Recent orders
Understanding Cultural Competence
Cultural CompetenceCultural competence is the act of understanding one’s own world view as well as those of others. Different people come from different cultural, social and economic backgrounds. It’s important to avoid stereotyping individual and this can be done through cultural awareness. This can only be possible if we understand each other and accept our cultural diversities and the unique characteristics that each of us possess. In addition, we need to be flexible in our beliefs and practices in order to understand other people’s culture (Siegel, et. al 2014).
If we don’t acknowledge culture then we limit our ability to interact. Domestic violence can be experienced by anyone regardless of their background. The individuals may experience the violence in culturally different ways (Siegel, et. al 2014). In order to understand victims of domestic violence one needs to understand the social norms of the victims involved, how the said community view violence, is it a community or personal matter. Another practice is to understand where the members of the community go to seek help when faced with issues such as domestic violence, if they seek the help from the authority, elders or counsellors. Another cultural competence practice is to get to understand the victim’s language and to be able to reflect on their culture and view their world as they do. Another question in mind is how does the topic of domestic violence resonate with the members of that culture? This will allow one to understand and view the victim’s situation in their perspective.
Cultural competence starts with self awareness of our own cultural beliefs. Self-awareness means looking critically into our values, biases, lifestyle and assumptions (Morris, et al 2010). For example our views about domestic violence are contributed by our cultural beliefs and attitudes. Being aware is the first step towards cultural competence. Learning other people’s culture is another way to achieve cultural competence. Individual appreciate personal interest in their culture. One can learn about other people’s culture through reading journals, interacting with those people, reading memoirs and book (Morris, et al 2010). s. Another way to learn the other culture is to learn the language; it will make interaction and understanding easy. Lastly interacting with diverse groups in the community, interacting with people from other cultures makes one to appreciate the details of the culture. One will get to interact with them at the cultural events, religious functions, and social functions (Morris, et al 2010); hence one is able to achieve cultural competence through these interventions.
One of the barriers is poor communication between individuals of different culture and background, communication is important for interaction. Without communication individuals will not be able to learn other people’s culture. Another barrier is lack of diversity in the workforce and leadership; hence there is little recognition of other cultures, which goes unnoticeable.
References
Morris, J. A., Day, S., & Schoenwald, S. K. (2010). Turning knowledge into practice: A manual for human service administrators and practitioners about understanding and implementing evidenced‐based practices (2nd ed.)
Siegel, C., Haugland, G., Reid-Rose, L., & Hopper, K. (2014). Components of cultural competence in three mental health programs.
Research-Paper
CSIA 301
09/21/2014
Research Paper
Stuxnet worm
The Stuxnet worm was first discovered in June 2010 and has since been labeled the most complex weapon in cyber warfare to this dayto date. Norton Symantec stated “It’s like nothing we’ve seen before – both in what it does, and how it came to exist. It is the first computer virus to be able to wreak havoc in the physical world CITATION The11 l 1033 (The Stuxnet Worm, 2011)” The Stuxnet worm is A form of malware, e or malicious software, that has over 1500 lines of code embedded in it, the Stuxnet. This worm can has the ability to infect computer systems that where with running a Microsoft Wwindows operating system,s and llyingay dormant without being undetected while itand replicatinges itself until it finds its true target. After the worm’s target is acquired it then makescauses the targeted equipment to raise its rate of rotation per minute at to a dangerously high speed and ultimatelyconsequently causinge the target to rip itself apart. Meanwhile As this is occurring, another poartion of the worm creates false positive readings to indicate showing the workers that the equipment is still working at the suggestive rate . The wormwhile simultaneously overr ridinges the manual kill switch thereby disabling any preventative or reactionary measuresso workers cannot stop this action from happening if they wanted toomight attempt.
