Narrative Journalism: And Suddenly We Heard Gunshots

And Suddenly We Heard Gunshots

25-year-old Michael S., a missionary worker from South America, is sitting in his guest house in Kabul, playing cards with a friend of his, when suddenly someone starts screaming: “Three armed men”. As the first distant shots can be heard, his friend’s face grows pale. The sound of gunshots comes closer as they hide in the wardrobe of their room.

Two hours later, the police forces arrive and find Michael, his friend, as well as three other survivors of the attack in the guest house. The 25-year-old is shaking as he repeats the same words over and over again: “We are still alive”.

This is not the first attack on missionaries in Kabul, and it seems as though the bloody disputes are not going to come to an end soon. Even with a rising number of casualties every year, however, Roots of Peace resolve to help Kabul’s citizen does not waver.

Rhetoric in: Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now?

In his article “Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now?” Ben Makuch attempts to open his readers’ eyes to the possibility that the world we live in is nothing but a computer simulation.

In his argumentative article, Ben Makuch makes good use of logos, ethos and pathos and therefore achieves his goal of persuading his readers.

He first establishes the credibility of this theory in mentioning that “people like Nick Bostrom, the director of Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute, seriously consider“ this theory and in referring to credible sources such as Rich, “a well-regarded scientist, the director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory“. After mentioning these reputable sources, Ben Makuch further succeeds in establishing credibility by mentioning general laws, such as Moore’s Law, and by comparing technical findings to mathematical rules and physics.

He simultaneously appeals to the readers’ emotions in proposing that a Korean child could be controlling us right now and in consequently stirring our feelings of fear and panic that this could be the case. Already in the title of his article “Whoa, Dude, are we inside a computer right now?” he starts to build a relationship with his readers and takes on the role of one of their friends, who is just as curious and excited about this idea as we are. By mentioning that “every college student with a gravity bong and The Matrix on DVD“ has had the same idea before, he turns the ideas mentioned in his article into our ideas and makes his readers believe that they already thought like him before.

Makuch’s use of logos is shown in the various examples given for why it would be possible for us to be living inside a computer simulation right now. He first lets his readers know that this theory is not a new one, but has in fact been “kicked around for centuries“. Makuch continues by explaining that according to Moore’s Law computing power doubles every two years and that it will therefore be possible to create a computer simulation of the world we live in right now at some point. Last, but not least, he cites the the observable pixelation of the tiniest matter and the eerie similarities between quantum mechanics, showing how much our world resembles a computer simulation.  

In sum, the author makes perfect use of rhetoric, logos, ethos and pathos, and succeeds in making his article credible, personal and logical.

Famous Cyber Attacks: #1 Stuxnet

In the next few blog posts I would like to introduce a whole new aspect of my CAJ topic: Famous Cyber attacks. With the number of cyber attacks increasing annually, Pentagon has decided to consider cyber attacks acts of war. There are a number of those attacks out there that have become extremely popular; one of them being Stuxnet.

Stuxnet is frequently referred to as the world’s first cyber weapon. The malware, also known as a worm, was first discovered in June 2010 by a computer security firm in Belarus on the computer of one of their Iranian clients. What shocked computer specialists most about Stuxnet was the fact that this piece of malware could control things in the physical, real world. While it is still unclear who created the Stuxnet virus and what exactly the worm was targeting, it is well known that Stuxnet could even make whole motos blow up. The whole program was designed to sabotage and attack control system and consequently allow sabotage in pipelines, nuclear plants and other facilities.

Ever since the first computer was reported to have been infested with the Stuxnet virus, the worm has spread to more than 100.000 machines in 155 countries, though most infections are reported to have taken place in Iran. This explains why the suspected target of the Stuxnet virus is Iran. The worm first spread via an infected usb flash drive and later searches for vulnerable computers on the network in order to keep spreading.

Computer and control system security professionals like Ralph Langner, like many others, suspects that the main target of the Stuxnet attack were one of Iran’s nuclear power plants and an uranium enrichment facility located in the same country. The owners of these facilities, however, refuse to admit that the virus took control over their plants and there is likewise no nation that admits to having created Stuxnet, though the main suspects for this task are Israel and the U.S.A.

What is even more dangerous now than the Stuxnet virus itself is the fact that this functioning piece of malware was released on the internet and is now available for hackers to be further developed. 

Cybersecurity and Cyberwar

http://blog.ted.com/2014/01/16/p-w-singer-on-cybersecurity-how-to-protect-yourself/

In his TED talk, military analyst P.W. Singer addresses cyber security and cyber war.

According to Mark Burnett, a security consultant, the main problem of cyber security, or security in general, are not the government or the industry, but the many individuals making use of technical devices connected to the internet. The government provides standards and enforces regulations and the industry adapts their products to these standards and regulations. The functionality of security systems depends, however, on how the consumers use these products. Apparently most of them do not care about their own security. At least this is what a study named “Perfect Passwords” suggested, which shows that the most common password was “password”.

