Ransomware -- a type of malware that restricts the infected computer system to be accessed. Hackers usually are enabled through cloud-based storage solutions i.e. Google, Dropbox, Drive, and OneDrive and they attempt to exploit logged-on users stored credentials. through avoiding remember password in the internet and always logging out when finished using the internet.
The Internet of Things
The Internet of Things
– the connection of physical devices such as home appliances and cars
to the internet -- will still be the "Internet of Vulnerabilities,"
according to cyber experts. Jamison Nesbitt, founder of Cyber
Senate, a community of global cybersecurity business leaders, echoed
experts' beliefs who said that the IoT is "the main cybersecurity risk
for 2015." "The IoT presents unique security challenges in terms of the
number of connected devices present." "The IoT will be integrated into
every market you can think of – from healthcare to the energy industry
and transport network but it hasn't been designed with security in mind.
There are millions of hackers out there that could compromise these
interconnected systems. We have sacrificed security for efficiency"
Cyber-espionage
Cyber espionage
is becoming the weapon of choice for many national governments – no
matter how tight-lipped they may be about any involvement in such
activities to undermine their enemies. As Nesbitt said, "the next world war will be fought on a keyboard," and we should expect cyber espionage attacks to increase in frequency in 2015, McAfee's "2015 Threat Predictions" report warned. "Long-term players will become
stealthier information gatherers, while newcomers will look for ways to
steal money and disrupt their adversaries," McAfee Labs report states,
predicting that more small nation states and terror groups will use
cyber warfare.
The stealing of financial information is nothing
new, with stolen credit or debit card data on the black market a
well-established and lucrative business for cyber criminals. But as new ways of paying for
goods, such as contactless and mobile payments, become the norm for
European consumers, there's a new opportunity for hackers – particularly
if retailers don't store payment data securely, Symantec told CNBC. "Although this would require cyber
criminals to target individual cards and wouldn't result in large scale
breaches or theft like we have seen in the U.S.,the payment technology
used won't protect against retailers who aren't storing payment card
data securely, and they will still need to be vigilant in protecting
stored data," Candid Wüest, threat researcher at Symantec Security
Response, said.
Insecure Passwords
Easy-to-crack passwords will continue to be a big
risk in 2015, analysts said. "Weaknesses of passwords are known, but
still lead to many of the high-profile attacks such as the recent iCloud attack," Symantec's Sian John said. "2015 is likely to be the first
year when the password starts to be phased out in favour of a number of
different multi-factor options. Next year may well be the
first year of
multi-factor by default," Digital Shadows, a cyber threat intelligence
company, told CNBC. "The mechanisms for password
recovery are flawed," John added. "The traditional method of password
recovery is asking questions that only you, the real owner, should know.
Unfortunately, answers to these questions often can be deduced based on
information that can easily be found online -- especially given
people's proclivity for "over-sharing" on social media sites."
[Online].
Available at: www.cnbc.com/2014/12/19/top-5-cyber-security-risks-for-2015.htm
[Accessed 30 May 2016]
The positive warnings on Potential Impacts of Digital Technology to all students in society.
Creating meaningful relationships is often about sharing our lives with
others, and technology can allow us to do so through photos, videos,
text, and music. Some relationships thou can be harmful and often leave us in danger it is therefore advised to take caution when in use of social networks
Society is likely on the cusp of a social revolution, during which it
will be important to redefine socially appropriate and acceptable
behaviors (with regard to digital or virtual interaction). We are at a
point in history where very few people have given critical thought to
new social realities created by technology and what those realities and how to keep up with it.
''Perhaps overcoming a sense of isolation is one of the greatest features
of online communities and virtual worlds. Someone might feel like an
outcast in her own community or family but might find someone online
with similar hobbies, pursuits, and interests. Consider someone who
enjoys photography as a serious leisure pursuit. This person would be
able to share that passion with people all over the world by using the
Internet and its powerful tools (e-mail, video chat, discussion boards,
online video, family Web sites). However, simply sharing common
interests and pursuits with people through technology does not
necessarily have a positive impact on social skills and social
development.''
