How far was the growth of the American economy in the years 1890 to 1914 due to the rise of big business? Essay

During the period 1890 to 1914 the American economy grew considerably due to the growth of its capacity to produce, rapid industrialisation and increased domestic consumption. This was, to a large extent, driven by big business. Oil was more readily available which made the transport of goods easier and encouraged development of machinery and industry. Through the dominance of Rockefeller and large oil companies, oil was exploited to the benefit of everyone and especially the embryonic car industry. In 1913, Henry Ford, adopted the moving assembly line, which meant that cars could be produced quickly which made them more affordable and increased sales boosting the economy. Through the work of the steel magnate Carnegie, steel became more readily available due to mass production which supported the development of heavy engineering and production which provided employment. JP Morgan had a leading role in reorganising American railroads which made transport of goods easier and cheaper. Due to ruthless big business culture, smaller companies which were less profitable could not survive, but the economy benefited from streamlined monopolies due to economy of scale. This meant that prices of goods went down and this spurred on the domestic market to buy more. By strictly controlling costs and increasing efficiency, big business moguls such as Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and Carnegie were particularly influential in this respect. In support of the economy banking became more stabilized due to financiers such as JP Morgan who directed the banking coalition that stopped the panic of 1907. This financial crisis almost crippled the American economy due to mass bank closures and major New York banks were on the verge of bankruptcy. The consequence of the intervention of JP Morgan was that banks were then able to provide credit to finance businesses and industry which boosted the American economy. Big business had considerable political influence and exerted pressure on the  government and states consequently passed laws to help big business. The government even extended protection through the Supreme Court such as keeping trade unions weak via super injunctions and the 14th amendment. This enshrined the rights and privileges of the individual, which allowed the development of a laissez-faire business culture. There were however a number of factors which supported the economy which were not directly related to big business. The development of agriculture across the Plains resulted in the cultivation of more land. Technological innovations such as barbed wire helped in this respect because land could be better protected. Innovations such as higher-yielding hybrid wheat made farming much more productive and profitable; this resulted in America becoming a ‘bread basket’ with surplus wheat for export. Likewise the development of technology such as refrigeration was important to farming and the economy. The development of the refrigerated rail car allowed perishable produce to be transported all across America. However, undoubtedly big business helped to fund and channel innovation into even greater profitability. Cheap labour, resulting from immigration, was particularly important to developing the economy and also brought additional skills to the country. As productivity increased trade with Asia created additional markets and demands for products. Indirectly advertising was another area that helped the American economy. Full page adverts in newspapers both in the USA and the rest of the world made people want products and therefore boosted sales and profits. Also the door-to-door salesman developed in this period as new products arrived fuelled demand. In conclusion big business was clearly extremely important in developing the American economy from 1890 to 1914 but many factors interrelate and arguably the government creating a capitalist free market economy through the political influence of big business was a major factor in helping businesses and the economy to grow.

Nurture as Predictor of Happiness Essay

Nature versus Nurture as Predictor of Happiness Introduction            Happiness is one trait that is quite difficult to define and explain in human beings since different people have different things which they feel brings happiness to them which may be the complete opposite in other people (Phoenix, 2007, pp.104). One thing that may raise positive emotions in one individual may raise the opposite negative emotions in another person, hence making it quite difficult to have a clear cut definition of happiness. This tends to raise the question of what exactly always makes one happy and what are the relative importances of nature versus nurture as predictor of happiness in human beings. According to Phoenix (2007), â€Å"The behavior of people and other animals cannot be understood without taking account of the influence of their environments as well as their biology† (Phoenix, 2007, p.104). This means that happiness as part of human beings can be an influence of nature or nurture as the main predictors of the happiness of an ind ividual. People who conducted research and came up with the various cause of happiness or the predictors of happiness must have experienced happiness at one point during their lifetime (Spoors, et al, 2007, pp.5).            This could simply indicate that every human being has the chance and opportunity of experiencing happiness in the life at one point. It is not quite easy to provide a straight forward definition of happiness which can be used in general at any time when there is reference to be made concerni8ng happiness. However, happiness may be said to be simply a form of mood which is affirmative and tends to cover a certain variety of emotions which may range from being delighted or even satisfied and conversely (Spoors, et al, 2007, pp.5). The above definition is totally opposed to the dichotomy, because the dichotomy is divided into two parts, for example, joy and sorrow, which are mutually exclusive and simultaneously create a whole. A proven example is a wedding the bride’s. Mother cries for daughter’s wedding, but simultaneously she has joy in it. This happiness is associated with feelings and emotions that people feel the depending on the situation in which they find themselves. In correlation with this, it can be accomplished of â€Å"happiness and unhappiness cannot be viewed as opposite or mutually exclusive† (Spoors, et al, 2007, pp.5).            According to the assumptions of this concept, the pursuit of happiness, which you want each person is driven by human activities, and at the same time a source of satisfaction, fulfillment, and sometimes a sense of success. Therefore, the benefits associated with happiness include; better health, well-being, a lot greater activity level, willingness to help, and better relationships with others. People who are considered to be unhappy tend not to have the above mentioned emotions and they rarely display such emotions since they have not been able to experience happiness, or even the activities which causes happiness in human beings (Spoors, et al, 2007, pp.5).            When a question is asked about what makes hu8mna beings happy, most of the people would put main focus on the kind of thoughts they have, the kind of relationships that they have which can include close relationships and those that are not close. Furthermore, the question on what makes one happy will also make one to put focus on the brains since it is the one that generates the thoughts which in turn are closely related to the relationships that people have. The factors which act as the determinants of happiness have nature and to some extent have nurture. A healthy lifestyle and a happy brain this nurture issues, because â€Å"in order for us to have a sense of wellbeing and happiness, our brains and bodies need a consistent source of food and oxygen† (Spoors at al., 2007, pp.26 – 9, material).            Therefore, it can be agreed that the main causes of happiness which have been suggested as most common include the relationships, the brain and the thoughts. Spoors (2007) observes that for human beings to have a sense of happiness or even well being, they must be able to live a healthy lifestyle as well as have constant supply of oxygen for the functioning of the body and the brain. Furthermore, â€Å"Many people on high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diets have reported unusually high feelings of anger, tension and depression†, as observed by Spoors (2007). This means that for one to feel happy or have the sense of well being, they must have sufficient balanced diet and also constant supply of oxygen for a healthy body and a healthy brain.            From research conducted by Davidson, people inherit some genes which make one have a genetic predisposition of happiness to a certain level, although this does not mean that there are people who are born unhappy or gloom while others are born happy (Spoors, et al, pp.26-9). According to Shakespeare (2005 edition), â€Å"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so†, meaning that what one thinks greatly contributes to them being happy or not. People tend to focus on negative aspects of life whenever they feel they have low spirits. This in turn affects their happiness and instead leaves them feeling much worse. The natural environment where one lives and the kind of nurture and experiences in life contributes to the way one thinks and influences the thoughts that one has, which in turn have been observed to influence the happiness that an individual will display.            This clearly indicates that the thoughts that people have play a major role in them being happy or unhappy. Ellen and Judy (1976) conducted a research and they found out that when people are able to control small issues that affect their life, they are in better position to enhance their happiness (Spoors et al, 2007, pp.53-7). From research which was conducted by Richard Layard (2005), it was observed that there are seven major factors which influence happiness in human beings but the main factor that was identified was close relationships. This same idea was supported by Robert Lane (2000, p. 6), who identified close relationships with families and friends to be great factor that increased human happiness (Spoors et al, 2007, pp.83-5). The views presented by the various researchers regarding the causes or the predictors of happiness are quite convincing considering the kind of research that they have presented is in-depth. Human beings do things because of how th ey feel and most of the actions are more influenced by nature and nurture, which in turn determines the happiness that human beings display. Therefore, it can be said that nature and nurture are both important determinants or the predictors of the happiness of human beings because they all have direct influence on the thoughts, the brain activities and the kind of relationships which people have during their lifetime. References Phoenix, A. (2007) ‘Identities and diversities’ in Miell, D., Phoenix, A. and Thomas, K. (eds)  Mapping Psychology, p.  104. Spoors, P., Finlay, L. and Dyer, E. (2007)  Starting with Psychology p.  5; 26-9; 53-7; 83-5 Source document

