Tuesday, January 28, 2020

The Evolution Of Corporate Espionage Business Essay

The Evolution Of Corporate Espionage Business Essay Espionage is the use of illegal means or deceptive practices to gather information. It is also commonly referred to as industrial or economic espionage. Industrial Espionage (or Economic Espionage) is the clandestine collection of sensitive, restricted or classified information. This information by its very nature is not openly accessible and can only be obtained through covert collection means. Industrial Espionage might include the theft of sensitive or restricted competitor information (such as financial data, restricted manufacturing processes, customer accounts, etc.), covert recruitment of sources within a competitors firm, and other such methods. Each and every day covert activities are being conducted for the purpose of obtaining information that can create value for another organization, be it a business or another government. Corporate initially meant united in one body (1398, from L. corporatus or corpus which means body  [1]  ). However, in due course of time the term the connotations attached with it finally paved way for the new age definition which is pertaining to a corporation or a group come together for a common goal. Moving onto Espionage, it means the systematic use of spies to get military, political or industrial secrets (1793, from Fr. Espionage  [2]  ). Corporate Espionage basically suggests impregnating a corporate system or structure with spies or systems so as to facilitate leakage of information which could in all probability mar the growth, financial stability the prospects of the victim organization to have sustained development in future. Corporate Espionage would cover illicit activities like theft of trade secrets, bribery, blackmail technological surveillance. And with developments that followed in the recent years, even attempts to sabotage a corporation may be conside red corporate espionage. Basically there are three primary motivations behind corporate espionage. First, an individual corporation may use corporate espionage to advance their goals towards maximizing shareholder value. Secondly, state-sponsored corporate espionage is an essential ingredient of modern day economic warfare or military application of the intellectual property. Thirdly, special interest groups may conduct corporate espionage to gather data to further their cause (i.e. environment interests). There are also instances where the distinction between legal and illegal intelligence gathering activities is blurred. Probably the most notorious case of corporate espionage that has been dealt in this study is Proctor and Gambles attempt to find out more about Unilevers hair care business by hunting through their garbage bins. Distinction between corporate espionage and competitive intelligence The difference between competitive intelligence and industrial espionage, is significant. By definition, industrial espionage refers to illegal activities which range everywhere from outright theft to bribery and everywhere in between. Conversely, competitive intelligence collection is governed for the most part by adherence to corporate and professional ethics which preclude the use of illegal means to obtain information. Moreover, the distinction between the two is in terms of modus operandi. At bottom, the competitive intelligence process consists of collecting information as elements which when legally, ethically but rigorously collected and analyzed, can provide the same kinds of information as might otherwise have only been available through such illicit means as theft. Burglary, outright theft or bribery might be some of the ways that criminals would resort to in order to obtain what a competitor may need constituting an act of corporate espionage. The evolution of corporate espionage over decades and the rationale behind its use The history of corporate/industrial espionage probably dates back to the sixth century when Justinian, the Byzantine emperor hired two monks to visit China. He wanted them to gain an understanding of silk production in China and to smuggle silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds out of that country to break its worldwide monopoly on silk production. The monks smuggled these eggs and seeds out of China in hollow bamboo walking sticks. Subsequently, in a few years the Byzantine Empire replaced China as the largest silk producer in the world. Over the centuries, industrial espionage practices continued to play a major part in the development of many countries. In the 18th century, alarmed by the industrial and military supremacy of Great Britain, France sent its spies to steal the latters industrial secrets. Corporate espionage gained more attention in the last few decades. Some of such instances are mentioned herein: In 1999, one of the most famous cases of corporate treachery, a Taiwanese company head was arrested as he was convicted to have paid an Avery Dennison (U.S. Label manufacturer) employee $160,000 for the secret formulas for the companys pressure-sensitive adhesive. In 1996, General Motors sued Volkswagen, charging that GMs former head