Network Security

 Today, all most everything is done through the internet. Whether it is login into a social media page, checking personal or work emails, online banking, and or 90% of the time doing online shopping. Ever since its public launch on April 30, 1993, the internet now compared to back then is like no other where billions of people are accessing information from all possible ends. And with an addition of an estimated 500,000 new users each day, the criminals who use to rob and steal from you in person, is now maliciously attacking you when you least expect it. The covid-19 pandemic became some form of rebirth for viral attacks and no I am not talking about the one that attacks your health, in stead this one attacks your wallet and all the valuable information it contains. Individuals and organizations sought out to boost their anti-virus protection after witnessing firsthand what cyber-attackers were doing to companies large and small since the start of the pandemic. 

Over the last two years, the time has shown that it is very important to be protected from viral attacks via the internet. “An individual may suffer tremendous trouble, stress, and financial loss if a personal computer or company account is compromised (Vahid, F., 2019).” Some forms of viral attacks generated through an old school method using the PING commands. Ping of Death otherwise known as PoD is an attacked used frequently by hackers to disable or crash a PC or server. But the most common computer virus used out of the many in that span of two years was ransomware and none bigger than the one that took aim at the US government and its colonial pipeline that paid out a reported ransom of over 5 million dollars. “We saw more attacks of every kind, but the headline for 2020 was ransom attacks, which were up 150% over the previous year. The amount paid by victims of these attacks increased more than 300% in 2020 (Sharton, B., 2021).” Most attacks start from email spamming which has increased significantly leading business in a panic state. Simply gaining access through one’s email can lead to a nightmare for example like a healthcare institution. With access to thousands of medical records and personal information, healthcare organization are the most vulnerable for viral breached resulting in data held for ransom or sold on the black market. By clicking/downloading pictures and/or documents sent via email, the virus spreads quickly through a network producing a sluggish performance that leads to an ultimate system holt that will affect patient care and can lead to death. “Attackers are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and have launched a number of cyberattacks against health care organizations (He, Y., et al 2021).”

In a better light of things, reported attacks or breaches has declined in recent months as more and more organization are shifting back to coming on site rather than working from home. Managing the security structure and system with everyone in a building is far more batter than those working from home. If situation repeats itself by forcing many to switch back to remote working, then I have a few recommendations as followed targeting computer viruses and email spam.     

• Change the structure of one’s password by mandating the length of characters to 16 instead of 8 while utilizing an array of symbols and numbers 

• Provide the same antiviral software protection to all staff members of a healthcare institution who telecommute on their personal PCs from home.

• Perform vigorous scans on all incoming emails from outside sources and circulating emails within a network.

• Create a antivirus software specifically for email application and servers, that will quickly put an end-user account into a quarantine state isolated from the network when any threat is detected.   

Reference

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S., (2019). Computing technology for all. https://learn.zybooks.com/zybook/TEC101:_Fundamentals_of_Information_Technology_&_Literacy_(TED2219A)/chapter/6/section/8

Sharton, B., (2021). Ransomware Attacks Are Spiking. Is Your Company Prepared? https://hbr.org/2021/05/ransomware-attacks-are-spiking-is-your-company-prepared

He, Y., Aliyu, A., Evans, M., Luo, C., (2021). Health Care Cybersecurity Challenges and Solutions Under the Climate of COVID-19: Scoping Review. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8059789/

Computers In The Workplace

  Computers in the healthcare industry are very important. The are used to run surgical machinery, enter data, viewed data, program data, and calculate data on every individual who entered the hospital. From the moment a patient comes into the emergency room, their information is collected and entered into the hospital EMR system. If they are a returning patient, then their information is added and never replacing old data. As important as computers are in the hospital industry, so is the education and literacy on using computers. From nurses, doctors, patient coordinators, financial advisers, therapists, and many more rolls in the industry, knowing how to use a computer can kill or save a patient. If doctors entered the wrong health information thus causing a nurse to give improper medication, a patient can become seriously ill or possibly die. Other reasons go as far for billing issues as well. Not having computing knowledge can easily cause errors like mistakenly charging a patient for a heart transplant when they only visited the hospital for an upset stomach. Though we are all human, mistakes cannot happen in a placed that is meant to save lives. As an employee, I have been apart of the team used to select new computers that can not only perform at speed to keep up with the flow of patients but able to work with all the applications the institution uses. The industry is evolving from using fully built computers at nursing stations to tiny thin client PC’s called Virtual Desktop Integration other wise known as VDI. This PC is a PC but rather than have a big workstation setup, it is a small device attached to the back of a monitor with keyboard and mouse that is connected to the cloud through the hospital network of servers. The next 10 years of evolution of computing in the healthcare industry will be through smart tablets, giving to every staff member to be used to enter information on the go/fly. These devices I think will be as powerful as modern computer allowing staff to enter and save data, including self-checking corrections before applying changes, perform video conferencing with a patient or a team communication, and as a result of having the latest and greatest technology, that institution will be highly recommendable by the community and state it provides care.

