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Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great
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Alexander III of Macedon was commonly known as known as Alexander the Great. He was born in an ancient capital of Macedonia known as Pella in July 365 BC. His father was the king of Macedonia, Philip II, and his mother was the princess of the neighboring Epirus Olympias. Throughout his childhood, Alexander watched his father carry out transformations in Macedonia making it a great military power (Brien, 2002). He also saw his father emerging victorious in various battlefields all over Balkans. When he was 12, he exhibited his equal skill to his father and other people who were watching when he fearlessly tamed Bucephalus, a stallion that was unruly. It was unable to be ridden and devoured on flesh of anyone who had made attempts to tame it. At the age of 13, his father hired the great Greek philosopher as his personal tutor. He received training in literature and medicine which stimulated his interests in medicine, science and philosophy which all became very crucial in his life.
After his father, Philip 11 was assassinated Alexander the Great inherited the very powerful, but violent kingdom headed by his father. At the time of his father’s demise, he was very young but even at this early age he was capable of handling the kingdom. Upon taking charge, he dealt with the enemies at home and also reasserted the power of Macedonia within Greece. He then started his mission of conquering the huge Persian Empire. Against all odds, he successfully led his army and emerged victoriously against Persian territories such as Syria, Asia Minor and Egypt without being defeated. In 331, he registered his greatest victory was during the battle of Gaugamela in what is currently known as Iraq. At the age of 25, he became known as the greatest king that has ever lived in Persia (Brien, 2002). Over the next eight years, he held the title of a commander, King, scholar, politician and explorer. He led his army over 11,000 miles that saw him found 70 cities. He created an empire that stretched over three continents and a size of two million square miles (Phillips, 2000).
Alexander the Great is termed as the greatest military geniuses that ever lived. He led by example, but he firmly believed in his indestructibility that made him lead a reckless life. He inspired later conquers like the Romans Pompey, Hannibal the Carthaginian and Caesar. His army refused to follow him only on one occasion during his 13-year reign when there was constant fighting a clear indication that he inspired a lot of loyalties (Phillips, 2000). Alexander died in June 323 BC of fever in Babylon.
References
Brien, J. (2002). Alexander the Great: The invisible enemy: A biography. London: Routledge.
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Phillips, H. (2000). Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend. Folklore, 328-329.
Alexander pope an essay on man.
Alexander pope an essay on man.
Alexander Pope, an English poet known best for his satirical verses and use for heroic couplet, is the third quoted and referenced poet after Shakespeare and Tennyson; born in May 21 1788 to a linen merchant Alexander pope and his wife Edith, who were both Catholics(Fraser,1978). He is known for writing satirical poems that reflect to the way people live and the relationship of God and man. Some of his poems are an essay on criticism; it identifies him as a poet and critic, Rape of the lock and an essay on man. He has also done a few translations too including; the Llaid and Odyssey.
An essay on man was one of Alexander Pope’s poems written in heroics couplet, was a philosophical poem whose main intention was to propose certain system of code of conduct poetically. It is an attempt to justify the ways of God to man. The poem was not solely Christian but it assumed that man had fallen and needed to seek his own redemption. He points out however controversial the world can be it exists in its own way according to the natural laws. God made man but man has used his knowledge through science to turn and try and imitate God.
I agree with Alexander that man should stop trying to be God. The way God decided to create us was what was intended and that people should stop trying to be God. We should not try to be God but try to follow the ways He teaches us. That way we will not dwell our lives on understanding the supernatural way of God but understand what He wants us to do and the responsibilities He has given us being the centric position between the angles and beasts. People through science and technology have made themselves believe they are like God, main reason why we have turned from believing in Him and put much of our trust in what we have crafted. But we tend to forget that that same knowledge we use comes from that same God.