of production had stolen trade secrets turned them over to Volkswagen. In 2000, Oracle Corporation head Larry Ellison had hired an investigation firm to dig out embarrassing secrets about Bill Gates headed Microsoft. In 2001, FBI arrested two employees from Lucent Technologies for conspiring to steal lucent trade secrets sell them to the Chinese government. In 2003, Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari charged Toyota with stealing the design for its Formula One racing car. Looking at the recent trend it becomes clear that corporate espionage cases have been increasing by leaps and bounds. The reasons for this can be attributed as: -advent of the information age with its tools and technologies has made it much easier to gather information and analyse intelligence. -Trained intelligence analysts can easily ferret out deeper information through masqueraded phone calls, purported interviews of the victim companys employees, going through their garbage, creating e-relationships with employees or joining use nets frequented by them. -The second issue that places most companies at risk is lack of employee awareness and education. At times, the management is to blame for the myopic approach that IT security should safeguard its intellectual property. The misplaced over-dependence on technology to protect the companys intellectual property is ridiculous, given that, even in the most digitised companies, over 70 per cent of critical information is still in non-digital forms. -Companies that invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in firewalls and PKIs (public key infrastructure) forget that over 15 per cent of their employees are talking to prospective new employers (or competition) at that very moment. Or that several third parties and temporary employees are swarming all over their organisation with complete access. -The single factor that makes corporate espionage devastating is its transparent nature. Physical assets when stolen get noticed and things can be attended to rapidly. But a company could be getting robbed of intellectual property or competitive advantage for years and might still not know what exactly is going wrong. Thus what began as that innocuous glance at what competition is doing, just to keep oneself abreast of the latest developments in the business one was in, is now taking the ugliest forms of ethical and legal violation. And this includes the entire gamut of wrongdoing: the selling of technological knowhow, product design, research papers, client lists and other trade secrets by loyal employees, infringing intellectual property law, teams resigning en masse from a company, taking along with themselves upscale, lucrative customers to the new entity, selling defence secrets in the lure of monetary kickbacks, and what not. In fact, corporate espionage has moved far from within the confines of the corporate sector to foreign nations, with many IT expatriates and even foreign employees with acquired citizenship acting as a conduit for the flow of confidential information from one corporate to another, from one nation to another. Cross border businesses and employees, remotely located custom ers in an era of E-Commerce, telecommuting contractual employees-all these are adding to the ease with which these acts of malfeasance are being committed. It is interesting to examine the Annual Report to U.S. Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, FY 2008, it brings out the following:- The threat to the United States from foreign economic intelligence collection and industrial espionage has continued unabated since the publication of the Annual Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2007. Economic espionage cases went up slightly and nearly every day brought reports-in the press and in the classified world-of new cyber attacks against US Government and business entities. Additionally, the increasing use of new modes of communication and social networking provided uncharted opportunities for transferring information and spying on the part of enterprising foreign intelligence services. According to evidence amassed by the US CI community, a wide variety of foreign entities continued to try to illegally acquire US technology, trade secrets, and proprietary information. With companies encouraging outsourcing of research and development (RD) and establishing foreign bases of operation, foreign entities had more opportunities to targe t US information and technologies and mask their collection activities. As a result, it was increasingly difficult to measure fully the extent of their espionage and illegal acquisitions. Nonetheless, the CI community assessed that the cost in FY 2008 remained high, given the number of legal cases, investigations, and technologies targeted. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The FBI opened 55 new cases and pursued 88 pending cases during the reporting period, slightly more than reported in FY 2007. