Computer Security Essays (1905 words) - Security, Cybercrime

Computer Security About two hundred years before, the word "computer" started to appear in the dictionary. Some people even didn't know what is a computer. However, most of the people today not just knowing what is a computer, but understand how to use a computer. Therefore, computer become more and more popular and important to our society. We can use computer everywhere and they are very useful and helpful to our life. The speed and accuracy of computer made people felt confident and reliable. Therefore, many important information or data are saved in the computer. Such as your diary, the financial situation of a oil company or some secret intelligence of the military department. A lot of important information can be found in the memory of computer. So, people may ask a question: Can we make sure that the information in the computer is safe and nobody can steal it from the memory of the computer? Physical hazard is one of the causes of destroying the data in the computer. For example, send a flood of coffee toward a personal computer. The hard disk of the computer could be endangered by the flood of coffee. Besides, human caretaker of computer system can cause as much as harm as any physical hazard. For example, a cashier in a bank can transfer some money from one of his customer's account to his own account. Nonetheless, the most dangerous thief are not those who work with computer every day, but youthful amateurs who experiment at night --- the hackers. The term "hacker "may have originated at M.I.T. as students' jargon for classmates who labored nights in the computer lab. In the beginning, hackers are not so dangerous at all. They just stole computer time from the university. However, in the early 1980s, hackers became a group of criminals who steal information from other peoples' computer. For preventing the hackers and other criminals, people need to set up a good security system to protect the data in the computer. The most important thing is that we cannot allow those hackers and criminals entering our computers. It means that we need to design a lock to lock up all our data or using identification to verify the identity of someone seeking access to our computers. The most common method to lock up the data is using a password system. Passwords are a multi-user computer system's usual first line of defense against hackers. We can use a combination of alphabetic and number characters to form our own password. The longer the password, the more possibilities a hacker's password-guessing program must work through. However it is difficult to remember a very long passwords. So people will try to write the password down and it may immediately make it a security risk. Furthermore, a high speed password-guessing program can find out a password easily. Therefore, it is not enough for a computer that just have a password system to protect its data and memory. Besides password system, a computer company may consider about the security of its information centre. In the past, people used locks and keys to limit access to secure areas. However, keys can be stolen or copied easily. Therefore, card-key are designed to prevent the situation above. Three types of card-keys are commonly used by banks, computer centers and government departments. Each of this card-keys can employ an identifying number or password that is encoded in the card itself, and all are produced by techniques beyond the reach of the average computer criminals. One of the three card-key is called watermark magnetic. It was inspired by the watermarks on paper currency. The card's magnetic strip have a 12-digit number code and it cannot be copied. It can store about two thousand bits in the magnetic strip. The other two cards have the capability of storing thousands of times of data in the magnetic strip. They are optical memory cards (OMCs) and Smart cards. Both of them are always used in the security system of computers. However, it is not enough for just using password system and card-keys to protect the memory in the computer. A computer system also need to have a restricting program to verify the identity of the users. Generally, identity can be established by something a person knows, such as a password or something a person has, such as a card-key. However, people are often forget their passwords or lose their keys. A third method must be used. It is using something a person has --- physical trait of a human being. We can use a new technology called biometric device

