Tech

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Government Relinquishes Control of Internet

Posted on by Rubayat M.
ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

On October 1, 2016 ICANN or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers went to private sector. That means ICANN is no longer governed by the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) of United States Department of Commerce. Is that mean government relinquishes control of internet ?

Before I provide an answer for the question, there are few key players that you need to know.

IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) – responsible for the allocation of internet address and related system like IP address, domain naming system etc. IANA is a department of ICANN.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) – ICANN administer IANA’s activities and coordinates with NTIA.

NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) – executive branch agency that works as an adviser for the President of the United States. NTIA is part of the United States Department of Commerce.

ICANN and NTIA had a contract that let NTIA oversees ICANN’s activity and that contract ended in Oct 1, 2016.

History of ICANN
Before ICANN there was IANA. IANA works as a technical resource for the ARPANET (earlier version of today’s internet). ICANN was founded on September 18, 1998 and incorporated on September 30, 1998 in California USA as a nonprofit organization. It’s primary focus was to manage Internet protocol and Domain Name System. IANA became a part of ICANN.

What ICANN do –
Without using any technical or corporate jargon here in plain word-

“Along with other responsibilities ICANN also maintain a global record book of internet address. And information of this record book is shared by the rest of world. So everybody knows who is who. This is how internet remains as a global entity.”

Simple example – when you type www.linkmeshin.com in your browser, your computer send the request to your local ISP (the company that you pay your internet bill). Your local ISP have the access the ICANN’s global address book (there are other technical thing happen in the back end), they collect the necessary information regarding your request and let your browser open the www.linkmeshin.com webpage in your computer screen.

What ICANN Cannot Perform

  • ICANN do not control content on the Internet.
  • ICANN cannot stop spam.
  • ICANN do not control the access of internet for general users.


What is the Importance of ICANN

Domain Name Services is one of the major service of ICANN. So what is Domain Name Services ?
Simple example – consider the domain name service as a phone book. Phone book contains name and phone number. You can remember names but not the number. So from your “phone book” you can select your friend’s name and your phone can call your friend by using the “number” associated with the name.

So a domain name services system contain something like this –

For Human For Computer
www.yahoo.com 98.138.253.109
www.amazon.com 54.239.26.128

Final Thought
Transitioned to private sector does not affect ICANN. ICANN will continue its core responsibility and functionality. Instead of government agency it will be managed by various volunteer-based community. Users will not see change or difference. Internet users and internet service provider company will continue following all the rules and policies that they used follow all these years.

Writer – Rubayat M.

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Pokémon GO is Now Catching People

Posted on by Rubayat M.

July 6, 2016 Pokemon GO was released in northern hemisphere and other countries. This is a cellphone or mobile device based game. Game’s idea is – when the player hold up the devices in various locations at various times, a digital monsters known as Pokémon will appear on screen of the mobile or cellphone and user have to catch it.

Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO

Soon after the release, Pokémon GO became an overnight hit. People of different age group started playing the game. Because of the way the game was designed (this is called augmented reality), the player needs to physically leave their house or couch go outside and look for monsters. Soon people walking in the street like zombies became a common sight. Even though the initial excitement has died down, but Pokémon GO still a very popular game.

I am not going to describe all the back end technical features of the game – because I am not here to talk about that. I am going to talk something different about the game. A week after the initial release of the game, we started hearing and reading interesting stories about Pokémon GO. I cannot help myself to include few of them here.

  • Quebec City (Canada) – Two police officers in Quebec City suffered minor injuries when a car reversed into their cruiser in a parking lot. The driver was playing Pokémon GO !
  • Utah (USA) – One teen with couple of his friends was seen playing the game in an abandoned grain silo.
  • Pennsylvania (USA) – A 15 year old girl was hit by a car while playing the game and crossing a busy highway ! The girl was lucky, she survived.
  • Missouri (USA) – Four men in Missouri have used the game to find players at a specific location. Then robbed them using a handgun. About eight or nine people have been robbed!
  • North San Diego County (USA)- Two men, who were in their early 20s fell off a bluff while playing Pokémon GO ! They had crossed a fenced area to get to the bluff. One man fell 75 to 100 feet and the other man was found unconscious 50 feet down the bluff.
  • Oregon (USA) – An Oregon man, who was visiting his family in New York, crashed his car while playing Pokémon GO and guess what- this guy is a former Marine !
  • And the last one is in Tokushima, (on the western Japanese island of Shikoku). This happens on August 25, 2016. A driver, playing Pokémon GO while driving hit two pedestrians when they were crossing the street. One died and another left with a broken hip. Driver did not see the pedestrians as he was busy looking for the monster.
  • Some law enforcement agencies in many countries had to issue warning notice about the dangers of playing Pokémon GO while on the go.

