Chisholm Trail :: essays research papers

Chisholm Trail When the railroads moved west to the Great Plains, the "Cattle Boom" began. Southern Texas became a major ranching area with the raising of longhorn cattle from Mexico. Cattle was branded by the rawhides who guarded them on horseback on the ranges. Before the Civil War, small herds of Texas cattle were driven by the cowboys to New Orleans, some as far west as California, and some to the north over the Shawnee Trail. This trail passed through Dallas and near the Indian Territory, ending in Sedalia, Missouri. In 1866, the Shawnee Trail presented some major problems for the cattle drivers Farmers along the route did not like their fields being trampled. They also objected to the spread of tick fever. Longhorns carried the ticks but were immune to the fever. A few farmers were so angry, they armed themselves with shotguns to convince the cattle ranchers to find another trail north. There was a large increase icattle by the end of the Civil War. Over 1,000,000 cattle roamed the open range. At this time, people in the north had money to buy beef and cattle which was in great demand. A cow that cost 4 to5 dollars a head in Texas was going for 40 to 50 dollars a head in the east. Ranchers hired cowboys for the cattle drives north, realizing the great opportunity for a large profit if they could reach the railroads in Abilene, Kansas. Joseph McCoy, a stock dealer from Springfield, Illinois, decided a new trail was necessary west of the farms. In 1867, he chose a route that would reach Abilene and the railroads with the least amount of problems. This route was to become well-known as the Chisholm Trail. Jesse Chisholm was a half-breed, a Scotch Cherokee Indian trader, who in 1866 drove a wagon through the Indian territory, known now as Oklahoma, to the Wichita, Kansas, where he had a trading post. Cattlemen use the same trail in the years to come, following Chisholm's wagon ruts to Abilene, Kansas, and the railroads. The trail began below San Antonio, Texas, and stretched north for about 1,000 miles. The main course then passed through Austin, Fort Worth, The Indian Territory, and Wichita to Abilene. Side trails fed into the Chisholm Trail. The cattle fed on grass along the trail. Cattlemen moved about 1,500,000 cattle over the trail during a three year span. The biggest year was in 1871, when 5,000 cowboys drove over 700,000 head of cattle along the trail from Texas to Abilene. The Chisholm Trail was the most popular route because of the good terrain.

Applications of Biometrics in Cloud Security

CHAPTER ONE 1. 1 INTRODUCTION The success of modern day technologies highly depends on its effectiveness of the world’s norms, its ease of use by end users and most importantly its degree of information security and control. Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure ‘in the cloud’ that supports them [15, 16].Authentication, thus, becomes pretty important for cloud security. Biometric is the most secure and convenient authentication tool. It cannot be borrowed, stolen, or forgotten and forging one is practically impossible. The term comes from the Greek words bios (life) and metrikos (measure). To make a personal recognition, biometrics relies on who you are or what you do—as opposed to what you know. OBJECTIVES 1 To know and understand the meaning of biometric, its uses, the characteristics and also its advantages and challenges. To know and understand the full meaning of cloud computing its type and its service providers 3 To explain the about cloud security and its shortfalls 4 To know how biometric technology can be applied to enhance security in cloud computing CHAPTER TWO 2. 0 BIOMETRICS The word â€Å"biometrics† comes from the Greek language and is derived from the words bio (life) and metric (to measure). Biometrics (or biometric authentication) refers to the identification of humans by their characteristics or traits.Computer science, biometrics to be specific, is used as a form of identification [1]. Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioural characteristic [2]. Biometrics offers new perspectives in high-security applications while supporting natural, user-friendly and fast authentication. Biometric technology uses these characteristics to identify individuals automatica lly1. Ideally the characteristic should be universally present, unique to the individual, stable over time and easily measurable [5]. 2. Biometric systems A biometric system provides an automated method of recognizing an individual based on the individual's biometric. A biometric is a measurement of a biological characteristic such as fingerprint, iris pattern, retina image, face or hand geometry; or a behavioural characteristic such as voice, gait or signature. Behavioural biometrics are related to the behaviour of a Person, including but not limited to: typing rhythm, gait, and voice. Some researchers have coined the term behaviourmetrics to describe the behaviour class of biometrics [1].A biometric system is essentially a pattern-recognition system that recognizes a person based on a feature vector derived from a specific physiological or behavioural characteristic that the person possesses [3]. Biometric systems can be used in two different modes. Identity verification occurs wh en the user claims to be already enrolled in the system (presents an ID card or login name); in this case the biometric data obtained from the user is compared to the user’s data already stored in the database Identification (also called search) occurs when the identity of the user is a priori unknown.In this case the user’s biometric data is matched against all the records in the database as the user can be anywhere in the database or he/she actually does not have to be there at all [4]. The combination of biometric data systems and biometrics recognition/ identification technologies creates the biometric security systems. 2. 2 Biometric Authentication Authentication on the other hand, is a process where a known person's live biometric is compared to a stored template of that person.For example, an individual’s identity is revealed to the biometric system upon entering a PIN (Personal Identification Number). To authenticate that this is the person associated wi th this PIN, a live biometric is presented by the individual and compared to the template and a match is determined. This is known as a ‘one to one’ search. It is more accurate than the ‘one to many’ application and is the predominant biometric process in place today and the more privacy friendly of the two systems.This answers the question – Are you who you say you are? Two general uses of biometrics are identification and verification which both require the existence of reference data that the person’s measured traits will be compared with reference templates or raw data. During these processes, a biometric data sample is compared against the respective biometric data of every person enrolled in the database or against a single reference template of a particular enrolled individual in order to confirm the identity of that person respectively.When a biometric system correctly identifies a person, then the result of the identification process is a true positive, whereas if the system correctly rejects a person as not matching the respective enrolled template, the result is a true negative. Similarly, when the system incorrectly identifies or rejects a person then we speak about a false positive or a false negative. Fig 2. 1 Components of a Biometric Authentication System[31] 2. 3 BIOMETRIC SECURITY SYSTEM The biometric security system is a lock and capture mechanism to control access to specific data.In order to access the biometric security system, an individual will need to provide their unique characteristics or traits which will be matched to a database in the system. If there is a match, the locking system will provide access to the data for the user. The locking and capturing system will activate and record information of users who accessed the data. The relationship between the biometric and biometric security system is also known as the lock and key system. The biometrics security system is the lock and biometric s is the key to open that lock [11]. 