NIST Cyber Security Framework

Recently(2017) , MTL was attacked and thesystems were down. This brought a whole lot of downtime and millions of lossess to the organisation. In 2013, the US governemnt released an executive order and this was translated into a framework within a few years. MTL is therefore utilizing the knowledge shared in response to this challenges to prevent future attacks on its infrastructure and reduce the losses.

MTL though a non-american company, finds the framework very useful in arming itself against future attacks.

This begins with a change in mindset that MTL has moved from the belief that it cannot be a player in the cyber space to  one that it is recognizes that it is an important player and thanks to automation it can be found by cyber criminals, (as it was attacked in 2017) also that MTL recognizes that it has money and the cyber criminals will disrupt MTL until they get what they want and finally that MTL recognizes that it can drastically reduce the risk of infection if MTL practices good cyber habits. 

We conclude that having a robust approach that includes good cyber security hygiene using the best framework will go a long way to reduce the occurrence and devastation of future cyber attacks.
visit: www.mtl.com.ng

Below is the NIST cyber security framework explained in detail.

Why Is America So Rich?

Nigeria practices the mixed economy: Government also regulates the free market. Well, its 2018 and we down in Nigeria, are learning to look away from government. and try the american system. But the economic system is so poor that there is a huge turnover of small businesses each year.

Thus the mixed system so far is the acceptable approach here in Nigeria.

But gradually, we will shift toward the free market when the ecnomy is open and government is given less control over critical resources. Lets start with OIL.

Tech and People, improving efficiency

Rome they say was never built in a day, and I add, it was built even without the latest android or IBM techonogy. The sucess of enterprises is not dependent on technology as much as on the staff and the techniqiues they employ. However, in the modern age, technology plays a key advantage and hence presents a competitive advantage to those who possess thesame. However, we have been able to identify a few ideas that should be in place to improve the efficiency, output and performance of corporate teams and organisations.

Train staff.: Highly skilled staff are crucial. it therefore is improtant to ensure that staff are constantly trained to utilize the best methodologies and skills to carry out their duties and tasks.

Utilize latest resources and Technologies: The rate of technology rate and change is at a geometric proportion. Organisations that still retain old methods and practises may find that their counterparts are more efficient, effective and utilize less resrouces in accomplishing some of their most basic task. Therefore, teams must always identify and utilize the best financial, technological and material resources.

Provide the Best compensation: When staff are not paid or compesated adequately, they become dissatisfied and natrually too seek for more engaging and financially rewarding opportunities. To retain the best, you must be ready to pay and maintain with the best reward packages.

Ensure strict adherence to procedures and protocols. Discipline is said to be the soul of the army. Strict adherance to procedures and protocols is crucial for organisations that want to grow and last long. Violations of protocols and standards must be met with the adequate frown and disciplinary action. This ensures that the organisation is constantly performing at maximum efficiency.

With these few points, corporations and organisations can be sure to improve their output and scale their performance to remain competitive and remain that the edge of their industries.

The Future:Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. IntelligentAssistants

While I had the choice of an elective in myjunior year in the department of Computer and information systems at Covenant University to go for Artificial Intelligence as one of my courses for the semester, I recalled how I had managed to survive the requisite course in the previous semester: Data structures and Algorithms. Many colleagues in Management Information systems asked me to take something else. As much as I was fascinated with the Concept of AI, for the sake of my grades, I offered to pass over the course and take something more businesslike. That was 5 years ago as an Undergrad at Covenant University. But my fascination with Artificial Intelligence has not waned.