Digital Code of Conduct for educational institutes:
10 points of netiquette:
Typing in CAPS is considered to be rude so avoid doing so at all time.
Do not spam its often annoying to other people
Avoid asking questions that can be found on site or on google (Melin, 2013)
Take caution on the type of language you use do not swear or be verbally violent
Always follow the appropriate referencing and quoting techniques
Be patient do not always expect responds right away
When engaged in personal conversation avoid reply-all
Always give credit or ask for permission when using content that is not yours DO NOT STEAL
Avoid plagiarism always give credit to the author to appreciate for their hard work
Privacy is vital avoid broadcasting personal matters to the public
https%3A%2F%2Fedtp504fall10.wikispaces.com
Penalties for failing to meet netiquette:
rules broken will cause for affirmative action to be taken against the user by firstly sending an email notifying them of the violation on the rules.
internet access will therefore e limited to the user.
result in continues violation of rules will lead to disciplinary hearing to be attended by the user.
legal action will be taken against the user if they don discontinue the violation of rules.
http%3A%2F%2Fareyouadigitalcitizen.
How to enforce and manage Netiquette:
Always reference.
double space paragraphs for readable drawings.
Ask for clarification if you have any doubt about instructions to avoid miscommunication.
business may adopt digital code of conducts to manage and monitor their employees i ensuring appropriate digital etiquette.
Be professionals when you signature documents to ensure legitimacy.
Use descriptive headings.
Always record and keep receipt of all transactions made.
Avoid the use of acronyms.
Although this might be extreme, businesses can spy on employees
doings on the internet so that they can ensure all workers have a clear
understanding of netiquette.
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slideshare.net
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slideshare.net
Reference
About Canva. (2016). Free Online Poster Maker: Design Custom Posters With Canva. [online] Available at: https://www.canva.com/create/posters/ [Accessed 22 May 2016].
A huge haul of bones found in a small, dark chamber at the back of a cave in South Africa may be the remnants of a new species of ancient human relative.
Explorers discovered the bones after squeezing through a fissure high in the rear wall of the Rising Star cave, 50km from Johannesburg, before descending a long, narrow chute to the chamber floor 40 metres beneath the surface.
The entrance chute into the Dinaledi chamber is so tight – a mere
eight inches wide – that six lightly built female researchers were
brought in to excavate the bones. Footage from their cameras was beamed
along 3.5km of optic cable to a command centre above ground as they
worked inside the cramped enclosure.
The excavators recovered more than 1,500 pieces of bone belonging to
at least 15 individuals. The remains appear to be infants, juveniles and
one very old adult. Thousands more pieces of bone are still in the
chamber, smothered in the soft dirt that covers the ground.
In this short video,
the leaders of the National Geographic-funded project discuss their
discovery of the “human ancestor”. The team believes the bones - as yet
undated - represent a new species of ancient human relative. They have
named the creature Homo naledi, where naledi means “star” in Sesotho,
one of the official languages of South Africa, and the primary official
language of Lesotho. But other experts on human origins say the claim is
unjustified, at least on the evidence gathered so far. The bones, they
argue, look strikingly similar to those of early Homo erectus, a forerunner of modern humans who wandered southern Africa 1.5m years ago.
“We’ve found a new species that we are placing in the genus Homo, which is really quite remarkable,” said Lee Berger,
a paleoanthropologist who led the work at the University of
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He described the slender, small-brained
creatures as “long-legged”, “pinheaded” and “gangly”. The males stood
about 5ft, with females a little shorter.
Measurements of the bones show that the creature has a curious blend
of ancient ape and modern human-like features. Its brain is tiny, the
size of a gorilla’s. Its teeth are small and simple. The thorax is
primitive and ape-like, but its hands more modern, their shape
well-suited to making basic tools. The feet and ankles are built for
walking upright, but its fingers are curved, a feature seen in apes that
spend much of their time in the trees. The findings are reported in twopapers published in the online journal eLife.