2. 4 CRITERIA FOR BIOMETRIC SYSTEM[12]There are seven basic criteria for biometric security system: [12] * Uniqueness: uniqueness is considered as the priority one requirement for biometric data. It will indicate how differently and uniquely the biometric system will be able to recognize each user among groups of users . For instance, the DNA of each person is unique and it is impossible to replicate. * Universality: Universality is a criterion for the biometric security that indicates requirements for unique characteristics of each person in the world, which cannot be replicated. For example, retinal and iris are characteristics will satisfy this requirement. Permanence: permanence parameter is required for every single characteristic or trait which is recorded in the database of the system and needs to be constant for a certain period of time period. This parameter will mostly be affected by the age of the user * Collectability: The collectabil ity parameter requires the collection of each characteristic and trait by the system in order to verify their identification * Performance: performance outlines how well the security system works. The accuracy and robustness are main factors for the biometric security system.These factors will decide the performance of the biometric security system * Acceptability: The acceptability parameter will choose fields in which biometric technologies are acceptable. * Circumvention: circumvention will decide how easily each characteristic and trait provided by the user can lead to failure during the verification process. DNA is believed to be the most difficult characteristic leading to the failure of the verification process [13]. Figure 2. 2 Basic Criteria for Biometrics Security System [26] 2. 5 TYPES OF BIOMETRIC systems Two classes of biometric methods are: 1) Physical Biometrics:Physiological biometrics is based on measurements and data derived from direct measurement of a part of the human body. * Fingerprint: Fingerprint recognition is one of the best known and most widely used Biometric technologies. Fingerprint recognition technology extracts features from impressions made by the distinct ridges on the fingertips. * Iris-scan: Iris recognition technology is based on the distinctly coloured ring surrounding the pupil of the eye. Iris recognition systems use a small, high-quality camera to capture a black and white, high-resolution image of the iris. Retina-scan: Retina recognition technology captures and analyses the patterns of blood vessels on the thin nerve on the back of the eyeball that processes light entering through the pupil. * Hand geometry: Hand geometry technology takes 96 measurements of the hand, including the width, height, and length of the fingers; distances between joints; and shape of the knuckles. * Facial recognition : Facial recognition technology identifies people by analysing features of the face not easily altered—the upper out lines of the eye sockets, the areas around the cheekbones, and the sides of the mouth..Facial recognition can be used in both verification and identification systems. 2) Behavioural characteristics are based on an action taken by a person. Behavioural biometrics, in turn, are based on measurements and data derived from an action, and indirectly measure characteristics of the human body * Voice recognition: Voice authentication is unique and non-intrusive method and also the hardware requirements required for this type of authentication are cheap and are available readily. Microphones can be used for this purpose.However the back ground noise must be controlled, high storage is required for this kind of authentication. This type of authentication can also be extraneously influenced by once sore throat and cold. [7] * Keystroke-scan: Keystroke dynamics is a biometric based on the assumption that different people type in uniquely characteristic manners. Observation of telegraph operato rs in the 19th century revealed personally distinctive patterns when keying messages over telegraph lines, and telegraph operators could recognize each other based on only their keying dynamics [22].Keystroke dynamics is known with a few different names: keyboard dynamics, keystroke analysis, typing biometrics and typing rhythms [22]. Currently users begin information to computer systems via physical keyboards or keyboards on touch screens. The main advantage of using keystroke dynamics is that it can be used without any additional hardware. Thus it is inexpensive. The user acceptance of a keystroke dynamics biometric system is very high, since it is not intrusive and users do not necessarily even notice that such a system is used [22, 27]. Signature Recognition: Signature recognition authenticates identity by measuring handwritten signatures. The signature is treated as a series of movements that contain unique biometric data, such as personal rhythm, acceleration, and pressure flo w. In a signature recognition system, a person signs his or her name on a digitized graphics tablet or personal digital assistant. The technology can also track each person’s natural signature fluctuations over time. The signature dynamics information is encrypted and compressed into a template.One of the defining characteristics of a behavioural biometric is the incorporation of time as a metric – the measured behaviour has a beginning, middle and end [6]. A number of biometric methods have been introduced over the years, but few have gained wide acceptance. 2. 6 PERFORMANCE OF BIOMETRICS SYSTEMS The following are used as performance metrics for biometric systems [8]. * False Accept Rate FAR and False Reject Rate FRR: The FAR gives a measure of the probability that an individual will be ‘falsely accepted’ by the system (i. . that the system accepts someone who is not enrolled on the system, or makes an incorrect identification). The FRR indicates how like ly it is that a legitimate user will be rejected. The balance between the FAR and the FRR greatly influences both the security and usability of the system. The False Rejection Rate (FRR) is usually caused by lighting, climate conditions, low quality equipment or inexperience. The False Acceptance Rate (FAR) is caused by the security standard being too low [9]. False Match Rate FMR and False NonMatch Rate FNMR: A false match occurs when a system incorrectly matches an identity, In verification and positive identification systems, unauthorized people can be granted access to facilities or resources as the result of incorrect matches. That occurs when a subsequent reading does not properly match the enrolled biometric relating to that individual, something that results in Denial of Access to services. * The Crossover Error Rate (CER): The Crossover Error Rate (CER) is defined as the error rate of the system when the FAR and FRR are equal.Usually expressed as a percentage, the CER can b e used to compare the performance of different biometric systems. * False enrol rate: This occurs when a person’s biometric is either unrecognizable, or when it is not of a sufficiently high standard for the machine to make a judgment, something that does not allow the user to enrol in the system in the first place. The fingerprints of people who work extensively at manual labour are often too worn to be captured. A high percentage of people are unable to enrol in retina recognition systems because of the precision such systems require.People who are mute cannot use voice systems, and people lacking fingers or hands from congenital disease, surgery, or injury cannot use fingerprint or hand geometry systems [10]. Applications of biometrics 2. 7ADVANTAGES OF BIOMETRIC SECURITY [14] 1. The first advantage of using this new technology is the uniqueness and it is also the main characteristic which allows biometrics technology to become more and more important in our lives. With un iqueness of biometrics technology, each individual's identification will be single most effective identification for that user.A chance of two users having the same identification in the biometrics security technology system is nearly zero. 2. Secondly, the highly secure way of identifying users makes this technology less prone for users to share access to highly sensitive data. For example, users can share their fingerprints, iris and so forth allowing other users access to secure information. Each trait used during identification is a single property of that user. In other words, it is extremely hard or impossible to make duplicate or share biometrics accessing data with other users.This makes it ever more secure allowing user information and data to be kept highly secure from unauthorized users. 