Cloud Hosting

On July 14, three acclaimed teams of designers presented preliminary ideas about how to transform the Benjamin Franklin Parkway into a 21st century public space. Two issues deserve critical consideration: mobility and public art.

At the core of the design effort is the citys aim to make the Parkway into a More Park, Less Way destination for Philadelphians and visitors to enjoy on a year-round basis. True to this aim, all three teams presented a long-term, vehicle-free vision for the Parkway. Ideas ranged from disengaging the Parkway from the Schuylkill Expressway access roadways, to widening the existing tunnel at the foot of the museum steps to accommodate two-way traffic, to creating a ring-road just for traffic, freeing the Parkway for pedestrians. These ideas may be worth exploring. But they are misguided.

READ MORE: Urban forest or urban boulevard? Philadelphia tries to reimagine the Parkway again.

Full disclosure: I was part of one of the teams that submitted qualifications in response to the citys request for proposals to reenvision the Parkway, but not among the finalists. The opinions expressed here are my own and reflect what I have long wanted to see in the redesign.

Its clear the Parkway needs to do a better job of managing traffic and protecting cyclists and pedestrians. But any new design should forego solutions that demand substantial and costly roadway engineering, and focus instead on traffic management that is flexible, based on intelligent and green technologies.

The technology exists today, and will only improve in the coming years, to manage traffic pedestrian and vehicular through intelligent monitoring and programming systems. These technologies would monitor traffic patterns, allowing officials to close or open Parkway lanes for vehicular traffic, change their direction, and increase or restrict volumes according to, say, rush hour demands, planned mass gatherings, and every form of usage in between. City-based alerts similar to weather alerts could be instituted to advise motorists of traffic restrictions or changes on the Parkway. We could enlist Google and Apple and other mapmakers to show desirable routes outside the Parkway when the area is inundated with pedestrians (similar to roadway construction advisories). These would be soft vs. hard improvements, potentially costing far less than a wholesale reconfiguration of the roadways.

The three selected teams also touched on art and culture. This is an essential element of any plan, given that public art is a defining Philadelphia quality.

READ MORE: Time for a more people-centered Ben Franklin Parkway | Editorial

Philadelphias Percent for Art program which stipulates that any new projects or major renovations set aside 1% of the budget for site-specific art is the oldest in the nation. It was pioneered in 1959 by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority to integrate site-specific works, nearly 400 of which have been installed. To these are added many more by the city Percent for Art program, also initiated in 1959, to say nothing of the thousands of murals implemented by Mural Arts Philadelphia. In the past decade, the PRAs Percent for Art program (of which I am a committee member) has developed specific guidelines to advance community engagement and education as an integral part of commissioned works and to gain community input in the art itself.

How can communities help create art for the Parkway? For starters, all three teams should include on the roster a public artist or public art consultant to help answer the question. More importantly, there should be an explicit recognition of the citys diversity of neighborhoods. Philadelphia is composed of many different neighborhoods with nearly 200 neighborhood names, in fact. As the citys preeminent common ground, the Parkway should manifest such diversity as a part of its physical signature. Artists could work with each neighborhood to determine how their history and culture could find expression on the Parkway, revealing in the process how the place can best be programmed and managed for all. Distinct works could then emerge over time a grand art project cementing the spirit of the city along the length of the corridor and all its adjoining spaces. The Parkway would become a must-visit hub of public art, supplementing the institutional offerings that frame it and contributing further to the citys burgeoning creative economy.

The three selected teams proposed many good ideas to activate the Parkway. All of them can coexist alongside smartly managed traffic and community-based public art.

Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa heads the Landscape Urbanism and Resilience practice at The Collaborative.

See the article here:

Improving the Ben Franklin Parkway demands smarts and art, not costly engineering | Opinion - The Philadelphia Inquirer

NINGBO, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The research field of Social Sciences (General) at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) ranks internationally in the top 1% in terms of quality, according to the latest statistical data of Essential Science Indicators (ESI) released by Clarivate. Following engineering, this is UNNCs second discipline that has entered the ESI top 1% globally.

The engineering discipline at UNNC has made its way to the top 0.5%. According to data from Clarivate, the papers that UNNC researchers have published in the field of engineering have average citations per paper of 13.51, higher than the world average of 10.17, with over half published in the world top 10% journals, 73% on top 25% journals, equivalent to the level of world-class universities.

As one of the 64 Chinese universities, UNNC entered the ESIs world top 1% in the discipline of Social Sciences (General). It refers to the overall scientific research achievements of all social science disciplines in a university, covering a wide range of subjects including management, humanities and social sciences, amongst others.

Under the category of Social Sciences (General), UNNC has published 230 papers, with average citations per paper of 7.67. Among them, a paper on Chinas sponge city programme written by Dr Faith Chan et al was the most frequently cited. Professor Martin Lius study on digital innovation, Dr Yangyang Jiangs research on the effects of COVID-19 on hotel marketing and management, and Dr Balaji Makams study on travellers' propensity to choose green hotels were all listed among Top Papers.

In addition, many of the ESI Top Papers are from the research of UNNC doctoral students, which indicates the quality of doctoral education at UNNC.

Read the original:

University of Nottingham Ningbo China Social Sciences and Engineering Rank Among Best in World - Business Wire

Social engineering and spear phishing are persistently some of the major tactics used by cybercriminals today. While companies had often patched their hardware, software, and networks with sufficient protection, emails were still a gaping access point for bad actors.

