Category: Networks and Security

Cybersecurity and Innovation, Personal Experiences

November 15, 2023 / Lare Adeola / 0 Comments

Speaker Bio

Mohammed M. Alani holds a PhD in Computer Engineering with specialization in network security. He has worked as a professor, and a cybersecurity expert in many countries around the world. His experience includes serving as VP of Academic Affairs in the United Arab Emirates, network and security consultancies in the Middle-East, and Cybersecurity Program Manager in Toronto Canada.
He currently works as a Cybersecurity Professor at Seneca College, Toronto, Canada.He has authored 4 books in different areas of networking and cybersecurity along with many research papers published in highly ranked journals and conferences. He also holds many industrial certifications such as Security+, Cybersecurity Analyst+ (CySA+), PenTest+, CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner+ (CASP+), Server+, Cisco Certified Network Associate, CCAI, Microsoft Azure Data Science Associate, and Microsoft AI Fundamentals. His current interests include applications of ML in cybersecurity, and ML security.

You can watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/RDGzubglwiQ

Moderators: Orunsolu, Falilat temitope, David ayokunle Fayankin

We’re Celebrating!

April 17, 2019 / Adam Isherwood / 0 Comments

The Centre for Applied Computer Science has been a Cisco Academy for fifteen years. We have incorporated the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) curriculum into our BSc Computer Networks and Security course since we created it. CCNA is a qualification that employers really value. We believe that having a CCNA as well as a degree when you go to an interview gives you an advantage over other candidates.

Vendor certifications are part of our commitment to make our degrees relevant to the modern workplace. Our graduates tell us that CCNA, Windows and Linux experience all help to make them more employable.

We have incorporated material from the Red Hat Academy into the most recent version of Computer Networks and Security. Students study the syllabus for the Red Hat Certified System Administrator qualification.

Both Cisco and Red Hat are major brands in Computing and Networking. Belonging to their academies gives you a head start in your career.

Our latest program embraces Cloud technology. We have joined the Amazon Web Services: AWS Educate programme. This allows our students to use Amazon’s powerful cloud infrastructure in class and to pursue your own interests outside the classroom. AWS give students credits to use this world-class infrastructure and learn modern cloud computing techniques.

Centos 7 and Packet Tracer 7.11

July 23, 2018 / Adam Isherwood / 0 Comments

Cisco Networking Academy

The University of Bolton has been a Cisco Academy since 2006 and we have put loads of Computer Networks and Security students through their CCNA. This year we thought we would make life more difficult for ourselves… We have decided to upgrade our Networking lab (C2-017) to a Linux lab. It will help with a number of modules next year.
Our Linux Distro of choice is Centos 7. [Some of you already know where I’m going with this.] Cisco + Centos equals headache. There is a Linux version of Packet Tracer (the network simulator used by the Cisco Academy) but although it works wonderfully with Ubuntu it famously doesn’t get along with Centos and Fedora.
This work was done in July 2018. We used Centos 7 and Cisco Packet Tracer 7.11.

Initial Install

The basic install is straightforward. Download a copy of Packet Tracer from the Cisco Academy website. The install comes as a tar file. It doesn’t create a directory when you unpack the archive so the following cleanly installs Packet Tracer:

mkdir ptinstall
mv PacketTracer711_64bit_linux.tar ptinstall
cd ptinstall
tar xf PacketTracer711_64bit_linux.tar
chmod +x install
sudo ./install

Follow the prompts and Packet Tracer will be installed in /opt/pt a handy alias is created in your path so that you can type packettracer and start the application. If you try that, nothing happens. The packettracer alias links to a script which suppresses error messages. If you run /opt/pt/bin/PacketTracer instead you will see a series of complaining error messages which list missing libraries.

Missing Libraries

The big problem for Packet Tracer on Centos is that the libCrypto library is not officially available. There are versions that have been compiled which do work. We found this SuSe packages site which contains the updated library libopenssl1_0_0-1.0.2j-7.3.x86_64.rpm if you would rather use the command line

wget http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/distribution/leap/42.3/repo/oss/suse/x86_64/libopenssl1_0_0-1.0.2j-7.3.x86_64.rpm

To install this library run:

sudo rpm -Uvh libopenssl1_0_0-1.0.2j-25.1.x86_64.rpm

Finally there are some Qt libraries needed, but fortunately you can get them using yum:

sudo yum install qt5-qtwebkit qt5-qtmultimedia qt5-qtsvg qt5-qtscript

With those in place you should be able to launch Packet Tracer using either the packettracer alias or the full /opt/pt/bin/PacketTracer command.