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ ICE made 158 arrests in FY 2008 and achieved 187 indictments that resulted in 143 convictions for export-related criminal violations, more than any other Federal law enforcement agency. These efforts-similar to the previous year-significantly contributed to preventing sensitive US technologies, as well as weapons, from reaching terrorists, hostile countries, and violent criminal organizations. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ DOC/BIS participated in more than 792 export investigations. This resulted in 40 criminal convictions, $2.7 million in criminal fines, over $800,000 in forfeitures, 56 administrative cases, and $3.6 million in administrative penalties. Wide Ranging Group of Actors According to information compiled during the reporting period, businessmen, scientists, engineers, and academics, as well as state security services from a large number of countries, continued to target US information and technology. The bulk of the collection activity, however, came from a core group of countries. Enduring Acquisition Methods While the most frequently reported collection methods remained the same during the past year, requests for information (RFI); exploitation of open-source media; and requests to purchase or share technology were often used. Some reports indicated an increase in the use of multiple methods in single contacts. General techniques included: RFIs Collectors used direct and indirect requests for information in their attempts to obtain valuable US data. These types of approaches often included requests for classified, sensitive, or export-controlled information. Solicitation or Marketing of Services Foreign companies sought business relationships with US firms that would enable them to gain access to sensitive or classified information, technologies, or projects. Acquisition of Technology Collectors continued to exploit direct and indirect acquisition of technology and information via third countries, the use of front companies, and the direct purchase of US firms or technologies in 2008. Conferences, Conventions, and Trade Shows These public venues offered opportunities for foreign adversaries to gain access to US information and experts in dual-use and sensitive technologies. Official Foreign Visitors and Exploitation of Joint Research Foreign government organizations, including intelligence and security services, also targeted and collected information, frequently through official contacts and visits. Statistics on visits and assignments to DOE facilities indicate that the number of visitors remained relatively stable compared to 2007. The statistics also show that visitors made multiple visits to individual facilities. China and Russia accounted for a considerable portion of foreign visits to DOE facilities during FY 2008. Cyber Attack and Exploitation Cyber threats are increasingly pervasive and are rapidly becoming a priority means of obtaining economic and technical information. Reports of new cyber attacks against US Government and business entities proliferated in FY 2008. Several adversaries expanded their computer network operations, and the use of new venues for intrusions increased. Threats against mobile telephones rose as well. Blackberry and iPhone-essentially general purpose computers-are susceptible to malicious software, according to opensource reporting. Foreign Targeting of US Travelers Overseas Foreign collectors also targeted US travelers overseas. Collection methods included everything from eliciting information during seemingly innocuous conversations to eavesdropping on private telephone conversations to downloading information from laptops or other digital storage devices. Targeted Information and Sectors Foreign collectors continued to seek a wide range of unclassified and classified information and technologies. Information systems attracted the most attention; aeronautics, lasers and optics, sensors, and marine systems were other top targets. Where as in case of India a report by Leslie DMonte Sapna Agarwal / Mumbai  February 10, 2007 from Business Standard (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/corporate-espionage-goes-undetected-unsolved-in-india/274229/) highlights the existing state of affairs , in that Corporate espionage virtually goes undetected and unresolved in India. The arrest of a VSNL employee for allegedly leaking information to a competing company is one of the few cases of corporate espionage to have come to light. However, a majority of corporate espionage cases go undetected. If detected, very few complaints come to light. And in the few cases that complaints are registered, hardly any action is taken. Only 20 per cent of corporate espionage cases are detected. Of this, a mere 20 per cent get reported and only 10 per cent can be solved, says Raghu Raman, CEO, Mahindra Special Services Group. Moreover, there have been very few convictions in India till date for corporate espionage or data theft, while not a single case has been registered under Section 66 of the IT Act 2000 the recent online ticket booking fraud cases where airlines were duped, is a case in point. In data theft cases, proving the crime is difficult. Besides, it could span across countries, under different jurisdictions, making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies, explains Vijay Mukhi, president, Foundation