CPA\u27s guide to the Internet

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1966/thumbnail.jp

Let\u27s cross platforms

Different platforms and browsers render text and images differently. Therefore, web designers should know how to deal with these types of media. Many web designers use the Macintosh, and the majority of the users are on the PC. This thesis project examines the visual elements of web design consisting of fonts, colors, and graphics and how they change between the PC and Mac. The two major browsers used by people to surf the web are Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and they also cause problems with consistency. Resolution differences cause font problems. Knowing the default system resolution to specify with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be a solution. Gamma and system palette differences between platforms cause color problems. Changing gamma settings is helpful to simulate other platforms for image correction. Using Web safe color, a standard for the web, is a solution for system palette differences. GIF and JPEG file formats are the most commonly used web graphic formats. If browsers support PNG format in the near future, designers can take advantage of it. Testing often in target platforms and browsers and allowing enough time for any necessary change is the best solution. Test for as many variable as possible

Improving Desktop System Security Using Compartmentalization

abstract: Compartmentalizing access to content, be it websites accessed in a browser or documents and applications accessed outside the browser, is an established method for protecting information integrity [12, 19, 21, 60]. Compartmentalization solutions change the user experience, introduce performance overhead and provide varying degrees of security. Striking a balance between usability and security is not an easy task. If the usability aspects are neglected or sacrificed in favor of more security, the resulting solution would have a hard time being adopted by end-users. The usability is affected by factors including (1) the generality of the solution in supporting various applications, (2) the type of changes required, (3) the performance overhead introduced by the solution, and (4) how much the user experience is preserved. The security is affected by factors including (1) the attack surface of the compartmentalization mechanism, and (2) the security decisions offloaded to the user. This dissertation evaluates existing solutions based on the above factors and presents two novel compartmentalization solutions that are arguably more practical than their existing counterparts. The first solution, called FlexICon, is an attractive alternative in the design space of compartmentalization solutions on the desktop. FlexICon allows for the creation of a large number of containers with small memory footprint and low disk overhead. This is achieved by using lightweight virtualization based on Linux namespaces. FlexICon uses two mechanisms to reduce user mistakes: 1) a trusted file dialog for selecting files for opening and launching it in the appropriate containers, and 2) a secure URL redirection mechanism that detects the user’s intent and opens the URL in the proper container. FlexICon also provides a language to specify the access constraints that should be enforced by various containers. The second solution called Auto-FBI, deals with web-based attacks by creating multiple instances of the browser and providing mechanisms for switching between the browser instances. The prototype implementation for Firefox and Chrome uses system call interposition to control the browser’s network access. Auto-FBI can be ported to other platforms easily due to simple design and the ubiquity of system call interposition methods on all major desktop platforms.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

Virtual reality web application for automotive data visualization

Hoje em dia, a indústria de automóveis é uma das maiores empresas económicas em constante desenvolvimento no mundo inteiro. Inúmeras empresas necessitam de dados sobre a condução autónoma para aprender, testar e melhorar ao criar novos veículos. A condução autónoma vai desempenhar um grande papel no futuro, e o nosso objetivo é continuar este constante crescimento ao criar aplicações de visualização de dados que mostram resultados de experiências com veículos autónomos. Atualmente, existe uma aplicação na Altran, para visualizar dados online através do WebGL. No entanto, a visualização dos elementos e a sequência em 3D é confusa e não é compreensível o suficiente, como seria com a ajuda de realidade virtual. Isto acontece porque os elementos são disponibilizados como linhas, de acordo com a distância entre os objetos e o chão, em vez de suas formas reais. Além disto, a infraestrutura de dados pode conter um tamanho abundante de elementos, como nuvens de pontos e trajetórias, e a visualização destes elementos serão exibidos com mais eficácia, usando técnicas de realidade virtual. Isto também complementará a grande variedade atual de ferramentas relacionadas à demonstração de automóveis na Altran, contribuindo para apresentações públicas dentro da empresa. Para fortalecer esta visualização de dados 3D, espera-se criar uma aplicação, com a ajuda de técnicas de realidade virtual. A compatibilidade entre WebGL e WebXR será posta à prova e caso mostre ser bem sucedida, os dados da aplicação anteriormente mencionada serão reutilizados. Além de ser capaz de mostrar os dados necessários, essa nova estrutura de realidade virtual deverá manter as funcionalidades da aplicação WebGL e conter outras, como sustentar diferentes tipos de nuvens de pontos e carregar dados de várias fontes. A usabilidade dos dispositivos de realidade virtual e a sua performance será também avaliada, além de uma comparação detalhada entre ambas as aplicações.Nowadays, the automotive industry is one of the largest and continuously ongoing economic sectors in the world. Countless companies need and look for autonomous driving data to learn and test when creating new motor vehicles. Autonomous driving will play a big role in the future, and we can help continue its constant growth with with data visualization applications that display results of automotive experiments. Currently, there's an application in Altran, to visualize autonomous driving data online using WebGL. However, the showcasing of the elements and the sequence in 3D is confusing and not comprehensible enough, like it would be while using virtual reality. This happens as a result of the elements being displayed as lines according to their distance between the objects and the ground, instead of their real shapes. Since the data infrastructure can contain an abundant size of elements, like point-clouds and trajectories, the visualization of this data will be displayed more efficaciously, using virtual reality techniques. This will also complement the current large variety of tools concerning automotive demonstration in Altran, contributing to related public presentations in the company. To strengthen this 3D data visualization, this project aims to create a VR application that displays autonomous driving data. The compatibility between WebGL and WebXR will be tested, and in case this proves successful, the current structure of the application mentioned above will be reused. Besides being able to show the necessary automotive data, this new virtual reality structure, should maintain the functionalities of the WebGL application and contain extra features, like supporting different types of point-clouds and loading data from multiple sources. The usability of the Virtual Reality devices and its performance will also be evaluated, as well a comparison between the WebGL application