Business Research for Social Media Marketing help

Social media marketing is gaining a lot of popularity in every industry lately. A large number of organizations are using this platform to introduce and promote their products, conduct consumer behavior analysis and generate effective feedback in order to constantly improve their products and services. Social media allows the organizations to target a wider customer base than any other marketing platform due to its wide usage. Even though social media is becoming a very popular platform for marketing, its impact on consumer behavior has yet not been completely identified. The number of people using social media is increasing every day, but how many people are actually using social media to actually gain product knowledge before buying it yet unknown. Therefore, the basic objective of this project is to conduct research on the impact of social media marketing on the purchasing behavior of the consumers. The research proposal sets a project objective, summarizes the literature review o n the topic of social media marketing, identifies the research questions, defines the research methodology and provides the conclusion. The aim of the project is to get a clear insight into the effect that social media marketing has on consumers and other relevant issues (Li, 2007).   The objective of this project is to identify the gaps in the literature review of social media marketing. Even though in-depth research and studies have been conducted by a number of researchers regarding the usage of social media for marketing purposes, its actual impact on the buying pattern of consumers is yet not identified accurately. While marketing is one of the basic factors in expanding the profitability of any association, it is critical to ensure that the right channels are used to capture the buyers. While the current situations and extensions for the advertisers to use the online networking for affecting the objective clients have been given, what stays missing is the variable that the handy usage of these ideas has not been contemplated in subtle elements. What's more, it can be seen that most of the writing are composed with the advertisers' perspective. Therefore, the conduct of the customer is enormously accepted as latent. The viewpoints of the purchasers are requir ed to be contemplated and investigated more to infer an adjusted conclusion. It can, consequently, be said that the necessity of more extensive viewpoint rises while concentrate the effect of online networking showcasing on customer conduct (Huang & Boh, 2011).   Fuchs (2013) describes that the web-based social networking is a stage where the content of the web is modified and shared by the clients at any given time. The mind boggling parts of the online networking have been clarified in this given writing which explains on the positive and negative parts of the web-based social networking stage. The prerequisite of data in regards to the media has been set up with contextual investigations on Facebook, Google, WikiLeaks and Wikipedia. Therefore, the power of the media scene in this new stage is clarified. One might say that the different parts of the online networking has been clarified with suitable contextual analysis. Be that as it may, the viability of the same on the conduct of the standard clients is clarified in a constrained way (Fuchs, 2013).   Then again, another part of the web-based social networking as a showcasing device has been clarified too. It can be found in the review embraced by Hays et al. (2013) that the online networking is one of the intense devices which can ensure that any business can achieve a more extensive number of target clients with usage of restricted assets. The noticeable quality of these stages as the appropriate components of a goal promoting association has been expounded too. The goal showcasing associations of the main 10 most went by nations are contemplated with the assistance of semi organized meetings. It can see from the review that the use of the online networking among the DMOs is as yet not that pertinent. Nonetheless, different trial systems are directed which can be powerful in guaranteeing that the valuable business methodologies are actualized to witness significant development for the business (Hays & Page, 2013). Tuten and Solomon (2014) depict that with a specific end goal to ensure that the online networking showcasing can procure the set targets and ready to achieve any business towards impressive objectives, it is essential that the appropriate utilization of procedures are finished. It is fundamental that the most fitting technique is chosen for any given organization and it is connected such that it suits the business. What's more, it has been illustrated in the review that how the esse4ntial hypotheses of promoting can be essentially connected in the viable circle and how the most helpful business results are obtained appropriately (Kjellnas, 2014). In any case, it has been clarified by the creators that catching the consideration of the clients is insufficient to guarantee the control of client conduct. It is essential that the consideration is changed over into intrigue. In this manner, the prerequisite of connecting with into the correct correspondence channel can said to be a powerful way. The acknowledgment of the shopper towards an item is critical to ensure that the association can get the standard notoriety in the market. Subsequently, understanding their prerequisites and viewpoints has been perceived by the creators too. In this manner, the vitality of systems to impact the customer acquiring conduct has been perceived and explained by the creators.   While web-based social networking is considered as a noteworthy instrument in showcasing nowadays, the insightful energy of the buyers with respect to the same has been clarified by Solomon (2014). It has been seen by the creator that so as to ensure that the shopper conduct is influenced by the online networking advertising, it is vital that proper estimations should be possible. The general sentiment any shopper with respect to a specific situation of promoting in any commercial center is required to be considered. Thus, the idea of the customer's slant toward Marketing (CSM) has been recorded by the creator as a strong device to decide if they are persuaded enough to buy a specific item or administration which is being promoted on the online stage (Solomon, 2014).   The research questions in this report revolve around social media marketing and its impact on consumer behavior. The questions have been divided in two categories namely, primary research question and secondary research question. The primary question will be the main focus of the research proposal and the secondary question will consist of other relevant questions related to the topic. The main aim of the research is to analyse the impact of online social media networks on the buying behavior of the customers. In order to investigate and collect data for conducting the research, proper methods of data collection need to be used. It is easy to collect general information, but collecting information that is relevant to the purpose of analysis can be be difficult.. There research type can be broadly categorized into two approaches; inductive and deductive.. A deductive research can be used to anticipate the trends in future on the basis of the theories that already exist. In case of inductive research, the theories are developed on the basis of data and empirical findings. The study to be conducted in this report is inclined on inductive research that would   help to gather descriptive data and assist in obtaing empirical results. Inductive research can be used to obtain the answers for both primary and secondary question by anylzing the responses of consumers about the way they use of social media and its relevant impact on their shopping style..   The method used to carry the anlalysis in this study is qualitative research method   instead of the quantitative research method. The reason behind choosing this method is that the aim of the study to find how effective social media is when it comes to the buying behavior of the consumers, hence we need to focus more on qualitative data than on numbers. The qualitative focuses on the observations and content analysis of the data collected rather than the volume and number of data. The qualitative research tends to be more flexible and adjustable as compared to quantitative research. There are a number of different sources from which the data for the purpose of study can be gathered. The collected data can be used for various purposes, depending on the type of the information collected, hence it is very important to get the information from the right place keeping in mind the aim of the study. Primary data collection is a cost intensive process as it involves collecting the most fresh version of information mostly from people directly. Whereas secondary data is collected from various existing facts and information. For conducting analysis in this report, the method of telephonic interviews and personal interviews has been used to get a first hand version of data. After the data was collected using interviews, the impact of social media was analyzed on the purchasing power of the buyer. The majority of the people that were interviewed said that they used social media pages of a particular company to get to know about the current promotional offers and discounts that are being offered by the company. They also revealed that even if they were not planning to visit a particular store, social media offers would push them to at least go have a look. Most of these visitors ended up buying something from the store during their visit. This clearly shows that organizations that have a social media presence can easily lure the social media users into buying something for them. This however doesn’t necessarily mean profit maximization, but it definitely increases the customer base of the organization.   Consumers also used social media to find out information about organization for instance, in case of retail stores, the consumers can find about the opening and closing times of the store, the product range offered by the store, the nearest located store and other features that may assist in making the customer choose to shop in a particular store. Certain stores also offer a virtual tour online that helps the consumers to get a hypothetical visit to the store. This shows that social media surely has an impact on the buying pattern of the consumers. The secondary question in this research proposal was to find out the reasons why social media has an effect on the buying behavior of the consumers. To be more specific, Facebook has been considered as a social media platform and the interviews were conducted to find out why Facebook presence of any organization was having an impact on its customers. The first reason that was identified was that Facebook has the maximum number of users that any other social media site possesses. Additionally, people tend to spend a large amount of time on Facebook. Since the application is available on the mobile phones too, people are practically connected to Facebook all the time (Lee, 2016). A lot of respondents confessed that they do not watch tv everyday, don’t read the newspaper every day but use Facebook everyday without fail. 6 out of 10 respondents said that they use Facebook and Google to find out information about the products they want to buy. The consumers also use the comments an d feedback of other users to find out the popularity of the products among masses. This gave the users a reality check about the efficiency of the products before even buying them. The users on social media sites are genuine and reliable, who also get into discussions about a particular product or service offered by different organizations. People share their experiences and help each other with alternative options that might be unknown to someone. So, wide coverage and human interaction are the two major causes behind the effect of social media having an impact on the consumer behavior (Chaffey, 2017).   To conclude, it can be said, social media’s gaining popularity is surely having an impact on the buying behavior of consumers these days. People are not only using social media to find out about new products and services, but are also using this medium to find out about the quality of these products and services even before getting their hands on them. Social media can be used by organizations in two ways; firstly to catch the attention of consumers and secondly to use consumer feedback to improve their products. Every organization which has an active social media presence tends to become more popular among the general public in comparison to organizations with no or inactive social media presence. Since, the technology is advancing every day, the importance of social media in affecting the consumer behavior is anticipated to keep getting stronger. Chaffey, D., 2017. Global social media research summary 2017, Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/ Fuchs, C., 2013. Social Media and Capitalism: In Producing the Internet. Critical, Available at: https://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/SocialMediaCapitalism.pdf Hays, S. & Page, H., 2013. Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(3). Huang, J. & Boh, W., 2011. From A Social Influence Perspective: The Impact Of Social Media On Movie Sales, Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2011/79/ Kjellnas, M., 2014. Social media as a marketing tool versus strategic alliance  ­ a comparison, Available at: https://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:825909/FULLTEXT01.pdf Lee, K., 2016. Why You Should Share to Social Media in the Afternoon + More of the Latest Social Media Research, Available at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/new-social-media-research Li, C., 2007. How Consumers Use Social Networks, Available at: https://www.eranium.at/blog/upload/consumers_socialmedia.pdf Solomon, 2014. Social media marketing, Available at: https://www.docsity.com/it/social-media-marketing-t-l-tuten-e-m-r-solomon-2014/830881/