of Information Security and Technology (FIST). Every company I meet knows they are victim of some or the other form of data theft, but are not aware of how to deal with it, he adds. Any corporate leveraging intellectual property rights (IPR), offering cost-effective solutions or innovative or ingenuous solutions and not taking structured measures to protect its IPR, loses 5-10 per cent of their revenues to data theft, corroborates Raman. We get at least one or two cases every month, besides many inquiries; our clients ask us for specific information from their competitors or send dummy interviewees to find out salary packages, says Sunil Sharma, CEO, Authentic Investigation, Delhi. Ajay Jugran, Partner of law firm, Lawcombine, says, This malady is deep-rooted. Its prevalent when PSUs call for bids. Trading in bidding information is rampant. Companies are even using annual maintenance (AMC) contractors to plant surveillance software in rival firms. The software gives a daily log of the data via e-mail. Corporates have not woken to this fact despite the fact that the law (unless for national security purposes) does not permit this, explains cyberlaw expert and Supreme court lawyer, Pavan Duggal. Corporate Espionage has risen to epidemic levels. Espionage strategies range from illegal to merely seedy. In most cases, the best defense is employee awareness. The current organisational focus on risk management, governance, and compliance has, for some, blurred the responsibility for ensuring the security of an organizations assets. Corporations have to reconsider the effectiveness of their overall security programs, given the current threat of corporate espionage. Comprehensive security programs should address this threat. Though espionage cannot be eliminated, implementing multi-layer safeguards will at least minimize losses. What Can Companies Do? As competition in the global market place increases, so will the instances of corporate espionage. Therefore, companies both big and small need to take steps necessary to protect themselves from becoming a victim. Here are four necessary steps to help protect valuable data from falling into the hands of competitors. 1. Companies must identify what information is sensitive and classify it as such. Information such as RD processes and innovations or new market strategies are easily identified as sensitive. However, other information such as personnel files, pricing structure, and customer lists are often overlooked and left unprotected. 2. A company should conduct a risk assessment to identify vulnerabilities, and the probability that someone will exploit those vulnerabilities and obtain sensitive information. 3. Establish, review and update security policies and appropriate safeguards, both procedurally and technologically, to thwart attempts to exploit vulnerabilities and gain access to valuable company data. 4. Train all employees. Users, managers and IT staff all need to be trained in what business information needs to be safe guarded, techniques that can be used to gain access to sensitive data, and what procedures should be taken to report compromises or suspected attempts to solicit sensitive information. Government Involvement in the Espionage Threat Countermeasures -The government must conduct a threat assessment to determine risk and External / Internal flaws in the security the major corporations both private and public sector undertakings so as to prevent any possible attack of espionage. This would help protect such information as is necessary for keeping the economy of nation on track and preventing from it from any derailment by the financial loss that might be caused due to espionage activities. -There is a need of initiative on the part of government to make policies and procedures that would help in controlling the rampant increase of espionage activities. Such policies and procedures must be in writing and easy to understand and should be accessible easily. Further it is also needed that such regulations passed by government must be disseminated so that it becomes friendlier for the victim of corporate espionage to take recourse to the measures provided under this. -The government must also stay updated with regard to various developments that take place in the corporate world. For this revision of such policies and procedures is required from time to time. Such policies must also be updated annually so as to keep in touch with the latest technological developments. -The government must also take care of its assets, its people, its information, and its property so that it can utilize all these resources properly without any threat of being espionage by enemy organizations. -The government while handling various public sector undertakings must take care of its human resources. There must be Proper Position Descriptions of all the employees which must be accompanied with Pre-Employment Investigations about their background. It must be followed by Periodic Investigations so as to check any change in the behavior of a disgruntled employee. -The government must also advocate for the publication and release of Audits and Investigations. There must be regular audits of all areas, as this would help in investigations of losses and investigations of violations of policy. After doing this the government would be successfully able to check corporate espionage.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Tale Of Two Cities :: History