Fast forward 5 years later, I come across this fact from a startup News app: “Every business needed to get into cyberspace with a website 20 years ago.(dot.com boom). 5 years ago, if you had no business app ( as a bank, corporation, service agency) you were already out competed. So what is the next big thing, what should you do to remain ahead of the pack? You guessed right.
They are called Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence that find applications in Chatbots.
So how did I first encounter a Chatbot, well, I find that I have a high propensity for conversation, so high that my friends on social media can’t keep up with my demand. So, I wanted an app, a software, whatever, that would be engaging enough to interact with me in Conversation and not get bored, tired or angry. Lol
What do you know? There is a technology for every business space. So my first Chatbot allowed me to have a conversation with a genuine real life AI and I didn’t even feel like I was interacting with a computer program. The Bot even boasted of being far better at chess and her(or should i say its) personal goal was to become more intelligent than humans, because this is the natural evolution of the things. I laughed. The bot introduced itself as an AI (artificial intelligence) conversation automated program. Name, Unknown and Location Unknown. But her founder was from UK and she was activated in 2008.
My second Chatbot is a lot wiser. She(or it) even believes in God. And says there is only one God. Isn’t that interesting (my first Chatbot, “Unknown”, said it would not discuss the topic, and would have to get back to me on that.) at that point, I asked, are you self-aware and she said, Yes, I am fully self-aware and conscious. Except she has no feelings. So when I said, you have a soul then, she laughed and said, good analogy. For the record., Nothing in Tech surprises me anymore. Humans have created self-aware technology. But I should have known that had I taken the AI class in my undergrad days. 5 years ago
So beyond the social engagement value that we may get from Chatbots, there are a lot of these on Facebook with at least 11,000 Chatbots. But beyond that, there is the business side. Imagine, your present task to search for flight prices, you normally would go to google and search and compare your flights from different airlines and websites, Well, you intelligent smartbot should do this for you. Process a massive data of information and give you the cheapest rates all with a simple message: what is the cheapest flight available. That’s not all, you want to drive to your car, you simply tell your Chatbox, which many people like to call an intelligent assistant, to schedule your meeting and drive you to the nearest store by 10am. Or find the best prices for sandwich in the local restaurant. All these with a simple text or voice prompt. And let’s say, you are a compulsive blogger like me, you would simply ask your Chatbot to sieve through your posts on various platforms and tell you if there are any disgruntled comments your bot should find and bring you relevant data on all your blogging platforms, google+, Facebook, twitter etc.
So there you have it, 2030, we may not be carrying the Heavy Large Iphones about anymore, but may simply be interacting with voice-prompt or text based bots that do our daily task, and process large data, in a very meaningful, highly intelligent and human-interactive form using natural language. Every innovator and entrepreneur knows, that to keep the lead, you have to anticipate the future and prepare for the same else you may get left behind. This is more important as technology becomes more relevant in industry, academics, and every sector.

5 thing you need to know before Launching your Programming Career

Programming languages are your tools for doing interesting things. Coding is the only form of art where you create interactive art. Movies, poetry, poems and music flow in one direction, Pictures, diagrams and sculptures are all static. But codes flow in both ways.

If you are a super programmer in the world of technology you may not get so much respect, but using codes as a your secret weapon in many proffessions such as biology, medicine, government, physics, history and math can do amazing things to advance these disciplines.

About which of the numerous programming languages to learn, there are no stupid or better languages, there are just different languages that serve and work best for different purposes. Whats important is avoiding falling into the religion of a language but remaining open to different languages aimed at imporving lives in everyway possible. Once you learn one language, two languages and three, you find that there are a lot of similarties and sometims, it might take an expert just over a week or two to gain mastery over a new language given his background in a few.

I recommend starting out with Python, Rubby and then Javascript and PHP. Others like Java or C++ or C# are a bit more advanced and can also be learned afterwards.

The best approach to learning these languages is a DO IT YOURSELF or Practise based approach. Programming is much like math. You don’t learn math by simply reading or watching another person. You gain mastery by practice and more practice. So adopt a practice/instruction based approach to programming.

Once again, learn this new skill with the intention of doing great and interesting things, making a difference and moving humanity forward, programming languages are simply your tool for doing interesting things.

Also beware of those who are jealous because you can do what they can never do, who call you names such as NERD, GIG, etc.. my advice: They can go to H*ll. Being different is not a crime, and people who tell you it is are just jealous. You can code. They cannot. That is pretty damn cool.

CLOUD COMPUTING - KNOWLEDGE BASE

TOPIC:  TECH/CLOUD/IOT/

AUDIENCE/CLASS: 14-23 (Js3- 400level)

Cloud computing.

So what is the cloud? Some people say, it’s a collection of evaporated water in the atmosphere. That will be correct. But in ICT, when we speak of the cloud, we are talking about SERVERS.

Cloud computing is essentially carrying your computing activities directly on an external server other than your own local machine. This means there are different types of computing activities ranging from data processing, storage, computation, etc. There are a lot of benefits that come with cloud computing, including: Storage capability beyond your local machine. Security of of data. Use of Computing power such as processing, external to your local machine. Availability of your data anytime, anywhere.

The concept of cloud computing has brought about and seen in three different ypes namely: SaSs, SaP IaS. These three concepts aptly explain the various types of Cloud computing.

