Good evening, everybody.
Welcome to master class tonight this Thursday, September 28th,
2023.
We have a good team coming on tonight.
Good crew of presenters this evening should be a lot of fun.
A lot of different topics going on tonight, which is gonna be
really interesting because there's a few of these I really
wanna know about that I didn't, and I'm glad that they chose
them.
So I'm sure all of them will be just as good.
Let's go ahead and start off with the first one on the list.
I did put the agenda in the chat for this and in teams both in
the organization announcement and the master class.
Teams meeting chat, which if we start to get really busy, you
might want to use the mask, the teams meeting chat instead of
the chat that's on the recording.
Where we are right now seeing each other's faces only because
that takes a lot.
Uh, of resources within teams itself to even run these these
meetings.
So I think that's what the problems that we're having on
Sunday, Tuesday and AHOD meetings.
So all right, let's get started.
We have umm.
I think uh, Russell, Are you ready?
We have here.
Don't see him here.
You wonder sometimes if.
They feel I'm going to present it because I'm not.
Unless they've.
Recorded it like.
Russia L sent a message saying he was gonna be working late and
if you could move him back.
OK, we can do that.
We will skip to the next person.
Like it there?
Parasiel are you?
Are you able to present or do you want me to just go ahead
with the next person and then you'll be ready?
OK, let's go with Brian.
Are you ready?
I am.
Alrighty, take it away.
Alright, let me get my share on here.
A rag.
You guys see my screen.
I can't.
Alright, wonderful.
Alright, so tonight I am going to be discussing social
engineering.
I chose this topic because it is something that affects us all
every day, multiple times a day.
It also can lead to a lot of serious consequences.
So without further ado, social engineering.
So first topic is what is social engineering?
So it is a term used for a range of malicious activities that are
accomplished through human interactions.
It's a lot of playing with human emotions and exploiting human
emotions to get us to do things that we should not do or to fall
for certain things that we shouldn't fall for.
It uses psychological manipulation to trick users into
making security mistakes or giving away sensitive
information.
Moving right along, I wanted to discuss some of the statistics
over the recent year regarding social engineering.
So in the Broadwell of cyber attacks, 98% involve social
engineering.
On some level, it could include masquerading as a trusted
contact to encourage an employee to click on a link and spread
malware or ransomware, or an email pretending to be a banking
institution to capital to capture login credentials or
anything that's designed to exploit human in order to get
into a target system or any type of landscape on the data breach
front.
Social engineering is a popular approach to gaining access to
target systems.
In some cases it's easy to trick an employee into hand it over
sensitive information.
Then it is to gain entry through brute force, saving a lot of
time.
As a result, between 70 and 90% of data breaches involve social
engineering.
The average organization is targeted by 700 plus annual
attacks annually, so each year now considering that there's
about 260 work days, it means that organizations faced about
2.7 social social engineering attacks per day.
Social engineering that attacks are costly, even if they don't
lead to intense data breaches.
On average, companies lose 130 grand through money theft or
destroyed data in cases where social engineering does lead to
a major data breach, the totals can reach hundreds of thousands,
if not millions, of dollars.
Moving on, so social engineering is the process of attacking and
taking advantage of human emotions.
I'm gonna discuss the four emotions that are preyed upon
most.
The first is fear.
Malicious actors commonly used fear to manipulate victims
because it is one of the most powerful human emotions.
This is where you're being threatened with jail term for
not paying the IRS or they're telling you that you've got
something major going on in your account.
If you don't respond quickly, you're gonna lose access or
anything of that nature.
The next emotion is greed.
Now, as humans, we all have those moments where we
experience this and where we do want something that we probably
can't get on our own or something of that nature.
And this is where they take advantage of this.
This is a major one that actually happened to my aunt who
was living in Florida.
She fell for a the the 419 Nigerian scam, and they were
convincing her to go to get Green dot cards to basically
send them money because they were promising her fortunes.
If she did this.
The next emotion is helpfulness.
From a young age, most of us are taught to be helpful and
obedient.
That willingness to help others is used against us by social
engineering.
For instance, criminals seek out customer service agents because
they are helpful in nature.
And that helpful mindset makes them easy targets.
The last emotion is curiosity.
Curiosity is exploited when the attackers promised something and
enter and something of interest to deceive is victims.
This is where you're getting the pop ups for the free laptop.
If you complete the survey.
Now let's talk about the life cycle.
So the first step of the life cycle of a social engineering
attack is the investigation phase.
Now this is where they're going to look at your Facebook.
If you have a LinkedIn profile, they're gonna look at your
LinkedIn profile.
They're gonna.
They're gonna learn you.
They're gonna learn what makes you think they're gonna learn
what you do and how you do it.
And then they're going to take advantage of that to accomplish
what it is they're trying to accomplish.
The second step is the hook.
This is where they gain access by building the relationship.
They're they're gonna tell you a story.
They're gonna do something that makes you.
Company using AWS services to have also is a strip.
Say that again.
Hello. OK.
I think it was a hot mic.
OK, alright.
So let's see.
We were at the hook, so this is like is an example.
