With malicious hackers and malware infesting nearly every enterprise network these days, "jump boxes" have become very popular. A jump box is a specially secured computer that administrators must (or should) log on to in order to gain access to other computers and administrate them. The hope is that these jump boxes are specially secured -- and are less likely to get exploited by hackers or malware.
Jump boxes can decrease risk, but you need to implement their special protections properly. Many enterprises start with the best of intentions, but when I audit jump boxes, I often see a jumble of weak security policies and high-risk behaviors that make them just as insecure as a regular user's PC.
In the computer security world, a basic premise underlies setting up a "secure environment": Systems of lower trust should never be able to modify or control systems of higher trust or importance. Most jump boxes tend to break this basic rule because the computers people use to connect to jump boxes are less trustworthy than the jump boxes themselves.
Often, PCs that connect to jump boxes are open to the Internet all day long and can be as infected and exploited as any other computer in your environment. What good is a jump box if the computer connecting to it has a keylogging Trojan copying every password or smartcard token you use? Your jump box and the computer linking to it -- let's call it the "originating computer" for this discussion -- should both be highly secure systems.
Here are the protective measures you should take for jump boxes and the systems that connect to them.
Security hardened Most of today's operating systems and applications come fairly well secured. Don't mess it up. Consider configuring the originating computer and jump server with the "high security" settings if they exist. You want to enforce only the best and most secure protocols and options.
Strong authentication If you use regular passwords, they should be long and complex (15 characters or more). Try to require smartcards or other two-factor authentication methods for all elevated users. If you're managing multiple environments (that is, different forests), make sure logon credentials are not shared among environments. If you use smartcards, key fobs, or other two-factor authentication, make sure those aren't shared, either. Yes, it'll be harder to administrate multiple environments. But if you share that stuff, why have different environments in the first place?
No browsing the Internet If I check your jump box and see it has a browser installed or can browse to the Internet unhindered, then you've failed the audit. Browsing the Internet is a high-risk activity that should not be allowed either on the jump box or the originating computer. I know many of you probably use your regular workstation to connect to jump boxes. This is a bad idea. Use a separate computer (or VM) to connect to your jump box. That originating computer should not be able to browse the Internet to any site; if you allow it to connect only to vendor sites and legitimate driver download sites, that's OK.
With people plugging more and more devices into the power grid, public utilities across the country are finding it increasingly difficult to effectively manage during peak demand. Honeywell's line of Wi-Fi-connected smart thermostats are now doing their part to help.
At Microsoft's huge Xbox reveal last spring, the company made a big hubub about the 300,000 cloud servers it would be adding to help speed up GPU and CPU heavy tasks. But in an interview with Gizmodo, Xbox Live Lead Programmer John Bruno detailed how it could change the way we think about gaming in the future.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has rejected a Democratic effort to extend the government's ability to borrow money through next year.
Before the vote, Republican senators said Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have begun negotiations aimed at extending the country's borrowing limit and ending the 12-day-old government shutdown.
It was a near party-line vote — 53-45 — that derailed the Democratic measure. The 53 votes were seven short of the 60 required to overcome Republican objections to considering the measure.
Earlier in the day, House Speaker John Boehner told fellow Republicans that his talks with President Barack Obama have stalled.
The administration has warned it will deplete its borrowing authority by Oct. 17, risking a damaging federal default, unless Congress acts.
LONDON (AP) — Three days from a deadline to increase the U.S. debt ceiling, investors remain focused on developments in Washington. Most think a deal will be reached in time and stock markets were holding up Monday.
The U.S. has to increase the amount of debt it can carry by Oct. 17 or face a possible default on its debt, a scenario that could derail the U.S. economic recovery and roil international markets.
Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over the weekend failed to reach a conclusion either on the raising of the debt ceiling or the partial shutdown of the U.S. government, which has now entered a third week.
Despite the possible nightmare scenario of a U.S. debt default, markets have proven more resilient than many analysts had expected.
"Like the fiscal cliff in 2012 and the last debt ceiling scare in 2011, the view remains that it will all work out, eventually," said Michael Ingram, market strategist at BGC Partners. "They are probably right of course, but it still feels that equity markets have been approaching this issue with unusual complacency."
In Europe, Germany's DAX closed flat at 8,723.81 while the CAC-40 in France rose 0.1 percent to 4,222.96. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares ended 0.3 percent higher at 6,507.65.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.2 percent at 15,211 while the broader S&P 500 index fell the same rate to 1,700.
