Mediaboss Marketing

Correction: The original version of this article miscredited two photos. In fact, the photos were courtesy of Peggy McInerny.

This post was updated Nov. 22 at 1:18 p.m.

Student organizations gathered for an annual showcase of cultures across the globe as part of the programming for International Education Week on Wednesday.

Bruins Around the World a collaboration between UCLA Residential Life, the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars and the Study Abroad Office was held in Covel Commons. IEW, presented by the International Institute to promote international education and exchange, ran from Monday to Friday this year.

Peggy McInerny, director of communications for the UCLA International Institute and an organizer of the event, expressed her appreciation for the IEWs support of education and said she was happy to take photos at the in-person event.

We try to appeal to people from all over campus because theres so many different parts of international education, McInerny said. The most important thing is to really show the wealth of both resources and experiences there are here.

Enthusiasm was high among performers and the audience as they were able to attend Bruins Around the World in person for the first time in two years. After a fully virtual year, the community was eager to safely return to the event, McInerny added.

Before the program began, people entered the Covel Grand Horizon Ballroom to visit various informational booths, including those by the Study Abroad Office and Residential Life. Attendees had the opportunity to enjoy food from a variety of cultures set up on an outdoor balcony, featuring churros, Mediterranean falafel, Somali sambusas and Chinese egg rolls.

Speakers Naomi Moskowitz, a fourth-year Arabic and cognitive science student who studied abroad for a quarter at Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and George Li, a first-year pre-economics student from China, recounted their experiences abroad and encouraged others to seek opportunities to study internationally. Giveaways and presentations went on between cultural dance performances.

Jade Mazurkiewicz and Karly Kimes, fourth-year students and emcees of the event, introduced the series of speakers and student performance groups.

The Association of Chinese Americans was the first group to take the stage with a lion dance troupe. This dance is a traditional Chinese celebration usually performed around Chinese New Year as well as special occasions such as weddings and birthdays, according to Brian Le, a member of the troupe and former UCLA student. The multiple-person lion costumes represent figures intended to ward off bad luck, he said.

Le joined the team during his freshman year in 2016 to expand his horizons and stay active while staying in touch with his Chinese culture, he added.

School can occupy so much of your time. Its super important to have something outside of academic life, Le said.

Kyodo Taiko, a student-run Japanese drum ensemble, performed next. Their two songs featured dancing and drumming that Mazurkiewicz said was her favorite performance of the night.

You could feel it in your bones, Mazurkiewicz said.

Other performances included two dance showcases from the Chinese Cultural Dance Club and the Nigerian Students Association. The NSAs dance group drew a large audience that screamed and cheered along. Chinazam Nnorom, president of the NSA and a third-year communications student, said the organization largely represents West Africans and that their performance was a mix of West African and South African styles. She loved the opportunity to perform with her club, she added.

Thats something thats awesome about dancing, is the audience, that they really give you the energy, Nnorom said.

Paulina Fisher, a fourth-year civil engineering student, said she enjoyed the performances and sambusas.

Seeing the performers lined up from different countries, different parts of the world, it reminds me of how diverse it is currently, she said.

Student organizations sought to foster community within their own identity groups while sharing their cultures with the greater community at UCLA. Nnorom said she was excited to receive the email inviting NSA to perform.

(The organizers) reached out to us and we were so grateful, we were waiting for the email, Nnorom said. They said, We know you guys usually perform, are you guys still together? We said Yep, we are! I was like, Oh, thank God.

See the original post here:
Bruins Around the World brings together cultures for night of celebration - Daily Bruin

NSA released the Cybersecurity Information Sheet,Avoid Dangers of Wildcard TLS Certificates and the ALPACA Techniquetoday, warning network administrators about the risks of using poorly scoped wildcard Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates. NSA recommends several actions web administrators should take to keep their servers secure. This guidance also outlines the risks of falling victim to a web application exploitation method called Application Layer Protocols Allowing Cross-Protocol Attacks (ALPACA), which malicious cyber actors can use to access sensitive information.

NSA is releasing this guidance as part of our mission to help secure the Department of Defense (DoD), National Security Systems (NSS) and Defense Industrial Base (DIB). Administrators should assess their environments and mitigate wildcard certificates and ALPACA risks.

Wildcard certificates are used to authenticate multiple servers and simplify credential management, saving time and money. However, if one server hosting a wildcard certificate is compromised, all other servers that can be represented by the wildcard certificate are put at risk. A malicious cyber actor with a wildcard certificates private key can impersonate any of the sites within the certificates scope and gain access to user credentials and protected information.

The ALPACA technique, which exploits hardened web applications through non-HTTP services secured using a TLS certificate whose scope matches the web application, further increases the risk of using poorly scoped wildcard certificates.

NSA recommends NSS, DoD, and DIB administrators ensure their organizations wildcard certificate usage does not create unmitigated risks, making their web servers vulnerable to ALPACA techniques. The Cybersecurity Information Sheet provides mitigations for poorly implemented certificates and ALPACA, including:

For more details on how to harden wildcard certificates against the ALPACA technique,read the full information sheet.

