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Ann Coulter: Here are the nutcases who believe in ‘replacement’ – Marshall News Messenger

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

The Great Replacement Theory (GRT) has taken the media by storm! It seems that the white racist who shot up a grocery store full of Black people last weekend cited GRT in his 180-page manifesto.

First of all, journalists need to understand that GRT is only a theory taught in advanced law school seminars. It is not something designed for indoctrination of mass audiences of young people.

So what is GRT? The New York Times describes it thus:

[T]he notion that Western elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, want to replace and disempower white Americans. (You want a conspiracy theory about a secretive cabal of Jews? Check out the Times series of articles on neoconservatives back in the early 2000s.)

But then just as every argument about abortion suddenly becomes an argument about contraception a few paragraphs later, the crackpot theory jumps from a Jewish cabal replacing whites with Blacks ... to the idea that Democrats are using immigration for electoral gains.

Wow, that is nuts! Whered anybody get that idea?

Oh yeah from liberals.

Heres Democratic consultant Patrick Reddy in 1998:

The 1965 Immigration Reform Act promoted by President Kennedy, drafted by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and pushed through the Senate by Ted Kennedy has resulted in a wave of immigration from the Third World that should shift the nation in a more liberal direction within a generation. It will go down as the Kennedy familys greatest gift to the Democratic Party.

(Well, sure, if you want to totally overlook skirt-chasing and pill-popping.)

Then in 2002, Democrats Ruy Teixeira and John Judis wrote The Emerging Democratic Majority, arguing that demographic changes, mostly by immigration, were putting Democrats on a glide path to an insuperable majority. After Obamas reelection in 2012, Teixeira crowed in The Atlantic (which was then a magazine that people read, as opposed to a billionaire widows charity) that ten years farther down this road, Obama lost the white vote outright, but won the election with the minority vote African-Americans (93-6), Hispanics (71-27) and Asian-Americans (73-26).

A year later, the National Journals Ron Brownstein began touting the Coalition of the Ascendant, gloating that Democrats didnt need blue-collar whites anymore. Woo hoo! Obama lost more than three-fifths of noncollege whites and whites older than 45. But who cares? He crushed with minorities (a combined 80 percent).

Adios, Reagan Democrats, he says gleefully.

Democratic pollster Stanley Greenbergs 2019 book, RIP GOP, explains the coming death of the Republican Party as a result of ... sucking up to Wall Street? Pushing pointless wars? Endlessly cutting taxes? NO! The GOPs demise would come from the fact that our country is hurtling toward a New America that is ever more racially and culturally diverse ... more immigrant and foreign born.

And these were the genteel, nonthreatening descriptions of how immigration was consigning white voters to the Aztec graveyard of history.

On MSNBC, theyre constantly sneering about old white men and celebrating the browning of America. A group called Battleground Texas boasts about flipping that deep red state to the Democrats simply by getting more Hispanics to vote. Blogs are giddily titled, The Irrelevant South (the traditional white South socially and economically conservative is no longer relevant in national politics). MSNBCs Joy Ann Reid tweets that she is giddy watching all the bitter old white guys as Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history.

This week, the medias leading expert on the crazies who believe in replacement theory is Tim Wise, popping up on both MSNBC and CNN to psychoanalyze the white racists. Hes been quoted, cited or praised dozens of times in The New York Times. This isnt some fringe character, despite appearances.

In 2010, Wise wrote an Open Letter to the White Right that began:

For all yall rich folks, enjoy that champagne, or whatever fancy a Scotch you drink.

And for yall a bit lower on the economic scale, enjoy your Pabst Blue Ribbon, or whatever sy a beer you favor ...

Because your time is limited.

Real dd limited.

Guess why! Wise explained:

Wait, isnt math racist? But moving on ...

Because youre on the endangered list.

And unlike, say, the bald eagle or some exotic species of muskrat, you are not worth saving.

In 40 years or so, maybe fewer, there wont be any more white people around who actually remember that Leave It to Beaver ...

Have you ever noticed how obsessed liberals are with Leave It to Beaver?

Its OK. Because in about 40 years, half the country will be black or brown. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Nothing, Senor Tancredo.

After several more paragraphs of mocking white people, Wise ended with this stirring conclusion:

We just have to be patient.

And wait for you to pass into that good night, first politically, and then, well ...

The sound of your empire dying? Your nation, as you knew it, ending, permanently?

Because I do, and the sound of its demise is beautiful.

To Wise, the best way to kill the antisemitic trope of Jewish elites waging war against whites is to be a Jewish elite waging war against whites.

I dont know about the Jewish cabal version of GRT, but as for liberals using immigration to bring in more Democratic voters, as Maya Angelou said, When people show you who they are, believe them.

Speaking of theories involving Jewish cabals ...

The New York Times on neoconservatives, Aug. 4, 2003:

For the past few weeks, U.S. President George W. Bush has been surrounded by a secretive circle of advisers and public relations experts, giving rise to all kinds of conspiracy theories and debates. Its been said that the groups idol is German Jewish philosopher Leo Strauss.

