Tag Archive for: Formed

New partnership formed to protect human rights organisations from cyber-attacks

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UNSW and Neutrality partner to develop secure computer operating systems that will protect critical humanitarian infrastructure.

UNSW Sydney has signed a research agreement with Swiss technology company Neutrality to develop cyber network safeguards for organisations whose integrity and trust is essential in protecting people.

For human rights organisations operating in conflict zones, communication and computer systems security is crucial.

“This project aims at protecting communications of humanitarian and other non-government organisations from cyber-attacks, which often result in loss of lives,” said UNSW Trustworthy Systems leader and John Lions Chair, Scientia Professor Gernot Heiser.

“UNSW’s Trustworthy Systems group will work with Neutrality in the development of such secure communication, leveraging the mathematically proved security enforcement provided by our seL4 microkernel technology.”

The pioneering seL4 technology provides bullet-proof isolation between running computer programs, thus stopping an affected component from compromising others.

“We will utilise seL4 to isolate operating system services from each other, thus limiting the damage a compromised service can cause,” said Prof. Heiser.

“Specifically, the Trustworthy Systems team will provide the ‘virtual-machine monitor’ layer that enables running mutually-isolated Linux services on seL4.”

The need for this technology was highlighted by the ongoing conflict in Syria, which has seen hospitals attacked numerous times over the past decade – some facilitated by cyber-attacks.

Neutrality Co-CEO and Chief Technology Officer Stevens Le Blond said the organisation was looking forward to collaborating with UNSW to leverage their computer security technological know-how.

“Neutrality tackles highly technical challenges in partnership with strategic academic groups, including UNSW who, through centuries of combined research experience, have laid the foundations for our products,” said Le Blond.

“As the inventor of seL4, the first formally-verified microkernel, the Trustworthy Systems team at UNSW is one of the most impactful academic groups in systems security in the world and a key partner of…

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Ransomware threat will be controlled by the new task force formed with the help of Microsoft and Citrix / Digital Information World

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Viruses and hacking have many different types, one of which is ransomware. A ransomware virus attack is a badly known attack where your data files are encrypted by the hackers, in return they ask for the payment as a ransom. If you pay the money only then they decrypt your data files.

It is malware, with the help of which a hacker can have complete control over your data. Hacker can lock your data and blackmail you that he will leak your data or may delete it if you are not able to make the payment as ransom. Hackers usually send a spam link in an email in most cases. However, this is not it, you can get this spam link through a third-party website or an unknown link. This ransomware has attacked the files of many organizations and companies. This virus has plagued computer networks for more than 15 years. As a result, a task force has been formed with the help of Microsoft and Citrix to stop this attack.

The Institute for Security and Technology has created this task force to deal with this curse. The members of this task force are legal experts, cybersecurity firms, tech industry players, and policymakers. In short, this force is created with the inclusion of all experts to deal with this attack in all manners.

The founding members of this task force are completely aware that this attack could be much harmful to any entity. Because data is everything for an organization or a company. If a company is attacked by this attack, this company will be grabbed in the hands of the hackers. Ultimately, will be ready to pay a ransom.

The task force member will observe the ransomware kill chain and how the hackers give the command and regulate servers. They will also recommend taking necessary actions publicly or privately that will reduce this attack to a great level. For instance, if the anti-malware apps running on the computers of the users, this task force will recommend getting out of this app as soon as possible. in short, this task force will try its best to deal with this threat and will leave no stone unturned.

The task force will most probably start its work in the March or April. However, the good news is the website will go live in January. Everybody knows that today this…

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New Organization Formed In South Africa To Promote The Rights Of Creators And Support Intelligent Copyright Reform

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Over the years, Techdirt has written about some pretty bad stuff happening in South Africa on the copyright front. For example, there was the Business Software Alliance using made-up figures in an attempt to revise copyright law in its favor. The South African music rights organization tried to put public domain works under copyright. And — most insane of all — the South African recording industry association ran a stupid “anti-piracy” campaign called “Shoot the Pirate”, which resulted in actual violence. So it makes a pleasant change to report on some good news from the country. A new organization of creators has been formed to press for a more balanced copyright system in South Africa. They call themselves ReCreate, although apparently the group has no connection with the similar US organization Re:Create. Here are the South African ReCreate’s basic principles:

ReCreate exists to promote the interests of South African creatives with regards to copyright legislation.

As much as we are creators, we are users of existing cultural products. Currently our work can be blocked through censorship by those who claim to own our culture. Moreover we often do not not own the work we create. And many of us have been disadvantaged by an exploitative system which fails to pay us for our work.

Growing the digital economy requires innovation. South Africa is at a disadvantage to other countries with flexible copyright laws that support creativity.

We call on Government to include in the ongoing copyright reform three key issues to enable us to create the next generation of South African content for the world.

An update about the South African copyright reform currently underway can be found on the infojustice.org site. There’s also an opinion piece in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian written by some of ReCreate’s founders, in which they explain some of the problems they face under current copyright legislation, and the fair use rights they need to help them produce new works in the digital world:

Parody and satire

Incidental use of background content

Use of works in public places

Digital archival

Creation of educational works

Non expressives uses on the Internet, including indexing, data mining and search

Re-mixing, transforming and re-interpreting

Creation of accessible copies for people with disabilities

Adaptation to future technology

However, according to another post on infojustice.org, the South African Department of Arts and Culture has come out against introducing fair use, claiming:

Fair use by its nature is open-ended and it creates uncertainties in the management of rights. If adopted, this model will permit uncontrollable and unreasonable access to copyright materials resulting into reduction of real income for copyright owners.

Although it’s disappointing to see this kind of tired old FUD being spread, it’s great to see artists standing up for themselves like this in South Africa. For too long, the copyright companies have claimed to represents artists while doing precious little to help them create new works or earn a decent living. The founding of ReCreate is a hopeful sign that things may be about to change.

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