For additional cybersecurity guidance, visithttps://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Cybersecurity-Advisories-Guidance/.

Read more at NSA

See the article here:
NSA: Avoid Dangers of Wildcard TLS Certificates, the ALPACA Technique - Hstoday - HSToday

National Security Agency (NSA) Director Paul Nakasone predicted Tuesday that the rate of ransomware attacks will not slow down in the next five years, and said efforts to counter those threats must remain constant as well.

Every single day, Nakasone said when asked how often the U.S. would face ransomware attacks in five years, during a conversation at cybersecurity firm Mandiants Cyber Defense Summit Tuesday.

We are persistently engaged, and being persistently engaged, you have unique insights that you can develop, you have unique capabilities you can bring forward, there are matters upon which you can engage your adversaries, said Nakasone, who also serves as commander of U.S. Cyber Command. I think if you leave that, then your adversaries have determined in due course what they are going to do.

Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia, whose company responds to ransomware attacks and other cyber incidents, noted the need to keep the uniform on following Nakasones prediction around ransomware attacks.

While ransomware attacks are nothing new, they have escalated over the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic, with cybercriminals going after vulnerable groups such as schools and hospitals thataremore likely to pay to quickly regain access to encrypted systems.

Ransomware attacks have risen to become a national security threat in recent months following high-profile attacks on Colonial Pipeline, which provides 45 percent of the East Coasts fuel, on meat producer JBS USA, and on IT company Kaseya,which impactedup to 1,500 companies it worked with.

The Biden administration has been proactive in taking a stand against ransomware attacks, with President BidenJoe BidenGruden out as Raiders coach after further emails reveal homophobic, sexist comments Abbott bans vaccine mandates from any 'entity in Texas' Jill Biden to campaign with McAuliffe on Friday MORE pressuring Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinNavalny says his status has been changed to 'terrorist' in prison Oil trades above a barrel, hitting a 7-year high Russia, US lift targeted sanctions so Nuland can visit Moscow MORE to take action against cybercriminals within Russias borders during their in-person meeting in Geneva earlier this year.

Later this month, the administration will continue an effort to reduce ransomware attacks when the White House National Security Council convenes 30 countries to address cybersecurity concerns.

Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, also spoke at the Mandiant conference Tuesday, describing the upcoming meeting as a counter-ransomware initiative with a focus on cryptocurrency, resilience, disruption and diplomacy.

Theres been a great deal of interest in countries around the world participating in these tracks, discussing how we partner, and discussing how we build an enduring partnership to make us most effective, and its exciting to work with allies and partners to make forward progress against these hard problems, Neuberger said.

When asked by Mandia if she believed the U.S. would still be facing ransomware attacks every day in five years, Neuberger said she was hopeful that would not be the case.

While Nakasone was pessimistic about the future of ransomware attacks, he expressed optimism around the national attention on cybersecurity and the talent pool working for the government, following a tough year of attacks.

I think our nation realizes how important that cybersecurity is for our economy, our informational capabilities, and our defense, Nakasone said. I feel really good about the future, I feel really good about where were headed.

See the original post:
NSA director expects to be facing ransomware attacks 'every single day' in five years | TheHill - The Hill

WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, along with officials from the Roadway Safety Foundation (RSF), presented seven life-saving projects with National Roadway Safety Awards in a virtual ceremony hosted on Oct. 8 from Capitol Hill.

According to an RSF news release, the seven winners were selected from a nationwide field of applicants, which are sponsored jointly by the Federal Highway Administration and the RSF.

Begun in 1999, the biennial program honors projects and programs that cost-effectively help the nation achieve progress toward eliminating highway fatalities and serious injuries.

Congratulations to todays seven honorees for the remarkable work theyve done to protect the traveling public, Buttigieg said. They are proof that we have no shortage of willpower or good ideas for improving roadway safety.

Preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2020 a 7.2 percent increase from 2019. This increase occurred despite a 13.2 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled due to the pandemic and is the highest number of fatalities since 2007.

Projects like these save lives by significantly discouraging dangerous driving, Greg Cohen, executive director of the RSF, said.

Countless future travelers, whose lives and limbs will be spared by these innovations, will owe an unknowing debt of gratitude to todays honorees. We urge DOTs across the nation to look at Bellevue and other awardees innovations and replicate them wherever possible

The awards covered two categories: Infrastructure and operational improvements and program planning, development and evaluation.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) won for its use of Work Zone Safety Technologies for Arterial Roads, which are burdened with higher fatality rates than interstates. FDOT studied the use of Active Work Zone Awareness Devices (AWADs), which employ radar in combination with LED signs to warn drivers of upcoming work zones, displays their travel speed and delivers safety messaging. FDOT went a step further by linking the AWADs to drivers using the Waze navigation app. The initiatives results include vehicle speeds entering arterial work zones dropping by 10.6 percent, safe driving behavior increasing by 39 percent, and risky driving declining by 34 percent.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) won for its Long-Life Pavement Markings Safety Initiative to reduce lane departure crashes in a state where 14,000 fatal and serious-injury lane departure crashes occurred between 2015 and 2019.