Post Install

With packet tracer working you might think your work is done. Not yet, it helps to add Packet Tracer to the Application Menu in Gnome. You can also associate packet tracer files with the application so that you can double-click on the save files and launch the application.
As root, using your favorite editor (there’s a huge vi vs nano divide in the networks team) create /usr/share/applications/pt.desktop and paste the following into it:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=/opt/pt/bin/PacketTracer7
Icon=/opt/pt/art/app.png
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name=Packet Tracer 7.11
MimeType=application/x-pka;application/x-pkt;application/x-pkz;

Run:
sudo update-desktop-database /usr/share/applications
This will reload your Applications menu and add PT to it.

Register Mime Types

Again as root using your favorite editor create /usr/share/mime/packages/pt.xml and paste:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
 <mime-type type="application/x-pka">
   <comment>Packet Tracer Activity</comment>
   <glob pattern="*.pka"/>
 </mime-type>
 <mime-type type="application/x-pkt">
   <comment>Packet Tracer</comment>
   <glob pattern="*.pkt"/>
 </mime-type>
 <mime-type type="application/x-pkz">
   <comment>Packet Tracer Archive</comment>
   <glob pattern="*.pkz"/>
 </mime-type>
</mime-info>

You may need to adapt the next bit if you use a different desktop theme from the default.

sudo bash
cd /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/32x32/mimetypes
cp /opt/pt/art/pka.png application-x-pka.png
cp /opt/pt/art/pkt.png application-x-pkt.png
cp /opt/pt/art/pkz.png application-x-pkz.png
gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/
update-mime-database /usr/share/mime/packages

If you save a packet tracer file in your workspace now, it should show with a packet tracer icon in your file manager tool. Double-click and the application should launch.

Boosting I/O for HDD

December 19, 2017 / Adam Isherwood / 0 Comments

Seagate’s multi actuator drive

There’s an interesting article in The Register about Seagate developing hard disks with two independent sets of read/write heads. When you think about it, this is long overdue. Currently an eight-platter drive will have sixteen read-write heads. They all move in concert so that reading from a particular location means that all the heads are positioned over the same track waiting for the desired sector to spin past.
Seagate’s new implementation splits the head mechanism into two groups. If the disk can read or write to two locations simultaneously that’s already a boost to I/O capacity. The Register speculates that other manufacturers will jump on this trend and go further with multiple read-write actuators.
Seagate’s own blog post explains this further. As ever, this new innovation puts our lecture material out of date. In week 11 of Introduction to Operating Systems Virtualisation our students have just learned that the read heads move in sync. That’s another lecture to re-write next year. Computing always evolves and we have to evolve with it.

Porthcurno

August 14, 2017 / Adam Isherwood / 0 Comments

Cornwall is home to several important network resources for the United Kingdom. For a good part of the 19th and 20th centuries the tiny village of Porthcurno near Land’s End was a hub of the international communications system.

This lovely sandy beach once had fourteen major underwater telegraph cables landing on it and linking up to the telegraph station just inland. Telegraph was based on Morse code rather than voice or data. (Colin the Computer Networks and Security course leader can send and receive Morse, the rest of us are too digital).
There’s a little museum up from the beach which explains the history of the telegraph network. On the first display there is a fascinating fact:

The rest of the museum shows the increasing automation of the services. What started originally with hand-keyed Morse code was automated using paper tape as output using needles scratching a trace on paper tape.Input was automated using keyboards to cut punched tape – taking the creation of message from being a skilled task to a low-skill activity.
The first submarine cable route was not to the US as I imagined, but to India. I suppose I don’t think in terms of the priorities for the Empire. Messages could not go directly to India from the UK but went instead via a series of relays in the Azores, Egypt and Aden (Yemen). Initially the incoming messages were received at the relay station, transcribed and then transmitted onwards. As automation improved the REGEN process became fully automatic.

Submarine Cables

Paper Trace

Telegraph Transmitter

Keyboard Entry

Telegraph Network Map

The map of the network shows the beginnings of worldwide communications over land and sea. Compare it to a modern map of the undersea fibre Internet and communications network and see many more connected countries and a lot more fibre across the Pacific.

There’s an interactive version of this map available at submarinecablemap.com. Very little Internet traffic goes via satellite. The latency of transmitting to a geostationary satellite and back again – even at the speed of light it too great.
It’s a lovely little museum, worth an hour of your time if you are down there.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