The only known attack of the Stuxnet virus is the attack against the Iranian nuclear facilities. Although no country or group has come forward and confirmed that they initiated the cyber-attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities, due to the complexity of the worm and the amount of founding it must have taken to create it tthis cyber super weapon it is rumored that thehas led theorists to believe that the attack was carried out by the U.S. and Israeli governments for political reasons.gain. Kushner (2013) supportsSupports this belief and states that “Analysts then realized that financial gain had not been the objective. It was a politically motivated attack. Kushner (2013). CITATION Dav13 l 1033 (Kushner, 2013)” Whether staged for financial or political gain, tThe Stuxnet attack on the Iranian nuclear faculties was devastating to the whole of their nuclear program. The creator of the StuxnetWhen launched against the Iranian nuclear system, the Stuxnet worm exploited 4 different zero day vulnerabilities on Microsoft’s website. This was the first worm to exploit so many zero-days. This is howBy exploiting these vulnerabilities, the worm was able to infect it infected other computers that used the Microsoft operating system by. The worm was able to creatinge a false yet seemingly n authentic digital certificate that stated shows the update wasat it is coming from a trusted company. As a result of this seemingly authentic digital certificate, the patch was downloaded many times and traces of this worm have been tracked to personal computer systems in countries around the world. By far the most traces were found in computers in Iran and surrounding countries such as Indonesia and India. Though the impact has not been as severe or widespread, traces of the virus have even been found on some computers in the United States. When it wasThe download was just the beginning of the attack, however, and it was not until after the virus was downloaded into the systems, that the worm then replicatesbegan replicating itself and started searching fors to look for its target which is now known to be a specific Siemen software and hardware combination that runs on Microsoft operation systems. Specifically, The “Stuxnet is designed to attack the Siemens Simatic WinCC SCADA system. These SCADA systems are installed in big facilities to manage operations. CITATION Jan10 l 1033 (McEntegart, 2010) ” (McEntegart, 2010). To operate in such a way, But in order for the worm to find itself from the PC’s to the target the worm replicated itself and had to traveled on the drivers of removable USB drives. After the worm infected the drivers on the USB, it is said that an employee at the nuclear facility brought one of the infected USB’s to the nuclear facility and plugged it into a computer at theon site. Traces of this worm have been tracked to have infected personal computer systems in countries around the world. By far the most traces where found in computers in Iran and surrounding countries such as Indonesia, India and even some computers in the United states where infected by the Stuxnet virus. After the worm infected the drivers on the USB it is said that an employee at the nuclear facility brought one of the infected USB’s to the nuclear facility and plugged it into a computer at the site. After t Once the worm searched the new computer system and realized that the computerand realized it was on the same network that tas the target was ontarget, it went to work. The worm then travelbegan traveling though out the network, and found the particular targeted Siemens Simatic WinCC SCADA system, and as well as the software associated with the system, . The worm thenand raised the level of rotations per minute on the hardware on the Siemens Simatic WinCC SCADA system. The worm continues to raise the speed of rotations on the hardware,Then causing the rotors to spin extremely fast and causing eventually forcing the system to spiral out of control. As this was occurring, the worm began to complete the job it was designed to do by causing While the system was spinning out of control the worm also made the software checks to look as if the hardware was working properly . During this time the worm had alsoand takingen over the controls for the system kill switch. The workers at the facility had no way to ever prepare for a meltdown of this magnitude and. this silentThis was an attack twas one for whichhat no one was prepared. had any idea that anyone or group was capable of doing the attackers had all the angles covered besides destroy all the evidence. This attack was so deviously designed that it could have gone completely unnoticed had the designers taken the time to design a method by which all evidence would be destroyed after the attack, but they did not do so and their neglect in doing so raises questions of future motives. By not neglecting to destroying all the evidence, from the designers actually increase and enhance the effects and impact of Stuxnet. Kelley (2013) puts it this way,the attack greatly increased the effects and impact of the Stuxnet attack. “ThTat’s because the initial attack provided a useful blueprint to future attackers by highlighting the royal road to infiltration of hard targets, humans working as contractors. CITATION Mic13 l 1033 (Kelley, 2013)” The fact idea that the target now could be humansa human damages the confidentiality. In addition, Now the code that was used to create the Stuxnet worm is now openly available out on the World Wide Web and. tEven though the code is very extremely complicated, many hackers are tryingstill attempt to duplicate what it can do and while possible working on targeting other systems that will be able to cripple society as we know, such as it like electrical grids and water dams. This Stuxnet attack made the use of the nuclear facility power unavailable. If another attack was to happen to something like an electrical grid and shut down a cities electricity lives will be lost. Being that the virus was walked into the nuclear plant hurt the integrity of the system. Also the fact that the worm was able to make the software project false positives stating that the hardware was working correctly also messed up the integrity of the facility.Ways to protect computers from a Stuxnet attack. Due to the complexity of the Stuxnet worm, the most conventional ways of defending protecting computers systems are were not as affectiveineffective. This attack was totally unexpected. But since the attack patches and updates for Microsoft, have come out to fix the zero day vulnerabilities. Siemens has also put out a tool that will detect and remove the stuxnet worms from any infected system. Most anti-virus software have made changes to their software to look for the Stuxnet worm also. Now companies are coming up with ways to check a systems integrity. There is now a program called Hypercheck and “HyperCheck uses an out-of-band network card utilizing the CPU’s System Managed Mode (SMM) to check the integrity of core libraries on the target system, including hypervisor code and the host operating system kernel. CITATION Def10 l 1033 (Defending Against Stuxnet Type Threats, 2010)” If you uses While some basic core methods of protecting computers systems will improve detection of a possible Stuxnet invasion, they might may not aid in completely dhelp defending or protecting your computer or network against the Stuxnet virus.
