, the timber beams for support, the adobe bricks, all ultimately hidden by a surface coating that defines the architectural style. Sources Preservation of Historic Adobe Buildings, Preservation Brief 5, National Park Service Publication, August 1978, https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs/5-adobe-buildings.htm and PDF at https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/preservedocs/preservation-briefs/05Preserve-Brief-Adobe.pdfSan Xavier del Bac, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/tuma/learn/historyculture/san-xavier-del-bac.htm and https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/San_Xavier_del_Bac_Mission.html [accessed February 8, 2018]A Brief History of Mission San Xavier del Bac, sanxaviermission.org/History.html [accessed February 8, 2018]Photo Credits: Adobe Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico, Rob Atkins/Getty Images; Thomas Oliver Larkin House, Ed Bierman via flickr.com, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0); Calataà ±azor, Spain house, Cristina Arias/Getty Images (cropped); Mission San Xavier Del Bac,Robert Alexander/Getty Images (cropped)