Ann Coulter is a syndicated columnist.

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Ann Coulter: Here are the nutcases who believe in 'replacement' - Marshall News Messenger

Review: Heres the Deal, by Kellyanne Conway – The New York Times

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

HERES THE DEAL: A Memoir, by Kellyanne Conway

Can this marriage be saved? That was the name of a long-running couples counseling column in the defunct magazine Ladies Home Journal, a onetime client of Kellyanne Conways. And its a question that hovers over Conways new memoir, Heres the Deal, its title seeming to assure the kind of straight dope that her former boss Donald J. Trumps ghostwritten chest-thumper, The Art of the Deal (1987), did not deliver.

There is some of that, but also familiarly dizzying spin.

Encouraged in her telling by Trump himself (Write a great book, honey), this is but the latest of the squazillion accounts to splash down from his presidential administration, for which the author was campaign manager, senior counselor and frequent media representative in what she calls, as if it were a rocky theme-park ride, the wildest adventure of my life. Conway clutches policy like a flotation device, but keeps drifting back to the home front in this book.

Introduced by Ann Coulter, the conservative fellow pundette she met while making the cable TV rounds in the late 1990s, Conway and her husband, George T. Conway III, a lawyer, had a Concorde courtship it was intrigue at first sight, she writes and eventually an amazing wedding (the Viennese dessert selection is noted) and an apartment in Trump World Tower. They were blessed by Pope John Paul II on their honeymoon and later with four children, including fraternal twins. More than a decade later, a few months into the highest profile job shed ever had and without any preparatory pillow talk, he who had helped to impeach Bill Clinton and had seemed to cheer the Make America Great Again platform dove onto Twitter and started posting disapprovingly about her boss.

The duplicity of it stung me, Conway writes. Of course it did.

Before long George was telling her You work for a madman in a loud, sinister voice, dramatically ramping up his online output in a manner she found obsessive and helping to found the Lincoln Project, a committee to not re-elect the president she was so close to. Bristling at personal questions from curious journalists, which she perceives as sexist, Conway borrows from both Julius Caesar Et tu, Wolf? she writes of the CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and, a few channels down on HBO, Carrie Bradshaw: Is cheating by tweeting actually a thing?In an afterword, she speculates, George and I may not survive as a couple.

Watching the chin-juttingly independent Conway toggle between her actual husband, her work husband and the Fourth Estate, this critic also flashed improbably on the TCM staple The Philadelphia Story, wherein Katharine Hepburns Tracy Lord is buffeted by mild fianc, violent ex and boyish reporter.

But though both women are fast talkers and snappy dressers with intermittently absent fathers, Lord was a blue blood from the Main Line, and Conway as shell proudly remind you is a Blueberry Pageant Princess raised in Atco, N.J., a tiny town between Philly and Atlantic City. The Golden Girls is what she calls the four Italian Catholic women who raised her, and Kellyanne was also a kind of golden girl: popular, athletic and the valedictorian of her high school who was soon volunteering on Capitol Hill. Primed to support Geraldine Ferraros vice-presidential candidacy in the 1984 election, she instead fell hard for Ronald Reagan.

Conway then known as Fitzpatrick got a law degree; she had enjoyed playing judge, prosecutor, defense counsel and all the witnesses in a mock courtroom as her dolls and stuffed animals sat in stunned silence and then became the E.E. Cummings of pollsters: rendering the name of a firm she founded, the Polling Company, in all lowercase on business cards before it was a hipster clich. She was good at analyzing data and hopping on prop planes to see how it was playing in Peoria; and, as amply evidenced here, she also likes wordplay: Gawk and squawk. Armful of harmful.

We dont trust her numbers, Conways mostly male competitors would sneer.

They hadnt seen my numbers, she writes. But I had their number.

Conway wants to identify and indict her underminers. She catches Steve Bannon, a serial leaker whom she portrays as doing little actual work, standing like a spring break bar bouncer and nodding his head so emphatically he looked like a bobblehead doll in a windstorm. Jared Kushner she characterizes as a hopeless silver spoonster, revisionist historian, a crown prince who used encrypted apps to literally talk to a crown prince.

But while rat-a-tat and packed in a manner to be expected from someone once known as Sally Soundbite, Conways own bid at recording history, written with a book doctor, is spotty and selective. She goes on for pages about opioid addiction and abortion, but other than fleeting mentions of the Second Amendment, completely ignores the issue of gun control, which lands terribly in a month of two massacres. She is furious about incursions of the press, including this newspaper, into her family and private life, but gives them ever more grist by fuming hyper-specifically about her husbands foibles. Though she scorns angry feminists wearing pink hats and yoga pants, her own triumphs over doubting Thomases, the overbilling nonwizards of Ozzes behind Mitt Romneys failed 2012 presidential campaign, are satisfying, in the way a Jacqueline Susann heroine is satisfying.

Ladies, how many times do we feel less-than? she writes. Or apologize even though we did or said nothing wrong? Pass it on: Being you is enough! And once is not enough, as Susann put it but this is real life.