The most important way to protect against any computer or network attack is to engage in cyber security educationbe educated and educate your employees. Everyone Every employee should have a basic understanding of computer security and . Everyone should have basic knowledge of what to look for as it pertains to computer security. Each All companiesy should have a cyber security personnel in charge aand nd also policies and procedures in place just in case there is an attack. The company should review its policies and procedures should be reviewed and modified annually and then the companies should hold mandatory annual training should be conducted for all employees and as well as introductory information security training for all new employees should be a part of the company’s practices.
The nuclear facility should put in place better physical security to check employees for things like USB drives, removable hard drives, CD and any type of equipment that data can be transferred from. Also the facility should have done more physical check of the systems and had manual ways to shut down the system before in destroyed itself. The Stuxnet worm was the first of its kind. It was malicious software that can do physical damage. It changed the way cyber war is fought it has truly raised the bar when it comes to malware or any cyber-attack. With a few copycat virus now showing up such as Duqu and Flame. The need for companies and governments to secure all systems and educate all personal are at an all-time high. Works Cited BIBLIOGRAPHY Defending Against Stuxnet Type Threats. (2010, OCT. 1). Retrieved from http://www.invincea.com: http://www.invincea.com/2010/10/defending-against-stuxnet-type-threats/
Kelley, M. B. (2013, Nov. 20). The Stuxnet Attack On Iran’s Nuclear Plant Was ‘Far More Dangerous’ Than Previously Thought. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com: http://www.businessinsider.com/stuxnet-was-far-more-dangerous-than-previous-thought-2013-11
Kushner, D. (2013, Feb 26). The Real Story of the Stuxnet . Retrieved from http://spectrum.ieee.org: http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/the-real-story-of-stuxnet
McEntegart, J. (2010, September 27). Stuxnet is World’s First Cyber Super Weapon. Retrieved from http://www.tomsguide.com: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/stuxnet-cyber-weapon-worm-trojan,news-8122.html
The Stuxnet Worm. (2011, Nov. 21). Retrieved from http://us.norton.com/: http://us.norton.com/stuxnet
To protect against the Stuxnet virus companies
Literature review on Cross-cultural communication
Cross-cultural communication
Name:
Instructor:
Task:
Date:
Literature review
Effective communication with individuals of dissimilar cultures is a significant challenge. This is because cultures provide individuals with ways of perceiving, interpreting, and thinking about the world. In turn, the same words can connote different things to individuals from different cultures, in spite of the idea that they employ the same language. There are three notable ways from which cultures impact language; cognitive constraints, behavior constraints, and emotional constraints. These elements are associable to each culture thereby affecting communication. Communication is, thus, a cultural element that connects with the ways of a community.
In the analysis about cross-cultural communication, there are confounding elements that involve in the discourse. To begin with, a culture or a subculture may refer to a certain group of people in terms of national contexts. This is what describes, for instance, Swedish culture and French culture. However, a cultural entity does not have to be a national group. Culture applies to whatever is distinguishable over a considerable period of time. In this sense, there is the sense of teenage culture, working-class culture or male culture.