This is where it all phishing emails and attacker engages the
victim with the fake job promotion to accompany and they
could accept it by going on to to click a link.
Research.
I know you looking for a job.
I can see you going on job search sites and now hook.
Hey, here's a job.
Click this link and let's get started.
Step 3 is gonna be the play and this is where we are when you
actually execute the attack.
This is where when you click the link, this is where you spread
the ransomware.
This is where you provide the information that's sensitive and
is going to get you put into some type of a negative
consequence and then step four.
It's just exit.
This is where all communication is deleted.
The person that you've been talking to disappears, and then
you're left holding the bag.
Now let's move on to some types of social engineering attacks.
A lot of these you've heard of there were there were a couple
that I was not aware of previously, but very
interesting.
So first is the most common, which is fishing.
This is the most common type of attack.
Typically use spoofed emails or address links that aim to trick
you into provide log and credentials, credit card numbers
or any other type of personal information.
Then they're variations to this which are spearfishing where the
specific where there is a specific target of these
phishing attacks.
Then there's welling, where we're specifically going after
CEOs.
CEO are one of the most socially engineered.
Job titles around the entire country and then there is a
social media time known as angular fishing and this is what
we commonly see on Facebook where people impersonate others
or major businesses to try to trick you into believing that
you're talking to them.
The next one is diversion, theft.
Now the version theft is basically where the social
engineering goes after the delivery driver or Courier.
It convinces them to hand the package off to a third party or
another location, or as they call them, drops, which are
essentially empty houses that no one lives at.
They wait by wait for the package to get dropped off and
then they pick it up.
This is a major source of there for a lot of businesses.
In this instance, after they get your account details, they place
an order using your credit card information and then they have
the shipping address after it's confirmed to go to you sent
somewhere else and this is an attack on many shipping
companies.
The next is baiting.
Baiting is basically where they use an attack that lowers the
victim and to provide some type of assistive information by
promising something of free.
This is where you're free.
IPad comes in.
This is where you've won a free iPhone 15.
This is where you've won anything that all you have to do
the survey and continue through that the next that I'll talk
about is the honey trap.
This is basically a daters crap type of scenario.
Perpetrators pretends to be romantically or sexually
interested in the victim and then lowers you into an online
relationship that eventually could have you revealed
something that is confidential that will allow them to take
advantage of you, or in most cases to provide them some some
money and then the final is in the next is pretexting, which is
a fairly sophisticated type of attack, and which a scammer
creates a fabricated scenario.
This is where the IRS auditor comes into effect with the taxes
that you owe, or if you don't pay them, you could be facing
jail time or some type of major penalty.
And then the final is scareware scare.
Where is basically a form of social engineering where the
scammers basically insert malicious code into a web page.
Excuse me that when you visit sends you a pop up that tells
you that your computer is infected and may shut down if
you don't do.
And if you don't call this number, download this software
or do something that's going to in fact infect your computer
even more.
If you do click on that malware, you could possibly end up with
ransomware or anything of that nature.
So now that we've talked about the major types of social
engineering, I want to talk about what to do to protect
yourself, your loved ones, or if you are running a business, your
company.
The first is to train to him to educate and to train the the
best way to counteract these things is to know about them and
to know how to react to them and to be able to spot things that
don't look real.
Ohh, the second thing is do not open emails and attachments from
specific from suspicious sources.
If you don't know who the sender is in question, you don't need
to answer it.
Email and even if you and even if you do know them, you have to
be specific and cross check and confirm things on there because
a lot of the times they just change certain characters in the
address to make it look like it's going to the main site and
it even it's gonna step further to where the link that you click
on looks like exactly what you're expecting to expecting it
to look like.
This is a major one for corporate.
Umm, the third is to use multi factor authentication.
This is something that I have set up on just about any account
that I have nowadays and it still, and I still have
instances where I have to change passwords because I'm getting an
alert that somebody's trying to log in.
Multi factor authentication means that you have to have a
specific device in order to be able to access to specific site
and without having that on there without that two factor you just
it's just a matter of getting a password.
Be wary of tempting offers.
I mean, if it sounds too good to be true, then it more than
likely is and then the final is to keep antivirus and
antimalware software updated because as these things come
out, those programs are updated.
So they're aware of them in advance.
So if you do run into a situation or glow it, go to a
site that's inappropriate, there's software will tell you
and it will protect it.
If you download a batch file, it'll automatically quarantine
it and delete it for you.
It's just a great tool to have to keep yourself protected.
All right.
That will do it for the presentation.
Here are the references that I used in putting this together.
I do thank you all for your time this evening.
Any questions?
I did have one question.
When you had that spam, where is there another name for it?
Would that be considered a D dos?
Ohh that's usually DDoS I think.
Isn't that where they?
So with Didos they send you so many requests that you can't
Denial of service.
handle it and after after it shut it.
Yeah.
Basically, shuts the system down because you're sending so much
added, they can't even keep up, so that's a different type of
attack, but that is that can happen by, you know, being
clicking on a bad link.
It can definitely give them access to be able to perform
Gotcha.
that type of an attack.
That makes more sense.
OK.
Great presentation.