Pass it on: Though its hardly short, this book isnt remotely the whole story, nor is it likely to be the last volume of the Conway Chronicles.

Alexandra Jacobs is a book critic and the author of Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch. @AlexandraJacobs

HERES THE DEAL: A Memoir, by Kellyanne Conway | 512 pp. | Threshold Editions | $30

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Review: Heres the Deal, by Kellyanne Conway - The New York Times

Anti-hate group speaks out against antisemitic incident in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills – Los Angeles Times

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

Days after a group of people dressed in clothing reminiscent of Nazi brownshirts drove a rented box truck displaying hateful messages down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, a watchdog group is speaking out against the incident and says it has identified the hate group and two of its members.

According to StopAntisemitism, an organization that works to expose people and groups that engage in antisemitic behavior, the group responsible for Saturdays incident is the Goyim Defense League.

The organization also named two people who were captured on video participating in the hateful rally: Jon Minadeo II and Robert Frank Wilson.

We are horrified that innocent bystanders in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, Jewish and otherwise, were subjected to such vile and atrocious hate, Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told The Times on Monday. When white supremacists like the Goyim Defense League are allowed to spread this type of vile bigotry without any pushback, then it normalizes Jew hatred and sends the message that this is tolerable.

Neither Beverly Hills police nor the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, which responded to the incident, have identified the group or any participants.

StopAntisemitism said it identified the two men based off of physical appearance.

The group also said the antisemitic messaging on the truck has been noted in prior incidents involving the hate group, including in March when Wilson was seen driving in San Diego in a similar truck.

The GDL has also been responsible for passing around antisemitic fliers as well as hanging signs with hate-filled rhetoric on freeway overpasses, StopAntisemitism said.

Sheriffs Sgt. Joana Warren told The Times on Sunday that investigators identified the trucks license plate and were working to identify who rented it.

A Sheriffs Department spokesperson told The Times on Monday that the incident remains under investigation and said she couldnt share any more information.

The Goyim Defense League is a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The group includes five or six primary organizers/public figures, dozens of supporters and thousands of online followers.

It was responsible for at least 74 antisemitic propaganda incidents in 2021, the Anti-Defamation League said.

According to an account of Saturdays incident by StopAntisemitism, the truck was parked in the driveway of the Beverly Hilton hotel, where Minadeo, Wilson and two other members of the hate group dressed in clothing resembling that of the brownshirts in Nazi Germany were seen parading and shouting The Nazis are coming and here comes Jew boy ... were going to make you go extinct.

Another video captures an encounter between the group and a law enforcement officer, StopAntisemitism said. A member of the hate group says Holocaust denial ... 6 million, thats an exaggeration.

The person then thanks the officer, calling him a good goy, StopAntisemitism said.

The truck bore hate-filled messages such as Ann Coulter was right about Jews and Resisting the Great Replacement = Greatest Threat?

The so-called great replacement conspiracy theory is a racist philosophy espoused by white nationalists.

FBI statistics show that Jews continue to be the most targeted minority in the U.S. and that antisemitic crimes are on the rise, Rez said.

Yet, Jews are often overlooked when discussing issues of civil rights and social justice because they are categorized as a model class minority and are inaccurately portrayed as a privileged group, she said. Hateful individuals, both among fringe groups but also in the mainstream, then use this perception as an excuse to attack Jews.

The privileged perception of Jewish people leads to antisemitism not drawing the same level of attention as discrimination against other groups, Rez said, adding that her organization is working to ensure that antisemitism is given equal attention and combatted with the same level of fervor.

The lack of fear that white supremacists have should be frightening to everyone, she said.

Police investigating juveniles possibly connected to Garden District robberies – BRProud.com

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

UPDATE: The Baton Rouge Police Department says that at least three to four juveniles have been arrested for a separate crime but are being investigated for potentially being connected to the armed robberies in the Garden District.

The police want residents to stay vigilant and alert to any suspicious activity.

ORIGINAL STORY: BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) Residents in the Garden District are looking over their shoulders after a string of robberies.

I couldnt believe it was only two houses down and across the street from me, said Kristen Macmurdo, a Garden District resident.

Marty Johnson says she saw shocking videos on her Nextdoor app. She says one of her neighbors was robbed and then beaten. She saw others being robbed at gunpoint.

I never thought we would experience this in this neighborhood, said Johnson. Its personal when you cant even leave your house and get into your car safely.

The Baton Rouge Police Department says the suspects are believed to be young Black males carrying weapons. They may be driving a white or a maroon car. Neighbors say several cars have been stolen.

Resident Christine Kooi says she witnessed people trying to leave the neighborhood after a robbery. She says crime often picks up in the summer, but never like this.

It was a white Toyota with a loose front bumper tearing down Cherokee Street towards Park. As the car got to Park, it stopped and a couple of guys jumped out and fiddled with the front bumper, she said.

Garden District Civic Association member Michael Helms says the board is working closely with BRPD. Helms says this neighborhood is in shock because they rarely see crime.