The Vision Wow Factor Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Vision Wow Factor - Assignment Example This is to enable the management to diagnose formal and informal differentiation and integration of tasks within the organization. Belief that the proposed specific change is inappropriate can emanate from the notion that the staff have little work or are either overloaded with work therefore the capacity to serve is also impaired thereby see no need for change. Belief that the timing is wrong, all stake holders are to be called and assured of the strong sense of urgency shared with the rest of the company and to emphasize continuous improvement. â€Å"Excessive change† cannot be substantiated therefore the senior management needs just to give direction of the particular change being initiated. Should ensure management mobilizes all the relevant parties on board and the change does not necessarily to be large. Cumulative effect of other changes in one’s life is only countered if the morale is high in the organization’s employees. Also the management should ensure a two way of communication that reaches all levels of management in the organization for the employee to communicate ho they feel about the change irrespective of what transpires in their lives. Perceived clash with ethics is to be avoided as it works against the objective of the organization. There should the organization ethical framework that should be respected at all costs. Reaction to the experience of previous changes, if the organization had previously implemented major changes in the recent past and went on smoothly then it is on the right path of progression. However, if there was legacy of anger and resentment, acknowledgment of equivocal success is to be expected in any attempts to initiate change. Disagreement in the... The two different frameworks all tend to give a unique definition of a visions statement. Duke (2005, 33) is aspirational, compelling and directional thus giving a futuristic image of the statement. The Scott-Morgan (2001, 53) is aspirational, inspirational, and finally perspirational to provide a give clear cognitive and affective organizational future ideal component of the vision statement. All the vision statements are short, vivid, inspiring, concise, and they are free from any jargon or complicating words. This is because they provide a broad and inspirational image of the future thus incorporating the ‘wow’ factor in it. As a result they try to create the image of the future we are trying to create in tandem with the company’s aims and objectives. Most of the successful statements are engaging, memorable, powerful and compelling.

Discussion #1 APS 210 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion #1 APS 210 - Essay Example 2. The best security technologies for faith-based facilities are the least physically noticeable ones as they cause less obtrusion for the parishioners. These include inbuilt electronic door locks, access controls, hidden surveillance cameras, motion detectors and metal detectors. Security strategies include training the facility attendants on security surveillance, developing a sound emergency action plan, and enhancing instant communication systems for emergencies. 3. Before establishing the security enhancements for the places of worship, it is important to notify the parishioners and the surrounding community of the intended changes of the intended changes and their purposes. This step avoids any alarms and misunderstandings that may occur from security upgrades. 4. One similarity is that both cases receive protection from similar threats, which most of the times are terrorism and theft. A difference is that faith based organization facilities receive far more discreet protection measures, which impede on personal privacy on a much lesser scale the than U.S. Critical Infrastructures. Faith based organization facilities also receive protection on a much smaller scale in terms of monetary investments and level of expertise than the Critical Infrastructure locations (Harrell

Writing Deficiencies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Writing Deficiencies - Essay Example The intangible results due to deficient writing skills include the image degradation for both the employers and employees and the reduced productivity because employees must reread many times poorly written materials so as to get the intended meaning. Another result is the detrimental outcomes when incorrect decisions are made due poorly and ineffectively written materials (Quible & Griffin 2007). Many are the times when educators have debated how grammar should best be taught. Regardless of whether teaching grammar has benefits, no impact or harmful effects on students’ writing skills has been a topic that has drawn many controversies for at least five decades. For many years, teachers have taught grammar to students using a rule-based approach. The methods feature two characteristics that are sentence diagramming and parts of speech. Over time, the rules-based approach became disregarded in favor the context-based approach that was advocated by Weaver. The context-based approach then became the most preferred method of teaching punctuation and grammar. The context-based approach puts emphasis on what students are writing and reading (Quible & Griffin 2007). Instructors who guide students through writing programs are under a challenge to develop new approaches that will help students in remediating their sentence construction errors. The writing programs are most likely the last writing courses that the students get before they are awarded their respective undergraduate degrees. Because of the disparity between the undergraduates entering the workforce and their writing skills, teachers and instructors educating future employees should not ignore this fact. Researchers have come up with various alternatives to the rules-based design.  

Russian Mafia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Russian Mafia - Research Paper Example As Mallory (2006) points out, The Russian organized crime started in US when Soviet criminals started entering the US making use of the liberalized immigration policies of the country. An area called Brighton Beach in southern Brooklyn emerged as their center of operations (p, 76). They emerged as a widespread criminal center in the North America in the following years engaging in criminal activities including drug trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, human trafficking, prostitution etc. The Russian mafia comprises of Ethnic criminal gangs comprising of Russian, Chechen, Armenian, Georgian, Azerbaijani criminal groups. The Russian mafia has tie ups with American-Italian criminal network La Cosa Nostra on enterprises like gambling, extortion, prostitution and fraud. According to a report given by FBI director Louis Freeh to the US senate, 27 groups belonging to the Russian mafia are operating in the United States, and they are conceived to be based around cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and New York (CIS Report, 1997). The FBI uses various methods like undercover operations, confidential entities, reports from the intelligence bureau, patrolling, forensic accounting etc. to track down such groups. FBI also joins hands with other federal investigation agencies like the CIA, and also cooperates with agencies of other countries to capitalize information. The FBI and CIA have employed secret agents worldwide who collect information about potential attacks, conspiracies, and illegal activities taking place against the country. Based on the data they collect from various sources, they form a master plan on how to confront the groups. Russian mafia is so powerful since they cooperate with other mafia organizations, and have financial pumping from all over the world. This makes them one of the most dangerous criminal setups in the world. Evidently, an elaborate

Channel and Pricing Strategies, and Environmental Issues Essay

Channel and Pricing Strategies, and Environmental Issues - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Apple Inc. is an iconic American consumer electronics company. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, California, USA. The company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in the year of 1976. The company specializes in manufacturing products like iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh computers and many more. The company has planned to launch Apple iDesk (a new product that is an iPad with the size of a desktop and can be mounted on a desk for a computer lab like setting). The company has selected three cities (NYC, Tokyo, and Stanford, CA) to launch the product in the initial stage. Apple Inc. has selected three different colleges (New York Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Tokyo Institute of Technology) as a test market for iDesk. This channel may vary in length and number of stages involved in the whole process. The company can sell iDesk via online stores or customer can buy iDesk from authorized Apple retail stores. Apple has complete control over the retailers of authorized stores in terms of pricing, product availability and promotional support. The company has more than 300 retail stores across the world. A majority (almost 70%) of the Apple Stores are located in the USA. The company has made the contractual agreement with few big players (like Wal-Mart, AT&T, and Best Buy) to distribute a product. The company preferred Joint venture and direct investment model to enter the international market. Organizations set a price of a product higher than any other competitor’s product and with this strategy, they try to indicate a quality of the product. This is known as premium pricing policy. Apple Inc. has positioned itself as the marketer of quality products unique in design and applications. Customers are ready to pay the high price for products manufactured by the company. Apple should follow the premium pricing strategy for iDesk

A Comprehensive Strategic Plan for a Primary School Essay

A Comprehensive Strategic Plan for a Primary School - Essay Example A Comprehensive Strategic Plan for a Primary School Improving and increasing the number of school’s available technology for learning indirectly increases the self-confidence and morale of the primary school teachers within the institution. Thus, enabling them to deliver a better quality education for the students. Promote and integrate the 21th Century educational system in the primary school setting in order to improve the students’ fluency in reading, numeric skills, scientific literacy including global awareness by imposing a strict use of the learning technology inside the classroom and encouraging the students to the use of the Internet technology when doing their assigned school work. Note: Encouraging the use of technology in learning is one way of enabling the students to be competitive and well-equipped with the necessary technology skills they will be needing as soon as they finish school and start joining the workforce. Promoting Global awareness will benefit the students since we are already in the stage of globalization. Exposing the students early with the global surroundings is an important as part of the students’ learning activities. Note: Students with a good quality reading and writing skills is crucial in getting them ready for higher education level. Establishing a good literacy foundation in primary education will make it possible for the students to become competitive in their future learning challenges.

