Here Are 5 Common Network Security Mistakes You Might Be Making:

Have you ever been scammed or had a computer virus take over your system. You're left wondering: “how the heck did this happen to me”? You thought you had followed all the standard advice on securing your network and computer, but you still ended up with a security breach or malware infestation.

Here Are 5 Common Network Security Mistakes You Might Be Making:

1. You're Not Using Strong Encryption On Your Wireless Network

Are you scratching your head because hackers broke into your network, even though you had wireless encryption enabled? You may have been using encryption, but you might have been using the outdated and highly vulnerable Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption. WEP was cracked years ago and hacking a WEP-encrypted network is now trivial, due to a proliferation of easy to use WEP hacking tools. Even a novice hacker can break into a WEP-based network.

The Solution: replace your network's WEP encryption with Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2). WPA2 is a much more robust wireless protection method and is the current standard for “secure” wireless networks. Some older routers may be too old to support an upgrade to WPA2 while others can be upgraded via a firmware update. Check your router manufacturer’s support page for your specific router to see if it supports WPA2.  

2. Your Passwords Aren’t Strong Enough

A weak password can be a hackers gateway into your network, your system, and your online accounts. Increased computing power has decreased the amount of time it takes for password cracking tools to crack a password.

You need to make your passwords as long, complex, and random as possible. Avoid use of dictionary words in your password as cracking tools test for these. Having one embedded in your password will help the tool find your password much quicker than if it had random characters in it.

Check out our article on How to Create a Strong Password for tips on composition.

3. Your System Doesn’t Have The Latest Security Patches

Hackers love to find systems with unpatched vulnerabilities because they can be exploited with specially crafted attacks that take advantage of the unpatched weakness. OS vendors are constantly detecting new threats in the wild and developing security patches to close the holes.

Most OSes feature a set-and-forget “auto update” capability that will automatically download and apply the latest security patches on a regular basis.

The Solution: turn on auto update for your OS security patches as well as any apps that have auto update capability. You should also periodically run a manual patch check to ensure that the auto update process isn’t broken.  

4. You Don’t Have a Backup Strategy

When things go bad, your first question might be “do I have a backup of those files”? You shouldn’t have to ask yourself this question, you should know the answer, and the answer should be "let me go pull up my backup of those files”.

Backups are critical resources. Some computer malware such as ransomware can encrypt your files and hold them hostage. If you have a backup of your files then you can laugh at the ransom demand and tell those hackers to go stick it in their ear or some other orifice.

Check out our article on Developing a Backup Strategy for some tips on how to go about backing up your stuff.

5. You’re Not Aware of The Latest Threats And Scams

Scammers and hackers are constantly evolving their tools and tactics. Educating yourself on the current threats is key to not falling victim to the newest and most dangerous scams and hacks happening in the world.

Emerging Graphics File Formats - New and Upcoming Graphics Formats

Algo Vision LuraTech

"Algo Vision LuraTech GmbH is one of the leading developers of JPEG2000 implementations and technology for the compression of images, data and scanned documents in color."

LizardTech

"LizardTech develops imaging software and solutions that simplify and enhance the distribution, management and control of digital images and documents." Products include DjVu for digitizing paper documents and MrSID for high quality compression of photos and other images.

Zoomify

Solutions for delivering high resolution images over the Web.

About MNG - Multiple-Image Network Graphic

MNG (pronounced "ming") is the proposed multiple-image extension of the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format for Web animation. Here you'll find resources for its support and development.

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About SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics

SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, a new vector format currently in development for Web graphics and animation. Here you'll find SVG authoring tools, samples, source code, technical specifications, and the latest news and information about SVG development.

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JPEG Format - About JPEG and JPEG 2000 File Formats

JPEG (or JPG) stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and was named for the organization that developed the format. Here you'll find information and specifications on the JPEG (jpg) and upcoming JPEG2000 (jp2) graphic file formats used on the Web and in digital photography. Includes software for working with JPEG images, technical specs, news, answers to frequently asked questions, and tips for working with JPEG graphics

QHN, Our big story - Net Neutrality

Quantum Hack Networks-QHN, bring to you the new word in the tech industry and it means and stands for, Net Neutrality, enjoy.