Yes, excellent.
Excellent job.
I'm so glad you did that.
Now I'm not.
I need to worry about the IRS, FBI, DOJ, HGB.
Right.
Worship.
Yeah, all of that is, man, it I it happened to me and like I
Yeah, Siri, you know.
said, it happened the the Nigerian scam happened to my
aunt and it literally broke her.
I got that.
Ohh, you know I wrote back to them, told them I wanted the job
It literally broke her.
and had them send me the check and everything.
And I said Ohh I went to the bank and they said it was fake.
What do I do now?
And they were like, no, we don't need you anymore.
Yeah, I I couldn't believe it.
I I really couldn't believe it, but it's still going on.
And when I'm talking this, this happened back in maybe 2010 when
it happened to her, and it's still going on to this day and
Yeah, yeah.
it's like we haven't caught on yet.
Absolutely.
I know like the and then the word has not gone around.
There's a lot that are not computer savvy, and I think
Has not.
Yeah.
Brianna has a question.
Sure, go ahead.
Ohh it's just a statement.
I'm so glad that you did the your presentation on this, cause
there are so many people that are just especially like older
people, like my grandparents for example.
And they get so much like so many text messages with links
and emails and calls and stuff.
And I feel like they just there needs to be a better way to,
like somehow educate people's specifically the older
Yeah.
population because.
And I mean, this is something that I see on a daily basis
because I do tech support for T-Mobile.
You.
Yes.
So I'm always getting calls about.
How do I stop these messages and I have to tell them you can't.
The only thing you can do is to know about them.
Umm.
If it looks like it's not real, you just have to delete it and
Exactly.
ignore it because we've tried everything we could.
Exactly.
We've stopped the scam callers to a certain extent, but they
just moved in the SMS.
So now it's a whole animal that we're having to deal with.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And my my grandparents saying same thing.
Can't we stop it?
I'm like man, no, there really isn't a way.
Just just don't click on anything and ignore it and
You.
delete it.
You know, it's just, it's sad, is really sad.
Yeah.
That's it.
And if it's a number you don't know just right away, say take
That is it.
me off your list.
Don't even say hello or anything.
Take me off your list.
Umm, exactly.
That's it.
Yep.
Or go ahead and add them to the block list.
That works too.
Yep.
Sondra.
Yes, I wanted to add on that and that I've constantly talked to
my mom about it because she's elderly.
And so she's finally got to the point where, no, she will not do
that and not click on any of the links.
And I'm like, very grateful, but I'm all pleased about this.
Yeah.
That last month I got to put on my security hat at work because
I do internal help desk for an insurance company and the best
thing that happened was that a an elderly insurance customer
had received what she thought was an email from the company
stating that she won $100 gift card.
Ah.
First thing she did was she called her agent and I was like
Ohh.
ohh I am so glad.
Oh, nice.
I am so glad.
Yes, that is very good.
And so I was actually, yes.
Very good.
And I was it was actually a staff member in the office.
And so I was able to actually put on my security hat and show
her how she can, you know, just the basic things of how she can
find to make sure that you know where the email is coming from,
you know, just do the start with the forwarding.
So you can look to see where the emails actually coming from and
Yep.
then to mouse over the link but not touch it and so yeah, but
Yep.
Yep, and I mean, and I think that.
but that she actually called her agent first.
Quit.
I was like ohh I am so happy.
Yeah.
Kiddo, did you get an ice cream or cookie?
Umm, but it's OK to put all my security hat at work.
You know something?
We're doing the right thing.
Absolutely right.
Well, that was wonderful.
Excellent job, great presentation and I might use
that for my students at the time comes during that week.
So or that unit, Rick, did you have a statement or a question?
No. Ah.
Yeah.
I just.
I did.
Sorry, I was just gonna say Brian, you know, great
information and being in the banking industry for 13 years,
technology itself and the vulnerabilities that have come
across especially on the the consumer side has just
exponentially grown since 2020.
We're now starting to see methods where they're utilizing
falsified umm number dialers to basically mimic a customer
service number from the institution.
These people bank at to act on behalf of it.
Wow.
Having that they have that information knowing like
addresses and personal information already thinking
it's the bank calling them about fraud causing them to give them
information over the phone for them to do identity theft or
anything else possibly.
Alternatively, fishing options, thinking it's the bank emailing
them that it will then install apps or they call them and they
have them downloaded app that makes the an elderly person
think that they're say iPad turned off when in reality it's
the app they're controlling that turns off the screen.
They log into their online banking and access all their
financial records at that point.
Is terrible.
Yeah.
And literally had this call yesterday.
So great, great, great information.
I literally had that call yesterday.
This lady called me and she could not.
So since they were using a dial that they couldn't send her a
shortcode, they had pretended to be her banks fraud department.
And I'm like, man, there's nothing coming through.
There's nothing for you to worry about.
You need to forget you even talk to those people.
Yeah.
And the elderly, and sadly, the the ones that have financial
struggles, are sadly the ones that are falling for it the
most.
Yeah.
Such a horrible time for to do that too.
Well, there's never a good time to cheat somebody out of their
money anyway, so.
