A quick not-so-technical bit about April 8, 2010. One of China’s smaller Internet providers tricked online traffic into flowing through China’s ISP system. Quite a few Federal/high-security computer networks also happened to be rerouted. If you didn’t know, traffic can be recorded and analyzed by ISPs. People are divided on whether it was an accident.
Now the technical bits:
During the hijacking of international Web traffic in 2010, China spoofed 37,000 fake IP addresses and routed a huge amount of traffic via a central Chinese backbone ISP. Notably, this was done via simple methods that almost any 3-rd tier ISP could perform. The issue is the BGP table, otherwise known as the Border Gateway Protocol. The BGP determines the routing paths for larger ISPs, which are mirrored with a number of like-sized ISPs, as well as ISP providers up and down the chain.
Methods to prevent BGP hijacking are complex. A simple, Symantec-style prevention would block all traffic from the hijacking ISP after the fact. This is essentially blackballing the offending ISP provider, whom would be unable to receive traffic from the blocker. While not practical for larger ISPs, this would be an effective deterrent to smaller ISPs.
Unfortunately, the hijacking ISP from China was a smaller ISP which spoofed its ISP addresses via the larger ISP, thus almost acting like a virus – injecting a payload and then gleaning from the effect, while riding on the massive strength of China’s backbone ISP. Even if the smaller ISP was banned from traffic, this would not prevent hijackings in the future.
Another, more complicated method would be to maintain a warning system within the IPv6 load sent from secure, trusted servers. This would act as a countermeasure or antibody, as the same mechanism that performs ISP hijacking would be used to prevent it. While the mathematics is beyond me, a modified algorithm could detect sudden switches in traffic either to a specific known ISP block (the block of blackballed ISPs mentioned in solution 1, for example), or via a sudden change in server distances where standard server routes should theoretically maintain a general range. While there are ways to defeat both of these measures (for example, penetrating and utilizing trusted servers to corrupt safety messages, or altering routes so that the required distance appears to match the known range), all three of these solutions could be implemented with various amounts of haste.
For further reference, see the article at Arbor Networks: http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2010/11/additional-discussion-of-the-april-china-bgp-hijack-incident/
For a quick summary of the situation, see Computerworld’s article. Also details the political fallout from the debacle: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9197019/Update_Report_sounds_alarm_on_China_s_rerouting_of_U.S._Internet_traffic
Cracked seed is not for everyone. An unnamed relative actually described the preserved cherries we sent him as ‘gross’, and my sister had less than favorable reviews for some of the items in her birthday package.
Think of library science as technology meets liberal arts, with a healthy dose of SQL, databases, and 
The OMIM database is a trove of data about genetic illnesses and vulnerabilities. Unlike 
Vellum Information 
Computer Science vs. Information Studies vs. Information Systems (With a Little Informatics)
Article first published as Computer Science vs. Information Studies vs. Information Systems (with a Little Informatics) on Technorati.
There are possibly a half-dozen major, intertwining domains in the IT field, and sometimes a little deciphering is necessary when assessing the education possibilities. When it comes to assessing how things stack up, a little cheat-sheet can be handy.
Computer science is the grand-pappy of the Information Revolution. Heavy in math and theory, computer scientists solidly learn the foundation of computer methods. Comp-sci covers everything: networking, programming, theory, practice. Computer science is the font, and good students should be able to quickly learn most any technical task. Bad CS students, on the other hand, know just enough to forge havoc. Computer science is by far the most difficult field, and probably has produced more liberal arts majors than any other scientific field besides medicine.
Information systems has a dual identity. One path of IS deals with technical management. The other part of the IS field deals with expert systems, artificial intelligence, databases, informatics, and all those enterprise-level developments that you hear about. Certain schools have even more specialized topics, and many universities form partnerships with corporate R&D departments. Information systems comes in as a strong contender, and is a highly competitive program for IT positions after graduation.
Software engineering deals both with software development, system engineering, and project management. At the core level, software engineering teaches advanced methods to handle software application development. Kind of like computer science on steroids, this is much more an engineering field than the other, lighter information technology domains.
Information studies is the field that librarians hail from. Information studies deals with both the end-user usage and organization of information. How information is used, reproduced, analyzed, and integrated: all of this is part of the information studies domain. Beyond strict skirts and buns, librarians now practice web design, various database usage, and the perfection of specialized query techniques. Also, teaching the basics of smart computer literacy is a foundation of information studies; after all, educated citizens are competent citizens.
The informatic domains are the newest players on the field. Informatics can roughly be described as the intersection of technology, people, and business. Not quite hard-core IT, far from liberal arts, informatics blends a mishmash of different technical concepts together. While informatic work is common and necessary with every aspect of technology, the field itself has barely become established. Some schools have sub-specialties in community informatics, medical informatics, or information management. Effectively, all of these informatics domains are siblings, and they are all distant cousins of their grandfather, computer science.
There is a plethora of computer science domains to pick from. Importantly, the technical domains are not exclusive – many information studies majors can function as a Tier 1 help-desk technician with minimal training, and all IS graduates have heavy experience with database administration and system design. Computer science can lead directly into software engineering, and good informatics programs offer enough technical education to meet criteria for most any position. If you are hiring, assess by grades and graduate-level work. If you are choosing a program, honestly pick by interest and ability. Be willing to learn more, and be dedicated to learning/discovering/developing the next big thing. Finally, I ask you to carry this imperative lesson away: Technology is skill, not luck.
Images from Free Digital Photos, photographers are Graur Codrin (student) and Luigi Diamanti (robot).
Read more: http://technorati.com/business/article/computer-science-vs-information-studies-vs/#ixzz1Fc4MBUNV
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