We are gathering information and passing it out to them (BRPD), said Helms. And then also reaching out to our community members, giving them somebody to talk to about their concerns.

Some long-time residents are calling on city-parish leaders to focus more on education and gun control in order to reduce crime.

I think we need a lot more strict requirements for anybody to have a weapon, said Ann Coulter, a Garden District resident.

Residents say they are hopeful police are doing their job. And in the meantime, they are taking it upon themselves to take an extra step to stay safe.

My husband and I went to dinner last night, the first thing we did when we got home was turn on our brights and look in the bushes because at this point, you know, we dont know, said Macmurdo.

Anyone having information on these robberies is urged to contact the Baton Rouge Police Department at 225-389-2000 or Crime Stoppers at 225-344-7867.

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Police investigating juveniles possibly connected to Garden District robberies - BRProud.com

Asymmetric Encryption: What It Is & Why Your Security Depends on It – Hashed Out by The SSL Store

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

From securing websites to signing software, youll find asymmetric cryptography (including encryption) in use virtually everywhere online. Heres what you need to know about the cryptographic process that helps keep your data secure online

Asymmetric encryption is the backbone of internet security. Without it, stealing your critically sensitive data is as easy as taking candy from a baby for most cybercriminals. Weve seen plenty of the painful reminders over the last few years in data breaches that resulted from expired SSL/TLS certificates. (Hence why we always talk about the importance of certificate management to avoid these issues.)

But what is asymmetric encryption? Well start with a quick public key encryption definition before moving on to explore this more technical topic at length. Dont worry, well try to keep this briefer than our usual tome-style explanatory posts.

Lets hash it out.

To put it simply, asymmetric encryption encrypts and decrypts the data shared between two parties in public, insecure channels (like the internet). This process involves using two separate but related keys. In a nutshell, its all about securing your sensitive information to keep it out of the hands of unauthorized users or entities (e.g., cybercriminals) when you need to upload it to a website, send it via email, etc.

Asymmetric encryption is also part of whats known as asymmetric key cryptography and public key cryptography because the two keys used are mathematically related but unique (hence, asymmetric):

Heres a basic look at how this process occurs using the two keys:

Frankly, asymmetric encryption is a term that sounds more complex and intimidating than it actually is. Once you understand the basics, the whole thing will make a lot more sense. But if all of this is a bit hard to grasp, lets imagine that you have a special safe that uses two locks one key locks the safe and the other opens it. Likewise with asymmetric encryption, anyone who has access to the public key can use it to encrypt data, but only the person who has access to the private key can decrypt that information.

Asymmetric encryption is at the heart of a framework known as public key infrastructure. We arent going to get into the specifics of how PKI works because, frankly, describing it in every article is a bit of a time suck and gets monotonous. So, well just give you a quick summary before moving on: PKI is the foundation of technologies, policies, and processes that enables us to send sensitive data securely across the internet. It relies on a combination of public- and private-key algorithms, digital certificates, and policies.

The purpose of encryption is to ensure that any sensitive data you want to share with a specific person is kept secret to everyone except your intended recipient. This is necessary because we live in a time when we share and transmit data via multiple ISPs and routers, and many miles of cables beneath the oceans.

Historically, you used to have to meet up with someone face to face to exchange messages or secret keys to unlock future communications. (This is known as key distribution.) This process typically required taking a horse, boat or train to meet up with the other party to give them a copy of your secret key. But with the internet, these time-consuming rendezvous needed to exchange communications have been replaced with near-instant digital communications via the internet.

This is all fine and dandy except for one (not so teensy) little issue: the internet is incredibly insecure. Without a way for users to securely exchange keys to encrypt their data, then anyone could intercept the communications in transit. Asymmetric encryption solves this key distribution issue by creating a way to securely exchange keys (or key-related data) without ever having to meet the other party in person.

Encryption works by applying a complex mathematical formula to your original plain text (readable) data to convert it into a long, indecipherable data string. So, if you took the message I cant wait for season 4 of Stranger Things! and encrypted it using a 2048-bit RSA public key (more on RSA later), youd wind up with a gibberish message that looks like this:

Clearly, this isnt something that any human being can make heads or tails of in terms of deciphering the message thats a good thing when it comes to keeping your sensitive information secret. The good news is that computers allow us to use encryption keys this size and larger to encrypt data in a secure way so that unauthorized users cant access it.

What makes this even better news is that even if a bad guy tried using a modern supercomputer to try to crack the key, theyd still be out of luck. This is because the sheer computational processing resources and time required would span far longer than their entire lifetime and the lifetimes of many generations of family members that follow i.e., were talking millions of years here.

Well talk you through the process of how asymmetric key encryption works later in the article. But for now, we want to point out that asymmetric key encryption isnt the only tool we have up our sleeves when it comes to PKI

Technically, asymmetric encryption could be used on its own as a way to send and receive data. But why would you want to do that? Its just too bulky and resource-intensive to be used for that purpose at scale. (Not good for large businesses that handle a lot of connections to their websites and services.) This is why, in many cases, asymmetric encryption is used initially as a way to securely exchange sensitive data between two parties before they switch to using symmetric encryption for the rest of the exchange.