No, never.
A lot to learn.
All right.
So thank you for your presentation, again, excellent
job.
Let's move on.
Give Russia a little bit more time to get ready.
And Brianna, Are you ready?
Yeah, I am just one second.
Can you guys hear me OK?
Yes.
OK, sorry if you guys hear my dog too, by the way.
Grandfathered in, we can't help that.
Lawn mower people?
I mean lawn care.
You know, children, those things we can't help.
We have the kick.
Yeah, kids, that's another one.
They just come barging in.
Everybody's stay out and then that's when everybody needs
Yep.
something.
No man's doing something.
I gotta go in.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, they just don't quite get that alright.
Anyway, can you guys see the screen?
OK.
Yes, we can.
That's it.
Does it show the little square on your guys's end too, or is it
just on my end?
Just you're in.
OK, got it.
Alright.
Hi, I'm Brianna.
And I'm gonna be discussing defense in depth and a few other
frameworks.
Uh, so defense in depth is something that I'm aware most of
you are familiar with.
It implements several layers with the mindset that if one
layer is breached, the others will fill in the holes to keep
the network secure.
It was designed.
It's designed with the CIA triad in mind to ensure that the
network data is kept confidential.
Integrity is maintained and that systems and data are accessible
when it is needed.
The defense in depth model was developed by the NSA with a
military mindset at the center.
Sometimes it's referred to as the castle approach because the
concept traces back to the era of castles and using modes,
towers, drawbridges and other various methods for security.
The defense in depth is a very holistic strategy that gives
organizations and adoptable approach to keep their network
safe.
It is also resilient model that keeps the organization equipped
to handle and recover from an attack.
It is also an adaptable model due to its ability to adapt to
evolving threats and technology.
The professionals can modify the layers to address new
cybersecurity threats without having to completely overhaul
the security infrastructure.
Furthermore, defense in depth is free.
Comprehensive, because each layer can focus on numerous
aspects of security, ensuring various attack vectors are
covered.
Now with all models, there are challenges that arise.
Implementing the defense in depth model is complex and
resource intensive.
The organization implementing defense in depth must ensure
that they have skilled professionals to effectively
manage and model the layers.
It is also costly, so they must ensure that their desired
security controls fit within the allocated budget.
Another challenge is that security as security layer is
increase.
There is also an increase in false positives.
There is also the potential of vulnerabilities within each
layer, making it crucial that the layers are continually
monitored and assessed, because in that tacker could exploit a
weakness in one layer to bypass others as technology changes, so
do the way that attackers design their attacks and some
techniques will allow them to bypass several security levels
at one time.
And because of the advancements in cybersecurity and because of
these advancements, cyber security techniques must adapt.
So let's explore the concept of proactive cybersecurity, which
encompasses all the various techniques done prior to an
attack taking place far too often, organizations do not
properly prepare, and an attack.
And when an attack does take place, it's too late.
The tactics of proactive cybersecurity include hiring
professional penetration testers that will try to breach the
network and report back to the organization the weaknesses that
were found.
The security team then should take that data and repair the
weakness in the network to prevent malicious hackers from
accessing the network.
Another tactic is throughout hunting, which utilizes security
professional skills to search through network and actively
find threats.
The use of proactive cybersecurity and enables the
team to be able to constantly be on the lookout for threats that
lie on hosts or networks and quickly resolve any issues
before they make it further into the network.
No, opposite of proactive cybersecurity is reactive
cybersecurity, which is responding to an incident after
it had already happened.
Reactive cybersecurity tactics include incident response, which
will outline the steps taken to contain, analyze and mitigate
the impact of the breach.
Another tactic is forensics and investigation of the incident.
This is where the professionals will conduct a forensic analysis
to obtain as much information on the attack as possible.
It is also important to minimize the damage with damage control
tactics, tactics, which include isolating the affected systems,
removing malware and restoring the data.
With technology constantly evolving, it takes a variety of
security measures to ensure that a network is secure as possible.
The addition of proactive methods adds an entirely new
dynamic to the way that organization can protect their
network is crucial to ensure that there are measures added in
the event of a breach.
In a perfect world, the idea is to prevent attacks entirely, but
unfortunately that is not as easy as it seems.
Just as fast as cyber security professionals develop ways to
secure network and malicious hackers finding ways to exploit
the network.
Which is why many organizations are implementing the Zero Trust
framework.
So zero trust model assumes that every request is a breach.
There's no trust with anyone or any device.
Each request must be authenticated, authorized and
encrypted every time.
This concept takes away the idea that everything behind a
firewall is safe and adds an entirely new set of rules to
keep the network secure.
This model makes use of the principle of least privilege,
which ensures that users only have access to what they need to
do their job.
Nothing more, nothing less.
The use of zero trust ensures that users users, device
behavior, network traffic and system activity will
continuously be monitored, monitored and any anomaly will
be detected in real time, allowing for an immediate
response.
Implementing Zero trust will improve security tremendously
because it reduces the attack surface by requiring continuous
authentication and authorization for access to resources.