Instead we should imitate His ways by being empathetic which means, the action of being understanding, being aware of, being sensitive about other peoples’ feelings. Through God’s acts such as forgiving we should learn to forgive others, also we should show love to everything else that God has created just as He shows love to us. Alexander Pope’s main agenda in the poem, Essay on Man, he tries to show what we should focus on as man and what we should stop trying to do, that is, trying to be God. It is easier to live in God’s way than to be who He is since no one was there in the beginning before the world was created, no one has really seen Him. We should just accept how things were set and live to the best responsible way we can to make our world perfect place other than the pessimistic notion we have towards it.
Human nature like all other sciences, has on a few clear points in their findings hence we should live more on that that we can absorb and see and define clearly other than dying looking for that that will never have clear meaning and whose components will easily be questionable and debated (Pope, 1790).
Though Pope did not live to accomplish his mission he left us this poem to contemplate on. We should be responsible and not argue or proving God wrong for where he placed us as human beings, but accept what task that He gave us.
Cited work;
Pope, A. (1790). An essay on man By Alexander Pope, Esq. Enlarged and improved by the author.. Preston: Printed and sold by W. Sergent.
Fraser, G. S. (1978). Alexander Pope. London: Routledge and Paul.
Hacker Target, Prevention and Response
RUNNING HEAD: HACKING
Hacker Target, Prevention and Response
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Hacker Target, Prevention and Response
Introduction
With the advent of new developments frequently bringing change in the world today as well as the evolution of computer technology, there are bound to be challenges in form of crimes also associated with them. These include the access of other individuals’ or organizations’ systems through system vulnerability such as hacking or other means hence the need for proper evolution understanding. This has created a new set of problems that needs the provision of enforced security on computers, security systems and assurance on information. This can be done by effectively making students literate and aware by training and educating on how they can protect the information assets of an organization. It is important as it controls the access to computers and subsequently to systems. However the evolutions necessitate constant good practices of security and vigilance.
The information system of an organization is very vital as it contains the most complex assets of the organization in the form of information assurance. This may be data in addition to the ability to offer information. It is necessary to protect this system as any harm on it results in the damage to the organization as it affects the confidentiality of the information.
People are considered the greatest risk to security information. Therefore, as revealed in the case study provided security will be a great issue to the organization due to the risk of hacking by a terminated former employee. This is I order to prevent the unauthorized use hence misuse of the knowledge, facts, capabilities as well as data available. This is because the safety of an organization, information or computer systems cannot be provided by information systems alone. The paper will therefore analyze the targets of the terminated employee and how he can achieve them in addition to ways in which these can be prevented.
The former employee may feel wronged by the organization if terminated without will hence the need to pay back not majorly by gaining access but by causing damage to cause a Defect on Systems. Since the former employees’’ intention is to retaliate, he may hack the information system or site by breaking into computers in the effort to intrude or make the systems completely unusable. The former security clearance officer will be doing this with malicious intent in order to vandalize ah he does not have much care on the controlling system. In addition he may be in search of confidential information for his own use or spread it to others to create a negative image of the organization (Van Tongerloo, 2009). However, even if the termination was voluntary he may attempt access to the computer system in order to take the organization’s intellectual property or assets.
As former high security clearance officer in the organization, he will not need to perform extensive reconnaissance as he has some information and detailed knowledge regarding the organization’s information system. He is therefore aware of the system vulnerabilities as well as most policies and procedures used to protect the sensitive information of the organization (Purcell, 2011). He may want to modify the data by making changes to the messages or information of an organization that results in negative effects that hurt the organization. He can do this by installing sniffers to access information on transit. This is in order to gain access to the IDs and usernames applied in various areas. He can also do this through interception by use of special software. In addition, he may make use of open sharing where files are shared by becoming a root on the system and make any changes. On the other hand, the availability of the remote login without password may make it easy for him since he does not have to reenter the password regardless of the system in use (Maiwald, 2003).
