17-07-2012, 11:45 AM
Flower identification
Flower identification .docx (Size: 633.18 KB / Downloads: 43)
Introduction:
Flower identification is a very challenging task. Currently, about 250,000 species of flowering plants have been named. However, it is impossible for anyone botanist to know more than a tiny fraction of those plants that are named. Therefore, it would be useful if a person captures the image of flower with a digital camera and software in a portable device will recognize the flower and then give its name and details as well. However, due To the lack of proper models, automatic flower recognition from colour images is one of the toughest tasks in pattern recognition. The larger number of biological variations of a flower and image pre-processing errors of the flower images contribute to some of the difficulties. To improve the searching efficiency, image database has to be separated into several groups (i.e. clusters) based on their relevant feature attributes. The process of separating data into groups is known as clustering. In this paper, a novel Virus Infection Clustering (VIC) is proposed. The main idea of VIC is borrowed from virus infection phenomenon in the natural world. Results obtained from experiments showed that colour and shape feature attributes working with VIC clustering are able to yield good retrieval results for flower identification. Iterations of relevant feedbacks from the user may improve the precision of retrieval results by means of human cognitive skill.
Cyber-attacks: A real threat for every organization
Most organizations wrongly assume that cyber attacks will never reach them because an attacker will not find value in targeting them. In general, most organizations feel that they cannot become a victim to an Internet (or network-based) attack and might hide under one or more of the following:
“That will never happen to me“
“I have nothing to hide“
“We’re too small to be a target“
“Why me, when they could hit some bigger company? “
It will never happen to me
It is very easy to distance yourself or your organization from any kind of online threat, because a good majority of the victims of targeted attacks never reveal any information about when they were attacked. Unless onelooks hard, it is relatively difficult to find people or organizations that admit that were victim to an online attack.
All organizations have something to hide
As more organizations are incorporating email and Internet into their workflow, it is safe to assume that most organizations send or receive confidential emails including emails with attachments of documents which are not intended to be public. Modern-day organizations also resort to corporate online shopping or other forms of online transactions. Therefore, an email address that initially doesn’t seem to have any value suddenly becomes the email address used to buy products from online retailers. People say, “I have nothing to hide”, but then are aware that the password for an online retailer might mean that their account will be used for forfeit purchases. They might choose a more secure password than the one they use for their email account but some online retailers offer to send your password to your email address if
you forget it and the password of the email address might be much simpler than the one used to purchase from the online retailer. Even worse, most people use the same password everywhere for different services, so cracking one password means that the attacker can access the victim’s other accounts. Some online services might not be as trustworthy as others – they might be vulnerable to attack, or else the operator himself is corrupt. As the saying goes, security is a problem of the weakest link.
While targeted attacks are generally a corporate problem rather than a personal one, some attackers do take their actions to a personal level. The reasons behind these actions may be various: Spying on a partner, revenge on a previous employer or even identity theft.
Industrial espionage
Business is a bit like war, except that there are legal restrictions that govern what can be done and what cannot be done. Competitors in the same industry aim to conquer similar territories through different ways and means. Research is a valuable asset and some organizations might resort to foul play and fund industrial espionage to catch up with a competitive firm. Normally, stealing research only costs a fraction of the millions of dollars that were put into research and development for a given product or service.
Cyber Detection:-
Cyber Defender’s antivirus software comes in the Cyber Defender Early Detection Center. The main thrust of this security program is the Collaborative Internet Security early NETWORK approach. The essence of this approach is that each user PC is a node/watchtower. If one computer is infected with a brand new virus, the malware is sent to Cyber Defender, which comes up with a solution and sends it out to everyone. The update speed is further improved with peer-to-peer network updates, and the 3.0 version of early NETWORK. While we appreciate the approach, most antivirus solutions now have an included security network feature, and it takes several layers of protection to provide comprehensive security. The software is missing several features that we’ve seen elsewhere, and just isn’t as impressive as the competition.
Scope of Protection:
Cyber Defender Early Detection Center is equipped to protect your PC from a number of threats, including viruses, worms, Trojans and spyware.
Effectiveness:
The strength of the early NETWORK system is in the sheer number of users, and CyberDefender has plenty. Each user PC serves as a lookout for everyone else (don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything). And while this distinctive approach is effective, it needs a healthy dose of additional security measures to ensure better protection.
Features:
One great feature from Cyber Defender is the integrated early MONITOR. This utility not only keeps an eye on your firewall, but keeps you up to date on the most recent security vulnerabilities (and essential patches) from Microsoft.
Cyber Terrorism:-
If you ask 10 people what ‘cyber terrorism’ is, you will get at least nine different answers! When those 10 people are computer security experts, whose task it is to create various forms of protection against ‘cyber terrorism’, this discrepancy moves from comedic to rather worrisome. When these 10 people represent varied factions of the governmental agencies tasked with protecting our national infrastructure and assets, it becomes a critical issue. However, given the lack of documented scientific support to incorporate various aspects of computer-related crime into the genre ‘cyber terrorism’, this situation should not be surprising.
When a government’s or corporation’s entire infrastructure may be at stake, subjectivity is useful but may not be the best evaluative tool.
At the same time, research of this phenomenon shows that cyber terrorism cannot easily be defined. This creates a Catch-22 situation: the thing cannot be defined — yet without defining it, one cannot ‘know’ what it is one is fighting and hence come up with a good solution. Furthermore, even when there is an operational agreement on terms, if an attack/security event does not fit into one of the (often narrowly defined) categories, funding (and consequently investigation or technical remedy) may not be forthcoming.