3. This identification of users though biometrics cannot be lost, stolen or forgotten. This aspect of biometrics technology allows it to become more popular in its use. This method of ide ntifying and giving access to user makes user identification a lot easier. Finally, most biometrics security systems are easy to install and it requires small amount of funding for equipment (except modern biometrics technology such as: DNA/retinal/iris recognition). . 8 CHALLENGES AND ISSUES Nothing is 100% secure, not even biometrics. Nevertheless, biometrics does provide the means to present security credentials that are unique. Unlike other systems that may rely on passwords or tokens that can be vulnerable to loss or exploitation, no one is going enter your live biometric as a means of impersonation Just as a firewall does not constitute a network security solution but rather a component of a defensive strategy, biometrics could be viewed in the same manner.It is not enough to assume absolute verification with biometrics alone but rather as part of a well designed security implementation that considers strong two factor authentication. The second major threat is concerned with modification of the components of the authentication system. The capture device could be modified to output a different image to the one captured. Alternatively, it could be modified to create a denial-of-service (DoS) that will prevent legitimate users accessing the system (by smashing a camera, for example). The processes of emplate generation or template matching could be subverted to produce erroneous results; for example, a piece of malicious code could interfere with the template generation software to produce the attacker’s template rather than that of the legitimate user, or the matching process could be modified to produce an artificially high or low matching score. CHAPTER THREE 3. 1 CLOUD COMPUTING Cloud computing is a means of accessing computer facilities via the Internet, where the adjective â€Å"cloud† reflects the diagrammatic use of a cloud as a metaphor for the Internet.Most of us have been using cloud-computing facilities in one form or another for years through ordinary email and the World Wide Web. Recently, the term has come to reflect the use of software and the running of computer applications via the Internet where the computer infrastructure and software are not â€Å"on premises. † Cloud computing, as a form of service provisioning, has given rise to several related concepts, such as mesh computing, cloud platforms, and software plus service. Cloud Computing is a new computing model that distributes the computing missions on a resource pool that includes a large amount of computing resources.In a survey undertaken by the International Data Corporation (IDC) group between 2008 and 2009, the majority of results point to employing Cloud computing as a low-cost viable option to users [17] developers or research projects and even e-commerce entrepreneurs. Using Cloud computing can help in keeping one’s IT budget to a bare minimum. It is also ideally suited for development and testing scenarios. It is the easie st solution to test potential proof of concepts without investing too much capital.Using cloud computing service, users can store their critical data in servers and can access their data anywhere they can with the Internet and do not need to worry about system breakdown or disk faults, etc. Also, different users in one system can share their information and work, as well as play games together. Many important companies such as Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Yahoo are the forerunners that provide cloud computing services. Recently more and more companies such as SalesForce, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace etc. also begin to provide all kinds of cloud computing services for Internet users . 2 TYPES OF CLOUDS [18] In providing a secure Cloud computing solution, a major decision is to decide on the type of cloud to be implemented. Currently there are three types of cloud deployment models offered, namely, a public, private and hybrid cloud. A. Public Cloud A public cloud is a model whic h allows users’ access to the cloud via interfaces using mainstream web browsers. It’s typically based on a pay-per-use model, similar to a prepaid electricity metering system which is flexible enough to cater for spikes in demand for cloud optimisation.This helps cloud clients to better match their IT expenditure at an operational level by decreasing its capital expenditure on IT infrastructure [19]. Public clouds are less secure than the other cloud models because it places an additional burden of ensuring all applications and data accessed on the public cloud are not subjected to malicious attacks. Therefore trust and privacy concerns are rife when dealing with Public clouds with the Cloud SLA at its core. B. Private Cloud A private cloud is set up within an organisation’s internal enterprise datacenter.It is easier to align with security, compliance, and regulatory requirements, and provides more enterprise control over deployment and use. In the private clo ud, scalable resources and virtual applications provided by the cloud vendor are pooled together and available for cloud users to share and use. It differs from the public cloud in that all the cloud resources and applications are managed by the organisation itself, similar to Intranet functionality. Utilisation on the private cloud can be much more secure than that of the public cloud because of its specified internal exposure.Only the organisation and designated stakeholders may have access to operate on a specific Private cloud [20]. C. Hybrid Cloud A hybrid cloud is a private cloud linked to one or more external cloud services, centrally managed, provisioned as a single unit, and circumscribed by a secure network [20]. It provides virtual IT solutions through a mix of both public and private clouds. Hybrid Clouds provide more secure control of the data and applications and allows various parties to access information over the Internet. It also has an open architecture that allow s interfaces with other management systems. . 3 CLOUD COMPUTING DELIVERY MODELS [18] The architecture of Cloud computing can be categorised according to the three types of delivery models, namely Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Software as a service (SaaS) and Platform as a service (PaaS). A. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Infrastructure as a Service is a single tenant cloud layer where the Cloud computing vendor’s dedicated resources are only shared with contracted clients at a pay-per-use fee. This greatly minimizes the need for huge initial investment in computing hardware such as servers, networking devices and processing power.They also allow varying degrees of financial and functional flexibility not found in internal data centers or with co-location services, because computing resources can be added or released much more quickly and cost-effectively than in an internal data center or with a colocation service [21]. B. Software as a Service (SaaS) Software as a Service also operates on the virtualised and pay-per-use costing model whereby software applications are leased out to contracted organisations by specialised SaaS vendors. This is traditionally accessed remotely using a web browser via the Internet.Software as a service applications are accessed using web browsers over the Internet therefore web browser security is vitally important. Information security officers will need to consider various methods of securing SaaS applications. Web Services (WS) security, Extendable Markup Language (XML) encryption, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and available options which are used in enforcing data protection transmitted over the Internet. C. Platform as a Service (PaaS) Platform as a service cloud layer works like IaaS but it provides an additional level of â€Å"rented† functionality.Clients using PaaS services transfer even more costs from capital investment to operational expenses but must acknowledge the additional constraints and possi bly some degree of lock-in posed by the additional functionality layers [20] . The use of virtual machines act as a catalyst in the PaaS layer in Cloud computing. Virtual machines must be protected against malicious attacks such as cloud malware. Therefore maintaining the integrity of applications and well enforcing accurate authentication checks during the transfer of data across the entire networking channels is fundamental.Figure 3. 