Traveling Through a Network

Manage Discussion Entry

 

In one of my previous working experiences as a network engineer, ping command came in very handy when assign a new or available IP address to PC or servers. I utilized traceroute to determine the speed of a signal or data sent from the command prompt to another PC/server is called packets and they are usually considered to be chopped chunks or small pieces of that data that is broken down by the internet then moved in a series of hops through a network between two points or in this case to another PC/server. When it came to using both commands on websites Google.com, Randex.ru and Rakuten.co.jp, there was a slight difference in speed and delay due to location and the destination. Google.com mainly being a U.S company had results come back fractions of seconds faster that going around the world to Russia and Japan when using the ping command while traceroute came back faster providing the speed results for google.com but took seconds later to deliver results of that command sent to Russia and Japan.

Ping and traceroute can be used to check your internet capability. Quiet often your internet service provider (ISP) may not be down when trying to access a particular website or any other site. Using a ping or traceroute command can also determine whether if that website or domain is up and running. If you send both commands to a website (Amazon.com) and they came back with the error message “request timed out” then Amazon is most likely to be down. Another reason when you can get an error massage is the recipient site’s security software such as a firewall is blocking your IP/MAC address from gaining access. One last scenario maybe the physical connection in a network cable, where one of the wirings may be faulty.

Documenting a Day

 The creation of software applications made things much simpler and understanding when it came to utilizing a computer system. Prior to that, everything was simple 0 and 1 like a light switch but in this case those 0 and 1 were commands that grew in large decimal places. “Furthermore, from a macro-perspective, understanding software usage, varying citation habits and their evolution over time within and across distinct disciplines can shape the understanding of the evolution of scientific disciplines, the varying influence of software on scientific impact and the emerging needs for computational support within particular disciplines and fields (Schindler, D., et al 2022).” With the installment of word processor, spreadsheet application and presentation application, everything got easier. As great as all three are, they are very different in its entirety. The development of these four ingenious ideas was just the stepping stones that would lead to advance software applications we have today.

Word Processor typically known as a writing format comes in a variety of software applications mainly used for composing and editing documents in both the business and personal fields. The most popular word processor software application today and for the last 20 plus years has been Microsoft Word. Some say that there is over a billion computers that has Microsoft Word installed. Though composing words in a formatted text refers to features of a document like margins, text size, bold text, italicized text, colors, number of columns, etc. (Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. 2019), but people still looked for a software application to calculate data from other data (like sums or averages), and for creating graphical charts from data. In came the spreadsheet application. The very first spreadsheet program was VisiCalc, written for the Apple II computer in 1979. For many users, this application most vividly showed the utility of personal computers for small businesses—in some cases turning a 20-hour-per-week bookkeeping chore into a few minutes of data entry (Britannica). However, just like Word, the most popular spreadsheet application used today is Microsoft Excel. When it came to a presentation, the world got introduced in 1982 to the first presentation application software known as VCN ExecuVision. Normally used in a business/academic environment, a presentation is a combination of images, videos, charts, tables, composed words/documents put together in a slide show that is usually displayed before groups or individuals respectfully. Database applications is data gathered, managed, and circulated like social media application such as Facebook or Twitter. Amazon is another database application that gathers data in the form of items that is being sold to the public most times at a discounted price by multiple vendors. 

There are multiple benefits of each of the four applications that one can take advantages of. One primary an of the four is that the information collected can be saved or modified at any time on a computer or copied over to thumb drive. An advantage of word processor is the editing tools like spell and grammar check that is commonly used in both business and academic field. As for spreadsheets, the advantages are easy to use, organizing data and formulas can be used to calculate totals. Presentation applications is used on averaged daily. Individual can display visual information demonstrated in pictures, charts, graphs etc. from a documented research or study one worked on. And advantage for database application is data access and sharing. 

Disadvantages for word processor is time taken to learn the application and with all the editing tools available, only 50% of the complete application is utilized at a given time. For spreadsheets the big disadvantage is data security, and some formulas are very difficult to understand. A disadvantage of presentation is the overuse of what is being presented, too many slides, long and too much details explanation taking place. Finally, a disadvantage for database is cost, constant repair, and upgrading of software as well as the computer equipment housing it. 

My recommended software application used for documenting my day was Word Pad. You can never go wrong with composing words that can be easily reread, edited, deleted then created multiple times before distributing it. My preferred word processor is Microsoft Word with all the features available and ability to customize your tool options in the ribbon.   