Reason for the Length of the French Wars of Religion Essay Example

Reason for the Length of the French Wars of Religion Essay Example Reason for the Length of the French Wars of Religion Essay Reason for the Length of the French Wars of Religion Essay French Wars of Religion: Result of a weak monarchy, fragile peace agreements, and the battle of social worlds The reason for the length of the French wars of religion was attributed to the power vacuum that opened up during the reign of the minor Charles IX, as the Catholic Guises battled for power between the Protestant factions, the Bourbons and the Chatillons. Because the king’s vulnerable regent, Catherine de’ Medici wanted to keep the peace in order to protect her son’s power, watered down peace agreements were drawn up and the monarchy was constantly switching sides of loyalty between the Protestants and the Catholics. This in turn dragged out the Wars of Religion since there was no solid monarchy to keep everyone in check. The intensity of the battles were furthermore enhanced by the severe hostility and suspicion that lay in-between the Catholic community of believers and the Protestant community with regards to the way they practiced religion and lived their lives. The weak authoritative government begins to create chaos when Charles IX takes over the crown as a young boy and reigns until 1574 with the help of his mother and regent, Catherine de’Medici. The Guise family takes over the governmental administration within the first few days of the young boy’s reign, which includes the church, military affairs, foreign diplomats, and the treasury. A three way political battle develops between the Protestant Bourbons controlling the southern and western France, the Montmorency Chatillons controlling the center of France, and Catholic Guise faction in control of Eastern France. The fact that the aristocrats are being converted to Protestantism creates a severe threat to the Catholic Church and therefore the state itself. Catherine de’ Medici does not necessarily have religious loyalty towards the Guise clan and is only concerned with protecting the monarchy of her son, Charles IX, so she allies herself with the Protestants in 1562 and gives them the right to worship in public outside of towns in the January edict. This action in turn provokes the Guise family in anger to strike back against the Protestants by coordinating a surprise attack on the Protestant worshipers in the Vassy of Champagne. This is an example of how a brutal battle is roused due to the disagreement between the susceptible authority of Catherine de Medici and a powerful government faction striving for power. In this situation, the battles could have been stopped if there had been a powerful absolute monarchy in charge of the court. Instead, Catherine goes back and forth between the two sides. Case in point, in 1563, Catherine changes her alliance in favor of the Guises out of fear and the Protestants are forced to complete surrender. After the third war, the crown becomes more Protestant under the influence of Coligny. Catherine again changes her loyalty to the Protestants. When she begins to fear Coligny’s move into the Netherlands, she joins with the Guises to assassinate Coligny. When this fails, she tells her son that there was going to be a Huguenot uprising so that she doesn’t get in trouble with her son and the court. After convincing him, many Huguenots including Coligny were destroyed in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Again, there is a battle fought due to the ambivalent court and Catherine’s failure to pick loyalty on either side. The inadequate peace agreements are another critical aspect of why the wars drag on for so long. The edict of Amboise, for example is doomed to fail due to the resisting Guise family in the court and because the king is only fifteen years old. Because of this weak legitimacy, the parlement of Paris and the provisional parlements are against the toleration of Protestants and refuse to register them. They finally do only because they attach a proviso that limits authotiry of the edict until the king is of age, when the national court can resolve the dispute. With such weak power held in the monarchy, peace agreements throughout the war continue this pattern and provoke more disagreements among the court, which do not help with ending the war. Another example of a weak peace agreement is Henry III’s peace of Monsier in 1576 where Catholics immediately question whether or not the new king was interested in disposing heresy. In result of this, the League of 1576 was organized in letting Catholics act independently of the throne. Here is an example of a wobbling authority when they are trying to settle the peace between the groups. Things improve however with the beginning of Henry IV’s reign in 1593 where he renounces the Protestant faith and becomes a Catholic. He sets in stone the Edict of Nantes which is the â€Å"that temporary expedient imposed by thirty years indecisive warfare†¦. † There were still parts of resistance throughout France angry about the religious wars such as members of the Catholic league controlling big cities such as Rheims, Huguenots living on the defensive and Spanish troops living on the French land in Paris. The edict was successful since Henry IV stressed unity over toleration. No theological questions raised or debated. He decided to stay switch to Catholicism, but yet still supported both sides. Along with the political strife, there was incredible suspicion and hostility among the Catholic community and Protestant community with regards to the beliefs and practices, which attributed to the intensity of the wars. The differences made it a battle of culture. Just as Georges Livet states, each community viewed the other as â€Å"pollutants of their own particular notion of the body social, as threats to their own conception of ordered society. The Catholics viewed the king as the â€Å"Rex Christianissimus,† in that they were ordained from God and even are to an extent God himself. On the other hand, John Calvin and the early Protestants thought that the amount of control that the kings had was a form of corruption. They questioned the sale of indulgences and the way the clergy were elected. For example, they were appalled that of 129 bishops Henry II appoints, 102 were princes of the blood or members of the nobility of the sword. The vital opposing difference was the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eurcharist, otherwise known as Transubstantiation, understood literally in orthodox Catholic principles but refused, or understood figuratively in the Reformed Church. Protestants also believe that getting pardons is no replacement for acts of love. If people are purchasing them rather than buying food for the poor, than it makes no sense. Point 42 States, â€Å"Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons. This of course angers the Catholics tremendously and makes them defensive. Starting with the edict of Chateaubriant of 1551, Henry puts a legalistic ban on Protestantism. Catholics see them as rebels who threatened society from the lower ends of the social ladder. These religious differences aggravate the two communities and therefore cause major hostility. An example of such social hostility is when Catholic Baron, Francoi s de Fumel, forbades his Calvinist peasants from worshipping. They revolt with weapons and were joined by hundreds of catholic persons to seize his home. This makes it clear that religion wasn’t necessarily the theme of the revolt. Both the ultra-Catholic Parlement of Bordeaux and the Calvinist synod that met at nimes disrecarded the Catholics that participated and both groups assumed it was a Calvinist revolt and that the murder was a â€Å"seditious disturbers of the public order and â€Å"totally perverse people only superficially instructed in religion who think the gospel promises them agrarian freedom and enfranchisement. † Here is where one sees the Protestants as rebels. Another anecdote of this social hostility is an episode presented to the king along with 55 other instances demonstrating violence against Huguenot nobles. The one that sticks out is that of Marguerite de Hurtelon where she was massacred in her house and shot five times in her breasts. This maltreatment is not necessarily having to do with religion, but rather theft, robbery and sexual abuse. Overall, Catholics in parts of Frances make little effort to treat the lives of Protestants with respect that the edict wanted. Clearly, Catholics view Protestants as an â€Å"impurity to be purged, a blemish to be excied, or indeed, nothing but garbage to be fed to pigs. † Through these instances, it is clear that religious division is aggravated by social tensions in the hierarchical society of the old regime. Because the communities were so tightly knit, they therefore became suspicious quickly. Overall, historian Etienne Pasquier, puts it perfectly when he states that â€Å"nothing to be more feared in a state than civil war†¦particularly when a king, due to his minority, does not have the power to command absolutely†¦. He predicts that the civil war will end in a â€Å"tragedy,† and he is correct. The catalyst that sparks the seemingly endless amount of wars is the weak authoritative monarchy that opens up as the various factions battle for power. Catherine de’ Medici cannot remain stable on one side or the other due to fear of losing her son’s power. Consequently w eak peace agreements are made and the government is left flustered. The harsh tension among the civilians during this time and sensitivity within the two groups is due to the differences between the two communities. A weak monarchy becomes even weaker when two cultural communities are constantly on the defensive. Work Sited Armstrong, E. The French wars of religion, their Political Aspects. Oxford, 2005. Baumgartner, Frederic. France in the Sixteenth Century. NY: St. Martins Press,1995 Holt, Mack P. The French wars of religion, 1562-162. Cambridge University Press, 1995. Baumgartner, Frederic J. Radical Reactionaries: the political thought of the French Catholic League. Geneve, 1975. See, David. The French Wars of Religion, 16 October 2010, http://webcache. oogleusercontent. com Streich, Michael. The Edict of Nantes and King Henry IV, 20 October 2010, suite101. com/content/the-edict-of-nantes-and-king-henry-iv-a90529 The University of Virginia Library. The Gordon Collection and French Wars of Religion. 27 October 2010, http://www2. lib. virginia. edu/rmds/portfolio/gordon/religion/ K. Aland, ed. , Martin Luthers 95 Theses; H. Grimm, ed. , Luthers Works, XXXI; E. Iserloh, The Theses Were Not Posted; F. Lau, The Posting of Luthers Theses, Legend or Fact? CTM 38:691-703.