July 22, 2017 / Adam Isherwood / 0 Comments

Our American friends have a lovely expression: “Drinking the Kool-Aid”. If you’re not American (and most of us aren’t) this isn’t always easy to understand. Kool-Aid is a relatively cheap powdered soft drink. The phrase refers to the 1978 Jonestown deaths of followers of the People’s Temple in a murder/suicide where the drink was mixed with poison.
Drinking the Kool-Aid is taken to mean an act of faith of a true believer. Typically this also means going along with a dangerous or doomed course of action. This is a bit grim, what has this got to do with Computing at Bolton?
Our new Computer Networks and Security course has a greater emphasis on the Linux operating system that the earlier course of the same name. Along with the Cloud Computing courses we have linked up with Red Hat – a leading version of the Linux operating system. We will be the first UK university to integrate the Red Hat Academy curriculum into our degree programmes. Students will be able to gain Red Hat certifications as part of their studies (as well as the Cisco Academy certifications we already offered).
Over the summer we are transitioning one of our labs to be Linux only. In an effort to be a true believer, I’m going to develop my course material for the Cld4002 module using Linux.
Of the Linux web pages I visited, only Debian had the Terry Pratchett header present on their site.
Which Linux though? As you know there are squillions of different Linux distributions out there. One of the strengths of the open source movement is the idea that anyone can take the source code of an existing project and use it as the starting point for a new project (known as a fork). There are loads of articles suggesting which Linux to choose. There are two main families: Debian and Red Hat. Popular distros like ubuntu are derived from Debian. Fedora and Centos are based on Red Hat. As we are following the Red Hat academy, I’ve gone for Centos at home. (Interestingly only the Debian site has the GNU-Terry-Pratchett header present).
The install was pretty easy, but then I’m not a beginner. If you have never done it before you might find it daunting. The main choice I had to make was the type of initial system I wanted. Normally I would opt for a server system to run web and/or database; this time I need a desktop system instead to develop teaching material. On Bren’s advice I went for the Gnome Desktop option. I left the computer chuntering away to itself and went to watch TV. (My broadband is slow at home and this was a network install).
Once the install was done it was time to do the usual routine:

Install a browser
~~Install office~~ Libre Office is already installed. Not a 10 day evaluation, a full package.
Add Google Drive
Add my printer

Although Firefox was already installed, I prefer Chrome so after finding some instructions I was able to install it fairly quickly. A totally free Office package was already there. I’ll write more about the office tools in a future post.
Adding Google Drive was a bit more effort. I found a clear enough set of instructions, but it was a fairly complex setup which might be a problem for a newbie. I came unstuck with my printer though. The printer is an old HP Laserjet which I picked up for £30 on eBay a few years ago. It is rock-solid reliable and I would much rather shell out £25 for a toner cartridge once a year than the monthly grind of inkjet cartridges. The printer hangs off my Mac using CUPS and my Linux system should be able to use it. I was able to find the link and add the printer to my Linux host. So far, so good until I tried to print. Nothing happened, and when I looked at the error log I got a message about a filter problem.
Right: time to google the error message and solve the problem. I held off though because I know what kind of rabbit hole this problem can descend into. It could be a Mac problem, a cups problem, a Linux problem or an issue with the printer driver. The chances are that this could take a couple of frustrating hours to fix, and as I didn’t need to print anything now I left it for another day.
After an hour’s fiddling about, I was able to get down to work and write something. Now what on earth do I want to write?

Voice… The Final Frontier?

July 11, 2017 / Adam Isherwood / 0 Comments

Do you feel awkward talking to the computer? How about in front of other people? Voice control is in its infancy really. Speech recognition is getting better. By utilising cloud-based services the big players are able to parse speech and recognise what is being said very well. Certainly your mobile can understand phrases like “navigate to work” or “call Aunt Jemima“. Well it can if you use Google Voice or Siri; Samsung’s Bixby assistant still can’t understand English.

Skills and vocabulary

Far Side Cartoon (c) Gary Larson

Sadly your digital assistant does not really understand you! It has a limited instruction set which you learn how to use. Your device has a vocabulary of keywords such as “call” and “install”, if you go beyond that limited range there’s no understanding. Sure the designers are clever, with the cute Easter eggs built into their systems. Try asking Siri “what’s your favourite colour?” or “what are you wearing?” and you get a clever canned response. The key word is canned, the system does not understand speech.
This shortcoming is the next step that the companies need to fix. The key is to recruit external developers. There are parallels with the iPhone. When it launched in 2007 you could only run the applications Apple shipped. The App Store was announced the following year and now hosts millions of apps.
Amazon are following a similar path with Alexa. Third party developers can create their own ‘skills’ for Alexa. As this Wired article states: they recently reached the milestone of 10,000 skills. This is an increase from 135 skills in 2015.
Skills are the element which can propel voice control from the limited state we have today to something truly useful. Accurate speech recognition plus the utility of skills will give us something that is a real breakthrough technology.

The Wired article quotes Amazon “We had this inspiration of the Star Trek computer,” says Steve Rabuchin, who heads up Alexa voice services and skills at Amazon. “What would it be like if we could create a voice assistant out of the cloud that you could just talk to naturally, that could control things around you, that could do things for you, that could get you information?”

Maybe Star Trek is the future after all.