A scenario where each application can be useful goes as followed. For word processor; writing a book or autobiography. Spreadsheets are very important in business especially for purchasing and accounting departments. For a presentation application, making a sales pitch to a marketing firm demonstration detail charts and graphs as to why they should invest into your idea. A good scenario for database application is the application known as EPIC System which is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) used in the hospital where I work. EPIC has collected data on patients which is used to document their care and treatment. 

Software applications changed the world of computing like no other. From the four primary beginners of software application; Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Database, came many new applications today each having its predecessor command lines, formulas and embedded actions implemented. Word Processor has evolved into Microsoft Word or Google Docs. From Spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel, Google Sheet, and Smartsheet. Presentation has evolved into the very popular Microsoft PowerPoint and Database application are now running in the form of SQL, Oracle, Amazon RDS, and more. The world of computing has changed mankind approach for the better.  

 

Reference 

Schindler, D., Bensmann, F., Dietze, S., Kruger, F., (2022). The role of software in science: a knowledge graph-based analysis of software mentions in PubMed Central. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8771769/

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all.

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, December 8). spreadsheet. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/spreadsheet

The creation of software applications made things much simpler and understanding when it came to utilizing a computer system. Prior to that, everything was simple 0 and 1 like a light switch but in this case those 0 and 1 were commands that grew in large decimal places. “Furthermore, from a macro-perspective, understanding software usage, varying citation habits and their evolution over time within and across distinct disciplines can shape the understanding of the evolution of scientific disciplines, the varying influence of software on scientific impact and the emerging needs for computational support within particular disciplines and fields (Schindler, D., et al 2022).” With the installment of word processor, spreadsheet application and presentation application, everything got easier. As great as all three are, they are very different in its entirety. The development of these four ingenious ideas was just the stepping stones that would lead to advance software applications we have today.

Word Processor typically known as a writing format comes in a variety of software applications mainly used for composing and editing documents in both the business and personal fields. The most popular word processor software application today and for the last 20 plus years has been Microsoft Word. Some say that there is over a billion computers that has Microsoft Word installed. Though composing words in a formatted text refers to features of a document like margins, text size, bold text, italicized text, colors, number of columns, etc. (Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. 2019), but people still looked for a software application to calculate data from other data (like sums or averages), and for creating graphical charts from data. In came the spreadsheet application. The very first spreadsheet program was VisiCalc, written for the Apple II computer in 1979. For many users, this application most vividly showed the utility of personal computers for small businesses—in some cases turning a 20-hour-per-week bookkeeping chore into a few minutes of data entry (Britannica). However, just like Word, the most popular spreadsheet application used today is Microsoft Excel. When it came to a presentation, the world got introduced in 1982 to the first presentation application software known as VCN ExecuVision. Normally used in a business/academic environment, a presentation is a combination of images, videos, charts, tables, composed words/documents put together in a slide show that is usually displayed before groups or individuals respectfully. Database applications is data gathered, managed, and circulated like social media application such as Facebook or Twitter. Amazon is another database application that gathers data in the form of items that is being sold to the public most times at a discounted price by multiple vendors. 

There are multiple benefits of each of the four applications that one can take advantages of. One primary an of the four is that the information collected can be saved or modified at any time on a computer or copied over to thumb drive. An advantage of word processor is the editing tools like spell and grammar check that is commonly used in both business and academic field. As for spreadsheets, the advantages are easy to use, organizing data and formulas can be used to calculate totals. Presentation applications is used on averaged daily. Individual can display visual information demonstrated in pictures, charts, graphs etc. from a documented research or study one worked on. And advantage for database application is data access and sharing. 

Disadvantages for word processor is time taken to learn the application and with all the editing tools available, only 50% of the complete application is utilized at a given time. For spreadsheets the big disadvantage is data security, and some formulas are very difficult to understand. A disadvantage of presentation is the overuse of what is being presented, too many slides, long and too much details explanation taking place. Finally, a disadvantage for database is cost, constant repair, and upgrading of software as well as the computer equipment housing it. 

My recommended software application used for documenting my day was Word Pad. You can never go wrong with composing words that can be easily reread, edited, deleted then created multiple times before distributing it. My preferred word processor is Microsoft Word with all the features available and ability to customize your tool options in the ribbon.   

A scenario where each application can be useful goes as followed. For word processor; writing a book or autobiography. Spreadsheets are very important in business especially for purchasing and accounting departments. For a presentation application, making a sales pitch to a marketing firm demonstration detail charts and graphs as to why they should invest into your idea. A good scenario for database application is the application known as EPIC System which is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) used in the hospital where I work. EPIC has collected data on patients which is used to document their care and treatment. 

Software applications changed the world of computing like no other. From the four primary beginners of software application; Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Database, came many new applications today each having its predecessor command lines, formulas and embedded actions implemented. Word Processor has evolved into Microsoft Word or Google Docs. From Spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel, Google Sheet, and Smartsheet. Presentation has evolved into the very popular Microsoft PowerPoint and Database application are now running in the form of SQL, Oracle, Amazon RDS, and more. The world of computing has changed mankind approach for the better.  