Despite the public holiday, developments in Washington remain the focus of attention in financial markets, with Senate leaders from both sides set for further discussions. Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke by phone Sunday but failed to agree on a deal to raise the nation's borrowing authority above the $16.7 trillion debt limit.
Earlier, trading in Asia was muted, with markets in Tokyo and Hong Kong closed for holidays.
Outside of those major financial centers, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 2,237.77 while South Korea's Kospi was off 0.2 percent at 2,020.27. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.4 percent to 5,207.90.
Trading was also subdued in other financial markets. In currencies, the euro was up 0.2 percent at $1.3577 while the dollar was steady at 98.24 yen. In the oil markets, a price of benchmark New York crude was down 21 cents at $101.81 a barrel.
Peer pressure's influence calculated by mathematician
Public release date: 9-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Lachlan Mackinnon lachlan.mackinnon@strath.ac.uk 44-014-154-84373 University of Strathclyde
A mathematician has calculated how peer pressure influences society.
Professor Ernesto Estrada, of the University of Strathclyde's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, examined the effect of direct and indirect social influences otherwise known as peer pressure on how decisions are reached on important issues. Using mathematical models, he analysed data taken from 15 networks including US school superintendents and Brazilian farmers to outline peer pressure's crucial role in society.
Professor Estrada said: "Our modern society is a highly-interconnected one and social groups have become ever-more interconnected as time has progressed, with the evolution from the cavemen to today's technology-driven society.
"Reaching consensus about vital topics such as global warming, the cost of health care and insurance systems, and healthy habits is crucial for the evolution of our society.
"That is why the study of consensus has attracted the attention of scholars in a variety of disciplines, ranging from social to natural sciences, who have documented examples of peer pressure's influence on popular cultural styles such as changing fashions over time and the behavior of crowds at football matches as well as collective decision-making, and even pedestrians' walking behavior."
Professor Estrada's research into how decisions are reached found that the process begins when individuals directly connected to each other first reach agreement, then under the influence of peers not directly connected to them the entire social group eventually tips into a collective consensus. He said: "Consider a teenager who is pressed by her friends into binge-drinking on a Saturday night this corresponds to the direct pressure exerted by the peers connected to that individual.
"However, she is also under indirect pressure, by seeing that many teenagers are doing the same every Saturday. Thus, this indirect pressure could make the difference in that individual to copy a given attitude."
Professor Estrada's study, being published today in the Nature journal "Scientific Reports", also examined the extent to which a small number of leaders can guide and dictate the behavior and decisions of an entire social group.
He said: "Think about the existence of groups in different organisations, such as industries. Every organisation has one or more leaders who might, for example, be trying to convince the group to go to or indeed not attend a demonstration about a contentious issue.
"The group can reach a consensus about the topic only by considering the direct pressure exerted by the members of the group and that of the leaders. However, if the individuals in the group observe that many other workers from external places have joined the demonstration, they can take a decision to join regardless of the pressure exerted by their leaders."
In social groups in which indirect peer pressure is largely absent, the extent to which its leaders share the same views plays a critical role in the length of time it takes to reach agreement on issues. However, when there is strong indirect peer pressure, the role of the local leaders vanishes and individuals with no important positions in their networks can become the leaders of the group.
Professor Estrada said: "Think about, for instance, the change of attitudes in respect to the smoking habit. In the 70s, it was very cool to smoke and you would see actors lighting cigarettes all the time on TV and movie stars were always smoking at decisive moments in films.
"Back then, individuals were not only directly pressed by their colleagues and friends to smoke but they also saw that people of the same social class, age and gender were doing the same. In this way, the combination of both direct and indirect peer pressure influenced the individuals to take up smoking.
"What is happening right now is the reverse. Many people have stopped smoking and they apply some direct pressure to their relatives and friends to quit too.
"However, in addition and probably more importantly individuals feel a lot of indirect pressure from the wider society to avoid smoking in public places. Smoking is not cool anymore the combined action of direct and indirect peer pressure is winning the battle against tobacco use."
###
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Peer pressure's influence calculated by mathematician
Public release date: 9-Oct-2013 [
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]
Contact: Lachlan Mackinnon lachlan.mackinnon@strath.ac.uk 44-014-154-84373 University of Strathclyde
A mathematician has calculated how peer pressure influences society.