When businesses embraced remote working due to the pandemic, many organizations had to speed up their entire digital transformation process. Some organizations were prepared to be fully digitized while others were still in the process of deciding components for their transformation journey.

Company devices had to be updated with the latest patches and software, and additional access accounts for sensitive data had to be created from remote locations. While companies did also enhance their email security, cybercriminals still managed to find ways to infiltrate the system.

According to Barracuda Networks Spear Phishing: Top Threat and Trends report, between May 2020 and June 2021, researchers have analyzed over 12 million spear phishing and social engineering attacks that impacted more than 3 million mailboxes at over 17,000 organizations.

Social engineering and spear phishing attacks occur when cybercriminals lure unsuspecting users into exposing data, spreading malware infections, or unwittingly giving access to restricted systems. Nowadays the attack is often manipulated to be personalized and targeted at specific individuals in an organization.

Interestingly, the report showed that 43% of phishing attacks impersonate Microsoft brands. Other brands being impersonated include WeTransfer, DHL, and Google. As such, hackers are most likely taking advantage of the popularity of Microsofts SaaS such as Office 365. The shift to remote working over the past year also most likely contributed to the increased figures.

For cybercriminals, the end goal is to steal login credentials. Once they have access to a users account, they can use it to launch malware attacks such as ransomware or even spy on what these companies are doing, and take advantage of their data.

Compromised email accounts can cause serious damage to an organization. One example of compromised user credentials was the Colonial Oil Pipeline hack. Reports showed that the ransomware hack was enabled by compromised passwords, leading the company to paying out a US$4.5 million ransom to restore operations.

Anyone can be a target for spear phishing and social engineering attacks. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / various sources / AFP)

Anyone can be a target

So who are the intended targets of these phishing emails and social engineering attacks?

Cybercriminals spend a lengthy amount of time researching their victims at their organizations. Social media sites and other publicly-available sources can supply them sufficient information to pick a target. Cybercriminals then plan and design an attack to target the specific individual with a customized message the most common method being email.

With one in every ten social engineering attacks being business compromised emails (BEC), anyone in an organization is potentially a target for such an attack. Depending on scale and intent, the average CEO is reported to receive an average of 57 targeted phishing attacks in a year. BEC attacks target 1 in every 5 employees in a sales role while IT staffers receive an average of 40 targeted phishing attacks in a year. The CFO and finance department are also common targets for phishing emails, with finance department employees receiving an average of six targeted BEC attacks.

Cybercriminals are getting sneakier about who they target with their attack. With the finance department being more secured, they are now targeting employees outside the finance and executive teams, often looking for a weak link in the organization, said Don MacLennan, SVP, Engineering and Product Management, Email Protection at Barracuda.

MacLennan pointed out that by targeting lower-level employees, cybercriminals are having a new way to get inside and work their way towards higher-value targets. He added that its important to ensure businesses have sufficient cybersecurity protection and training for all their employees, regardless of position or role.

Shielding against social engineering and spear-phishing attacks

There are a number of ways that companies can protect their employees from social engineering and spear phishing attacks. While training employees is often considered the most straightforward method, mistakes can still happen now and then.

As people are often considered the weakest link in an organizations security ecosystem, companies should also look into the policies it has when it comes to internal procedures. BEC attacks often request for funds to be transferred to third-party accounts via internal emails. Having internal policies that vet fund transfers, especially to third-party accounts, may just reduce the risk.

Another way of reducing attacks is by making use of AI-based cybersecurity solutions. Organizations can leverage machine learning solutions that analyze communication patterns in the company, to spot any anomalies that may indicate an attack. AI-based solutions like threat intelligence can also help spot any potential threats to the company.

Organizations should also look into deploying account-takeover protection. Deploy technology that uses AI to recognize when accounts have been compromised. It then remediates in real-time by alerting users and removing malicious emails sent from compromised accounts.

With cybercriminals only finding more ways to wreak havoc on organizations, employees need to be vigilant, especially when it comes to their work emails. At the end of the day, checking an email before replying to it or opening attachments could just save the entire organization.

Continue reading here:

Why social engineering and spear phishing are such constant business threats - TechHQ

By WILLIAM HOLLOMANStaff Writer

Mount Olive officials intend to hire an engineer to inspect the old Center Street Theatre, which has been vacant for decades.

The downtown facility, says building inspector Justin Hill, needs to be checked inside for structural integrity. He has been denied access to the deteriorating structure.

Kenansville attorney Joseph Ezzell appeared at the town commissioners meeting on July 12. He presented a letter he received from an engineer who inspected the building and stated it was in sound condition.

However, Mount Olive town attorney W. Carroll Turner, challenged Ezzells letter.

Overhead photos taken by a drone showed considerable damage to the buildings roof, which has collapsed. It has become a safety concern to pedestrians and is adjacent to Ribeyes Steakhouse, a popular town restaurant.

Turner forwarded those photos to an out-of-town engineering firm and asked for their opinion on the buildings safety.

If they concur, then if the property owners deny us entry into the building, I will seek an administrative search warrant of the building, Turner said.

Town Manager Jammie Royall said its an issue that needs to be resolved, and the sooner, the better.

The owners have been asked to appear before the commissioners during the boards Sept. 12 meeting and present a plan of action regarding the propertys future.

Continue reading here:

Town to hire engineer to inspect old Center Theater - Mount Olive Tribune