One of the largest issues security professionals have
faced in recent times is the increase in remote work due to
COVID at the peak of COVID, when everyone was in lockdown, there
were many organizations, organizations that had to
continue working, so they introduced from what work with
the use of zero trust, the users experience will be will be
improved because it offers seamless and user-friendly
experience compared to models that rely on network based
access controls.
With the increase of remote work on several security risks, which
is why the use of the zero Trust framework became so popular,
there are many organizations adopting this model, including
Microsoft.
There are challenges to implementing the zero Trust
Model 1 being that is complex, is set up.
It requires re architecting network infrastructure and
redesigning policies.
The implementation of zero trust is resource heavy and requires a
significant number of resources, including a financial
investment.
Skilled professionals and ongoing monitoring and
management.
It is also challenging because organizations invest large sums
of money into traditional security tools and solutions
that are not easily compatible with zero trust.
So the transition can be time consuming and costly.
The final point is that employees may be resistant to
the change because it is drastically different than what
they're used to, so it is important that they are properly
educated on the reason for the change.
Cybersecurity training is something that I'm extremely
passionate about.
I believe the vast majority of people do not understand the
power of that technology carries in an organization setting.
It is important important that employees understand their role
in cyber security.
As professionals, we have our specific role to fulfill and
quite frankly, it's a lot of responsibility that we all
carry.
But to aid in success, I believe that it takes the cooperation of
the entire organization to keep a network safe.
The human factor is where many data breaches originate, so
designing a training to make the employees aware of how breaches
can occur will aid in the prevention of attacks.
Social engineering, like Brian discussed.
Listen, is it technique that hackers can use to get as much
information out as much information as they can find on
the Internet about a person's people tend to post everything
on social media.
Media.
And so it's important that employees are informed of that
and all work related information should not be posted anywhere.
With that said, it is important that cyber security training
happens regularly with employees to keep it fresh in their minds
so that they know what to look for and create a workforce that
is team oriented in the task of keeping a network safe.
Overall, securing an organization's network can be
done in a variety of ways, and as professionals, we must advise
on which framework will be best suited for the organization and
their needs.
The defense in depth.
Farmworkers, popular and, has worked for many organization,
but as remote work increases, so does the implementation of zero
trust frameworks.
I believe securing a network takes a variety of tools and as
I previously stated, educating and organizations workforce is
crucial to the overall success of the security framework chosen
as important in that security professionals and the employees
work together as a team to to keep it in network, secure from
malicious hackers.
Here's all my references and thank you guys for listening,
and there's any questions.
Great job, nice work.
Thank you.
Sorry for all the background noise, I just hear my children
and my dog and it's so I swear they just don't ever listen to
me.
And I it's OK.
I didn't hear anything so.
I just.
Ohhh my gosh, I'm so glad because I just hear my children,
like, laughing hysterically.
My dog's barking at probably a cat and I just was like, Oh my
gosh, please don't hear this.
You know you're good.
You're good.
That was great.
Does anybody have any questions for Brianna?
Alright, well, that was wonderful.
More good information.
Let's go on to Wesley.
Are you ready?
OK.
Well, racial, we'll, we'll get you after Wesley.
It was easier.
Wesley's not here.
Was I supposed to do this one?
Think so?
So OK, tell you what, let me see if I can find something.
Russell, you go ahead if you're ready.
See anything?
Hi everyone.
Can you hear me OK?
Yes.
Cool.
Alright, let me see how I do this.
Hopefully I will mess up ohh.
You.
It's loading God.
Are you guys able to see my PowerPoint?
Yes.
OK.
Alright, so my name is rasiel. Uh.
I am.
I was born in Cuba and I'm pursuing a bachelor's degree in
information technology with a software development as the
concentration and last last week, one of my teammates, I
mean not teammate classmates, gave a presentation about
cryptocurrencies and I just wanted to expand a little bit on
that because I found that very interesting.
So let me go to my next slide.
So before getting into today's agenda, I would like to
highlight why is important to uh to us, to have a basic
understanding of blockchains and crypto currency technology as IT
professionals and also as prospective users.
There's blockchain is a sophisticated database system
that enables seamless sharing or information within a corporate
network.
All the blockchain technologies popularity started with the
initial stages of cryptocurrencies.
Like bitcoins, it is becoming a mean for potential solutions in
order in other industries such as supply chain, retail,
healthcare and government.
So what is cryptocurrency?
Uh, cryptocurrency is a form of digital or virtual currency that
relies on cryptographic security, making it extremely
difficult.
Difficult to kind of fate or engage in double spending.
Most cryptocurrencies operate on the centralized network that
utilize blockchain technology, which is a let me see if I can
say this right.
A distributed Ledger say sort of like an accounting book.
Uh.
Upheld by a diverse network of computers are defining feature
of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any
central authority friended rendering them theoretically
immune are making it, you know, other words, making it immune to
government interference or manipulation.
Uh, So what does a cryptocurrency signify to the
more financial landscape?
Uh, because cryptocurrencies function in the decentralized
networks, it gives people direct control over the financial
assets.
This openness to everyone has the potential to change the way
money works and solidify the idea of transitioning from a
traditional banking to crypto banking.
We're crypto banking.