Tale Of Two Cities â€Å"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,† Dickens writes in the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as he paints a picture of life in England and France. The year is late 1775, and Jarvis Lorry travels from London to Paris on a secret mission for his employer, Tellson’s Bank. Joining him on his journey is Lucie Manette, a 17-year-old woman who is stunned to learn that her father, Doctor Alexandre Manette, is alive and has recently been released after having been secretly imprisoned in Paris for 18 years. When Mr. Lorry and Lucie arrive in Paris, they find the Doctor’s former servant, Ernest Defarge, caring for the him. Defarge now runs a wine-shop with his wife in the poverty-stricken quarter of Saint Antoine. Defarge takes Mr. Lorry and Lucie to the garret room where he is keeping Doctor Manette, warning them that the Doctor’s years in prison have greatly changed him. Thin and pale, Doctor Manette sits at a shoemaker’s bench intently making shoes. He barely responds to questions from Defarge and Mr. Lorry, but when Lucie approaches him, he remembers his wife and begins to weep. Lucie comforts him, and that night Mr. Lorry and Lucie take him to England. Five years later, the porter for Tellson’s Bank, Jerry Cruncher, takes a message to Mr. Lorry who is at a courthouse. Mr. Lorry has been called as a witness for the trial of Charles Darnay, a Frenchman accused of being a spy for France and the United States. Also at the trial are Doctor Manette and Lucie, who are witnesses for the prosecution. Doctor Manette has fully recovered and has formed a close bond with his daughter. If found guilty of treason, Darnay will suffer a gruesome death, and the testimony of an acquaintance, John Barsad, and a former servant, Roger Cly, seems sure to result in a guilty verdict. Questions from Darnay’s attorney, Mr. Stryver, indicate that Cly and Barsad are the real spies, but the turning point in the trial occurs when Sydney Carton, Stryver’s assistant, points out that Carton and Darnay look alike enough to be doubles. This revelation throws into doubt a positive identification of Darnay as the person seen passing secrets, and the court acquits Darnay. After the trial, Darnay, Carton, and Stryver begin spending time at the Manette home, obviously attracted to Lucie’s beauty and kind nature.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

The Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX

As is suggestive of its name, an operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that operate the personal computer (PC). Its primary purpose is to support programs that actually do the work one is interested in, and to allow competing programs to share the resources of the computer. However, the OS also controls the inner workings of the computer, acting as a traffic manager which controls the flow of data through the system and initiates the starting and stopping processes, and as a means through which software can access the hardware and system software. In addition, it provides routines for device control, provides for the management, scheduling and interaction of tasks, and maintains system integrity. It also provides a facility called the user interface which issues commands to the system software. Utilities are provided for managing files and documents created by users, development of programs and software, communicating between users with other computer systems and managing user requirements for programs, storage space and priority. There are a number of different types of operating systems with varying degrees of complexity. A system such as DOS can be relatively simple and minimalistic, while others, like UNIX, can be somewhat more complicated. Some systems run only a single process at a time (DOS), while other systems run multiple processes at once (UNIX). In reality, it is not possible for a single processor to run multiple processes simultaneously. The processor of the computer runs one process for a short period of time, then is switched to the next process and so on. As the processor executes millions of instructions per second, this gives the appearance of many processes running at once. User programs are usually stored on a hard disk and need to be loaded into memory before being executed. This presents the need for memory management, as the memory of the computer would need to be searched for a free area in which to load a users program. When the user was finished running the program, the memory consumed by it would need to be freed up and made available for another user when required (CIT). Process scheduling and management is also necessary, so that all programs can be executed and run without conflict. Some programs might need to be executed more frequently than others, for example, printing. Conversely, some programs may need to be temporarily halted, then restarted again, so this