CAPM, ICAPM and Multifactor Models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

CAPM, ICAPM and Multifactor Models - Essay Example Later on research was conducted and the creators of CAPM theory related diversifiable which are unsystematic risks and non-diversifiable which are systematic risks for all the securities in the portfolio. Some management individuals conceived that CAPM is not genuine as it dominates participating management and investment study. Fabozzi and Markowitz (2002) state â€Å"even though the idea is not true it does not mean that the constructs introduced by the theory are not important. Constructs introduced in the development of theory include the notion of a market portfolio, systematic risk, diversifiable risks and beta.† CAPM helps to comprehend the fundamental risk-return trade-offs implied in all cases of financial determinations (Gitman, 2006). The international capital asset pricing model (ICAPM) takes into account countries as stock lists in world market is founded on capital asset pricing model. The difference in the methodical risks of countries results in the differences in excess returns. Previous experiential reports of international CAPM models did not find much proof to back up the model. The bond returns mirror alterations in the cost of bonds as well as coupons. Actually domestic regular risk can be branched out by investing internationally without paying off price in terms of lesser returns. With this viewpoint it is clear that the results got by ICAPM are so helpful to spread portfolio for international portfolio investors. If cross-sectional disparity in anticipated returns can be explicated by the ICAPM, the outcomes can be applied to assess capital market integration. The beginning point of ICAPM is that the construction of the theory of international finance for the most part reflects that of domestic financial theory (Adler and Dumas, 1983). Actually ICAPM normally takes into account the world market portfolio as an alternative to domestic market portfolio. Solnik (1974) also suggests that composite models