People might manage money and cryptocurrencies in one account,
Disconnectivity made switching between cache and digital assets
straightforward thing.
Individuals have the option to handle both traditional currency
and cryptocurrencies within a single account, allowing for
easy transition between physical and digital access.
This similar is this seamless integration ensures that
transactions remain transparent. Irreversible.
Ohh, my God.
Sorry about that.
I've reversible and immune to tampering.
This is this all happening?
Uh.
While connecting individuals with full ownership.
Let me see my next slide now.
How cryptocurrency works?
That's a good question.
As previously mentioned, the cryptocurrency work primarily
with blockchain technology to use crypto currency at digital
wallet is necessary.
This digital wallet serve as the as a repository for private and
public keys.
The public click the public keys function as a unique
cryptocurrency addressed while the private keys are utilized to
endorse transactions.
Service as evidence of ownership.
Uh, now, if you intend to transfer cryptocurrency to
another in the individual, you must initiate a transaction.
This transaction holds the recipients public key, the
specified amount for transfer, and a digital signature formed
with your private key.
This digital signature serves as verification of your ownership
of the fonts.
Your transaction then is broadcasted to the to the Pepto
currency network.
Uh nodes in the network verify the transaction validity by
confirming that you indeed have the fonts you're trying to send
and and such digital signature is valid.
This verification process is known as mining.
Cryptocurrencies implement a consensus mechanism to establish
agreements on the blockchain status.
For instance, in Bitcoin, mine is complete minus compete to
solve intricate mathematical puzzles.
The first minor to succeed in solving such problems errors the
privilege to append a new block of transaction to the blockchain
and is rewarded with new, uh, newly generated cryptocurrency.
Here there is a table with some of the well known
cryptocurrencies.
Of course, big Bitcoin is #1 and as maybe three that three days
ago is, it was worth $26,107.00.
Uh on the right side on the very right column, there are some
feature and use cases and for instance, with a Bitcoin offers
security, transparency, immutability and so done to me.
Uh, there is the ether and the value is $15176.00.
And there's also light comes, which is not.
I didn't put it here.
He kind of came back to my mind later, but that one is very
popular.
Ohh.
Now let's talk about some uh crypto risk and mitigation
strategies.
Uh, previewing the pros.
Cryptocurrencies.
My offer we can summarize this this new way of banking.
Eliminate single point of failure facilities.
Sorry, facilitates transferring fonts among parties, which means
it also cut off third parties.
Entities.
Cryptocurrencies can be utilized to generate returns.
And then three.
It's way I'm reading it now.
Wonder what would happen on the different types of Jeep.
You have a hot mic.
OK.
Umm.
Lastly, remittances to overseas are streamlined.
However, it is important to understand the risk associated
with this virtual currencies.
One of them is user risk.
In contrast to conventional financial system, that is no
option to do or I don't know cryptocurrency transaction when
he's it has been executed.
Uh for user another risk is the user risk mitigation?
So I'm sorry and I got confused.
UM, the mitigation strategies are secure storage.
Use secure cryptocurrency wallets with strong passwords.
MFA and hardware wallets for significant HOLETS Holdings.
Another uh mitigation is double checked each transaction by
verifying recipient addresses before sending cryptocurrencies
and ensure the accuracy to prevent irreversible mistakes
and backup at regularly backup your wallet keys and password in
a secure location.
Another risk is a regular.
Ohh my God.
I'm sorry, my accent is not helping me at all.
Regulatory risk.
The regulatory status of certain cryptocurrencies remain
uncertain when numerous government contemplating whether
to classify them as securities, currencies or both.
Another risk is that regulatory.
I mean, they're mitigations strategies are one stay
informed, keep up today with cryptocurrency regulations in
your country and globally.
The second one is compliance, abide by the local regulations
and talks a lot related to cryptocurrencies.
The third one is diversify.
Invest in cryptocurrencies.
We clear regulatory compliance to reduce exposure exposure to
uncertain assets, which means don't put all the eggs in one
basket.
Another risk is a counterparty risks.
Numerous investors and businesses.
Uh, and trust exchanges or other custodial entities to safeguard
their cryptocurrency holdings.
If one of these third parties providers experience theft or
loss, it could result in the complete loss of ones
investments.
Ah.
Now I'm mitigations are choose a reputable exchange.
You can use a well established cryptocurrencies exchange with a
track record of security and reliability.
Probably Bitcoin.
Uh.
Another mitigation strategy is to self custody.
Consider self custody options like hardware wallets to have
full control over your assets and the last one is insurance.
Look for exchanges or custodians that offer insurance coverage
for potential losses.
And now that we talk a little bit about cryptocurrencies,
let's let's understand a little bit about what blockchain is.
I would like to tell you that blockchain came up as a group
idea from research that wanted to digital documents to be
timestamped in a way that such documents cannot be backdated or
modified or modified.
Uh.
With an effort to keep legit legit.
Ohh my God.
Legit legitimacy.
I'm sorry, I am.
I need help.
You legitimacy?
OK, that's fine.