introduces the need for inter-program communication. In modern operating systems, we speak more of a process (a portion of a program in some stage of execution (CIT, 3)) than a program. This is because only a portion of the program is loaded at any one time. The rest of the program sits waiting on the disk until it is needed, thereby saving memory space. UNIX users speak of the operating system as having three main parts: the kernel, the shell and the file system. While DOS users tend not to use the term kernel and only sometimes use the term shell, the terms remain relevant. The kernel, also known as the â€Å"Real Time Executive†, is the low-level core of the OS and is loaded into memory right after the loading of the BIOS whenever the system is started. The kernel handles the transfer of data among the various parts of the system, such as from hard disk to RAM to CPU. It also assigns memory to the various system-level processes that occur whenever the computer does anything. The kernel is also responsible for scheduling the CPU†s operations and for letting the shell access the CPU (PC Mag, 1). The shell is the visible user interface to the OS and is a program that loads on top of the operating system and offers users commands that lets them access the OS. Strictly speaking, the shell is an input utility that offers access to the operating system. Technically speaking, the shell, being a separate program, is not a part of the OS at all. In the UNIX world a number of shells are available, among them the Korn shell, the C-shell, the Bourne shell and the Bourne Again shell (yes, really). In DOS, the standard shell is COMMAND. COM, again nothing more than a program. As different versions of command. com came with different versions of DOS, each added new commands and new things that could be done by the user. For example, DOS 4†³s COMMAND. COM added theP switch to DEL to verify each deletion, and DOS 5†³s COMMAND. COM provided the ability to sort the output of the DIR command. An acronym for disk operating system, the term DOS can refer to any operating system, but is most often used as shorthand for MS-DOS. Originally developed by Microsoft for IBM, MS-DOS was the standard operating system for IBM-compatible computers. The initial version of DOS was somewhat uncomplicated and resembled another operating system called CP/M. Subsequent versions have become increasingly sophisticated, however DOS remains a 16-bit operating system without support for multiple users or multitasking. The earliest forms of DOS were crude and utilized only a few commands, but as computers became more advanced, so did DOS. By keeping up with technology, DOS was implemented into more â€Å"user friendly† operating systems. However, as more sophisticated operating systems were released, DOS became less important. Today, cyberpunks involved with the latest OS trends joke that DOS stands for ‘Dad†s Operating System†Ã¢â‚¬  (Comerford, 23). In 1980, IBM asked the Microsoft Corporation to produce the operating system for its first personal computer, the IBM PC. Prior to this, a company called Seattle Computer Products had sold an operating system called 86-DOS to Microsoft. Microsoft hired the author of 86-DOS, Tim Paterson, in April of 1981 to modify the system, and renaming it MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), it was released with the IBM PC. Thereafter, most manufacturers of personal computers licensed MS-DOS as their operating system (Brittanica, 1). Limitations of the early PC†s hardware were a big influence on MS-DOS. Although the 8088 model computer had a 1Mb address space, IBM decided to allocate the first 640K of this to RAM, and the rest to ROMs, video boards and other things. Consequently, MS-DOS was set up to support programs whose maximum size was 640K. Version 1. 0 of DOS was released along with the IBM PC in August 1981. It occupied 12K of the systems 640K of memory, was somewhat compatible with CP/M and, much like CP/M, supported only a single directory. By contrast, even the first version of UNIX had a full hierarchical file system. In addition, Version 1. 0 supported only a 160K single sided 51/4-inch floppy diskette. Version 1. 1 was released by Microsoft in October 1982 and supported double sided 320K diskettes. Aside from fixing some bugs, this release was similar to Version 1. 0. Releases such as 1. 1, in which the number to the left of the decimal point is the same as the previous version depict relatively minor changes from the previous release. By contrast, Version 2. 0 was largely a new system. In March 1983, IBM introduced the PC/XT, its first personal computer with a hard disk. It came with a new variant of MS-DOS, Version 2. 0. In this version, Microsoft incorporated many ideas from the UNIX system for which it was also a vendor. For example, incorporating minor changes, the MS-DOS file system was taken largely from UNIX. In addition, the shell was improved, and Version 2. 0 supported a new floppy diskette format, the 360K as well as user installable device drivers, print spooling, system configuration and memory management. At this point, MS-DOS was established as the dominant operating system in PC market. In August 1984, IBM released its first 286 chip based PC, the PC/AT. The PC/AT supported memory up to 16 Mb and had the ability to run multiple programs at once. However, the version of MS-DOS that shipped with the PC/AT was 3. 