Rationale - Antigone Essay Example for Free

Rationale Antigone Essay For our scripted piece we used a scene from Antigone. Originally written by Greek author, Sophocles about 2500 years ago, it was re-written by a French author called Jean Anouilh around the time of WWII. Anouilh’s intensions differed from that of Sophocles due to the difference in time periods; in the later version, Antigone represents the French resistance against the Nazi occupation. As it was written during WWII it took a long time for the Nazis to allow it to go onstage because of what Antigone represented. The reason they let it be performed was down to the character Creon, the king of Thebes. In the scene between him and Antigone, the Nazis thought the dialogue represented a point of view that was for a dictatorial society. Antigone tells the story of a girl, whose brothers fought over the throne, both brothers met their end, introducing a theme of death due to rivalry and jealousy. Eteocles, the brother who had the throne at the time, was given a proper burial, whereas Polynices, who was seen as the enemy, was left outside and refused a burial. Everyone in the city of Thebes was told by the new king, Creon, that anyone who attempted to bury Polynices would be put to death, creating the theme of loyalty. Antigone is adamant that Polynices should be given a burial and takes matters into her own hands, she sneaks out of the palace in the middle of the night and covers Polynices’ body over with dirt. Polynices is then uncovered by the Guard. Antigone finds out and again, attempts to cover over Polynices. This time she is discovered by the Guard and is taken to Creon. As Antigone is the former king’s daughter, Creon is hesitant when punishing her, and offers a way out. But Antigone is not ashamed of what she has done and is determined to be punished for her crime. At the end of the play Antigone is put in cave by the Guard and left there to die. We chose this play as it contains many themes, such as love, pride, anger, and loyalty. Also I liked the history behind the play, the story that wasn’t included within the script. The life of Oedipus, Antigone’s father, the prophecy that he heard and how he married his mother and as a result had four children. I liked it because it was unusual, complex and difficult to fully understand. One moral I think Antigone portrays quite well is that you should always stand up for what you believe in and what you think is right. It shows this through Antigone’s character and the fact that she is so headstrong and certain of what she wants. Also an issue that is portrayed throughout the play is that love is a very strong emotion and can overcome many situations, this is shown by the relationships between Antigone and her sister Ismeme, Antigone and her nurse and Antigone and her fiance Haemon. My chosen scene included Antigone and Nurse, who was trying to find out where Antigone had been in the night. It was the opening scene of the play and was very powerful as it introduced the character of Antigone and the relationship she has with Nurse. I played Nurse and my partner, Frances, played Antigone. I chose to play Nurse because she tries many different ways to get Antigone to tell her where she has been. She tries to make Antigone feel guilty, by saying â€Å"You half kill yourself to bring them up, and they’re all the same. † She also gets angry with Antigone, this is evident when she says â€Å"do you know what I ought to do? I ought to give you a good spanking, just like when you were a little girl. † Another tactic she employs is that of trying to make Antigone feel sympathetic towards her by saying â€Å"What would your mother say if she were here now? You silly old fool, she’d say. So you couldn’t keep my little girl virtuous for me? † I knew that these tactics would enable me to change the tone of my voice throughout the performance and use a variety of space. By playing Nurse I intended to portray the relationship that Antigone and Nurse possessed. I also wanted to improve on my interaction as an actor and by playing this part it enabled me to build on what I was already capable of. When I first read the scene I imagined the two characters in a grand bedroom that had a very old fashioned interior, such as what one would expect to see in a stately home. A room that was quite cluttered with elaborate ornaments and decorative pieces. Obviously this would be hard to create on a small stage and also it would restrict the amount of space that was available for moving in. Devised-Behind the Face Our devised piece was based on many themes taken from Antigone, such as loyalty, cruelty and pride but the main theme was anger. I chose to base it upon anger because there are many different ways to portray it and there are lots of different ways of dealing with it. This gave me a wide range of options to choose from when devising the piece. I researched anger and it’s causes and came up with many different results, for instance: There are three different types of anger: Rage Rage is the expression of violent, uncontrolled anger. Rage is an outward expression of anger and can result in a visible, often destructive, explosion. Resentment Resentment is the feeling of anger directed towards a person or object which is suppressed and kept inside. It is a feeling which smoulders and feels uncomfortable, and can possibly create more physiological and psychological damage. Indignation Indignation is regarded as an appropriate, controlled, positive type of anger. When writing my devised piece I wanted to put across that you should let out your anger and stand up for what you think is right so I decided on a story line that contained a young girl (Harriett) who knew what she wanted but was too scared to stand up for herself. This resulted in her becoming angry internally, but she was unable to let go of her anger and express herself. So I created another character that only she could hear. This character was the internal anger that Harriett was feeling, and tried to make her see that she had to let go of her anger and stand up for herself rather than being pushed around by everyone else because she was an easy target. I chose to play an emotion instead of a person because I wanted to portray the differences between each aspect of the emotion. I wanted to create three sections on the stage so we weren’t just using a small part of it, however still allowing for use of most of the space available. I also wanted to create a strange atmosphere, one that makes the audience feel uncomfortable, so they could relate to Harriett’s feelings. I wanted the tempo to vary too, as I wanted Harriett’s character to be quiet and subdued, and the character that played her anger to be loud, intimidating and patronising. I also wanted the rhythms to alternate to make the piece more interesting for the audience.