Net neutrality (also network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003 as an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier.^[1][2][3][4]

Examples of net neutrality violations include when the Internet service provider Comcast intentionally slowed peer-to-peercommunications.^[5] In 2007, one other company was using deep packet inspection to discriminate against peer-to-peer, file transfer protocol, and online games, instituting a cell-phone style billing system of overages, free-to-telecom value-added services, and bundling

Net neutrality[edit]

Network neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.^[7] According to Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, the best way to explain network neutrality is as a principle to be used when designing a network: that a public information network will end up being most useful if all content, sites, and platforms are treated equally.^[8] A more detailed proposed definition of technical and service network neutrality suggests that service network neutrality is the adherence to the paradigm that operation of a service at a certain layer is not influenced by any data other than the data interpreted at that layer, and in accordance with the protocol specification for that layer.^[9]

Open Internet[edit]

The idea of an open Internet is the idea that the full resources of the Internet and means to operate on it are easily accessible to all individuals and companies. This often includes ideas such as net neutrality, open standards, transparency, lack of Internet censorship, and low barriers to entry. The concept of the open Internet is sometimes expressed as an expectation of decentralized technological power, and is seen by some as closely related to open-source software.^[10]

Proponents often see net neutrality as an important component of an open Internet, where policies such as equal treatment of data and open web standards allow those on the Internet to easily communicate and conduct business without interference from a third party.^[11] A closed Internet refers to the opposite situation, in which established corporations or governments favor certain uses. A closed Internet may have restricted access to necessary web standards, artificially degrade some services, or explicitly filter out content.

Dumb pipe[edit]

Main article: Dumb pipe

The concept of a dumb network made up of dumb pipes has been around since at least the early 1990s. The idea of a dumb network is that the endpoints of a network are generally where the intelligence lies, and that the network itself generally leaves the management and operation of communication to the end users. In 2013 the software company MetroTech Net, Inc. (MTN) coined the term Dumb Wave which is the modern application of the Dumb Pipe concept to the ubiquitous wireless network. If wireless carriers do not provide unique and value added services, they will be relegated to the dumb pipe category where they can't charge a premium or retain customers.

Source:Wikipidea

The strange Chinese word and the Internet

The launch of a new word in China is threatening to break the internet, with the character being shared millions of times despite no-one knowing what it means.

The character, known as "duang", has appeared more than 8m times on China's leading social media site Weibo since it emerged a week ago, generating hundreds of thousands of online conversations.

Foreign Policy, the magazine, has now dubbed the character as a "break the internet" viral meme in the same ilk as last year's image of Kim Kardashian and last week's multi-coloured dress.

The new character has connections to film star Jackie Chan. A fake advert featuring Chan, who sponsors numerous products in China, appeared on video streaming site Youku for herbal shampoo Bawang, which Chan endorses. At the end of advert, Chan appears to say of the product: “It’s just … it’s just … duang!”

USA and UK hack consumer sim cards

US and British intelligence agencies hacked into a major manufacturer of Sim cards in order to steal codes that facilitate eavesdropping on mobiles, a US news website says.

The Intercept says the revelations came from US intelligence contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Dutch company allegedly targeted - Gemalto - says it is taking the allegations "very seriously".

It operates in 85 countries and has more than 40 manufacturing facilities.

The Intercept says that "the great Sim heist" gave US and British surveillance agencies "the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world's cellular communications, including both voice and data".

It says that among the clients of the Netherlands-based company are AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and "some 450 wireless network providers around the world".

Full investigation

The Intercept alleges that the hack organised by Britain's GCHQ and the US National Security Agency (NSA) began in 2010, and was organised by operatives in the "Mobile Handset Exploitation Team". Neither agency has commented directly on the allegations.

However GCHQ reiterated that all its activities were "carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate".

Here comes the terabyte phone

A big selling point of smartphones is their ability to hold much of your data -- photos, videos, your entire music library -- on a little device.

But over the years, their storage capabilities, usually no more than 64 GB, haven't kept pace with all the movies, games, apps and other memory-hogging minutiae of modern digital life.

Many people keep stuff in the cloud, but that requires Wi-Fi access.

It's frustrating to have to delete music or videos every time you want to store something new on your phone. But thanks to some advances in memory design and construction, we may be about to expand our devices in a big way.

"Because it's this amazing material, the industry understands it," Tour said, noting that the key to the scalability of the design is industrial availability. Indeed, Rice's RRAM can be manufactured at room temperature and relatively lower voltages compared with other versions.