Symmetric encryption, or whats sometimes called symmetric key encryption, uses just one key for both for data encryption and decryption. This means that theres only a single key that must be kept secure hence, why this method of encryption is known as private key encryption or secret key encryption.

Symmetric encryption is faster and also is thought to be more secure than asymmetric encryption when the parties are using smaller key sizes. (When using large key sizes, asymmetric encryption wipes the floor with symmetric encryption but does so at the cost of speed.) But each cryptographic approach has its uses and applications. Check out our other article to learn more about the difference between asymmetric vs symmetric encryption.

So now that we know what asymmetric key encryption is and have a basic idea of what it does, lets explore a few examples of how you can use it to improve your organizations data security:

Algorithms are, basically, the instructions that computers use to solve a problem. Asymmetric key encryption algorithms come in different flavors or varieties for you to choose from. But you cant take a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to selecting the right asymmetric encryption algorithms to meet your needs.

Of course, there are clear differences between many of these asymmetric key algorithms how they operate, what their specific key lengths and security strengths are, etc. You have to choose the right one based on your needs or use cases. Lets quickly explore two of the most common public key encryption algorithms:

Of course, RSA isnt the only asymmetric key exchange algorithm. Here are a few other notable algorithms worth mentioning for secure remote key distribution as well:

To learn more about each of the different types of asymmetric algorithms, be sure to check back with us over the next few months. Well publish an article that will focus on that exact topic (much like what we did with symmetric encryption algorithms).

Asymmetric encryption between two parties works by using a public key to encrypt data and a private key to decrypt it. The process looks something like this:

If you were to break down what this process looks like, lets consider the Stranger Things example from earlier. Lets say I want to send you the following message: I cant wait for season 4 of Stranger Things! (Not sure why this message would be sensitive enough to require encryption, but lets just run with it.) In this case, Ill use your public key (which looks something like this when using a 2048-bit RSA key) to decrypt the data:

When you apply it to the message, youll wind up with the data string we showed you earlier:

Obviously, you wont know what Im saying with the message still encrypted. Youll then use your private key, which is considerably longer to decrypt the data string:

This will then decrypt the data and allow you to read the original plain text message.

Dont worry, well cover all of this more in depth in a future article. Stay tuned for that!

Alright, weve droned on enough about asymmetric cryptography and its corresponding encryption and key exchange algorithms. Hopefully, youll leave this article with greater knowledge of asymmetric cryptosystems than you started with.

Asymmetric encryption and key exchange algorithms are the cornerstones of modern public key infrastructure. Without them, there would be no way to remotely exchange sensitive or otherwise secret information via public channels like the internet. Wed still be using clandestine face-to-face meetings like stereotypical spies from Hollywood films.

Understanding what asymmetric encryption is and how it all works is the first step to helping strengthen your organizations cyber defenses. When you realize the importance of managing your certificates and protecting your cryptographic keys, itll help you avoid many of the pitfalls that help companies make unflattering headlines due to data breaches and other security incidents.

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Asymmetric Encryption: What It Is & Why Your Security Depends on It - Hashed Out by The SSL Store

Workspace: You will soon be able to copy encrypted documents, spreadsheets, or presentations – Chrome Unboxed

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

Google Workspace admins and organizations have the option to enable client-side encryption for files in their domain. This encryption encodes and provides another layer of security beyond the standard AES 256-bit encryption that Google Drive provides to files that are considered confidential. However, some restrictions come with encrypted files such as the ability to comment or edit being limited to one person at a time.

However, one of the known restrictions to encrypted files is now being lifted making a copy of it. You will now be able to make a copy of an existing encrypted Doc, Sheet, or Slide by clicking on File > Make a copy, just as you can for non-encrypted files. This will allow teams to have pre-saved files that can be used as templates or a baseline for new files.

This feature will begin its gradual two-week rollout on May 26th, 2022, for Rapid Release domains, while Scheduled Release domains wont start seeing it until June 9th, 2022. Unfortunately, the feature will only be available to Google Workspace customers on the Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus tiers.

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Workspace: You will soon be able to copy encrypted documents, spreadsheets, or presentations - Chrome Unboxed

Information Encryption and 3D Optical Storage in Glass – AZoM

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

A team of researchers recently published a paper in the journal ACS Energy Letters that demonstrated a new entirely photostimulation-induced reversible photochromic glass for three-dimensional (3D) optical storage applications.

Study:Entirely Reversible Photochromic Glass with High Coloration and Luminescence Contrast for 3D Optical Storage. Image Credit:Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com

The significant growth of digital information in the modern era has necessitated the development of high-density storage media and optical storage technologies. Although several new optical storage technologies, such as multiwavelength optical storage, holographic optical storage, super-resolution optical storage, and near-field optical storage, have been developed, these technologies require sophisticated manipulation and expensive equipment, which restricted their use in many practical applications.