Despite all these above mention incidents, we must praise the Pokémon GO. At lease it managed to get people out of their house. And made them walk, which is a form of exercise. Even though I am not sure if we call slow walk and frequent stop and upper body movement an exercise or not, but still it counts. One psychologist even claims that the after playing the game – some people notice a significant positive change in their anxiety and depression levels.

All these events happens, for a video game. In the past we have seen people’s madness for new technology – like the long lineup for new iPhone. But Pokémon GO is definitely a new kind of madness.

Pokémon GO just proved one thing, technology can take over the control of human emotion and action. Losing control over action is a dangerous thing. We need to install some types of breaking mechanism in these sorts of  games. So if one unknowingly or deliberately put them self in a dangerous situation , then the game’s breaking mechanism will display a warning and then shutdown the game. Does not matter what ever your game score or level is, safety of human life and health always comes first.

One solution
Pokémon GO use device’s GPS application. Because of this Pokémon GO server or game engine can detect user’s physical location. So if Pokémon GO server or game engine detect that the user is close to a busy street, then the game engine can send a warning message to the user and then stop the game. I am sure smart people of  Nintendo can develop a smarter solution.

We the human creates and use technology. Not the other way. We can achieved anything using the limitless power of technology. But this has to be done in a controlled way. Otherwise one day, the very technology that we have created for us, will take over the control.

Writer – Rubayat M.

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Hot Coffee can Cause Cancer

Posted on by Rubayat M.
Tim Horton Coffee

Image source www.timhortons.com

A surprising fact, not beer but tea is world’s most popular drink. People have been drinking tea since 2700 BC.Some
ancient kings even consider it a healing drink. Coffee comes after that. According to U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, mankind drinks about six billion cups of coffee a day !

 

 

 

But I am not here to discuss about what is the most popular drink of the world. I am here to discuss about a new report, that shows that hot beverages can cause cancer.
What is the report?
Report says – very hot beverages can contribute to cell injury in the esophagus and in long run can contribute to cancer formation. So why coffee becomes the villain then ? Very simple, coffee is one of the most popular hot beverages after tea. Billions of people drink coffee every day and if most of these people drink very hot coffee on a regular basis – then there is a good possibility that in the long run, some of these people may have esophagus cancer.

 

What is Esophagus
The esophagus is about 8 inches long muscular tube connecting the throat (pharynx) with the stomach. Esophagus runs behind the windpipe, heart, then in front of the spine and finally before entering the stomach, it passes through the diaphragm .

Human Esophagus

Human Esophagus. Image source www.webmd.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temperature
Any beverages that is hotter the 65 degrees Celsius or 149 degrees in Fahrenheit is consider “Very Hot”. So hot beverages should be consumed in a temperature lower then mention above.

 

Rising Risk
Once coffee used to consider a luxury or occasional drink in many countries. But it is a different scenario today. Because of the economic growth in many developing countries, coffee has become more affordable to general people or to be precious to the middle class. Also because of the change in work culture and globalization people are drinking more coffee than ever.  An alarming issue that we all need to be aware.

So before you sip your next favorite hot beverage – please make sure it is not too hot. I am adding some related information about the article, that may become handy someday  –

 

What is carcinogen?
In plain word a substance that is capable of causing cancer in living tissue. A good example – Overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.

 

IARC
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization. Agency’s goal is to identify the causes of cancer so that preventive measures may be adopted and the burden of disease and associated suffering reduced. Official website: http://www.iarc.fr

 

World Health Organization

World Health Organization

WHO is who ?
WHO or World Health Organization is a member of the United Nations Development Group. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations deals with international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, it’s headquarter is located in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

 

 

Writer – Rubayat M.

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Nasa’s Fascinating Juno Mission

Posted on by Rubayat M.
Juno spacecraft

Juno spacecraft

July 4 2016 at 11:54 PM Nasa’s Juno Mission tweets the following message -“Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. I’m ready to unlock all your secrets, #Jupiter. Deal with it.”

Juno is the second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, after the Galileo.It was launched on August 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

 

 

Mission
Giant Jupiter was formed four-and-a-half-billion years ago. Juno will try to unlocked the mystery of this planet by probing the deep interior and analyze the planet’s structure.