Professor Ernesto Estrada, of the University of Strathclyde's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, examined the effect of direct and indirect social influences otherwise known as peer pressure on how decisions are reached on important issues. Using mathematical models, he analysed data taken from 15 networks including US school superintendents and Brazilian farmers to outline peer pressure's crucial role in society.
Professor Estrada said: "Our modern society is a highly-interconnected one and social groups have become ever-more interconnected as time has progressed, with the evolution from the cavemen to today's technology-driven society.
"Reaching consensus about vital topics such as global warming, the cost of health care and insurance systems, and healthy habits is crucial for the evolution of our society.
"That is why the study of consensus has attracted the attention of scholars in a variety of disciplines, ranging from social to natural sciences, who have documented examples of peer pressure's influence on popular cultural styles such as changing fashions over time and the behavior of crowds at football matches as well as collective decision-making, and even pedestrians' walking behavior."
Professor Estrada's research into how decisions are reached found that the process begins when individuals directly connected to each other first reach agreement, then under the influence of peers not directly connected to them the entire social group eventually tips into a collective consensus. He said: "Consider a teenager who is pressed by her friends into binge-drinking on a Saturday night this corresponds to the direct pressure exerted by the peers connected to that individual.
"However, she is also under indirect pressure, by seeing that many teenagers are doing the same every Saturday. Thus, this indirect pressure could make the difference in that individual to copy a given attitude."
Professor Estrada's study, being published today in the Nature journal "Scientific Reports", also examined the extent to which a small number of leaders can guide and dictate the behavior and decisions of an entire social group.
He said: "Think about the existence of groups in different organisations, such as industries. Every organisation has one or more leaders who might, for example, be trying to convince the group to go to or indeed not attend a demonstration about a contentious issue.
"The group can reach a consensus about the topic only by considering the direct pressure exerted by the members of the group and that of the leaders. However, if the individuals in the group observe that many other workers from external places have joined the demonstration, they can take a decision to join regardless of the pressure exerted by their leaders."
In social groups in which indirect peer pressure is largely absent, the extent to which its leaders share the same views plays a critical role in the length of time it takes to reach agreement on issues. However, when there is strong indirect peer pressure, the role of the local leaders vanishes and individuals with no important positions in their networks can become the leaders of the group.
Professor Estrada said: "Think about, for instance, the change of attitudes in respect to the smoking habit. In the 70s, it was very cool to smoke and you would see actors lighting cigarettes all the time on TV and movie stars were always smoking at decisive moments in films.
"Back then, individuals were not only directly pressed by their colleagues and friends to smoke but they also saw that people of the same social class, age and gender were doing the same. In this way, the combination of both direct and indirect peer pressure influenced the individuals to take up smoking.
"What is happening right now is the reverse. Many people have stopped smoking and they apply some direct pressure to their relatives and friends to quit too.
"However, in addition and probably more importantly individuals feel a lot of indirect pressure from the wider society to avoid smoking in public places. Smoking is not cool anymore the combined action of direct and indirect peer pressure is winning the battle against tobacco use."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Debra Levey Larson dlarson@illinois.edu 217-244-2880 University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
URBANA, Ill. Managing storm-water runoff in urban settings is critical to keep basements dry, streets clear and passable, and streams and rivers healthy, but how much are homeowners willing to pay for it?
A University of Illinois survey of randomly selected households in Champaign-Urbana concluded that people are willing to pay to reduce flooding in their own basement, but they may also place a high value on water quality and the health of local rivers and streams.
"It came as no surprise to us that people who experienced basement flooding were willing to pay for the city to manage the storm-water runoff," said U of I environmental economist Amy Ando. "However, what did surprise us is that people were also willing to pay quite a lot of money for improvements in environmental qualityin having cleaner water in the streams and better hydrological functioning."
Ando explained that parking lots, buildings, and streets interrupt the way the hydrological system usually functions. Low-impact, environmentally friendly storm-water management options, such as rain gardens, permeable concrete, cisterns, and green roofs, are designed to mimic the way things function in the absence of development.
"These low-impact options use decentralized storm-water management methods aimed at keeping water on site rather than the traditional concrete structure that takes water away as quickly as possible," Ando said. "If we use low-impact development approaches to storm-water management instead of just building bigger storm water pipes, we can reduce flooding, have cleaner water, and improve habitat for wildlife."
While there has been a lot of research about storm disasters and the benefits of some kinds of flood reduction, this is the first research to determine joint monetary estimates of multiple benefits to society of modern storm water, including environmental improvements more complex than just reduced water pollution.