He may also opt to take advantage of bad passwords by using weak passwords to gain access into the system as they can easily be guessed by making use of dial-in access. Programming flaws may also act as one of the means for hacking. This may be in the form of buffer overflows to overwhelm the target system, causing it to crash or make commands that raise the system’s privileges. Since he possesses a lot of information and contacts with other employees he may choose to use the social engineering method where one uses other human relationships to achieve his goal. This will be made easier by his knowledge of the internal activities (Dolan, 2004). In this case, he may call an employee in the organization as technical support representative asking for a certain password to correct a problem in the experienced by an employee in the system. Conversely, he may pretend to be the employee himself seeking appropriate information or feign forgetfulness and the need to change his password.
Knowing the names of the key people like the executives and new employees he may use this to access various accounts. Another method that the former employee may use to damage files, data and information is attachment of computer viruses by use of scripts to certain important programs. Alternatively, the person might find the information required from the organization’s dumping site at night. Depending on the nature of the termination, he may also have installed malicious software as ground work before leaving. Based on his intentions and methods the former employee may according to Dube be referred to as a black or targeted hacker (2008) since they cause damage to the computer system.
As the chief information security officer in the organization, I will take the necessary measures to ensure that all systems are henceforth protected during the processing, storage and transmission of data to prevent access by strangers. This will include well-developed processes and procedures to guard against threats and vulnerable exploitations such as the establishment of information security services. Additionally, security controls will be important to protect the information system from attacks related to confidentiality, integrity and also availability (Purcell, 2011). Before termination, all system access and privileges possessed by the person should be revoked at once and ensure that no property of the organization leaves the premises.
First and foremost, I will have to apply risk assessment techniques to scan the system again to identify any vulnerable points posed by the circumstances. Proper configuration of systems and techniques to programme will have to be put in place to void hacking attempts. Consequently, the significant security measures will be employed at any noticed point of vulnerability. This will include fixing of programmes to ensure that there are no flaws as illustrated by Maiwald. For example, the installation of external firewalls to avoid sharing files that are misconfigured along intrusion detection may serve as some of the protective mechanisms. In case of any root file systems such as Unix and Windows NT the default configurations need to be changed to avoid unnecessary access by creating remote access (2003). Authorized system users will also be told the need to use stronger passwords and all systems checked for default passwords will make unauthorized access easy. Additionally, the use of smart cards and biometrics may be initialized in other relevant areas. In order to prevent hacking through social engineering, training to create awareness on the employees should be conducted and the desk staff reminded on how to identify employees. Employees should also learn to identify authorized and unauthorized people in the office and how to deal with various situations. They should also be made familiar with the common techniques used in social engineering (Dolan, 2004). This is very important as this form of hacking technique is extremely powerful and gives the hacker penetration of the target completely.
So as to prevent complete loss of information, backups in form of paper files or even electronic tapes can be made. This is to counter damage by deletion and should be stored in areas with tight security. Mechanisms to identify important missing files would need to be included so as to replace them in good time. Finally methods for identification and authenticity will be put in place to ensure that users of various systems are who they really claim to be. This normally employ the use of numerical information such as devices that read fingerprints, voice prints, images or keyboards for entering passwords (Dube, 2008).
It can therefore be stated as a conclusion that the necessary information and techniques regarding the changing trends in computer technology are important. This is to make sure that all operations, confidentiality and security concerning the systems are maintained due to reliability and importance we attach to them.
References
Dolan, A. (2004, February 10). Social engineering. Retrieved May 6, 2011, from Sans Institute:
http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/engineering/social-engineering_1365
Dube, R. (2008). Hardware-based computer security techniques to defeat hackers: from
biometrics to quantum cryptography. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
Maiwald, E. (2003). Fundamentals of network security. New York: Mc Graw-Hill Professionals .
Purcell, J. (2011, May 6). Employee Management Security Controls. Retrieved May 6, 2011,
from Sans Security: http://software-security.sans.org/community/paper/cissp/employee-management-security-controls
Van Tongerloo, E. (2009, April 30). Why hackers hack. Retrieved May 6, 2011, from Helium:
Hacking: http://www.helium.com/items/216833-why-hackers-hack