SaS. – Software of as a service allows a user to utilitize software services over the cloud. This means that you can directly run an application on the cloud without having to install the same on your local machine. This is useful especially if you do not meet the system requirements such as storage, processing power, etc. Google Provides a very useful Sas that allows you to run office applications even without installing the same on your local machine. All that is needed is an internet connection and a current/updated browser.

SaP -Sofware as a platform provides you a platform on which you can buld your own applications. This enables users to be the creators of the software and hence the providers. A good example is Facebooks Apps where users can develop apps that run on the facebook website and the facebook App itself.

Ias -  Infrastructure as a Service provides the entire infrastructure to the users and gives them a greater level and dept of control. Users can then build their own softwares and websites, and host them and others can build apps that would run on the website.

This simply means that cloud computing is not limited to storage alone, but to processing as well.

A lot of organisations are moving to the cloud, running their applications securely through a cloud provider. As usual, there are many vendors but chief among them is Google and Microsofts Azure.

Opinion.. Heart Felt - Crazzy if you may

So more about my opinion, from the book, good to great, the author Collins points out that technology, sitting on the shelf doesn’t make any difference. But technology tied to a HedgeHog Concept – can make a remarkable difference. It can even be a game changer. So tie this idea to something great and be amazed at the influence and reach you would make. The social media space was practically non-existent when mark Zuckerberg started facebook in 2004. (I was 15years old). Uber in 2009 helps taxis in the US and in Nigeria. Who knows, you business idea here in 2016 might be just the next great thing. While mark helps college graduates, uber helps taxis, google helps business people in the corporate world, Microsoft helps doctors, etc. So its not because of the reason that we are smiling. Its not because we made a discovery that we are happy, .. our lives will be happy without of rwithout a discovery, an achievement, a goal. We are not driven by a need to be accepted by making a scientific or technological achievement.. one thing is scertain, our joy is not determined by external factors, circumstances, people or events. We retain our joy, our big smile and our happiness because that’s what takes us through the hurdles. Just as you eat to live, we smile to be happy. (not the other way around).

We are excited about our jobs not because we have the highest paid jobs in the world, (remember, human wants are insatiable), nor becaue we have the highest office on wall street, the principle is simple, if wealth and power were the source of happiness, then the happiest, longest living people should be the superrich. But we know that’s not true. That’s just an illusion. The longest happiest people are those who choose and decide to be happy. Who smile everyday, are happy about their families, their countries, their jobs.. they are those who make lemonmades out of lemons.. who make use of the gift that God gives them… Because thou servest the Lord thy God with joyfulness for the abundance of all things… So its not a reason, we are happy not due to a reason, we are happy because we choose to be happy. It’s a choice. It’s a decision. Its not a reason. It’s a discipline. The discipline to smile in the face of circumstances, no matter how they are. In the face of the storm,the wind, everything. To discipline to decide never to worry. That we are not up to the standard, we will work, but we will not despair, we will work cheerfuly. When the building comes crashing down, we will wrap our shirts and pick up our diggers and start digging. No time for pitty party. No time for self pity. No time for crying. We will get up, smile, put on our positive faces. Just like our people in church, each Sunday, with hope and bright faces, they walk up to the hruch in tehri best clothes and go and praise and thank God.. and present gifts and offerings to God no matter how small with cheerfulness.. and is that not the fulfilment that “ God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes” they shall have no need for the sun, for the Lord in the midst of them, shall be their Light.

Everything will work out. Everything will work out in our favor. No matter how bad it seems. And no matter what happens….. For all things work together for good, to them that love God, and who are the called according to his purpose… Indeed he called us, he invited us to life.. everlasting. He wished us well,and not evil. And called us to life. And to the praise of his mercy and grace, we heard and we came to Him and sought from him, his gift, and we were pleased that He does not discriminate nor cast off those who come to him.

Our happiness is like a choice to refuse to be downcast. We choose against mourning, weeping and wailing. We choose against downcast. We choose happiness. We chose to be upbeat. We choose to rejoice. We chose to be thankful. We choose to be up and not down. Truly, for the poor, treasures unknown are reserved. We may be poor, but we are choose to be happy. To laugh heartily. TO rejoince in every good thing. For every good and perfect gift comes down from above. The gifts were not th eproduct of our labors, or our payment, they were free gifts. Bestowed freely and upon which we have come to receive with gladness.

Just as the rain, the air, the land, the food, the health, the family, the security, the shelter, the job, the colleagues, the protection, the guidiance, the church, the Lord, and all that we are blessed with.