Every transaction is recorded within a block, and each of
these blocks includes information about transaction,
including the date, time, expenditure amount, the product
involved, and details about the parties involved in the
transaction.
All the blocks are managed with assistance of the block header.
A block header typically consists of at several
companies, including block number or index, which is an
unique identifier for the block within the blockchain sequence.
A previous block hatch.
The cryptographic hash of the previous block header, which
creates a changed blocks ensuring the integrity and
immutability of the blockchain.
Another one is timestamp, the timestamp indicates when the
block was created or mined.
This one is Merkel.
Merkel fruits a hash value that represents all the transaction
within the blocks.
It is derived from the transaction data in the block.
***** a random number using the mining process to find a valid
block hash that meets certain criteria, which can be proof of
work, and we're going to detail later.
Difficulty target and that's the last one.
A value that determines the level of difficulty for minors
to find a valid block hash.
It is part of the proof of work algorithm.
These companies play a crucial role in securing and linking
blocks in the blockchain.
So I I posted a I place it here a little kind of like a little
diagram to how that works and you can see a transaction is
being requested at the next step.
The block that represents the transaction is created and after
he creation of each block it undergoes a verification
progress by the nodes within the decentralized peer to peer
network.
Uh.
During this process, knows collectively reach a consensus
on whether to accept or reject is transaction forming the
foundation of the consensus mechanisms.
Mainly, there are two prevalent consensus mechanisms.
One of the file or proof of work and the other one is proof of
stake or POS in PAO or proof of work at participant note must
demonstrate that they work they have perform they they got the
task to show how what type of work have they done and need to
submit.
Uh accurate tudia to gain the privilege of appending new
transaction to the blockchain.
This is a little bit complicated, so I'll try to be
as basic as possible.
How also requires a high energy consumption and long processing
times for the Bitcoin mining.
On the other hand, POS or proof of stake it is a low and energy
consuming alternative to the how algorithms here uses uh stake
their tokens to be given to the privilege of conducting work on
the blockchains.
For words like transactions fees, once a majority of nodes
validate the transaction.
If receive a time stamp and it is assigned a unique hatch
solidified as an immutable record in the in the database.
So secondly, the lecture is updated and the block it is
appended to the database, thus extending the chains of
interconnected blocks, notably blockchain user collectively
serve as administrators, eliminating the need for
centralized authority.
It should block or each entry is associated with a specific user
and references their prior entities or prior entries,
ensuring a transparent and trustworthy record for each
user's activities on the network.
The decentralized network and autonomous system allows the
blockchain to transparently manage information across in
spirit to peer network and his users.
Uh, now we're going to cover it up a little.
Like some applications of blockchains to the real world,
umm, all the blockchains technology has been popularized,
mostly cryptography with cryptocurrencies.
Is.
It's certainly not the only use case available in the world.
Applications of blockchains are also present in other industry
like ship supply, change management, healthcare and
government.
For example, boarding systems, blockchain technology finds
valuable application in supply chains.
Management by we revolutionizing transparency.
Traceability and operational efficiency through blockchains.
They are the origin and journey of the products can be
meticulously tracked and should I shouldn't.
Customers of product authenticity and quality,
particularly a critical in sectors like foot and luxury
goods, smart contracts, automate and enforce agreements,
triggering actions like payments and shipments when retirement
conditions are met, stream analyzing the processes, real
inventory management, reduce errors, optimized stock levels
and minimize waste.
Blockchain technology empowers healthcare organizations to
deliver optimal patient care and top notch health services.
It it, it addresses the time consuming and repetitive nature
of the healthcare health information exchange, which has
a traditionally inflated healthcare cost costs.
With blockchains, this issue can be resolved.
Moreover, citizen can participate in health research
initiative while improve research and the sharing of
public health data.
Promising enhance treatment outcome for like the birds
communities, the implementation of this technology also helps to
safeguard the healthcare data.
Managing uh genomics data.
Electronic data management and medical records.
Another application is in voting systems which offers secure and
immutable records by recording each vote and then unchangeable
transaction of the blockchain.
Uh, I.
Shouldn't the integrity of such buildings as you can see, I
think it was in the election of 2020.
Uh, Trump.
You guys know what happened?
I don't wanna go into politics.
Additionally, it enhanced security through identity
verification.
What voters identifies, what voters identities are secured
tied to blockchain based digital identities, minimizing the risk
of fraud.
Furthermore, blockchain facilities secured remote and
overseas voting enable citizens worldwide to participate.
Uh, you know, potential Booth and another one is uh, OK,
that's good.
Let's go.
Go on it.
Some benefits of blockchains are immutability.
Uh, it's not possible to raise a replace record data, which means
blockchains inhibits data typing with the network and example can
be with the land title of records.
Once a large title is recorded on the blockchain, it cannot be
altered or tampered with.
This guarantees the integrity of property ownership records and
reduce the risk of flow.
Another benefit is transparency.
Unlike traditional database, the decentralized property of this
networks enable enables any network member to verify data
recorded into the blockchain.
Concrete example is in the food industry.
The blockchain can track the journey of a product from the
farm to the store.
The meeting customers to verify the origin and authenticity of
the products they purchase.