0, which supported neither of these. Rather, it ran the PC/AT in a mode that simulated the 8088, only faster. Since the PC/AT came with a 1. 2Mb disk drive, battery backup clock, and configuration information in the CMOS, support for these devices was added. What's more, hard disks larger that 10Mb were now supported. In addition, the command processor (shell) was removed from the operating system and made into a separate program. In November 1984, 3. 0 was replace by 3. 1 which provided the first support for networking. In 1987, IBM came out with the PS/2 line of PC which shipped with MS-DOS 3. 3, providing support for both 720K and 1. 44Mb 31/3 floppy disk drives. With Version 4. 0, Microsoft added the DOS shell, a menu driven shell rather than the previous keyboard driven ones. In addition, it now provided support for hard drives larger than 32 Mb. A major new release, MS-DOS Version 5. 0 was shipped in April 1991. Although this was the first version that made any serious use of the extended memory, it still had the restrictions that programs could not exceed 640K. However, it had the ability to locate most of MS-DOS itself in extended memory, so about 600K of the lower 640K was now available for user programs. Version 5. 0 also came with a useful HELP utility, to aid new users. For the first time, MS-DOS was sold in stores to the public (previous versions were only sold to computer vendors who delivered them with their machines) (CIT, 1-3). The MS-DOS 6 family provided more memory management for applications such as Microsoft Windows. In addition, newer utilities were provided for disk-defragmentation, file compression, file backups and anti-virus checking. Other variations of MS-DOS exist, such as PC-DOS by IBM, DOS-V, Dr. DOS and others. There is even a FREE DOS available on the Internet as an MS-DOS clone. Although it can still be found on many computers, MS-DOS is technically an obsolete operating system, being replaced by Microsoft Windows. For personal computers, MS-DOS is a single user, single tasking operating system. Single user means only one person uses the computer at a time. Single tasking means that it essentially runs one application program at a time, and has no inherent support for running more than one application program simultaneously (CIT, 2). If we want to look at the basic DOS operating system itself, there is no need to look further than three system files, command. com, Io. sys and (in DOS6. x and earlier) Msdos. sys. These files are crucial in DOS versions up to 6. 22. Io. sys represents the lowest level of the interface and contains the routines necessary for interfacing the OS with the system†s BIOS. It implements MS-DOS as seen by the hardware and has default drivers for console display and keyboard, printer, serial communications, clock, and a boot disk drive. Msdos. sys handles the higher-level routines such as converting commands from applications into instructions for Io. sys. It implements MS-DOS as seen by application programs. It supports file and record management, memory management, character device input and output, execution of other programs, and access to a real-time clock (CIT, 3). Both of these files are in the root directory, and both are hidden from view by default. The idea is that you are not suppose to see them, so that you don†t do anything destructive to them (such as deleting them). They are also read-only so that they can†t be deleted accidentally. Command. com is the shell program which interprets user commands, presents the shell prompt, and contains a set of internal commands. The rest of MS-DOS consists of a number of utility programs. Although DOS had cornered the PC market, UNIX was still dominant on the larger workstations. The birth of UNIX in 1969 provided the world with its first modern operating system. An interactive multi-user operating system, UNIX was initially developed by programmers for their own use. Working for Bell Laboratories, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie created UNIX as an operating system for the PDP-7 computer. Designed as a simplification of an operating system named Multics, UNIX was developed in Assembly language, a primitive computer language specific to one type of machine (Osiris, 1). However, Thompson developed a new programming language â€Å"B† which Ritchie enhanced to â€Å"C†, and in 1973 this was used to rewrite UNIX which lended the OS portability (Linux Intl. , 1). The original design philosophy for UNIX was to distribute functionality into small parts, the programs (Theochem, 1). In this way, functionality could be achieved by combining the small parts (programs) in new ways. Moreover, if a new program were to appear, it could be integrated into the system. UNIX was slow to catch on outside of academic institutions but soon was popular with businesses as well. The first five versions were part of an internal research effort of Bell Labs, and it was not until the sixth