A study of stakeholders' experience of the architectural design process to stimulate an interactive form of communication

The architectural design process involves the input of many stakeholders. Communication between them is crucial as it ensures an effective design process. The practice of architecture has been transformed by advances in hardware and software technologies, to the point where both the workflow and the design process are changing. These technologies have also impacted on the methods of representing and communicating design work. At present, traditional communication uses 2D and 3D drawings, as well as digital media such as animation, computer gaming or graphic design, which have impacted on architectural representations. While these tools are very useful, problems in communication between stakeholders are revealed. For instance, differences in architectural background knowledge and requirements lead to misunderstanding the design, confusion caused by working on inconsistent information, and use of incompatible software which causes difficulties in accessing work. This research project attempts to identify and analyse issues relating to communication within the design process in order to improve it. The study is undertaken using a number of key questions to guide the development and progress of the research. The extent of communication via digital media in the design process, in contemporary architectural practice, is examined, along with the perceived value of digital technology by stakeholders. Architectural design work would benefit from exploiting digital media and the Internet to provide an effective form of communication for enabling a user/stakeholder-oriented involvement in the design process. The work presented revisits the conventional methods of communication in design work, between various interested parties in any given project (stakeholders: architects, engineers, planners and clients), with a view to formulating an outline for a potential system that facilitates communication as part of a participatory design process. This study puts forward suggestions to improve communication in the design process, through a storyboard represents users’ experiences in using an interactive communication system. The suggestions are being tested through a mock-up of the web application, which is then presented to participants to receive feedback. Three guiding principles inform the development of the final system: interaction (to allow fast input and feedback); accessibility (to ensure any particular design software is able to interact with the system); and inclusivity (to allow both specialists and lay people to use the system)

Forensic Analysis of Tor Browser on Windows 10 and Android 10 Operating Systems

Smartphones and Internet have become prevalent in our society with various applications in businesses, education, healthcare, gaming, and research. One of the major issues with the Internet today is its lack of security since an eavesdropper can potentially intercept the communication. This has contributed towards an increased number of cyber-crime incidents, resulting in an increase in users’ consciousness about the security and privacy of their communication . One example is the shift towards using private browsers such as Tor. Tor is a well-recognized and widely used privacy browser based on The Onion Router network that provisions anonymity over the insecure Internet. This functionality of Tor has been a major hurdle in cybercrime investigations due to the complex nature of its anonymity. This paper investigates artifacts from the Tor privacy browser on the latest Windows 10 and Android 10 devices to determine potential areas where evidence can be found. We examine the registry, storage, and memory of Windows 10 devices and the memory, storage, logs, and Zram of Android 10 devices for three possible scenarios i.e. before, during, and after use of the Tor browser. Our results do not support the claims made by the Tor Project regarding user privacy and anonymity. We find that it is possible to retrieve significant details about a user’s browsing activities while the Tor browser is in use as well as after it is closed (on both operating systems). This paper also provides an investigative methodology for the acquisition and analysis of Tor browser artifacts from different areas of the targeted operating systems. Therefore, it can serve as a base to expand research in the forensic analysis of other privacy browsers and improve the efficiency of cybercrime investigations efficiency