Password Management System Advantages and Disadvantages

Password Management System Advantages and Disadvantages Project Aim: Passwords management is an important aspect of computer security, it’s the front line of protection for user terminals and it is by far the most common user authentication method within the largest multinational organizations. A poorly chosen password will increase the probability for an information system to be compromised. As such, all organization employees are responsible for taking the appropriate steps, to select good password security policies. Does that happen in reality? No, that’s why software password generators are activated to handle password management problems and enforce password management policies requested from the organization in order to comply with national standards, and undertake problems of selecting strong passwords. So the aim of this project is to analyze and test a standard password generator system and propose a technique for helping people to remember strong passwords easily. Project Objectives: According to the above facts the objectives that must be undertaken and strongly research in this Bachelor project report are the following: Identify the importance of passwords as it concerns the advantages and disadvantages in their daily use in home and corporate environments. Identify the weaknesses raised from these poorly chosen passwords and describe the modern attacking techniques against these passwords. Besides propose possible countermeasures to address and eliminate these attacks. Examine the characteristics of an effective password policy which can be applied in a corporate environment in order to establish and manage the appropriate defenses to eliminate the dangerous posed by insecure passwords systems. Conduct a critical analysis of different techniques used to facilitate users to remember strong passwords easily. Propose a mnemonic system which is based on users’ favorite passphrases. Analyze the operating principles of the Password Mnemonic System (PA.ME.SYS) and the processes that it enforces in order to produce â€Å"safe passwords†. Test this password generator system (PA.ME.SYS) for the strength of all passwords it generates. In order to achieve the above purposes of this project a series of logical steps were taken: In order to achieve the first and second objective of this project, a survey was conducted in the Internet, in books and in the Web application design 1 and Web application design 2 lecture notes. This survey was concerned with the importance of passwords in an organization’s security framework, the reasons they are widely used in today’s businesses and the catastrophic consequences posed by the exposure of insecure passwords to unauthorized people. Another survey in books and in the Internet was necessary to identify the weaknesses raised from these poorly chosen passwords, the attacks which are forced by modern attackers to gain unauthorized access to users passwords and the possible defense mechanisms used to address and eliminate such attacks. For the third objective of this report, a survey was conducted in the Internet and in books. The aim of this survey was to find and understand different password policies which can be applied in an organization’s global security policy to establish and manage the defenses used to eliminate the dangerous posed by insecure passwords. A university password policy analyzed for the rules they apply in order to define the secure creation and storage of strong passwords. In addition the relationship between the users and the password policies was examined together with the risks that businesses face due to the implementation of inadequate password policies. For the fourth objective, which defines the added value of this project report, it was important to conduct a search on the Internet for different techniques used to help users to remember strong passwords easily. These techniques were analyzed for their operation and the disadvantages they have. For fifth objective, it was important to propose a mnemonic system which is based on users’ favorite passphrases. The proposal of this mnemonic system was based on the research we made of different mnemonic techniques described on the previous chapter. For the sixth and seventh objective which also defines the added value of this project report it was to analyze and test the proposed Password Mnemonic System (PA.ME.SYS). After the end of the survey a mnemonic system based on users’ favorite passphrases was developed and implemented. For the development analysis and design data flow diagrams were used to clearly show the processes and data that make up the system. For the implementation and testing visual basic language was used which shows in a graphical environment how this mnemonic system works 1. Introduction to Authentication and â€Å"Something you know† 1.1 Identification and Authentication Techniques Controlling access to system resources is an important aspect of computer security. Access control is about managing which users can access which files or services in an organization’s computer system. All entities involved with receiving, accessing, altering or storing information in a computer system, are separated to active and passive ones. The term â€Å"active entities† is used to describe all subjects (users, processes, threads) that are accessing, receiving or altering information in a system. The term â€Å"passive entities† is used to describe all objects (files, database) that actually hold or store information accessed by subjects. Without having access control mechanisms it is not possible to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA triad) of system resources.   Access control is used to force users to provide a valid username and password to gain access to a system resource. The two vital components of access control are the identification and authentication processes. In the identification process the user is obligated to present an identity to a computer system. The information provided by the user trying to log on could be a username or by simply placing his/her hand/face to a scanning device. This action triggers the start of the authentication, authorization and accountability processes.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Today, authentication processes are usually classified according to the distinguishing characteristic they use. These characteristics are classified in terms of the three factors described in the following section. Each factor relies on a different kind of distinguishing characteristic used each time to authenticate people in a system. 1.2 Authentication Factors In a typical system, there are basically three ways for human users to authenticate themselves to a client such as a computer, a mobile phone, a network, or an ATM machine. These three authentication factors are the following. ÃÆ'ËÅ" Anything you know: a password The distinguishing characteristic is private information that only authorized people know. In modern computer systems, this characteristic might be a password, a Personal Identification Number (PIN), lock combination or a pass phrase. It is the least cost effective factor and most popular method that can be employed easily in any modern system to authenticate authorized users within the organization. They are simpler and cheaper than other, secure forms of authentication but also because they do not require to spend large amounts of money for the implementation of them in comparison with other more modern security mechanisms. Additionally, Users don’t have to spend time and effort learning how to use them. The passwords are the only user-friendly way to identify a user in a network or computer system and it is believed that they can provide the same level of strong security as a more modern security mechanism. However the usage of passwords as an authentication technique presents some disadvantages that are directly connected to the way that users are managing these passwords. In more specific the users On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages that need to be taken into consideration such as the need to create complex and strong passwords,, the obligation to change their passwords frequently and the instructions and guidelines on how to keep their passwords secret. ÃÆ'ËÅ" Anything you have: a token The distinguishing characteristic is that authorized people own and present a specific item to be authenticated. This characteristic is enclosed in a token device such as a magnetic card, smart card, a memory card or a password calculator. ÃÆ'ËÅ" Anything you are: a biometric The distinguishing characteristic is some physiological feature (static) that is always present in a person, or a certain behavior pattern (dynamic) that is unique to the person being authenticated, and is measured and recorded once in the enrollment process. When the same person requires access entry the biometric identifier compares the current characteristic provided by the user with the previously collected pattern from the original authentic person. This characteristic could be a voice print, fingerprints, face shape, written signature, iris/retina pattern or hand geometry.   2. Attacks on Passwords 2.1 Introduction Passwords are a very important aspect of computer security. They are the front line of protection for user terminals and it is by far the most common user authentication method within the largest multinational organizations However the usage of passwords as an authentication technique increases the probability for an information system to be compromised. That happens because these passwords are directly connected to the way that users are creating, remembering, storing and distributing them. In fact passwords are the weakest element inside the security chain of an organization’s network system and are susceptible to different types of attacks. The next section presents the weaknesses on users’ passwords and modern attack techniques performed by malicious attackers to gain unauthorized access. 2.2 Attacks on Passwords Easily Guessed Passwords: The first weakness lies in the composition of the password itself. Most attackers rely on the fact that most people do a bad job in creating passwords and keeping them secret. Most passwords that people select depend on the following: Favorite football player and actor names, Simple strings, such as passwords consisting of the same character (e.g. 11111). Job titles and nicknames. Important numbers, such as insurance numbers, home addresses, telephones, credit card numbers, driver license, birthdays, or vehicle tags. Favorite words found in dictionaries. Children, family or relative names. The most common attack on passwords is that where malicious hackers exploit human nature and try to guesswhat passwords people select. In this case, hackers build a list with all information related to the victim and make attempts to log on hoping to find out the victim’s password quickly.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Brute-force Attacks: In cryptography, a brute force attack or exhaustive key search is the strategy that can in theory be used against any encrypted data by an attacker who is unable to take advantage of any weakness in an encryption system that would otherwise make his task easier. It involves systematically checking all possible keys until the correct key is found. in the worst case, this would involve traversing the entire search space. The key length used in the encryption determines the practical feasibility performing a brute force attack, with longer keys exponentially more difficult to crack than shorter ones. Brute force attack can be made less effective by obfuscating the data to be encoded, something that makets it more difficult for an attacker to recognize when he has cracked the code.one of the measures of the strenth of an encryption system is how long it would theoretically taken an attacker to mount a successful brute force attack against it. Consequence of this attack is that all users cannot use the network recourses and must wait until system administrator reserts or unlock that account. It is obvious that this kind of attack causes confusion and big delays to user’s critical job tasks. Dictionary Attacks: In cryptanalysis and computer security, a dictionary attack is a technique for defeating a cipher or authentication mechanism by trying to determine its decryption key or passphrase by searching likely possibilities. (Shape1.1). Shape1.1 Dictionary attack A dictionary attack uses a targeted technique of successively trying all the words in an exhaustive list called a dictionary. In contrast with a brute force attack, where a large proportion key space is searched systematically, a dictionary attack tries only those possibilities which are most likely to succeed, typically derived from a list of words for example a dictionary (hence the phrase dictionary attack) or a bible etc. Generally, dictionary attacks succeed because many people have a tendency to choose passwords which are short (7 characters or fewer), single words found in dictionaries or simple, easily-predicted variations on words, such as appending a digit. Social Engineering Attacks: Another weakness lies on the fact that people are not capable to remember and keep their passwords secret. In computer security social engineering is described as a non technical intrusion that is based on the psychological characteristics of the human nature. It is the art of persuading people to reveal vital secrets or to perform actions that comply with the hacker’s wishes {Shape 1.2}. Social engineering can be conducted into several forms. Reverse Engineering: In this method, a legitimate user is induced into asking an attacker questions to obtain information. The attacker poses as a person of higher authority and tries to deduce the needed information from the questions, which are asked by the user. [emailprotected]: This mode of social engineering involves sending an e-mail to a user asking confidential information. The e-mail is meant to trigger an emotional response from the user. It makes the user unwittingly participate in the hacking by disclosing the confidential information. Webpage’s: False Webpage’s, that require users to enter e-mail addresses and passwords, are created by attackers. Hackers hope that users will enter the same passwords at the false websites, as they use at their organization’s computer systems. Shoulder surfing: In this type of attack a malicious attacker could look over a user’s shoulder and watch him while he is typing his/her password to grant access to a system. However shoulder surfing attacks are not always successful but can give important information and strength to a malicious attacker to achieve his goal. Dumpster diving: One of the most intelligent techniques to retrieve users’ passwords within large commercial organizations is the dumpster diving attack. In this type of attack malicious attackers search through discarded material to find passwords, credit card numbers, confidential records or other useful information related to security policies and passwords. Sniffing Attacks: Except brute-force guessing, dictionary and social engineering attacks today’s hackers are using more clever programs and methods to retrieve users’ passwords. These methods include software sniffer programs which are used to capture and sniff passwords either a) when they are typed during the authentication phase of a network login session (Trojan Login, Van Eck Sniffing, Keystroke sniffing, hardware key loggers) or b) when they are transmitted across complex networks via email and other document delivery systems (network sniffers). {Shape 1.1}. Shape 1.1 Sniffing Attacks The next paragraphs describe in more detail each of these techniques used to sniff user’s passwords: ÃÆ'ËÅ" 1.Network Sniffing: Net sniffer is a program, who capable of capturing all traffic made available to one or more network adapters. ÃÆ'ËÅ" 2. Trojan Login: A Trojan Login sniffer program is a software tool used to capture users’ passwords during the authentication phase of a network login session. A malicious user who has access to a personal computer connected to a network can easily install a Trojan Login program. The strength of this malicious program is that it has the ability to display perfectly imitations of the operating system’s standard login program. As a consequence the user enters his/her username and password without any knowledge of the situation, while the Trojan login program saves this authentication information in a secret file. ÃÆ'ËÅ" 3. Van Eck Sniffing: These signals, which are called Van Eck radiation, are visible from as far away as 1 kilometer. It is obvious that a malicious hacker using the appropriate    equipment and without specialized skills could easily sit outside a building and eavesdrop passwords and other secrets displayed on any nearby user’s video screens and monitors.   