The survey was hand delivered to 1,000 households in randomly selected neighborhoods in Champaign-Urbana. Of those, 140 surveys were completed and returnedsome from people who experience a lot of flooding and some from people who had no flooding at all. The data were analyzed from 131 of those respondents.
"The results help us understand which type of flooding people care about most and should be prioritized in terms of management in urban areas," Ando said. "It can also help federal and local policy makers evaluate the benefits of new storm-water regulations that implement low-impact development techniques."
Cities across the country are developing a wide range of policies to improve storm-water management, and the Environmental Protection Agency is evaluating regulations that might mandate significant on site management of storm water nationwide.
"No city is going to use all low-impact development," Ando said. "The question is, what mixture of things do you want to use? And how important is it to try to improve hydrological functioning by using low-impact development solutions rather than traditional storm-water solutions. This study provides the actual benefit estimates. City decision makers can see how much people are willing to pay for a project if it achieves a particular mix of outcomes," she said.
Ando said the research also cautions that policies and municipal storm sewer projects that worsen aquatic habitat in a quest to reduce flooding that affects only a subset of households in an area may have questionable net benefits for the community as a whole.
"Valuing preferences over stormwater management outcomes including improved hydrologic function," co-authored by Amy Ando and her graduate student Catalina Londoo Cadavid, was published in a recent issue of Water Resources Research.
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The research was funded by USDA-NIFA Hatch projects #ILLU-470-316 and #ILLU-470-323.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Residents willing to pay for water improvements
Public release date: 8-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Debra Levey Larson dlarson@illinois.edu 217-244-2880 University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
URBANA, Ill. Managing storm-water runoff in urban settings is critical to keep basements dry, streets clear and passable, and streams and rivers healthy, but how much are homeowners willing to pay for it?
A University of Illinois survey of randomly selected households in Champaign-Urbana concluded that people are willing to pay to reduce flooding in their own basement, but they may also place a high value on water quality and the health of local rivers and streams.
"It came as no surprise to us that people who experienced basement flooding were willing to pay for the city to manage the storm-water runoff," said U of I environmental economist Amy Ando. "However, what did surprise us is that people were also willing to pay quite a lot of money for improvements in environmental qualityin having cleaner water in the streams and better hydrological functioning."
Ando explained that parking lots, buildings, and streets interrupt the way the hydrological system usually functions. Low-impact, environmentally friendly storm-water management options, such as rain gardens, permeable concrete, cisterns, and green roofs, are designed to mimic the way things function in the absence of development.
"These low-impact options use decentralized storm-water management methods aimed at keeping water on site rather than the traditional concrete structure that takes water away as quickly as possible," Ando said. "If we use low-impact development approaches to storm-water management instead of just building bigger storm water pipes, we can reduce flooding, have cleaner water, and improve habitat for wildlife."
While there has been a lot of research about storm disasters and the benefits of some kinds of flood reduction, this is the first research to determine joint monetary estimates of multiple benefits to society of modern storm water, including environmental improvements more complex than just reduced water pollution.
The survey was hand delivered to 1,000 households in randomly selected neighborhoods in Champaign-Urbana. Of those, 140 surveys were completed and returnedsome from people who experience a lot of flooding and some from people who had no flooding at all. The data were analyzed from 131 of those respondents.
"The results help us understand which type of flooding people care about most and should be prioritized in terms of management in urban areas," Ando said. "It can also help federal and local policy makers evaluate the benefits of new storm-water regulations that implement low-impact development techniques."
Cities across the country are developing a wide range of policies to improve storm-water management, and the Environmental Protection Agency is evaluating regulations that might mandate significant on site management of storm water nationwide.
"No city is going to use all low-impact development," Ando said. "The question is, what mixture of things do you want to use? And how important is it to try to improve hydrological functioning by using low-impact development solutions rather than traditional storm-water solutions. This study provides the actual benefit estimates. City decision makers can see how much people are willing to pay for a project if it achieves a particular mix of outcomes," she said.
Ando said the research also cautions that policies and municipal storm sewer projects that worsen aquatic habitat in a quest to reduce flooding that affects only a subset of households in an area may have questionable net benefits for the community as a whole.
"Valuing preferences over stormwater management outcomes including improved hydrologic function," co-authored by Amy Ando and her graduate student Catalina Londoo Cadavid, was published in a recent issue of Water Resources Research.
###
The research was funded by USDA-NIFA Hatch projects #ILLU-470-316 and #ILLU-470-323.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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