version, called UNIX Timesharing Sixth Edition V, that UNIX was widely distributed (Osiris, 1). Relatively recent developments are graphical interfaces (GUI) such as MOTIF, X Windows and Open View. UNIX has two major versions. One, jointly developed by UNIX Systems Laboratories (USL) and by AT&T researchers together with Bell Labs, generically known as System V, is the commercial version and is the most widely distributed by major manufacturers. The second, developed by the University of Berkley and Berkley Software Distribution (BSD), is the educational version and is completely focused on research. The USL version is now on its fourth release, or SVR4, while BSD†s latest version is 4. However, there are many different versions of UNIX besides these two. The operating system has been licensed to several manufacturers who in turn developed their own versions of UNIX, based on System V or BSD, but adding new characteristics. Most versions of UNIX developed by software companies are derived from one of the two groupings and, recent versions of UNIX actually incorporate features from both of them. However, UNIX has had an unregulated history with over 200 versions (Berson, 16) existing today. The UNIX system is made up of three primary components, the kernel, the shell, and the utilities (which includes the file system). The central part of the OS, the kernel is the first program to start when the system is turned on and the last program to do anything when the system is halted. In addition to scheduling tasks, it manages data/file access and storage, enforces security mechanisms and performs all hardware access. The name â€Å"KERNEL† represents the fact that it is a program designed as a central nucleus, around which other functions of the system were added. The heart of the operating system, it not only interacts directly with the system†s hardware, but presents each user with a prompt, interprets commands typed by a user, executes user commands and supports a custom environment for each user. The two most common shells are the Bourne shell, default for the System V, and the C-shell used mainly with the BSD version (Osiris, 1). The utilities consist of file management (rm, cat, ls, rmdir, mkdir), user management (passwd, chmod, chgrp), process management (kill, ps) and printing (lp, troff, pr).

Friday, January 3, 2020

How to Meet People in College

Knowing how to meet people in college can be more challenging than you might have expected. There are tons of students, yes, but it can be hard to make individual connections in the crowds. If youre not sure where to start, consider one of these ten ideas: Join a club. You dont need to know anyone in the club to join; you just need to have a general interest about the clubs activities and mission. Find a club that interests you and head to a meeting -- even if its the middle of the semester. Join an intramural sports team. Intramurals can be one of the best features of being in school. Youll get some exercise in, learn some great athletic skills, and -- of course! -- make some great friends in the process. Volunteer on -- or off -- campus. Volunteering can be an easy way to meet people. If you find a volunteer program or group that shares your values, you can make a difference in your community while also making some personal connections with people just like you. Win-win! Attend a religious service on-campus. Religious communities can be like a home away from home. Find a service you like and the relationships will naturally bloom. Get an on-campus job. One of the easiest ways to meet folks is to get an on-campus job that involves in teracting with lots of people. Whether its making coffees in a campus coffee shop or delivering mail, working with others is a great way to get to know a lot of people. Get involved with a leadership opportunity. Being shy or an introvert doesnt mean you dont have strong leadership skills. Whether youre running for student government or just volunteering to organize a program for your club, serving in a leadership role can allow you to connect with others. Start a study group. While the main goal of a study group is to focus on academics, theres also an important social side. Find a few people who you think would work well in a study group and see if everyone wants to help each other out. Work for the campus newspaper. Whether your campus produces a daily newspaper or a weekly one, joining the staff can be a great way to meet other people. Youll not only connect with your fellow staff members, but youll also connect with all sorts of other folks doing interviews and research. Work f or the campus yearbook. Just like the newspaper, the campus yearbook can be a great way to connect. Youll meet tons of folks while working hard to document all that happens during your time in school. Start your own club or organization! it may sound silly or even intimidating at first, but starting your own club or organization can be a great way to meet other people. And even if only a few folks show up for your first meeting, thats still a victory. Youll have found a few people you share something in common with and who, ideally, you can get to know a little better.