RRAM is the next step for an industry that's finding the limits to flash memory. Like flash, RRAM doesn't need continuous power. But it's also much faster, since it can be built into more versatile arrays and stacked into bigger pieces.

"You've got to get into the third dimension to pack up enough density in the memory" in order to keep the capabilities growing, Tour said. Flash memory has kept up with Moore's Law -- the ever-increasing power of microchips -- by giving more functionality to the devices on the chips, he says.

But RRAM does a better and more efficient job.

"It's this insatiable desire for memory that's driving all this," he said.

Tour's team is one of many working on the problem, though he believes his approach has an edge because of its use of silicon oxide instead of more exotic materials. Licensing is under way, he says, and prototypes will be further test the concept's viability.

But if everything pans out, phones with a terabyte of memory -- that's 1,000 GB, enough to hold hundreds of feature-length movies -- are just the beginning, Tour says.

"Because silicon oxide is glass and it's transparent, we've built these on glass, we've built this on top of plastic, so it can even be part of the coating you're looking at through the screen," he said.

Tour believes it'll be a world like that portrayed in the movie "Minority Report," with flexible, rollable digital "newspapers" and writable smart windows.

Talk about expandable.

Nigeria Zero Discrimination Law

In a statement issued by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) to commemorate Sunday’s Zero Discrimination Day, UNAIDS commended Nigeria’s commitment to ending stigma and discrimination against people living with and affected by HIV. UNAIDS Country Director for Nigeria and UNAIDS Focal Point for ECOWAS, Dr. Bilali Camara was quoted in the statement to have said, “I would like to thank the National Assembly for crafting the humanly sensitive bill and President Goodluck Jonathan for signing the Anti-Discrimination law. This law is a big boost to improving Nigeria’s AIDS response because it gives back human rights and dignity to people living with or affected by HIV and ensures that the country ends the AIDS epidemic by 2030”. With the signing into law of the bill, it becomes illegal for employers of labour to either subject prospective employees to HIV tests or to discriminate against employees who are living with the virus. “It is hoped that the new law will create a more supportive environment, allowing people living with and affected by HIV to carry on their lives as normally as possible in the society and the work places’, UNIC spokesman, Oluseyi Shoremekun said in the statement - See more at: http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/200236-un-commends-nigeria-s-assent-to-zero-discrimination-law#sthash.sKLFFrmW.dpuf

2014 Tech developments

2014 Benz Car

2014 has come and gone, last year  saw a lot of development especially in the Technology sector. here is a review of all the development that happened in the tech, ICT and Science sector last year
Click Here.

Here comes the terabyte phone

A big selling point of smartphones is their ability to hold much of your data -- photos, videos, your entire music library -- on a little device.

But over the years, their storage capabilities, usually no more than 64 GB, haven't kept pace with all the movies, games, apps and other memory-hogging minutiae of modern digital life.

Many people keep stuff in the cloud, but that requires Wi-Fi access.

It's frustrating to have to delete music or videos every time you want to store something new on your phone. But thanks to some advances in memory design and construction, we may be about to expand our devices in a big way.

 

"Because it's this amazing material, the industry understands it," Tour said, noting that the key to the scalability of the design is industrial availability. Indeed, Rice's RRAM can be manufactured at room temperature and relatively lower voltages compared with other versions.

RRAM is the next step for an industry that's finding the limits to flash memory. Like flash, RRAM doesn't need continuous power. But it's also much faster, since it can be built into more versatile arrays and stacked into bigger pieces.

"You've got to get into the third dimension to pack up enough density in the memory" in order to keep the capabilities growing, Tour said. Flash memory has kept up with Moore's Law -- the ever-increasing power of microchips -- by giving more functionality to the devices on the chips, he says.

But RRAM does a better and more efficient job.

"It's this insatiable desire for memory that's driving all this," he said.

Tour's team is one of many working on the problem, though he believes his approach has an edge because of its use of silicon oxide instead of more exotic materials. Licensing is under way, he says, and prototypes will be further test the concept's viability.

But if everything pans out, phones with a terabyte of memory -- that's 1,000 GB, enough to hold hundreds of feature-length movies -- are just the beginning, Tour says.

"Because silicon oxide is glass and it's transparent, we've built these on glass, we've built this on top of plastic, so it can even be part of the coating you're looking at through the screen," he said.

Tour believes it'll be a world like that portrayed in the movie "Minority Report," with flexible, rollable digital "newspapers" and writable smart windows.

Talk about expandable.

Source CNN