An investigation into cross-cultural communication has always to the question of how individuals understand each other if they do not share a joining cultural experience. In the current world, multicultural communities that exist within a global village face this question in daily setting. This communication recognizes that individuals of different cultural experiences may share the same language. Besides, it recognizes that individuals of different cultural orientations may not share the same language.
Bennett analyzes the primate life into understanding how different groups tolerated each other’s differences (Bennett, 2001). The core argument builds on the idea that individuals have, in history, tackled cultural differences by avoiding the same. In this argument, he constructs the idea of primates gathering around a fire over a day’s catch. If another group of primates appear, there are two reactions that are likely to occur; fight or flight. This is an aspect that has not altered over time as individuals retreat to their backyard when they are confronted with cultural differences. In cases whereby individuals are mandated to tackle cultural differences, there is usually a fight. In history, groups that were unsuccessful in avoiding different people strove at converting them. This is the case of religious missionaries who strove to impose their beliefs on other groups. The idea was that if other people convert to given beliefs or cultural practices, the world becomes a better place.
The case of upper-case and lower case culture highlights the differences that exist in communication. In a traditional setting, an individual is high likely to associate culture with literature, art, dance or music. This is an objective sense of culture that does not comprehensively discuss communication. On the other hand, in the subjective examination of culture, psychological features of a society become valuable in the analysis of given communication patterns.
It is crucial to regard emotions as a significant component of individuals’ lives. This is because they color life by according them meaning and significance to the wellbeing of individuals. Emotions, such as sadness, fear, guilt and disgust, in that they communicate things about the self and define individuals’ relationship with other people. Emotions are also critical since they inspire behaviors. The conflict between cultures and individuals occur because of emotions that we experience. This suggests that the manner in which individuals deal with their negative emotions determine the relationships and nature of communication that occur between different cultural groups. Communication depends on the manner by which different cultural entities resolve their conflicts.
Proper communication between individuals of different cultures cannot occur if individuals do not tame their negative emotions. This is a scenario of inadequate critical thinking that deters resolution of conflicts as regards stereotypes and generalizations. Instead of creating new schemas that enhance ways of thinking, this scenario reinforces narrow and ethnocentric ways of perceiving each other.
Communication is a complex and rich process that entails multiple messages, which occur through multiple signal systems. Culture has a prominent impact on the encoding and decoding of nonverbal and verbal signals. Because of this element, misunderstandings and conflict are inevitable in cross-cultural communication. A useful strategy in cross-cultural communication is the involvement of personal growth model that focuses on emotional reactions and critical thinking.
Yang proposes that high and low-context is the primary cultural dimension that defines communication patterns in terms of information processing. In high-context cultures, there tends to be more reliance on internalized comprehension and less verbally explicit communication. Besides, they manifest rational, context-based, and situational knowledge (Yang, 2011). These cultural groups tend to express themselves in non-verbal and indirect style. On the other hand, individuals from low-context cultures, share transferable, codified, and external knowledge. Besides, they employ explicit communication style. Low and high-context communication styles are dependent on the social structures where individuals reside. This suggests that high-context cultures will tend to establish long-term, multifaceted, and close relationships. Within such relationships, greater boundaries among groups are established as individuals assume high-context information. On the other end, individuals from low-context cultures easily interact and communicate across various boundaries. Such individuals develop short-term relationships that thrive on external and explicit information. In a low-context pattern, there is a greater emphasis on independence that creates loosely bound relationships. This is because people share an individualistic social orientation that emphasizes on the self and nuclear family.
Lowell, on her study about the impact of healthcare on the Aboriginal community of Australia, recognizes that social, political, and cultural factors affect communication (Lowell, 2001). Differences in understanding, experiences, expectations, and interpretations are sources of communication failure between the Australian medical staff and the Aborigines. These differences are manifold between standard Australian English and Aboriginal English, And between Aboriginal languages and standard Australian English. Besides, attitudinal and social skills, such as motivation and power relations, and person’s unique intercultural negotiation skills impact on effectiveness of communication.