1 CLOUD COMPUTING MAP [18] 3. 4 CLOUD SECURITY Cloud computing have many advantages in cost reduction, resource sharing and time saving for new service deployment. While in a cloud computing system, most data and software that users use reside on the Internet, which bring some new challenges for the system, especially security and privacy. Since each application may use resource from multiple servers. The servers are potentially based at multiple locations and the services provided by the cloud may use different infrastructures across organizations.Al l these characteristics of cloud computing make it complicated to provide security in cloud computing. To ensure adequate security in cloud computing, various security issues, such as authentication, data confidentiality and integrity, and non-repudiation, all need to be taken into account. The biggest challenge in implementing successful Cloud computing technologies is managing the security. As with any new technology enhancements, criticisms are driven by fear of unknown variables and changes to current control procedures. How can cloud stakeholders ensure and promote the security of Cloud computing?In the Cloud Computing Services Survey conducted during August 08/09 by IDC IT group [17], users were asked to rate their issues and challenges experienced with Cloud computing. The results illustrate that security is the biggest concern. Security is the main issue users are concerned with when considering Cloud computing solutions. CHAPTER FOUR 4. 1 APPLICATION OF BIOMETRICS IN CLOUD SECURITY One of the Security risks in cloud computing according to Garfunkel [23] is hacked passwords or data intrusion. If someone hacks a password they get control over the resources.They can manipulate the information or disable the services. Furthermore, there is a possibility for the user’s email (Amazon user name) to be hacked (see [24] for a discussion of the potential risks of email), and since Amazon allows a lost password to be reset by email, the hacker may still be able to log in to the account after receiving the new reset password [25]. As an excellent storage scheme for tenants’ big data, cloud computing has been a hot issue for a lot of consumers, generally, tenants’ different data should be processed by different security modes.Biometric authentication has the advantage of exclusive for tenant in data access. When any registered cloud tenant , want to access the data stored in cloud, first, he must pass the cloud system check such as cloud_sys_c hecker A Hybrid biometric method can be developed by fusing finger prints and voice biometric methods. The fused value can be used as signal sign on for multiple resources provided by cloud. This encrypted data is used for authentication 4. 2BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM AS A CLOUD SERVICE:The authentication service provider maintains the biometric data base . The data has to be stored in encrypted format using cryptography on biometric for the security reasons 4. 2. 1ARCHITECTURE BIOMETRICS AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM A secure data access scheme based on identity-based Encryption and biometric authentication for cloud communication Cloud Services1 CS1 Cloud Services1 CS3 Cloud Services1 CS2 Biometric Authentication Service Org1 User1 User2 †¦ Org2 User1 User2 Fig4. 1: Biometric Authenticating System in cloud [30].The user initially enrols with the biometric system which is provided by a cloud, once the identity is registered his/her biometric authentication details are stored in c loud service provider database. The authorization details are also entered at the registration time which is also encrypted. Whenever the user wants to use any cloud service user first uses the biometric authentication service rather than a traditional password mechanism. Once authenticated, the user is redirected to the actual cloud service for which he is authorized to use. 4. 3 A PROPOSED METHOD [29] Step1: Setup cloud side parameters . Initialization On the cloud service side, given a security parameter 2. Key generation When tenants are registered in cloud computing providers, each tenant will obtain a unique identity to identify him or her. The phase generates private key corresponding to given registered ID of every tenant in cloud computing. Step2: Generate tenant’s biometric template Cloud computing is a pervasive service environment for tenants, different tenants have different security requirement. To these tenants who have special security concern on data can gene rate their biometric template and be stored in cloud database.Biometric authentication must be needed when someone wants to access the data. Step3: Encrypt cloud data Input: cloud data (which is created by cloud tenants and stored in the database of cloud platform), a private key (the cloud service providers), and an ID (the cloud tenant who want to access the data); output: encrypted cloud data. Step4: Biometric authentication As an excellent storage scheme for tenants’ big data, cloud computing has been a hot issue for a lot of consumers, generally, tenants’ different data should be processed by different security modes.Biometric authentication has the advantage of exclusive for tenant in data access. Step4: Biometric authentication As an excellent storage scheme for tenants’ big data, cloud computing has been a hot issue for a lot of consumers, generally, tenants’ different data should be processed by different security modes. Biometric authentication has the advantage of exclusive for tenant in data access. When any registered cloud tenant say, p, want to access the data stored in cloud, first, he must pass the cloud system check such as cloud_sys_checker.Then, cloud tenants use registered identity ID to create their biometric template and all of the created templates are stored in cloud_sys_database. In cloud data access, cloud tenant p must pass the biometric authentication performed by biometric matcher in cloud computing. Step5: Decrypt cloud data Input: encrypted cloud data ciphertext (which is generated in Step3), an ID (the cloud service provider’s), a private key (the cloud tenant who want to access the data), and output: the corresponding plaintext i. e. cloud data. CHAPTER FIVE 5. 