It is therefore of great importance that the average user changes his attitude towards security. Though the internet might not be completely bad, there is a lot of criminality happening in this virtual world. This leads us to the realization that what we need is proper cyber education. We need to know how to properly use electronic devices without downloading viruses every few minutes.

Here is some of the advice given to internet users (by P.W Singer)

1. Access and Passwords
A good password should be regularly updated, long and consist of a mix of numbers, signs and letters. Using very easy passwords is as useful as not using any password at all, as several free software tools (Cain and Abel, John the Ripper) provide automated password-cracking. Also, the same password should not be used on various websites.
What is most important of all, however, is the fact that your e-mail password should be particularly strong, as you will receive e-mails when you reset all other passwords.

Of course passwords can only protect information up to a certain point, and there is still a high chance of them being cracked at some point, if somebody really attempts to crack them. Certain institutions, such as banks for example, therefore use multi-factor authentication. In multi-factor authentication more than one object or piece of knowledge is required. To access your bank account, for instance, you need to use your card AND type in your password. This of course, is not a 100% secure system…but it is more secure than only using a single password.

2. Systems and Equipment
Many security breaches in equipment are widely known and therefore patches for them are often available online, sometimes even free. By regularly updating browsers and in installing security updates countless cyberthreats can be avoided. Another task that could help protect users from cyberattacks is to secure wireless networks, as those are one of the main targets of cyberattacks. Given all these threats and the limited amount of methods to secure data, all data should be saved on an external hard drive.

3. Behaviour
Most threats to our computer systems enter through carelessness of its users. To avoid vulnerabilities of our systems, it is important to never open or download data from sources we don’t know or can’t verify. Of course it is also recommended to use the highest privacy and security settings available.

How you should behave on the internet?

According to P.W Singer it’s best to not be afraid, but to be wary

CAJ: Cyberwar

In this year's CAJ I will try to work on the topic CYBERWAR and try to find questions to several
important questions regarding cyberwar such as:
Is there a legitimate chance of the breakout of a global cyberwar? What are some of the most famous cyber-attacks? What is the motive or objective behind cyber warfare? How does cyberwar actually work?
And: Is it legal? Etc.

Before I star with going into more detail I would like to give a short introduction, to cyberwar(fare).

What you all probably already know is that cyberwar is a solely Internet-based conflict that takes place through electronic not physical means. Cyber-attacks can not only disable websites and networks, but they can disable or disrupt important services, steal classified data or alter data and cripple entire financial systems, and much more.

Jeffrey Carr, the author of "Inside Cyber Warfare", states that "any country can wage cyberwar on any other country, irrespective of resources, because most military forces are network-centric and connected to the Internet, which is not secure." The same reason enables individuals and non-governmental groups to launch cyber-attacks.

So what can we do to protect ourselves from these attacks?

Well, we can make use of security systems and secure our information as well as our networks. Security updates should not only be applied to systems that we consider critical, such as computers, but also to all other systems linked to the Internet. Any electronic device that is connected to the Internet is vulnerable to cyber-attacks and can therefore be used to carry out these attacks. Another form of security would be disaster recovery plans.
In addition to that, many nations run regular cyberwar drills to prepare for a potential cyber attack.

This is just a short preview on my future work regarding cyberwar :)

PSA: After-Death Avatars

Nobody wants to feel the sort of pain that the death of a loved one causes,
to experience the sort of grief strong enough to drive people mad.
The death of a person might make life seem pointless;
might lead to those sudden thoughts of suicide.

Until now, the only thing that remained was our memory of our deceased,
but NOW you have the chance to stay with your partner,
your family and friends until your last day.

THROUGH OUR AVATAR you loved one will stay by your side,
talk to you, laugh with you and tell you about their day.
You can hug and kiss them and they will hold you in their arms while you fall asleep.
There is NO MORE NEED FOR TEARS
NO MORE GOODBYES

A day in the life of a humble….me

At 7 o’clock in the morning the penetrating ring of the alarm throws me out of my bed in a state of shock. 7 o’clock, that’s the usual time for me to throw back my covers and crawl out of bed in order to prepare for morning classes at the Department for Translation Studies. I skip breakfast, on most days at least, and get on my bike so as not to be late for my 8:15 class. I sit through several courses and fight to stay awake through most of them. During my break I try to catch up on some homework or go to Billa to fetch a quick snack before my next class starts. I come home in the evening, exhausted from a day spent studying. 

As soon as I open the door, however, I feel the exhaustion fade away, simply by looking at my flatmates, who are luckily also my best friends. We often cook together in order to save money and time. While eating, we catch up on the latest news in our lives, most of them directly related to our university lives. At midnight I go to sleep, waiting for what is going to happen the next day at ITAT.