 

Reference 

Schindler, D., Bensmann, F., Dietze, S., Kruger, F., (2022). The role of software in science: a knowledge graph-based analysis of software mentions in PubMed Central. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8771769/

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all.

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, December 8). spreadsheet. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/spreadsheet

Web/Mobile App Critique

 The app of my choice for this discussion is the WAZE app. The app is a GPS navigation app designed to pin point your location and provide quicker routes for you in your destination of choice and is available in any smart device platform like Android or the Appstore from Apple. I am very familiar with the app due to my commute each day to work and home. I also use the app if I know that I am driving further than 20 miles away from home.  It’s integrated in my SUV display console through Android Car Play. The best part about the Waze app, is that it also give drivers a heads up on traffic ahead, construction, hazards on the road, speed cameras and most importantly the location of police car that is awaiting someone who is speeding by. Having cops in my family, let’s say they despise the app very much. They even give me hints that when someone reports them nearby that they open the app and check off the “Not There” tab to throw drivers off. Despicable I say lol. Anyway back to the app. The functionality of the app is all around very good. The other features other than the heads up alerts that I like, is the tolls voiding option you can select prior to leaving on your journey, the option of selecting any music apps to stream from your playlist while you drive. Music apps such as Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, etc that is supported through Waze.

Now things on the app that I would improve on are as followed.

• Letting drivers know exactly which shoulder the vehicle ahead is a pulled over on.
• GPS precise accuracy helping you get out of unfamiliar shopping mall parking lots guiding you into the right direction towards the highway or road of your choosing.
• In corporate a police vehicle that is in route on the same road as you drive.
• The voice command.

If it was up to me, I would change/upgrade what is mentioned above to make Waze even more popular. When I am commuting, knowing what exact shoulder of the road a vehicle has pulled over on, helps me a lot prepping me to exit the lane closes to that pulled over vehicle ahead of time. When I go out of state and enter unfamiliar shopping mall areas, it gets quiet confusing finding the exit if the direction you entered through is not considered an exit. Waze being owned by Google who I believe has locked down the mapping game, one would think they would incorporate the mapping schemes they perfected over the years into the app but nope, not yet as per the news release. The other thing I would like to see is an animation of sort indicating a police vehicle moving in the same route as you are driving. Often times, people in a hurry overlooks a police car two lanes over from them only to be seeing flashing lights seconds after. Finally the last thing that I would change/upgrade on is the voice command. Those of us who owns an android knows the “hey Google” command assistant. Rather than tapping the phone or give it wave commands, a simple “hey Waze” report accident, report pothole on road, or police on right/left shoulder.   

Programming Languages

  My experience using Scratch was very confusing. Learning to navigate with the basic tools left me puzzled. My difficulties range from imputing data codes to the process of execution. The other difficulty I encountered was just the understanding and processing a good command code with my avatar. To overcome my issue, I attempted to redo 5x hoping to get it right. My 20 plus years in this industry, I have failed to truly grasp a programmer’s concept of thing. Although I am a fast learner and open to learn new and exciting things or path, programming language gets the better of me. It is still a learning process for me to understand programming especially from the exercise. When going through the activities I mainly relied on the basic concepts that I had learn years passed. 

The language that I found easiest to use is the python language. “It is a very high-level language that has many sources for learning. Python supports a wide variety of third-party tools which makes it much easier to use and motivates the users to continue with (Srinath, K., 2017).” As an IT professional for some years now, the use and knowledge of computing numbers is very good to obtain. But knowing too much is too much. The binary and hexadecimal concept of 0s and 1s used in machine language to assembly language is quite overwhelming. The introduction Python being interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics and its integration of algebra formulas is the next evolvement of the machine and assembly languages that bring ease understanding.

Machine language is most effective in the stages of creating system boards and installing on-board component such as: serial and USB ports. The assembly language otherwise known as ASM is important and mostly used when it comes to performance. Being close to the processor, it can manipulate hardware, give instructions, and resolve performance issues. As for the high-level language most, effective use comes when software installation is implemented into the computer system. 

From the various array of programming languages out there today, I think just from my little bit of understanding, the easier the programming language the better. Case in point, the Python language seems to be the front runner as the most popular language there is in which others started to replicate. “Python is a high-level programming language, increasing in popularity due in part to being easy to learn, to being freely available, and to having powerful high-level data-processing operations (Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. 2019).” The versatility of the python language has stood the test of the evolving computing world since its introduction on the late 1980s. 

References

Srinath, K., (2017). Python – The Fastest Growing Programming Language. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 p-ISSN: 2395-0072. Volume: 04 Issue: https://www.irjet.net/archives/V4/i12/IRJET-V4I1266.pdf

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all