Photochromism has gained significant attention as an effective optical storage technology. The phenomenon is described as the photostimulation-induced reversible color change of materials. Currently, photochromic ceramics and thin films are used extensively for optical storage applications. However, these two-dimensional (2D) photochromic storage media lack high storage capacity as the optical information is only recorded on their surface.

The integration of multiple dimensions such as luminescence, phase, wavelength, and space into a single optical carrier can potentially increase the storage capacity. Glass, a versatile material with good transparency, is considered a suitable alternative for multidimensional optical storage applications. Thus, a high optical storage capacity can be achieved in photochromic glass in 3D bulk dimensions.

Lanthanide (Ln) ion-doped luminescent glasses have demonstrated significant potential for applications in the fields of nonlinear optics, energy storage, 3D displays, solid-state lasers, and optical communication. Recently, the luminescence in Ln-ion doped glasses was modulated successfully. For instance, the optical storage application and luminescence modification were achieved through the transformation of the valence state from samarium (III) ion (Sm3+) to Sm2+ when an Sm3+ -doped glass was illuminated using an 800 nm femtosecond laser.

Double-model rewritable optical storage can be realized by integrating luminescence modification and photochromism into a bulk glass. Thus, photochromic glasses with luminescence modification can potentially act as an alternative optical storage media.

For instance, a rare earth (RE) ion-doped photochromic tungsten phosphate glass demonstrated a 3D optical storage capacity and information encryption based on the reversible transformation of valence state from tungsten ion (W6+) to W5+. However, the glass was bleached using thermal stimulation, which restricted its applications. Thus, a completely photostimulation-induced reversible photochromic glass could be an attractive option for 3D optical storage applications as it does not require thermal treatment.

In this study, researchers synthesized an entirely photostimulation-induced reversible photochromic germanium borate glass doped with (RE-Ag) using the conventional melt-quenching method. The reversible photochromism mechanisms of the synthesized RE-Ag germanium borate glass were thoroughly evaluated under alternating simulation between a 690 nm laser light and 365 nm ultraviolet (UV) light by determining the decomposition and formation of Ag nanoparticles in the RE-Ag germanium borate glass host.

Dysprosium (III) oxide, europium (III) fluoride, AgCl, cuprous oxide, strontium carbonate, zinc oxide, boron trioxide, aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, and germanium dioxide were used as raw materials to prepare Ag- and RE ions/dysprosium ion (Dy3+) or europium ion (Eu3+) ion-doped germanium borate glasses.

Initially, the raw materials were weighed, mixed, and ground using an agate mortar. Then, the obtained mixtures were melted at 1300 C for 30 min in an alumina crucible under an ambient atmosphere.

Subsequently, the glass melt was transferred to a stainless-steel container preheated at 350 C and left undisturbed for 20 min. The as-prepared bulk glasses were then heat-treated for one h at 600 C to crystallize AgCl nanocrystals. The rectangular glass was finally obtained by grinding and polishing.

An X-ray diffractometer, transmission electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscope, infrared spectrometer, paramagnetic resonance spectrometer, Hitachi F-7000 spectrophotometer using a xenon (Xe) lamp as the light source, and an Edinburgh FLS 980 instrument were used to characterize the synthesized glass.

Researchers successfully synthesized an entirely photostimulation-induced reversible photochromic RE-Ag germanium borate glass. The germanium borate glass possessed a high defect tolerance and a less rigid environment, which was beneficial for the AgCl nanocrystal precipitation from borosilicate glasses. The photostimulation-induced reversible color change was attributed to the decomposition and precipitation of Ag microcrystals in the glass host.

Intricate optical information patterns were erased and written in the photostimulated glass by alternating a 690 nm laser and 365 nm UV light. An optical information readout was realized after the UV light irradiation by exciting the glass using an excitation light from a Xe lamp.

Both luminescence modulation and photochromic behavior properties demonstrated high repeatability and fatigue resistance. The change of the Ag element valence state was primarily responsible for the photochromic mechanism. The Ag nanoparticle precipitation due to UV light irradiation induced darkening of the glass.

In the Eu3+-doped germanium borate (Eu-Ag) glass, the reversible downshifted luminescence modification was attained due to decolorization and photochromism. The reversible photochromism/coloration contrast from transparent to black and luminescence modulation was 91% and 93%, respectively, when the glass was alternatively irradiated by 365 nm UV light and 690 nm laser light for 30 s.

Taken together, the findings of this study demonstrated that the synthesized photostimulation-induced AgCl and RE-ion doped photochromic glass possesses a significant potential for information encryption and storage applications.

More from AZoM: Use and Applications of Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Liao, J., Xiao, D., Zhao, H. et al. Entirely Reversible Photochromic Glass with High Coloration and Luminescence Contrast for 3D Optical Storage. ACS Energy Letters 2022. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00574

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Information Encryption and 3D Optical Storage in Glass - AZoM

EXPLAINER: Social media and the Texas shooters messages – 25 News KXXV and KRHD

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

Could technology companies have monitored ominous messages made by a gunman who Texas authorities say massacred 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school? Could they have warned the authorities?