1 SUMMARYIn summary, as Biometrics allow for increased security, convenience we can say that fused biometric authentication system will be novel solution for authenticating users on cloud computing ,which can be provided as service on cloud . By following guiding principles discussed in this paper, a great deal of insecurities may be easily expelled, saving business owners’ valuable time and investment. Cloud computing has the potential to become a frontrunner in promoting a secure, virtual and economically viable IT solution. Future work and progress lies in standardising Cloud computing security protocols 5. CONCLUSION . Authentication is necessary in Cloud Computing. In order to seek a secure data access method for cloud tenants, a proposed method presented a secure data access mechanism based on identity-based encryption and biometric authentication in this paper, the mechanism set double protection for confidential data of cloud tenants, encryption will make the tenants data secure against the peekers and biometric authentication will eliminate the maloperations over tenants data by root administrator in cloud service. The security of data is maintained even though the same application is shared by mu ltitenant.To ensure the correctness of users’ data in cloud data storage, an effective and flexible biometric is proposed. i believe that data storage security in Cloud Computing, an area full of challenges and of paramount importance, is still in its infancy now, and many research problems are yet to be identified. This proposed method can be implemented with more security by using strong biometric m easures like eye. REFERENCES [1] http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Biometrics [2] J. L. Wayman, â€Å"Fundamentals of Biometric Authentication Xhtp:/ww. engr. sisu. edu/biometrics/nbtcw. p 4] http://www. fi. muni. cz/reports/files/older/FIMU-RS-2000-08. pdf [6] http://www. indexbiometrics. com/physiological_or_behavioral. htm [7] http://ntrg. cs. tcd. ie [8] Cernet. â€Å"CHARACTERISTICS OF BIOMETRIC SYSTEMS†. [online] available: http://www. ccert. edu. cn/education/cissp/hism/039-041. html. February 2013 [9] V. Vijaya Kumari and N. Suriyanarayanan. â€Å"Performance Measu re of Local Operators in Fingerprint Detection. † Academic Open Internet Journal, vol. 23, pp. 1-7, (2008). [10] www. gao. gov/cgi-bin/getrpt? GAO-03-1137T. February 2013 [11] Jain, A. K. ; Ross, A. Pankanti, S. , â€Å"Biometrics: a tool for information security† Volume: 1 Issue: 2, Issue Date: June 2006, page(s): 125 – 143 [12] Michael E. Schuckers, â€Å"Some Statistical Aspects of Biometric Identification Device Performance†, 2001 [13] Sandra Maestre, Sean Nichols â€Å"DNA Biometrics†, 2009 [14] Massimo Tistarelli and Marks Nixon, â€Å"Advances In Biometrics†, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 03029743 [15]Erdogmus, H. : Cloud Computing: Does Nirvana Hide behind the Nebula? IEEE Software 26(2), 4–6 (2009) [16] Leavitt, N. : Is Cloud Computing Really Ready for Prime Time?Computer 42(1), 15–20(2009) [17] Gens F, 2009,’ New IDC IT Cloud Services Survey: Top Benefits and Challenges’,IDC eXchange, viewe d 18 February 2010, Accessed online @ . February 2013 [18]Ramgovind S, Eloff MM, Smith E,† The Management of Security in Cloud Computing† [Online] Available: http://uir. unisa. ac. za/bitstream/handle/10500/3883/ramgovind. pdf;jsessionid=75882F66B5AF28B3D640A3C5F9CFD837? sequence=1 February 2013 [19] A Platform Computing Whitepaper, ‘Enterprise Cloud Computing: Transforming IT’, Platform Computing, pp6, viewed 13March 2010. 20]Global Netoptex Incorporated, 2009, â€Å"Demystifying the cloud. 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Garfinkel, â€Å"Email-based identification and authentication: An alternative to PKI? â€Å", IEEE Security and Privacy, 1(6), 2003 [25] Cloud Computing Security: From Single to Multi-Clouds [Online] Available: http://ieeexplore. ieee. org/stamp/stamp. jsp? tp=&arnumber=614956 February 2013 [26] Rahultech â€Å"IT trends-latest/recent trends in information technology† 2010[online] available:

“Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose Essay

Rose challenges the view that intelligence can be measured by the amount of schooling a person has completed. He suggests that blue-collar and service jobs require more intelligence than meets the eye. He describes his experiences growing up observing his mother as a waitress in coffee shops and family restaurants. He depicts his mother as a dynamic woman who loved her job and put her heart and soul into being a waitress. He described the way she memorized who ordered what, how long each dish is supposed to take to prepare, and how she became a professional at deciphering the emotional needs of her customers and colleagues alike. He also details his uncle’s work at the General Motors factory and shows the amount of intelligence that was required of him as he rose from being on the production line to supervising paint jobs. Rose explains how he observed different types of blue- collar and service workers in action, and came to the conclusion that each of them have a skill that takes a lot of mind power to master. I agree with Rose that the amount of schooling a person complete doesn’t necessarily measure their intelligence level. Especially in today’s economy many people can’t afford to pursue higher education, and that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t make excellent doctors or lawyers if they could afford the schooling. Not everyone has the means to acquire degrees and titles; some don’t even have the desire. I believe that higher education is a worthwhile endeavor, but I also believe that it is the best route for some and not for all. Attending college is not the only way that a person can lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Life Easier Today Than It Was 50 Years Ago Essay

When you write a paper, you use some information that you have read in books, journals, on the Internet, etc. Your teacher might have told you, â€Å"Use your own words.† In other words, even when you use someone else’s information, you are not allowed to use the words they wrote. You have to use your own. You have to say the same thing in a different way. This is called paraphrasing. For example, if the book you are reading from says, â€Å"John Adams, who was involved in winning independence for the United States, was the second President.† You cannot write those words in your paper. You cannot even write, â€Å"John Adams, a man involved in winning independence for the United States, was its second President.† One way that you could re-write it is to say, â€Å"The second American President, John Adams, was also influential in gaining freedom for the country.† However, in spite of being told to use your own words, you might not know how to do it. There are a variety of techniques you can use. You can change the words for words of similar meaning; you can change the grammar; you can change the grammar or grammatical forms. In this reading, you will learn about ways that you can paraphrase. Methods of Paraphrasing Before you even begin to paraphrase, you need to make certain that you understand what you are reading. If you do not understand what you read, you cannot paraphrase it. There are six ways that you can change sentences to paraphrase the information. You will probably not use all of them in the same sentence, but you can use ones that are appropriate. (In each of the examples, only one change is made. This is not enough if you are actually paraphrasing.) Read about each type of change, and look at the examples. Then make that type of change in the sample sentences that follow. Changing Word Order One way you can change a sentence for paraphrasing is to change the word order. For example, you might change â€Å"Because I slept too late, I missed my first class† to â€Å"I missed my first class because I slept too late,† or â€Å"In order to pass that class, I had to study very hard† to â€Å"I had to study very hard in order to pass that class.† It is sometimes necessary to change the wording of the parts of the sentences. For example, â€Å"Terry wanted more books, but he couldn’t afford them,† can be changed to â€Å"Terry couldn’t afford more books, even though he wanted them.† 1. If you’re going to New York for Christmas, be sure to take warm clothes. __Be sure to take warm clothes, if you’re going to New York for Christmas.___________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Even though the weather was good, Joan was in a bad mood. ___Joan was in a bad mood, even though the weather was good._____________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 3. I had no money, so I borrowed some. __I borrowed some money, because I had none._____________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Changing Parts of Speech You can also change parts of speech. If the sentence uses a noun, you can rewrite the sentence to use the verb or adjective form of the word, for example. You can change â€Å"Fifty-four men signed the Declaration of Independence† to â€Å"Fifty-four men put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence.† 1. The company needs to find a solution for this problem. __The company needs to solve this problem.