Lee Bergen’s daughter Megan and underground exploration team member Rick
Hunter navigate the narrow chutes leading to the Dinaledi chamber.
Photograph: Robert Clark/National Geographic
The Dinaledi chamber has been visited by explorers in the past, and
the soft sediments in which the bones were found have been badly
disturbed. Because the remains were not encased in rock, Berger’s team
has not been able to date them. They could be 3m years old, or far more
modern. No other animals were found in the chamber that might hint at
when the human relative got there.
“If this is an ancient species, like a coelacanthe, that has come
down through time and is only tens of thousands, or hundreds of
thousands of years old, it means that during that time we had a complex
species wandering around Africa, perhaps making tools. That would make
archaeology very difficult, because we aren’t going to know who made
what,” Berger said. John Hawks,
a researcher on the team, said that despite some of its modern
features, Homo naledi probably belonged at the origins of our genus,
Homo. “It’s telling us that evolutionary history was probably different
to what we had imagined,” he said. Paul Dirks,
another scientist involved, said that work was ongoing to establish the
age of the bones. Some tests, such as carbon dating, will destroy the
material, and will only be tried once the bones have been studied more
closely.
Without knowing the age of the bones, some researchers see the
fossils as little more than novelties. “If they are as old as two
million years, then they might be early South African versions of Homo erectus,
a species already known from that region. If much more recent, they
could be a relic species that persisted in isolation. In other words,
they are more curiosities than game-changers for now,” said William Jungers, an anthropologist at Stony Brook School of Medicine in New York. Christoph Zollikofer,
an anthropologist at the University of Zurich, said that many of the
bone characteristics used to claim the creature as a new species are
seen in more primitive animals, and by definition cannot be used to
define a new species. “The few ‘unique’ features that potentially define
the new species need further scrutiny, as they may represent individual
variation, or variation at the population level,” he said. Tim White,
a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, goes
further. “From what is presented here, they belong to a primitive Homo
erectus, a species named in the 1800s.”
The Dinaledi chamber is extremely hard to access today, raising the
question of how the creatures came to be there. They may have clambered
in and become stuck, or died when water filled the cave. But Berger and
his colleagues favour a more radical explanation. “We have, after
eliminating all of the probable, come to the conclusion that Homo naledi
was utilising this chamber in a ritualised fashion to deliberately
dispose of its dead,” Berger said.
The team lays out fossils of Homo naledi at the University of the
Witwatersrand’s Evolutionary Studies Institute. Photograph: Robert
Clark/National Geographic
The conclusion is not widely accepted by others. “Intentional
disposal of rotting corpses by fellow pinheads makes a nice headline,
but seems like a stretch to me,” said Jungers. Zollikofer agrees. “The
‘new species’ and ‘dump-the-dead’ claims are clearly for the media. None
of them is substantiated by the data presented in the publications,” he
said. Hawks is open to other explanations, but said that disposal made
sense. “The evidence really tends to exclude the idea that they entered
the chamber one at a time, alive, over some time, because we have
infants, small children, and very old adults who would almost certainly
not have managed to get into this chamber without being deposited
there.”
October issue of National Geographic.
Chris Stringer,
head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said
that how the creatures reached their final resting place was a “big
puzzle”.
“If we’re talking about intentional disposal, we’re talking about
creatures with a brain the size of a gorilla’s going deep into a cave,
into the dark, and posting bodies through a small fissure into this cave
chamber. It’s remarkably complex behaviour for what we’d think of as a
very primitive human-like species. Whether there are other explanations
remains to be seen, but it’s one of the plausible explanations,” he
said. Analyse
first year of
multi-factor by default," Digital Shadows, a cyber threat intelligence
company, told CNBC. 
http%3A%2F%2Fareyouadigitalcitizen.