Answers to these questions remain unclear, in part because official descriptions of the shooting and the gunmans social media activity have continued to evolve. For instance, on Thursday Texas officials made significant revisions to their timeline of events for the shooting.

But if nothing else, the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, seems highly likely to focus additional attention on how social platforms monitor what users are saying to and showing each other.

A day after the Tuesday shooting, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said this: There was no meaningful forewarning of this crime other than what Im about to tell you: As of this time the only information that was known in advance was posted by the gunman on Facebook approximately 30 minutes before reaching the school.

Facebook posts are typically distributed to a wide audience. Shortly thereafter, Facebook stepped in to note that the gunman sent one-to-one direct messages, not public posts, and that they werent discovered until after the terrible tragedy.

HOW DID THE GUNMAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

By Thursday, new questions arose as to which and how many tech platforms the gunman used in the days before the shooting. The governors office referred questions about the gunmans online messages to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which didnt respond to emailed requests for comment.

Some reports appear to show that at least some of the gunmans communications used Apples encrypted iPhone messaging services, which makes messages almost impossible for anyone else to read when sent to another iPhone user. Facebook parent company Meta, which also owns Instagram, says it is working with law enforcement but declined to provide details. Apple didnt respond to requests for comment.

The latest mass shootings in the U.S. by active social-media users may bring more pressure on technology companies to heighten their scrutiny of online communications, even though conservative politicians Abbott among them are also pushing social platforms to relax their restrictions on some speech.

COULD TECH COMPANIES HAVE CAUGHT THE SHOOTERS MESSAGES?

It would depend on which services Salvador Ramos used. A series of posts appeared on his Instagram in the days leading up to the shooting, including photos of a gun magazine in hand and two AR-style semi-automatic rifles. An Instagram user who was tagged in one post shared parts of what appears to be a chilling exchange on Instagram with Ramos, asking her to share his gun pictures with her more than 10,000 followers.

Meta has said it monitors peoples private messages for some kinds of harmful content, such as links to malware or images of child sexual exploitation. But copied images can be detected using unique identifiers a kind of digital signature which makes them relatively easy for computer systems to flag. Trying to interpret a string of threatening words which can resemble a joke, satire or song lyrics is a far more difficult task for artificial intelligence systems.

Facebook could, for instance, flag certain phrases such as going to kill or going to shoot, but without context something AI in general has a lot of trouble with there would be too many false positives for the company to analyze. So Facebook and other platforms rely on user reports to catch threats, harassment and other violations of the law or their own policies.

SOCIAL PLATFORMS LOCK UP THEIR MESSAGES

Even this kind of monitoring could soon be obsolete, since Meta plans to roll out end-to-end-encryption on its Facebook and Instagram messaging systems next year. Such encryption means that no one other than the sender and the recipient not even Meta can decipher peoples messages. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, already uses such encryption.

A recent Meta-commissioned report emphasized the benefits of such privacy but also noted some risks -- including users who could abuse the encryption to sexually exploit children, facilitate human trafficking and spread hate speech.

Apple has long had end-to-end encryption on its messaging system. That has brought the iPhone maker into conflict with the Justice Department over messaging privacy. After the deadly shooting of three U.S. sailors at a Navy installation in December 2019, the Justice Department insisted that investigators needed access to data from two locked and encrypted iPhones that belonged to the alleged gunman, a Saudi aviation student.

Security experts say this could be done if Apple were to engineer a backdoor to allow access to messages sent by alleged criminals. Such a secret key would let them decipher encrypted information with a court order.

But the same experts warned that such backdoors into encryption systems make them inherently insecure. Just knowing that a backdoor exists is enough to focus the worlds spies and criminals on discovering the mathematical keys that could unlock it. And when they do, everyones information is essentially vulnerable to anyone with the secret key.

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EXPLAINER: Social media and the Texas shooters messages - 25 News KXXV and KRHD

7 Questions Answered About WhatsApp Backup End-to-end Encryption – Gadgets To Use

May 28, 2022 | Author: admin

WhatsApp, these days, focuses more and more on the data privacy of users. After the chats, the messenger will now offer protection for backups too. So, now you can lock your WhatsApp backup with a password or 64-digit encryption key. Interestingly, this WhatsApp encryption is similar to what the company offers for its messages and calls.

To recall, WhatsApp chats and calls are end-to-end encrypted, so no one, except for you, can read your data. WhatsApp backups are also end-to-end encrypted now, so these will also have the same level of security. Read on to know more!

First of all, install the latest version of WhatsApp on your phone, and then follow these steps to make your backups end-to-end encrypted.

1. Open WhatsApp and tap on three dots and go to Settings.

2. Now select Chats and next tap on Chat Backup.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and you will see End-to-end Encrypted Backup.

4. Tap on Turn On.

5. Now if you want to create a password, tap on the Create Password option.

6. Choose a password thats at least 6-character long with a letter. Tap on Next.

7. Youll need to enter it again and tap on Create to save it.

WhatsApp encryption for your chat backups would be turned on immediately.