______________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. The poor economy has been the cause of high unemployment. ___The poor economy has caused high unemployment.______________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 3. If you eat rabbit, you will find its taste like chicken. __If you eat rabbit, you will find it tastes like chicken.______________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Using Synonyms English has many synonyms — words that have the same or similar meanings — so another way you can paraphrase is to change one word for a synonym. For example, you could change â€Å"Movies can be divided into three categories† to â€Å"Movies can be divided into three types.† 1. The way a person dresses affects the impression that other people have. __ The way a person dresses influences the image that other people have.___ ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. That phrase means â€Å"in a happy way.† ___That expression means â€Å"in a cheerful way.†_____________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 3. There is little chance that the situation will improve. ___There is little possibility that the circumstances will get better.__________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Using Negatives or Opposite Expressions Another way to paraphrase is to change a positive expression into a negative expression, or a negative expression into a positive expression. You could change â€Å"Rather than building a traditional memorial, the city built a park† to â€Å"The city did not build a traditional memorial; instead it built a park.† 1. Shaun was disappointed, because the movie wasn’t very good. ___Shaun wasn’t satisfied, because the movie wasn’t very good.______________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Japan is not a small country, compared to European countries. __Japan is a large country, compared to European countries.________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Geri wanted some candy, but there wasn’t any in the bowl. __Geri wanted some candy, but the bowl was empty.________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Combining or Separating Sentences Long sentences can be divided, and short sentences can be combined with other short sentences. You can change â€Å"Ireland is a wonderful country, which has beautiful scenery, friendly people, and an interesting history† to â€Å"Ireland is a wonderful country. It has beautiful scenery, friendly people, and an interesting history.† You can also change â€Å"Ireland is a wonderful country. It has beautiful scenery, friendly people, and an interesting history† to â€Å"Ireland, which is a wonderful country, has beautiful scenery, friendly people, and an interesting history.† 1. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII. She is one of England’s most famous queens. __Elizabeth I, who was the daughter of Henry VIII, was one of England’s most________ __famous queens.________________________________________________________________ 2. This book is about a woman who pretended to be a man to join the army in World War II. It is one of Lynn’s favorite books. ___This book, which is one of Lynn’s favorites, is about a woman who pretended to___ ___be a man to join the army in World War II.______________________________________ 3. If you go to London, you should be sure to visit Westminster Abbey, where many of the kings and queens of England, as well as other famous people, are buried. __If you go to London, you should be sure to visit Westminster Abbey. Many kings and_ __queens of England are buried there. Other famous people are buried there, too.______ Using Different Grammar – Structure, Voice You can paraphrase by changing the grammar of a sentence, for example, but changing from active voice (â€Å"The dog bit the man†) to passive voice (â€Å"The man was bitten by the dog†) or by making other changes in the grammar. You can change â€Å"It is not unusual for June to be a rainy month here† to â€Å"June is often a rainy month here,† or â€Å"It is thought that this new plan will save money† to â€Å"Many people think that this new plan will save money.† 1. Various languages are spoken in this country. __The people of this country speak various languages._______________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Frank studied French, and, as a result, he translated for our visitors from France. __Frank could translate for our visitors from France, because he had studied French.__ ________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Tom McGovern got married three times and had five children. ___Tom McGovern had three wives and was the father of five._______________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Exercise Read the following sentences and paraphrase them, combining the techniques that you learned in this article. 1. Gone with the Wind, which was published in 1936, covered 12 years of the life of a woman named Scarlett O’Hara during and after the Civil War. It began when she was 16 year old and tells the story of her love for two men. ___Published in 1936, Gone with the Wind was the story of Scarlett O’Hara and the___ ___two men she loved. It covers Scarlett’s life from the time she was 16 until she was__ ___28, during the Civil War and the years that followed.____________________________

Current Issues in Law and HR Course Work Essay

Organizations are considered to be the most incentive, social arrangement of today. It’s considered a marvel to know that thousands of people with individual backgrounds, skills and interests are coordinated into various organizations, so that they can pursue their common institutionalized goals and objectives. The historians of the future see today’s organizations as the greatest achievement of our time and era. For example biogenetic engineering have had some breakthroughs. The Apollo mission to the moon was made possible by the organization called NASA. Even on day to day basis organizations play an important role in our lives. The water we drink to the food we eat or the clothes we wear all comes from different kinds of organizations Human resource is defined by many companies as a combination of the administrative functions with the performance of the company’s employees and their relations along with the company’s planning. Human resource basically develops mostly from industrial and organizational behaviour. The major function that are included in HRM are recruitment, selection, training and development, orientation, placement, separation, career planning, performance appraisal, salaries and wages, incentives and gain-sharing, benefits, services and security and employee relations and assessment. The term human resource basically refers to the people of the company. The manager of the company engages in HR because the HR activities and tasks are considered to be an important part of the company. It basically helps the company to achieve the goals and the objectives that are set for them by the management. As you all know that human resource activities also make a large contribution to the company’s success in many ways but the HR activities mostly support the strategies of the organization. The HR department basically exists to support the managers and the employees of the company and to pursue the company’s goal or objectives (Werther & Davis 1996). The major challenges that would be faced by the organization are as follows: – †¢ Population-growth challenges †¢ Global Competitive Challenges †¢ Unemployment Challenges †¢ Social Responsibility Challenges †¢ Medical, Food, Housing Challenges †¢ Unknown Challenges †¢ Ethical Challenges †¢ Workforce Diversity Challenges The objectives of the HR department are based on societal, organizational, functional and personal goals. It is known that the objectives of the company are not formally stated that is they are not in the written form. The objective of the human resource management not only reflects the intention of the middle and top management but also balances the challenges that are faced by the HR department. Objectives are basically considered as benchmarks against which the actions can be evaluated. The human resource objectives not only reflect the intention of the management but also balance the organizational challenges, the HR function and the people who are affected by it. If the company fails to succeed in its objectives it would harm the company’s profits, performance and even the survival of the firm. As we know that there are four objectives that are common to the HR management. The objectives are as follows: 1. Organizational Objective: which basically recognizes that the HR management exists and it contributes to the organizational effectiveness. The HR department basically exists so that it can help managers of the company to achieve the objectives and goals of the company. HR management only supports the managers with the human resource issues. If we put is simply the HR department only exist solely to help assist the rest of the company. 