It will also try to test the theory- “Auroras over Jupiter’s poles is actually caused by the planet’s rapid rotation and volcanic material spewed out from Io. Io is the Jupiter’s fifth moon and the most volcanically active body in the solar system.”

In 2001 Professor Stan Cowley and Professor Emma Bunce proposed this theory.
Learn more : http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/think-leicester/science-and-environment/2016/juno-and-the-university-of-leicester

About Juno

Jupiter from Juno's Camera

Jupiter from Juno’s Camera

  • It was named after the Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter .
  • Juno cost about $1.1 billion(US). Original proposed cost was approximately US$700 million.
  • Launched August 5, 2011
  • Powered by solar arrays with the maximum speed of 38,000 km/h.
  • Has nine different instruments that will be use to conduct the analyzing.
  • It will fly 3,000 miles closer to the surface. No spacecraft has ever flown this close to Jupiter.

 

Juno and Jupiter Forever
Juno travelled 1.7 billion to reach Jupiter. But after it’s mission – Juno will not return to Earth. It will dive down to Jupiter’s atmosphere and live there forever.

Writer – Rubayat M.

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Trivia about Computer Keyboard

Posted on by Rubayat M.

The computer keyboard needs no introduction. We all know that the keyboard is an input device used  with the computer to aid in data input. Here are some trivia about computer keyboard.

1700 – 1800

Henry Mill's keyboard

Image:Henry Mill’s keyboard

The very first version closest to a keyboard was invented by a British Engineer Henry Mill. However, Mill’s invention didn’t manage to survive in society.

 

 

 

 

1800 – 1900

Christopher Sholes`s QWERTY layout keyboard

Image: Christopher Sholes`s QWERTY layout keyboard

Christopher Latham Sholes a newspaper publisher and politician from Wisconsin (US) came with his upgraded version of the typewriter. It was the very first version of QWERTY layout.

Sholes’ main reason behind this layout invention was to prevent ribbon damage in the keyboard/typewriter. Even with his invention undergoing numerous trials of modification; Sholes’ invention became a commercial success during 1870

 

 

1900 – Present

ENIAC Computer

Image: ENIAC Computer

Between 1940’s and 1950’s the earlier versions of computers (ENIAC, BINAC, and UNIVAC etc.) used the QWERTY keyboard layout invented by Sholes.

It was in the 80’s IBM set the keyboard to its glory by inventing the Model M which looked 90% similar to modern day keyboards.

Since then the keyboard kept evolving more and more giving its various forms of layout co-in siding well with the society’s languages; going from QWERTY to Dvorak Simplified layouts.

Interesting Fact

During the early 1800’s, an Italian inventor Pellegrino Turri invented a typewriter for his blind lover Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano. Their story became one of 2010’s novel “The Blind Contessa’s New Machine”.

By Sohana Akhter

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Dating Website Hacked

Posted on by Rubayat M.
Muslimmatch site hacked message

Muslim Match Hacked Homepage Message

A dating website called MulimMatch (www.muslimmatch.com) has been hacked. The breach was discovered by a cybersecurity alert website called “Have I been pwned (www.haveibeenpwned.com).

MulimMatch’s (www.muslimmatch.com) homepage said “We have been made aware of an alleged security breach and we are reviewing our systems as we work to remedy the situation and tighten our security.”

More than 150,000 members’ personal details have been posted online including 700,000 private messages between members. Other sensitive information like – personal preference also has been leaked.

Writer – Rubayat M.

 

 

 

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Beware of GodLess Mobile Malware

Posted on by Rubayat M.
Security alert

Security alert

A mobile malware called Godless has already affected over 850,000 Android devices worldwide.It has multiple rooting exploits in its possession. Which gives Godless the ability to target virtually any Android device running on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) or earlier versions.

How does it work
Godless is more like an exploit kit. in that it uses an open-source rooting framework called android-rooting-tools. Apps related to this threat can be found in Google Play and other app stores.

  • Godless hides inside an app.It get inside in the phone after user download the infected app.
  • Then it exploits the root files of the operating system of the infected phone.
  • This action creates full admin access to a device, allowing unauthorized apps to be installed without owner’s permission.

What is the problem
After taking over control of the phone, the malware can then receive remote instructions and it can then silently download and install any app it wants. Phone owner may have unwanted apps in their phone. Which may lead to unwanted add. And the worst  possible scenario is that this threat can install backdoor and spyware apps.