1. Alternatively, you can Use 64-digit Encryption Key instead to generate a unique key.

2. Tap on Show Key and then write it down. Then tap on Continue.

3. Lastly, tap on Yes, Continue.

Thats it! Now when you try to restore your backup, you will be asked to enter your password.

If you cant remember your password, you can change the password later. Please note that you can enter your password or key wrong only five times and after these many attempts, youll have to wait for some time.

Follow the steps mentioned below to change your WhatsApp backup password:

1. Go to WhatsApp settings.

2. Now select Chats and tap on Chat Backup.

3. Scroll down and tap on End-to-end encrypted backup.

4. Now select Change Password.

5. Tap I forgot my password and then verify your identity with your biometrics or PIN.

You can now create a new password for your WhatsApp backup.

You can access your WhatsApp backups like you normally do. You can restore it from your Google Drive or iCloud account anytime with the use of the backup password. If you choose to proceed without restoring a backup, that backup will still be there and you can access it whenever you reinstall WhatsApp on any other device.

This happens only in a case when you cant remember your backup password. When you are restoring your chats and dont have access to your WhatsApp backup password, you wont be able to access it.

Unfortunately, no! If you somehow lose your password or key, not even WhatsApp can help you. Since end-to-end encryption uses your unique key, it can only be decrypted with the same key. So, no, WhatsApp wont be able to unlock your backup.

If you cant remember a password or key, you can choose to turn off end-to-end encryption for your backup anytime. Heres how:

1. Go to WhatsApp settings.

2. Select Chats and tap Chat Backup.

3. Now go to End-to-end encrypted backup.

4. Select Turn Off and tap on I forgot my password.

5. Verify your identity with your biometrics or device PIN and tap Turn off.

6. Lastly tap on Done.

Thats all. You can turn it back on at any time.

This was all about WhatsApp backup end-to-end encryption. For more such tips, follow us on social media!

You can also follow us for instant tech news atGoogle Newsor for tips and tricks, smartphones & gadgets reviews, joinGadgetsToUse Telegram Group, or for the latest review videos, subscribeGadgetsToUse YouTube Channel.

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7 Questions Answered About WhatsApp Backup End-to-end Encryption - Gadgets To Use

Considering Quantum Computing May Decrypt All Encryptions in the Near Future, This company May Make a Difference – FX Empire

May 27, 2022 | Author: admin

However, researchers are racing against the clock to develop new encryption systems because quantum computers can break existing ones.

According to a recent study by Forbes, a large-scale quantum computer might break existing public-key cryptography eight years from now with its power of quickly computing prime factors.

Craig Gidney of Google and Martin Ekera of KTH revealed an entirely new method of calculating prime factors using quantum computers, which might cut the calculation time from trillions of years to just eight hours. This is not good news for present asymmetric encryption techniques and necessitates using more powerful cryptographic systems or cryptosystems. The National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States began accepting public proposals in 2016, with the final standard due in 2022 or 2023.

In this paradigm shift Hub Security (Tel Aviv: HUB) is one of the few companies that has already developed a solution for this and is even collaborating with key corporations and countries such as the United States and Israel.

Hub Security is an Israeli company redefining cyber security by using quantum-powered secret computing and has been awarded FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification, the highest level of security for cryptographic modules in the United States. Hub protects critical commercial and government information in over 30 countries by providing revolutionary cybersecurity computing solutions and a wide range of cybersecurity professional services.

The company partnered with Getronics, a global ICT integrator, in December 2021 to provide secure compute protection to banks and organizations in the European Union, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. Hub Security also announced in January that it would provide a new quantum security solution in partnership with QuantLR, a quantum technology research firm, to protect sensitive information in the cloud to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

Recently, the company agreed to merge with SPAC Mount Rainier Acquisition Corp. (RNER) on March 23 to go public in the United States. Generally, merging with a SPAC reduces the risk of IPO failure. It is also a perfect fit for a private company looking to expand its funding pool and connect with investors interested in investing in a disruptive business. The merger is scheduled to be complete in the third quarter of this year and allows investors to fund the idea of disrupting the cybersecurity industry.

Once the proposed deal is finalized, the combined company will operate under Hub Security and be listed on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol HUBC. Following the merger, existing shareholders of the company will own more than 75% of the company. Hub Security executives believe the transaction will help the company obtain the transparency and credibility it needs to compete in the Fortune 500 category in the coming years.

Technological advancements offer new opportunities to grow, but at the same time, investors should ideally focus on new developments that could potentially take down existing IT infrastructure and systems. As empirical evidence suggests, threats of this nature will often be nullified by young companies with groundbreaking innovations. Hub Security could be one such company to revolutionize the cybersecurity industry in the future.

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Considering Quantum Computing May Decrypt All Encryptions in the Near Future, This company May Make a Difference - FX Empire

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EXPLAINER: Social media and the Texas shooters messages – 25 News KXXV and KRHD

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Considering Quantum Computing May Decrypt All Encryptions in the Near Future, This company May Make a Difference – FX Empire

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