2. Functional Objective: which basically states that this objective solely exists to maintain the department’s input at a level that is considered relevant to company’s needs. A relation exists between the objectives and the HR activities and they are appraisal of the employee, placement and assessment of the employee. 3. Societal Objective: this objective shows that the company has to be ethically and socially responsive to the needs and challenges of the society while the company minimizes the negative impacts of such demands on the organization 4. Personal Objective: shows that the HR management helps assisting the employees in achieving their goals and objectives. And these goals enhance the individual’s contribution towards the organization. To achieve these goals the HR department help the managers of the company to obtain, maintain, utilize and retain the right amount and types of workers. The objectives of the employees must be met otherwise the employees would not be motivated, retained and maintained by the HR department of the company. And the employees would neglect their jobs, voice their complaints or maybe leave the organization for a better opportunity (Werther & Davis 1996). It is not necessary that all the organization can meet the HR objectives every time. Some sort of trade-offs do occur that stops the company in achieving the stated goals and objectives. When the objectives are net by the department, they make a huge contribution towards the organization’s and employees needs. And with the help of these objectives the managers are able to see the kinds of activities that are needed to be carried out and why. There is a relationship that exists between the objectives and the activities of the HR. For example, for the societal objective the supporting activities would be legal compliance, union and management relations and benefits of the employees. For the organizational objective the supporting activities would be HR planning, employee relations, selection, training and development, appraisal, placement and assessment. For functional objective the supporting activities would be performance appraisal, placement, assessment and development of the employees. And for personal objective the supporting activities would be training and development, performance appraisal, placement, assessment and compensation of the employees. The HR activities are considered as actions that are taken by the department to maintain a workforce balance that is considered as appropriate to the organization’s needs. For example, small companies who do have the HR department have small budgets and small staffs therefore the HR department of such companies only focus on the activities that they consider are important for the company. The functions or activities that are considered important for such companies would be planning, recruitment, and wages and salaries of the employees. The functions that are performed by the HR department of the organization are as follows: – Planning is the first activity that is conducted by the department. Planning can be defined as the systematic forecast that determines the company’s future and the demand and supply of the employees that would be needed by the organization. HR planning is also known as employees planning which helps the HR department and other managers of the company to develop staffing plans so that they would go along with the strategy of the company. it is important that the company is staffed with the right amount of people so that the strategic operational and functional goals of the company can be met. It has been realized by a lot companies that the HR plans are very important if the organization wants to have strategic success. For example, companies like Nokia and Apple it is important to have strategic plans because it would help the companies by developing new products and introducing them as quickly as possible in the market. It is only possible when the company is staffed with the right kind of people. Without the right people strategy based opportunities would be lost to a better staffed organization like Motorola and IBM (Werther & Davis 1996). Recruitment is one of the important activities of the HR department. Recruitment is mostly concerned with attracting and finding individuals who are capable for employment. The recruitment process begins s when the new recruits are sought and this process ends when the applicant submits and application. People who find new recruits are called recruiters. The process of hiring is faced with some limitations like costs, incentives, job requirements, policies of the company, environment conditions, insufficient and scarce resources and EEO legislation etc. Recruitment is done in two ways 1) internal channel which includes job posting program and departing employees 2) External channel which includes advertising, walk-in and write-ins, employee referrals, state employment agencies, open house, international recruiting, temporary help agencies and leased employees etc (Recruitment Process) Selection is one of the activities of the HR department. Selection is defined as a process that is based on specific steps that are used to describe that which individual should be hired. This process starts when the individual applies for the job and it ends when the final decision is made by the management of the company. the selection process is also faced with some limitations like EEO legislation, Workforce diversity and external prohibitions etc. ( The Selection Process). The selection process is based on eight steps and these steps are as follows:- †¢ Preliminary reception of applications †¢ Employment tests †¢ Selection interview †¢ Preference and background checks †¢ Medical tests †¢ Supervisory interview †¢ Realistic job preview †¢ Hiring decision Orientation, Placement and Separation is considered to be an activity of HRM. Orientation can be defined as when the new recruits are given an overview of the company on the first day of work. The orientation program of the company is based on the following goals 1) the pride of belonging to the company 2) creates awareness about the company’s business 3) emphasize on customer focus and service 4) helps to reduce the concerns that are related to the job 5) helps with development of a team member and 6) helps to establish personal growth etc. Placement can be defined as the work activities that are assigned to a new employee. The role of HR department here is that to advice the managers of the company about the rules and the regulations and it also provide counseling to the employees. Placement is based on 3 classes 1) promotion, transfer and demotion. Separation can be defined as a decision where the individual and the company must part. Separation process starts either the employer or the employee. The role of HR department is to find a method which is satisfactory for conducting a separation in such a way that it reduces the harmful factors that might affect the company. Training & Development is concerned with that placing the employees in a job does not give the company the surety that the individual would be successful in his or her job. Training and development programs are considered important for all the employees. The distinction between training and development is that training is for now and development is for the future. For example at Corning Glass there are a lot of learning opportunities that range from skilled orientation training to seminars that