This was an instrumental study because the health staff would always employ a strategy of learning the given languages in the community they worked. This is usually viewable as a sufficient strategy of achieving effective communication with coworkers and Aboriginal clients. However, communication challenges emerged thereby proving that broad disparities in world view and cultural knowledge cannot be synchronized through shared linguistic knowledge. Once an individual does not comprehend the emotional and attitudinal perspectives that attach to words of a different language, it becomes ineffective to share a language.
Wang utilized brainstorming to uncover the differences and similarities that display in communication between different cultural groups (Wang, 2009). Brainstorming is a process of finding ideas from individuals by discouraging criticism. The assumption exists in the view that individuals are more likely to put forward their ideas if they overhear each other’s creations and share the freedom of presenting unconventional arguments. In the findings, it was discovered that cultural groups increase their talkativeness as depending on contexts of discussions.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis in this study is; emotional associations to cultural groups are vital determinants to nature of communication that transpire between individuals of different cultures.
Research methods
In the research, the main type of data would be from secondary sources. This is because they present various empirical studies that share conclusions about different elements to communications. The research would be descriptive in presenting empirical conclusions out of tested models to interactions.
Findings
To begin with, it was discernible that different cultural groups could increase their talkativeness as depending on contexts if discussions. By examining elements of brainstorming, certain individuals could talk more if they utilized text-media. On the other hand, other individuals could talk more if they employed verbal media. In cases where there was a dominant cultural group, in terms of numbers of people, there would be a tendency for the less dominant group to adopt the communication style of the other group (Matsumoto, 2005).
In terms of Aboriginal clients and workers in Australia, it was discernible that there are additional factors that play in cross-cultural communication (Lowell, 2001). These factors surpass the mere idea of sharing a similar language. Different cultural groups perceive and react to words differently. This is because they possess different attitudes and emotional orientation of connoting and denoting words.
A major discovery on cross-cultural communication involved high and low-context cultures. High and low-context communication synchronizes with the social structures that exist in given societies. In the investigation, it was uncovered that individuals from high-context cultures tend to manifest lower level of sentiment in their communications. On the other hand, individuals from low-context cultures expressed higher levels of sentiment in their communication.
Discussion
It is arguable that the findings supported hypothesis. However, emotions are only part of the components that influence communication between cultures. A critical look at cross-cultural communication involves examining all the elements that involve cultures. In the examination of cultures as variables to communication, emotions, behavior and thinking orientations exist within the frame.
In societies that hold certain elements as objective, individuals will tend to align their communication within conservative limits. This suggests that communication will involve metaphors and strong cultural elements that never separate in individuals’ argument. On the other hand, liberal societies promote free expression and explicit communication that involved loud conversations and discourses.
Each culture involves existing individuals that share similar experiences. These experiences affect how individuals react and denote communication elements. This suggests that individuals how learn foreign languages have to participate in the cultural understanding that involves interpretation of words. Certain cultures may involve quick reactions and openness to situations because experiences informed such a conscience. In cross-cultural communication, an individual must recognize this perspective in one’s expression and response to conversations.
In cross-cultural communication, it is vital to recognize of the idea that individuals exploit their elements of familiarity to judge situations. In addition, their personality embeds in their communication styles. It is, therefore, unreasonable to make stereotypes and generalize cultural influences on communication. In this perspective, individuals of a certain group that live in a foreign society are different from their counterparts who live in original societies. This is the recognition that culture is a rich and complex factor in communication.
References
Lowell, A. (2001). A review of two subprograms of the cooperative research centre for Aboriginal and tropical health’s indigenous health and education research program. Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health, 1(1), 1-40.
Yang, J (2011). Collaborating globally: culture and organizational computer-mediated communication. Information systems, 1(9), 1-20.
Matsumoto, D (2005). Emotion and intercultural communication: the role of culture in communication process. Psychology journal, 26(3), 15-29.
Wang, H. (2009). Cultural Difference and Adaptation of Communication Styles in Computer-Mediated Group Brainstorming. Communication department, 36(2), 669-678.
Bennett, Milton, J. (2000). Intercultural communication: a current perspective. Culture and communication journal, 23(2), 1-20.