Solution
To check the version of your android device and if you notice your phone is running on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) or earlier then try to upgrade your android version. Download and install only well-known security program and run a complete scan. Keep check news updated related to this threat.

Global distribution of affected devices. Source : Trendmicro

Global distribution of affected devices. Source : Trendmicro

Writer – Rubayat M.

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A Tale of Bad Password

Posted on by Rubayat M.

login_password_screen_shotPassword is a secret word or phrase that must be used to gain admission to something. Some of us may not know this well written description, but most of us understand the concept. But there are many unique individual who seems don’t care for understanding the concept or know the meaning of password. And that is when disaster strikes down.

We all have  been told, advised and even instruct to use hard to guess password and also advised to follow the golden rule “Don’t use the same password for everything”. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg or commonly known as Mark Zuckerberg, one of the most influential tech person of our time didn’t follow the golden rule. Result – June 6, 2016 Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest account was hacked. Here is a list of “bad” password.

If you find your password in this list – then you need to change it right now.

123456
password
12345
12345678
qwerty
1234567890
1234
baseball
dragon
football
123123		 1234567
monkey
letmein
abc123
111111
mustang
access
shadow
master
Michael
batman
trustno1		 login
princess
qwertyuiop
solo
welcome
1234567890
1qaz2wsx
passw0rd
starwars
superman
696969

Writer – Rubayat M.

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Twitter co-founder’s account hacked

Posted on by Rubayat M.

twitter-128
Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter become the latest victim of hacking ! His account was hacked on Wednesday. A middle east based group called OurMine took the responsibility. Some other high profile people’s account also been hacked recently.

Writer – Rubayat M.

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What-is zero-day-attack-or-exploit-and-how-to-detect-and-get-protection

Posted on by Rubayat M.

computer-software-code

What is zero-day attack or exploit
“Zero-day attack” We all heard about this. This is a flaw in the software that might be used by someone to commit an unauthorized act on a computer. Because of the name – it can be little difficult to understand the concept. Let me explain the problem with an example –

“Every once in a while, you log in to your secured online bank account to pay some bills or say to check your balance. But you didn’t know that there is a security flaw in your bank’s online system. Then one day this security flaw is discovered. Soon as this flaw becomes a public knowledge – bad people start working to take advantage of this flaw to steal your money. Now your bank’s software developers needs to find a solution to fix this issue by the end of the day.

The reason that this problem is called “zero-day”, because once the flaw becomes public knowledge, the developers has practically “zero days or 0 days“ to find a solution. “

How this can happen
Till today softwares are written by human being. Some times an unintentional error-in-code can remain in the algorithm and can be overlooked by the software developer. After the development – every software goes through a series of testing before it goes for public use. These tests are done either by a human being or by a “software testing software”.

Some times the “unintentional error-in-code” never get caught in the testing phase. Then this “unintentional error-in-code” becomes a “flaw in the software”. This flaw remains unknown to the software developer, testers and even to users. Eventually this flaw becomes a  “security hole”. And that is when Zero-day attack happens.

Why this is a problem
In a nutshell ‘zero-day attack’ is an unknown flaw in the software. Due to the nature of this problem –
Any attacker can attack any system in any time. A seasoned attacker can cause serious damage to data, computer programs.
Even a standard antivirus software may not be able detect a zero-day virus .
This is also very effective against any secured or “well protected” network. In most cases the attack remains undetected for days.

Detection – the bug hunters
There are individual groups and companies working on this issues. Here is some of them
The Good Force : Google has a security team called Project Zero. Members of this team, test  vulnerability in softwares developed by Google and by other companies. When they detect anything – Project Zero team inform the software maker. Then made this information public once a patch has been released by the makers.

Antivirus maker companies also test for vulnerability in softwares.

The Dark Force : People with bad intention or ‘the bad guys’ – also look for vulnerability in softwares, developed by different companies. Difference between the good force and dark force are – the dark force do not inform the software developer about the security holes, instead they try to exploit the situation.

Protection
Zero-day attacks are usually unknown to the users. In reality there is no good protection against this. So users needs to develop safe-computing habit. Examples of safe-computing habits are –
1. Stay informed. Beware of scams, try reading some security news every day.
2. Dont use the same password for everything.
3. Try not to use open or unsecured wifi network.Your data can be intercepted while in transit.
4. Read the description and company review before install or download any software or apps.
4. Scan your computer regularly for spyware and make sure your operating system has the latest updates.
5. Finally backup…backup…backup…backup…everything.

Writer – Rubayat M.