ÃÆ'ËÅ" 4. Keystroke Sniffing: Shape 1.2 shows clearly a classic keystroke sniffing attack associated with most modern operating systems. In this type of attack usernames and passwords are captured directly from the keyboard input buffer. When the user enters the required authentication information in order to gain access to a computer system, this information is stored in a special area of memory RAM.   While the user enters information, another malicious attacker could run a sniffer program and retrieve the contents of the keyboard input buffer. As a result the user’s username and password is obtained by the hacker and can be used for later attacks {Shape 1.2}. Shape 1.2: Keystroke Sniffing ÃÆ'ËÅ" 5.Hardware Key Loggers: A key logger is a hardware device that intercepts and stores strokes of a keyboard. This type of attack can be conducted very easily by a social engineer. The social engineer simply walks into the location of interest and plugs very professionally this small piece of hardware between the keyboard port and the keyboard.Assuming that most users place PC towers under their desks and most of them are unaware of hardware technology, key loggers can record all typed keystrokes and store them to their internal memory without user knowledge.   Attacks on Password Storage: Passwords have often been vulnerable to different kind of attacks when they are stored in huge databases and password files.Most modern operating systems ask from the user trying to grant access to systems resources, to enter his/her valid username and password. Then the operating system searches on the system’s password file for an entry matching the username. If the password in that entry matches the password typed by the user, then the login procedure succeeds and the user is authorized by the system. Shape 1.3 shows clearly how the password checking procedure works [1.3]. Shape1.3 Password Checking The storage of any password immediately breaks one important rule concerned with password security: â€Å"Do not write passwords down†. If the password file containing all users’ passwords is stolen then automatically the intruder has direct access to all system’s passwords. The primary arguments against password storage can be stated as: Single Point of Failure:If the password file is compromised then all passwords are compromised. Compromise of password file can happen due to: Poor encryption mechanisms or use of a weak master password, so its contents are easily accessed by a malicious hacker. Poor protection of the file itself. Poor Audit Trails:Most operating systems keep logs used to review login failed password attempts. Usually these logs contain a large number of wrong usernames and passwords typed by users while they are trying to login on a computer or network system. If these logs are not well protected ,then attacks become easier. For example, a malicious attacker who sees an audit record with a nonexistent username of 7rs or eri67 can be sure that this string is a password or a part of the password for one of the valid users. Software Bugs: One important reason for the success of password attacks is sometimes based on badly designed operating systems and application programs running on them. These badly designed features because software bugs which do all the hard work for malicious hackers and continue to be a major source of many security problems.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   One recent software bug was found in the Solaris operating system. Users with low level privileges could force a network application program to end abnormally. As a result this program dumped its memory contents to the hard drive in a file available to all users. This file contained copies of the hashed password values that were normally stored and protected in a shadowed file. As a consequence this file could be used as input to Crack software for an off-line brute-force attack. 2.3 Countermeasures against these Attacks Assuming all the above, it is obvious that attackers use several techniques to capture users’ passwords. In this section countermeasures against all attacks on passwords (describesin section2.2 Attacks on Passwords) are analyzed and listed in order: Countermeasures against brute-force attacks: A possible solution against login guessing attacks (or on-line brute-force attacks) is to have a password policy which specifies the maximum number of login failed attempts. System administrators by configuring the operating system could limit the number of failed login attempts allowed for each user. If the threshold is reached then the account should be locked and users will not be able to log until the system administrator arrives to reactivate the login process for the specific account. It must be mentioned that using such defenses against login guessing attacks will only delay a hacker from accessing a system and gaining access to confidential information. Failed login thresholds will not prevent a brute force attack from occurring but will identify the attacking attempt to the security administrator. This defense method will deter a malicious attacker from initiating a brute force attack and increase the level of difficulty for executing this attack. There is no actual defense mechanism against an off-line brute-force attack. This type of attack can be applied to any given password database. There are many cracking software’s available on the Internet which are capable of generating character sequences and working through all possible character combinations until the user’s password is found. The only defense mechanism against this type of attack is to have users that select and use â€Å"strong† password. Countermeasures against dictionary attacks: This type of attack could be eliminated by having a policy which simply prohibits the use of common words found in dictionaries or attacker’s word lists. If all generated passwords do not appear in such lists, then dictionary attacks will not succeed. Besides system administrators should perform themselves dictionary attacks to test users’ passwords within an organisation. If any passwords are compromised, then they must inform the users directly of the results and obligate them to change their passwords to more secure ones. Countermeasures against Social Engineering attacks: Education and user awareness must be supported by the organization’s global security policy. The users should understand the importance of keeping their passwords secret and be familiar with the different ways that a social engineering attack can be conducted against them. In this case, people are able to take the necessary steps to react accordingly when such a situation occurs. Besides this, companies shouldshred all printouts having usernames, passwords and other similar confidential information in order to prevent dumpster diving attacks. Countermeasures against Network sniffing attacks: Today’s hackers are using many network sniffing programs to retrieve users’ passwords, while they are transmitted over distant networks or inside organization’s corporate network. Most businesses facing this threat and considering the consequences due to this type attack implement and use different network protocols for the secure transmission of confidential information. More often organizations indicate detailed security policies that specify ways, encryption methods and protocols to be used for the secure transmission of any important information. The most important defense mechanism against network sniffing attacks is the use of well-known secure network protocols such as SSL/TLS and IPSec protocols. These protocols have the ability to build secure channels based on cryptographic keys, shared between trusted parties, for the safe transfer of passwords and other confidential information in any system’s network Countermeasures against Trojan Login: A defense mechanism against Trojan Logins is to have a trust path for all functions that require users to enter or present authentication information for purpose of authentication. This trusted path must be established between the user trying to login and the operating system. Secure Attention Sequence (or SAS) is a trusted path mechanism used in many modern operating systems such as Windows 2000. When user requires to log on, by executing the sequence Ctrl+Alt+Del is guaranteed that he is communicating with the operating system and not malicious software such as Trojan Login. Another important countermeasure against this type of attack is the installation of commercial available anti-virus software programs (such as Norton Antivirus and MacAfee Antivirus). These anti-virus softwares have the ability to detect and prevent sniffing attack programs such Trojan Logins to be installed, downloaded and operate in operating systems. 9 Countermeasures against Van Eck sniffing attacks: The types of countermeasures used to protect against Van Eck Sniffing attacks are known as Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Equipment Shielding Techniques (TEMPEST). The U.S TEMPEST standard is one guideline that manufacturers have to follow in order to reduce electromagnetic signals and prevent these types of attacks against passwords and other secrets displayed on video screens and monitors. TEMPEST mechanisms include Faraday cages, white noise and control zones. A Faraday cage is a box, a room or an entire building that is designed with an external metal skin that fully surrounds an area on all six sides. As a result all electromagnetic signals transmitted from PC’s monitors are blocked inside the building, preventing eavesdroppers from revealing users passwords.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Countermeasures against Keystroke sniffing attacks:.   A good defense mechanism against keystroke sniffing attacks is to protect CPU’s memory. In particular the keyboard input buffer is the exact location where keystrokes typed by users are stored. It is clear that this area should be protected using various encryption techniques in order to become impossible for an intruder to retrieve its contents in plaintext form when they are intercepted.   Countermeasures against Hardware Key Loggers: There are not well-known defense mechanisms against Hardware Key Loggers. The only countermeasure against them is to state clearly in the organisation’s password policy that all sides of electronic equipment, and especially computers, should be visible to users and security officers. Moreover system administrators may be obligated to check all hardware and electronic devices plugged on users’ computers, or forced to check all hardware connections in computers rooms periodically.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Countermeasures against Password Storage attacks: The types of defense mechanisms against password storage attacks include the use of various encryption and hashing techniques. These techniques are used to encrypt password files and never leave passwords exposed in plaintext form. Usually modern operating systems (Windows, UNIX) use one-way encryption systems to encrypt users’ passwords. In one-way encryption systems the password is transformed in such a way that the original password can not be recovered. When a user is logging onto such a system, the password that is entered by the user is one-way encrypted and compared with the stored encrypted password. The same encryption method and key must be used to encrypt the valid password before storage and to encrypt the entered password before comparison. Besides the use of one-way encryption, strong access control mechanisms (such as Role-Based and Clark-Wilson access control models) should be enforced and applied to the files that keep system’s hashed passwords. Without implementing tough access control mechanisms, the operating system is unable to check who is accessing these files. As a consequence an adversary could easily copy them and mount different kinds of attacks on them. Countermeasures against Software Bugs: As was mentioned in the previous section (section 2.2 software bugs), sometimes badly designed features in operating systems and applications can lead to software bugs which do all the hard work for malicious hackers. A defense mechanism to prevent such software bugs is to have a good software design. Software should be designed in an organized way keeping procedures simple, reviewed periodically for vulnerabilities and threats, and hardened with the latest patches.   Where a software bug is found in any operating system or application, people discovering it should report this problem directly to the security officer and the correspondent company selling and providing licenses for this specific product should be informed to solve this problem. 3. Password Policies 3.1 Introduction Password policies are necessary to protect the confidentiality of information and the integrity of systems by keeping unauthorized users out of computer systems. Usernames and passwords are the fundamental protection of computers and networks against intruders. Password policies specify rules about the secure administration of usernames, rules used to define valid passwords and the type of protection needed for secure password storage. Α password policy is a good place to start to build the security of a company’s network and protect its assets. The next sections discuss issues related to the secure usage and management of both usernames and passwords. 3.2 Administration of Usernames The front gate within an organization’s network is where the user or the service identifies themselves and presents some type of authentication information only known to them in order to grant access. The failure to have a reliable Login Security Policies activated is like having a big building with the best guards and security mechanisms around it with the main front gate open to anyone. 3.2.1 Login Security Policies and Usernames Within a secure system, the first thing that should be expected for any login attempt is to identify who is the person requesting entry. Regardless of the protocols used, you need to know who is trying to access the network services and who they want the network services to think they are. In high-security military environments the user identifications are assigned based on a random sequence of characters. Other organizations, such as commercial, use something that can uniquely identify the user without worrying about how to create usernames. If the usernames can give away information about the organization, then the implementation of random names could be a good solution. Although by using these random