deal with development issues, they basically help the managers to face the issues that might arise in the future. The employees of the company are not bothered that the class is intended for training or development. It is only concerned with whether the program has helped the employees and the organization or not (Training and Development). Training and development are based on the following steps: – †¢ Need assessment †¢ Learning principles †¢ Program content †¢ Training and development objectives There are some challenges that are faced by HR department due to training and development. For example cost effectiveness, desired program content, learning principles and appropriateness of the facilities etc. The role of HR department over here is that it helps to prepare the individuals for future job responsibilities. And it also attempts stops the employees from obsolesce, work force diversity, technological changes, affirmation action and employee turnover etc. (Werther & Davis 1996) Career planning is one of the activities of the HRM. When the department is doing career planning it is mostly concerned with whether the company’s training and development programs has helped the employees with promotion chances or not. A couple of decades ago career planning was seen as an individual’s problem but now career planning is seen as the HR department’s problem. The HR managers and specialist see career planning as a way to meet the internal staffing needs. The involvement of the HR department in career planning is increasing everyday due to its benefits like low turnover, satisfies the needs of the employees, personal growth, helps with workforce diversity and decrease hoarding etc. Performance appraisal is one of the major activities of HRM. Performance appraisal can be defined as evaluating an employee’s current or past performances relative to his or her performance standard. In this competitive world companies require a high performance so that they can become dominant leaders in their perspective markets. And at the same time employees also need feedback on their performance so that it can act as a guide for their future behavior and responsibilities. There are some challenges that are faced by the HR department regarding the performance appraisal like legal constraints, rater’s biases regarding the employee based on halo effect or personal prejudice or even cross cultural biases etc. It has been vied been viewed by the experts that when there is poor performance throughout the company it creates huge problems with the human resource management activities(Grote &Grote 1996). Wages and Salaries are concerned with compensation. Compensation can be defined as something the employees receive in their return of their input to the organization. Without proper compensation the employees of the company would leave and it would be difficult for the company to hire new recruits. The result of pay dissatisfaction can harm the productivity of the company and can also harm the quality of work life as well. There are some challenges that affect the compensation plan like wage rates, union, constraints by the government and equal pay etc. ( Salary and Wages) Security, Safety and Health is considered a challenge for the HR experts that how to comply proactively with the minimum costs for the organization and to provide with the minimum of costs for the organization and to provide the greatest of benefits to its employees, whereas in the area of employee security and health companies have taken a proactive action. It is the role of the HR department to face the challenges that arise overtime. The HR is usually faced with 2 kinds of challenges: 1) Internal challenges which are also the organizational challenges. Internal challenges for example would include union, information systems, organizational conflicts between the company and the employees. 2) External challenges are those problems that exist due to the changing environment and the management has no control over it. Change in the company’s environment actually evolves at different kinds of rates. External challenges would include workforce diversity, technology, economics and government. The HR department has to follow 4 steps so that they can overcome the external challenges. They are as follows: – †¢ Monitor the environment †¢ Evaluate the impact of the challenges on the company †¢ Take proactive measures that is implement approaches that would help the company to achieve its goals †¢ Obtain and analyze the feedback. It is the role of the HR department to achieve a balance between the trade-offs of efficiency and effectiveness. For example when jobs are under specialized the job design may be simplified by decreasing the number of tasks and if the job is over specialized the number of job tasks can be enriched and expanded by the human resource department.

Is there anything we can do to save the environment Essay

Is there anything we can do to save the environment - Essay Example Various aspects of going green can be used in such an initiative. To begin with, the world should start by the initiative of planting trees. Over the last decade, the world has experienced massive deforestation, where many trees are used as a source of energy, raw materials, and other uses. This has had a dire effect on the climate change, especially when looking at the ratio of gases in the air. With massive deforestation, the numbers of trees that purify the air are reduced. As such, there will be excessive carbon in the air. This will pose a danger to environmental conservation, as the initiatives will not be optimized. To rectify such a situation, there is a need to reflect on the positivity of planting trees on large scale (Cook 140). For example, the late Professor Wangari Maathai initiated the Greenbelt movement. This was an initiative to help in conserving the environment from the forecasted climate change. Through the initiative, she was awarded a Nobel Prize. This shows tha t the world is appreciating such initiatives in ensuring the world is conserved to the highest limits. Secondly, there is a need to stop deforestation. Many countries across the globe have initiated strict penalties on deforestation, as it is a threat to the world’s ecosystems. Therefore, this initiative should be enhanced in the whole world, as it will be a prudent approach in conserving the environment. According to research, the population of trees in the world has been drastically reducing.

Home work 2 (envi 423) Read the attachment carefully Essay

Home work 2 (envi 423) Read the attachment carefully - Essay Example Germany ($3.383 trillion), Japan ($5.88 trillion), and the United States ($16.02 trillion), it is safe to say that the Arab League members are not as rich as these â€Å"super power† countries (Central Intelligence Agency). A lot of the recent commotion in the Middle East is about Israel’s opposition of letting Occupied Palestine (referred to as West Bank or Gaza Strip) become an independent state because the territory that Palestine wants to occupy would pose a great loss to the resources of Israel and its citizens. According to the CIA World Fact Book, Israel’s 2012 GDP is $254 billion while Palestine’s GDP is merely 2.6% of Israel’s ($ 6.641 billion). 2.6% of a country’s GDP is not such a big loss if it will result to peace and finally ending the bloodshed between Israel, Palestine and their allies (Central Intelligence Agency). Ethnocentric mentality and greed are the culprits behind these twisted assumptions that many people from Western countries have. But in the end, it is neither the individual citizens of the Middle East countries nor that of the West benefit from all these politics and turmoil surrounding Middle East Oil. The ordinary citizens carry the costs while corrupt government officials and top company executives get insanely rich. The issue with Middle East Oil extends beyond politics and power, the real deal is in the equal distribution of resources on all levels of society across the different countries, whether oil exporting or not (Central Intelligence Agency). Central Inteligence Agency. The World Fact Book: Field Listing: GDP (Official Exchange Rate). 2012. Web. 27 January 2014.