Designed to help drivers better see markings when driving on curvy roads, in inclement weather or at night, NCDOT tested the long-life markings on more than 400 miles of roadway, recording an overall 13 percent reduction in lane departure crashes.

The long-life markings also are designed to provide at least five to seven years of adequate retro-reflectivity and pavement delineation, as compared with approximately two years from standard markings, thereby being more cost efficient in the long term.

The Village of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, won for its Community-Wide Safety Improvements. Confronting a decade-long increase in crashes involving the most vulnerable road users, the Milwaukee suburb deployed a series of low-cost solutions to reduce risks to pedestrians and cyclists.

These included dynamic speed feedback signs, yield to pedestrian signage, design changes such as high-visibility crosswalks, installation of median in the center of highways, lengthier pedestrian intervals at signals and better street lighting. A simple but noteworthy improvement is the installation of Danish Offsets.

Widely deployed in Denmark, crosswalk paths are oriented to provide more direct sight lines for pedestrians to observe oncoming vehicles. Since 2015, community-wide crashes are down 39 percent.

The City of Bellevue, Washington, won for its application of a Video Analytics Program, which is utilizing cutting-edge video analytics to identify safety challenges in near-real-time, enabling the city to proactively address those challenges.

The smart technologies convert raw video from existing traffic cams into flow, speed and conflict event data. In addition to identifying hot spots, Bellevues video analytics program also provides rapid insight on how countermeasures perform. As just one example, Bellevue made traffic signal operations changes at 124th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Eighth Street and observed a 60 percent reduction in critical conflicts at the intersection.

The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization won for its innovative Complete Streets Master Plan, which is measurably improving safety on Wilton Drive in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, area and promises similar benefits on other local roadways.

With the single highest number of pedestrian fatalities in the entire nation (1,675 between 2010 and 2019), Broward worked with localities and other stakeholders to redesign the bustling Wilton Drive, eliminating a vehicular travel lane in each direction in order to install buffered bike lanes, mid-block crossing medians, wider sidewalks, better lighting and other improvements.

Witnessing a 66 percent decrease in bicycle and pedestrian crashes and a 75 percent reduction in severe-injury and fatal crashes alongside a 50 percent improvement in corridor travel times Broward is moving forward with similar improvements for 20 other projects.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) won for its 2020-24 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) to reverse a trend of rising fatalities and injuries on state roads. With an average of 10 people dying every day on California roads, Caltrans created a highly targeted approach to safety with its SHSP update.

It designates high-priority challenge areas, expands and diversifies membership of the SHSP committee, implements the program with innovative tools, and evaluates progress on a continual basis.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) won for its all-new Safety Scoring Tool. With fatalities on Texas rural non-interstate roads occurring at twice the rate of other Texas roads, TxDOT partnered with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute to develop a user-friendly means of evaluating the safety performance of rural highway design elements.

The scoring tool assesses the total effects of changes in lane and shoulder width, horizontal and vertical curve geometry, clearances to objects, and other factors. The tool is now required for all rural two and multi-lane non-access controlled projects, ranging from routine maintenance to complete reconstructions, fostering a proactive, rather than passive or reactive, approach to safety.

The honorable mentions are: The Florida Department of Transportation for its Local Technical Assistance Program to improve the skills and increase the knowledge of the transportation workforce on roadway safety via virtual training and technical assistance; the Montana Department of Transportation for its reconstruction of an antiquated segment of U.S. Highway 89 that provides a key entrance to Glacier National Park; and the Town of Portland, Ct. for its formation of a grassroots Complete Streets Group to coordinate with local officials in writing, adopting, and implementing a Complete Streets Policy.

Read more here:
NSA honors 'life-saving' projects throughout nation - TheTrucker.com - The Trucker

Representative image

Washington [US], October 8 (ANI/Sputnik): The National Security Agency (NSA) is working with big defense industrial base companies on information sharing on cyber issues, Defense Department Acting Chief Information Officer Kelly Fletcher said during an interview at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit on Thursday.

"To talk a little bit about what NSA is doing, I think it's very cool. They're focused on big defense industrial base companies, and when they say they're a collaboration center, they are a collaboration center. They are really trying to say 'Hey, we have some exquisite information.' It's the NSA. But also these commercial entities, these big companies, they have some pretty unique and interesting information. So we're working to collaborate, sort of for the common good," Fletcher said.

The US government's pivot to a so-called "zero trust" cyber architecture - which assumes all devices in a network to be untrustworthy by default - will require the support of industry partners as well as the Defense Department, Fletcher added.

In May, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order to improve information sharing between the US government and private industry partners on cyber issues. The order also provided for implementation of stronger cybersecurity standards in the federal government by securing cloud services and developing a zero-trust architecture. (ANI/Sputnik)

Read more here:
Pentagon says NSA working with big companies on cyber information sharing - Yahoo Singapore News