Native american Essay -- essays research papers

People had already been living in the Americas for thousands of years before the Europeans â€Å"discovered† the Americas. When the Europeans invaded this land they brought with them diseases such as smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, plague, typhus, and influenza contagions that repeatedly spread through the Native American peoples, killing them in high numbers. At the time the United States was settled by Europeans, it was abundantly populated by dozens of separate nations with diverse civilizations and cultures. Despite their initial confusion to their situation after the arrival of Europeans, the Native Americans did not take their disenfranchisement from their own land lying down. Native Americans have a long history of "fighting back" against invaders encroaching on the land that they had lived on for as long as they could remember. Before the arrival of white people to the continent, Native Americans still engaged in war between the various different tribes. Their reasons for fighting each other were drastically different than the reasons they had when fighting non-Native Americans. Some Native American battles were fought for revenge. The most common cause of war between Native American groups was probably to defend or enlarge tribal territory. Later, their conflicts with white people were fought for trying to prevent the theft of their land, or in raids for food and supplies they were denied. When the Europeans invaded this country the native American people we...

Students Should be Required to Wear Uniforms to School Essay -- Public

Students Should be Required to Wear Uniforms to School   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Do you always ask yourself why do students wear those horrible uniforms? Well, 99% of the students do, some find that unnecessary, some find them obsolete, and others just hate those unexciting colors. Nonetheless, they are wrong when they think that uniforms are not necessary, since they are. Because the teachers need to see students as equal, plus, clothes always distract other people, and as proved on a survey, 78% of the students prefer clothes that are inappropriate for school and for some people these clothes might be impolite.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When you meet somebody, what is the first thing that you look at? As humans, we always take a first impression about people, and all the times criticize them depending of the clothe that they wear, their appearance, and their manifestation in front of people, and we do not do it because we are mean or terrible, everybody does, it is unavoidable. That is one of the uniform’s function, maintain students as equal for the teachers, and that way evading that teachers judge them, uniforms are an obligation, it is not their choice. Teachers need to grade students, and this way they will do it about the students’ manners, not by their clothes. And students need to have the same level and conditions on the class, because they need to be equal to a teacher this way we can evade unfairness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Aren’t colors and nice textures ...

The Crucible - Character Responsibilities Essay -- Essay on The Crucib

The Crucible was a revolutionary play which clearly depicted the Salem Witch Trials and what went on in the lives of the individuals in Salem. Some of these people were convicted of being a witch, some were not, and some were somehow connected to those being convicted. Despite the fact that everyone played some part in the Witch Trials, there are three key people who are mostly responsible for the mayhem. Overall, the three people that was most responsible for these trials would be Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Deputy-Governor Danforth. The play erupted near the beginning with many people getting ill and the accusations of people being witches beginning. Though many may not see this, I personally view Abigail Williams being the one mainly at fault. She is responsible for the young girls getting together with Tituba to conjure up spirits. To put her further at fault, though not quite so much as being a witch, she had an affair with the respected citizen John Proctor. This affair however causes her to make many brash decisions which condemn many people. She feels that Proctor loves her and wants to be with her, but can’t do so because of Elizabeth, so Abigail plots to get rid of Elizabeth in an attempt to get Proctor to marry her so she can fulfill her crazy hallucinations. When she talks to Proctor, she tries to make him see that his wife is an evil woman. â€Å"That jab your wife gave me’s not healed yet, y’know†¦ I think sometimes she pricks it open again while I sleep† (P...

Analyse and provide evidence Essay

a) Analyse and provide evidence of the growth of trade on the Internet and its contribution to organisations 40 years ago, Internet was created but not popular. It was only used for science and experiment purposes and there were not many computers at that time: about a thousand PCs or a bit more over the world. The Internet 40 years ago simply was a computer connected to computers to communicate and share information between each other. Computer experts, engineers, scientists, and librarians used the early Internet. There was nothing friendly about it. There were no home or office personal computers in those days, and anyone who used it, whether a computer professional or an engineer or scientist or librarian, had to learn to use a very complex system. After 40 years, we have got hundred millions of computers which are small, faster and more comfortable than before. The first website was also created about at the time as Internet but nowadays we have more than 40 millions websites in all areas. The figures below showing the number of website between 1998 and 2000. Internet is now expanding, developing and extremely involving in our life day to day and society. Following its development many operate such as services, trade and business have been turned from normal life into electronic to meet require of people and make profit. Trade on Internet make a huge profit with many advantages like quick, save time and ease of marketing. E-Trade is growth very fast in few years backward because now a day many people’s are using Internet and Internet now a day has been popular, we have about 934,480 Internet users in 2004 over the world (http://www.c-i-a. com/pr0904. htm) and it is going to over a billion in 2007, the Internet users are increasing then the e-trade will have more sellers and buyers. The E-Banking also apart of growth of E-trade, by using credit or debit cards Internet users can easily by goods online. E-banking helps business online making a quickly transfer and safety payment. Online banking has grown every year; that means shopping and spending money online are more popular. The research reveals that 45 percent European online consumers are expected to buy more products online in the coming years, compared to 41 percent of American consumers and Britain consumers last year which spent about 1 billion pounds on online shopping (http://www. nua. ie/surveys/index. cgi? f=VS&art_id=905358734&rel=true). By using Internet a company can marketing their products at any time and anywhere in the world. Customers can easily find what they want by few clicks, order products and get it in few days. Organisations use e-trade and Internet as a strategy to develop their business. They use Internet recruit an employees or provide a good services to their customers. According to new figures from the Department of Trade and Industry, half of UK firms now order goods and services online. This represents a 52 percent increase on the number of UK companies ordering online last year. The study reveals that 91 percent of businesses now have access to the Internet, while 80 percent have a website. Around 20 percent of firms also reported making payments online; an increase of nearly 20 percent on this time last year. Trading and marketing on the Internet is the most efficient way to develop the organisation that’s why Internet is very necessary and its contributions to organisation are very important. E-trading has obviously grown very fast since last decade until now and will more expand in the future because it has advantages which make enormous profit for business and many important elements support it. With the incredible development of technology in the future, Internet will have more chance to demonstrate its real effect to organisation and social life.

Enager Industries

Enager Industries, Inc. Accounting Consultant’s Report  · Introduction Enager Industries, Inc. was a relatively young company that consisted of three divisions with distinct services and products. At the urging of CFO Henry Hubbard, Enager’s president, Carl Randall, had decided to begin treating each division as an investment center, so as to be able to relate each division’s profit to the assets the division used to generate it profits.  · Analysis However, several issues arose regarding this performance evaluation method and other management control choices. First of all, profitable new project at Consumer Products Division, whose return was 13% calculated from Exhibit 3, could not get approved from upper management because it could not reach the pre-determined universal target return of at least 15 percent, even if all the divisions had completely different line of business. This could potentially discourage product development managers’ incentive to engage in new projects. More importantly, the company could miss out the opportunity on new products in the long-run, although it might not have a large return right away in the short-run. Secondly, the president of the company, Carl Randall, was both puzzled and disappointed at the discrepancies among the performance evaluation parameters of the company in 1993. Both ROA and gross return dropped from 1992, while return on sales and return on owners’ equity increased. There were also discrepancies across different divisions, as Professional Service easily exceeded the 12% gross return target; while other two divisions, especially the Industrial Product division had a ROA that was only 6. 9%. These discrepancies could increase the difficulties for the top management to understand the performance, thus hindered manager’s ability to make good decisions. Last but not least, general manager of Industrial Product Division was put much pressure by Randall, the president, because the division â€Å"fell behind† compared to the other two in terms of ROA. The divisional general manager argued that they could have achieved a higher ROA if they had older assets as Consumer Products Division did, but Randall could not understand the relevance of the argument. This is not only a communication problem, but also an evaluation problem caused by the inappropriate treatment of the assets value that is used in calculating ROA. By analyzing the management problems mentioned above, in can be concluded that these problems are the consequences of several management control mistakes, including unreasonable target setting, inefficient method of performance evaluation, and problematic treatment of assets value. Top management of Enager should not set an identical goal for all the divisions since all the divisions engaged in distinct service or production. The nature of those distinct businesses certainly required different amount of assets to operate, and they would face different levels of competition, and they would surely have different profit margins. Therefore, it was unreasonable only using one single target return to evaluation all the new projects from all three divisions to determine if the projects were profitable. In the case, McNeil’s proposal was rejected because it did not meet the 15% target return. However, the new project did have a favorable residual income and demonstrated the a return of 13%, which can increase the EPS for the company. If any benchmark were to be set to evaluate the profitability of new projects, it should be carefully engineered according to specific situation that can be applied to specific division, with the comparison to other competitors in the industry or to past performance. For example, Enager can establish a standard costing system based on historical and external information (including financial information, market information, etc) that can allows management to create a standard profit level. A standard costing system can further allows cost and profit variance analysis, which can be a very powerful tool for management control later on. There were also too many confounding factors in calculating ROA in Enager’s case. Firstly, using net book value of assets (as shown in Exhibit2) in calculating the ROA would surely put those divisions with newer assets in disadvantage. With less depreciation, divisions with newer assets will have lower ROA due to a larger denominator of assets value. The more reasonable way in this case is to use the fair market value, which can better represent the assets’ value in producing profit. Secondly, it is unreasonable to allocate corporate expenses and assets to certain divisions based on divisional revenue. Since each division had different services and products, revenue could not be the basis of allocating those corporate expenses and assets that did not reflect performance of each division. These confounding factors may be able to explain those discrepancies Randall was confused about. As such, the use of ROA in this case is an ineffective method of performance evaluation.  · Recommendation Based on the previous analysis, the solution to this case is to implement a new method of performance evaluation since ROA is such an ineffective method of performance evaluation. One alternative worth perusing is to use the Balanced Scorecard method to evaluate division performance. Instead of measuring the performance only using financial data, Balanced Scorecard methods requires business units to be assigned goals and then measured form the perspectives of financial, customer, internal business and innovation and learning. For example, Enager can evaluate the divisions based on the quality of the products, level of innovation, employees’ contribution to the whole company, etc. Balanced Scorecard can be a very critical supplement to financial data because it is part of strategy planning. The Industrial Products group may no longer be under evaluated because of less-than-perfect financial data. Essentially, a Balanced Scorecard method allows the manger to see the big picture on the strategic level. A Balanced Scorecard method can also promote balances among different strategies in an effort to achieve goal congruence, thus encouraging employees to act in the organization’s best interest. Profitable new projects, like the one that McNeil had proposed, would have a chance of getting approved because it would benefit the company as a whole since it could increase Enager’s EPS. Another advantage of implementing Balanced Score card is that it promotes comparability among different divisions with distinct line of business. Unlike ROA, Balanced Scorecard taken in to accounts of different perspective of the business into account, since the comprehensive value of the division is reflected in the Balanced Score card design. By implementing Balanced Score card method, the upper management of Enager can obtain a broad-base view of the company in terms of goals and strategy. Although it requires additional work for executives to choose a mix of measurement that accurately reflect the critical factors that will determine the success of the company, it is a better alternative here than ROA as a performance evaluation method.

American way of life Essay

Choose one scene from â€Å"The Crucible† that you consider being particularly dramatic, exciting or tense. Explain your choice and discuss the importance of this scene to the play as a whole.  McCarthyism is the term describing a period, 1940s and 50s, when the USA was obsessed with a fear of communists secretly trying to destroy the American way of life. During this period thousands of Americans were accused of communism and were put on trial, they were asked about their personal lives, friends and political beliefs. They were persuaded to pass on names of communists then they could go free. This is much like the Salem witch trials when each of the accused witches were trialed and if they told the court a name of another person they were no longer accused. Rather Miller was trialed in 1956 and refused to tell them any names. He was angry that mass persecution could become hysteria. I have chosen the scene where John has confessed to his affair with Abigail and now Elizabeth has to tell Danforth if it is true. This scene is very tense because if Elizabeth lies then John will hang but if she tells the truth he will live. This is the point in the play that we find out if Elizabeth still loves John and this is also the point that Abigail realises that John doesn’t feel anything for her.  At the beginning of the scene John and Abigail are told to look away from Elizabeth so they can’t give her a sign of what to say. Abigail’s presence raises tension for John, Elizabeth and everyone else in the room. When Elizabeth enters she is made to stand alone. This distance between the characters is symbolic of the distance in their relationship. At this point Elizabeth is standing alone facing Danforth. This is an extremely tense point in the play because Elizabeth is in control of John’s fate. Elizabeth keeps trying to look at John for a sign. She starts to pause a lot because she still hasn’t made her mind up about what she is going to say. This is very tense for the audience because they know what she should say but Elizabeth doesn’t, this is called dramatic irony. Danforth starts to get angry because Elizabeth keeps glancing at John but Danforth says â€Å"The answer is in your memory and you need no help to give it to me†. This shows he is getting impatient with her. Arthur Miller shows Danforth’s anger by using lots of exclamation marks after Danforth’s speech. Danforth starts to ask lots of short curt questions very quickly. Elizabeth continues to stall and she starts to get very defensive of John. She says â€Å"Your honour I – in that time I were sick. And I – my husband is a good and righteous man†. This is a false build up; the audience believes Elizabeth is trying to portray John as a good man before she tells Danforth that he has committed lechery. This shows that she is edging towards telling the truth and that she still loves John because she is trying to save some of his dignity by saying good things about him. This false build up is ended when she starts to talk about things but before she finishes her sentence she changes to a different subject. At this point Elizabeth is equiverating and starts to struggle. Danforth ask Elizabeth outright â€Å"To you own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery!† Danforth’s anger is shown by not having a question mark just an exclamation mark. This is the climax of the play because Elizabeth now has to give a proper answer and the audience will find out what Elizabeth is going to say. Elizabeth answers (faintly)†No,sir† shows us that Elizabeth still loves John and we find out that John will be hanged, this stage action shows that she was reluctant to say no. After this John tells her to tell the truth and before the door is shut Elizabeth realises that she has done the wrong thing and says â€Å"Oh, god!† John’s fate is now sealed but he tries to protest but this has not effect on Sanford’s decision that John will be hanged.

Gamification

70 percent of global organizations will have incorporated gamification into at least one element of their training program by 2014 according to research firm Gartner. Gamification, put simply, is the use of game theory in platforms of interaction with employees, customers and the wider community. The advent of game technology allows training providers to integrate the positive reinforcements of gaming into the learning environment.While some may roll their eyes and make some assertion that big business is kowtowing to the younger crowd or that gamification is a passing fad, others embracing it and creating loyalty among customers and higher engagement among training participants. A common discussion among training specialists is the cost-effectiveness of training as some studies show that participants retain a mere 10% of content. Indeed, the prospect of sitting all day listening to someone talk about a topic that you have little interest in would test anyone’s tenacity for un divided attention.So while some readers would have already disengaged with this article (because they have little interest in the topic, maybe gamification would have been a better way to engage the nay-sayers to gamification) let us look further at why gamification works: Games give us real time feedback, if a participant gets something wrong they are corrected immediately. It does not wait for the participant to get back to the workplace, wait for the scenario to arise and fail with real-world clients or profits at stake. Games involve problem solving, which sparks our creativity.Games provide us with fun and enjoyment, which increases the motivation to continue playing and maintain our attention. Games involve goals which provide us with the motivation to complete the tasks. Games are based on storylines, storylines create affiliation and emotional attachment. Gamification could effectively destroy the need for those dreaded performance appraisals be it yearly or quarterly. As th e human resource professional in the organisation we are viewed as the uncool ogre come performance appraisal time. The line managers hate them, the employees fear them and we get sick of reminding everyone to do them.Gamification take the performance appraising away from line managers through developing a standardised inventory of correct answers, the employees are given goals promoting competition between departments, which increases social interaction between employees. The gamification pulls employees in rather than us as HR practitioners and leaders having to push the process onto them. It is amazing what a gold star can actually do. Positions that have KPI’s can now be set up as a game to beat your highest score, beat your co-worker with relevant rewards tied to it.

Hotel Industry in Songdo in South Korea Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Hotel Industry in Songdo in South Korea - Essay Example So in today's world of business amidst red ocean strategy, it is necessary to adopt appropriate marketing method to promote your business through various tools and techniques in order to attract more and more customers. (Kim and Renee, 2005)1 Singapore which is renowned international business hub known for its world class infrastructure facilities is also a growing tourist destination. In a study, it is identified that hotels of Singapore have adopted and integrated information technology into their marketing strategy which was successfully incorporated the technology into their marketing campaign. (Choon - Chiang Leong, 2001)2 Similarly Songdo International City which is touted as the next Asian business hub is attracting numerous international ventures to start their businesses of all types as the city provides best infrastructure, facilities along with diverse customer base. Songdo International City is planned in such a way that good portion of the place is given for the establishment of hotels only. (http://www.songdo.com) So the industries trying to open their hotel in Songdo city can ask nothing better than this. In order to support the decision of opening a new hotel at Song do and to decide on which strategic ma rketing method to use for the promotion of the hotel, two reputed hotels were selected for the purpose of interview. The present chapter consists of analysis of the interview through comparison of both the hotels strategy of approach towards marketing and how do they manage to attract customers. Data Analysis Rutherford and O'Fallon (2007) states that as strategic marketing is umbrella to lot many marketing methods, but strategic marketing for the hotel industry should be limited to its realms and genesis only. Further the argument of Fetch Waller was also highlighted by Rutherford and O'Fallon stating that definition of marketing should be broadened in order to include all the operational aspects of the hotel. Moreover Waller reiterates illustrated the relationship between marketing and operations as a continuing process without which the hotels cannot remain competitive. As hotels are 24/7 business, it is necessary to evolve , innovate and adopt new marketing strategy each and every time in order to stay in and above the competition. 3 The interviews were conducted in the marketing and sales department of two hotels situated in Songdo City namely 'Ramada' and 'Best Western Premier Songdo Park Hotel'. When asked about the motive behind establishing a hotel in Songdo city, both the personnel representing their respective hotels replied that the place is hub of business and will turn into Asia's next business hub that will attract lots of businesses, which means many more conglomerations, seminars, and other business related activities. (Interviewee Jang and Jang, 2009) So it is clear from the above details that it is a place where most of the business happens and target customers are the business organizations for the present and in near future as well. Regarding difficulties in establishing the business in Song-do, the Ramada hotel representative stated that the hotel is actually a takeover of the already established hotel with little bit of renovation but representative of the Best Western Hotel stated that they had to struggle to get the license for the casinos and other gambling games which limited their targeted customers to only business and tourists as casinos and gambling are not the integral part of the Korean culture. This statement