Last one.
Well, the second before last one is censorship free from
censorship.
It's because it doesn't have control for any single party, so
no individuals.
And interrupt the operation of the network including
government.
An example is at the the D5, which is, uh, stands for
decentralized finance.
Uh, they file leverage blockchains to create financial
system that are resistant to censorships user can ask
lending, borrowing, and training services without relying on
translation of financial intermediaries make it difficult
for any single entity to sensor or control such activities.
Last one is hope.
I can say right traceability.
Blockchains will produce a permanent audit trail, allowing
easy tracking of changes account.
Another example is within the diamond industry.
Uh.
Which it were.
Each diamond is assigned a unique identifier along with his
journey data starting from the minor to the jewelry store.
Such data is recorded in the blockchain and this trace
ability is to combat the trade off blood diamonds, which is a
term known in Africa for the illegal trade of diamonds and
what is being done ohm to get them some many illegal
activities that are going on there.
I'm almost done guys, I promise.
Uh, challenges and concerns.
One of them is a scalability.
Uh.
Achieving scalability typically requires compromising either
decentralization, security, or a combination of both.
For instance, to establish a scalable and decentralized
network, you will need to incentivize a large number of
active participant to achieve high security.
Uh.
Another challenge is the energy consumption.
Uh Paul, or proof of work?
Consensus.
The mechanisms in requires minus to solve complex mathematical
puzzles to validate transactions and add them to the blockchains.
This process consumes an enormous amount of computational
power and consequently a significant amount of energy.
So in other words, you you gotta have like the latest uh top top
computer.
And to make this thing work and the last one is uh regulatory
issues.
Blockchain transactions often so uh, let me see how I say this.
So Domino's, meaning they are not directly tied to real world
identity.
While this can provide a level of privacy, it can also be
exploited for criminal activities such as money
laundering.
Uh, tax evasion and illegal trade as it makes it harder for
the 30s to trace the individuals involve.
And we go lastly, we're gonna check the future trends and
developments of this technology.
Blushing has emerged as a significant disruptive record
across various sectors, optimizing processes such as
transactions, internal communications and data storage.
Global organization has used these technologies to establish
the digital currencies while enhancing data transparency and
reducing the risk for ALS.
Additionally, it offers customer access to cloud based solutions
for hosting, constructing, and utilizing blockchains
applications.
The prospect of blockchains technology in the financial
sector, I highly encourage it.
Currently, the expenses associated with money transfers
involving various intermediaries are definitely high.
However, blockchain technology has the potential to remove the
necessity, the necessity for this intermediaries, which leads
to a substantial cost reduction.
Uh, cryptocurrencies are gaining wider assessment, acceptance and
use of media exchange, investment and store of value.
This every this is evidence through the growing number of
businesses, financial institutions and individuals
incorporating cryptocurrency.
Oh, my God.
I'm sorry I'm of incorporating cryptocurrencies into their
financial strategies.
Governments are regulatory bodies are actively working on
developing and implementing cryptocurrencies regulations.
These efforts to aim provide this effort aim to provide legal
frameworks that balance innovation and consumer
protection, while mitigating risk associated with fraud,
money laundering and tax evasion.
Now, what does this mean to us as IT professionals, given the
rising interest occurs across various industries, finance
including finance, healthcare, supply chain management, the
need of blockchain specialists is expected to go up.
Currently, the job markers suffers from a scarcity of
seasoned blockchain professionals.
This translates into an abundance of job openings and
reduce level of competitions for those seeking opportunities in
the field.
So if you ever decide to explore the blockchain ambient, here are
some uh.
In demand jobs, roles that you can take a look at.
Blockchain quality engineer, developer, solution, actor, UX
design player, manager, legal consultant, and analyst.
And these are my references.
And you have any questions?
I'm all ears and I apologize for getting stuck quite a few times.
I came.
I just came from a 12 hour shift of work.
But no worries at all.
You did a great job.
Excellent.
And I'm glad that you covered this because there was a lot
about blockchain.
I didn't understand and I think now I think we're going to
because of this and if we really spread the word, I'm sure we're
going to have a lot of people who want to get to know about
blockchain.
Since we do have a concentration in it, I think uh, cyber has
Not really.
constant.
Yeah, I think Cyber has a blockchain concentration. Or is
it?
Oh no, I have to look at the concentrations again.
Umm, but I think we do.
Cool.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's this a I'm sorry.
Umm.
Uh, but I didn't know that it blockchain existed until, like
maybe a year ago.
I don't even know what the name was and.
Yeah, I was really confused about it myself.
I'm just thinking what in the world is all the and I still
have this idea of it's feels like it's just all made up and
it's not really out there, but it's doing something like
everybody's just milling around, working on something that's not
Yeah.
really there and making fake money, you know, and and it's
just that the fact that it's not tangible to me is the problem
that I have with it.
Yeah, and.
Umm, that's not actually there.
So it's something that I have to learn which this helps that we
had another one last week about cryptocurrency and this one is
really great to help with that, that information definitely.
And I love hearing you because you sound like my dad when he
was trying to he my parents are French, so when they're learning
English, she sounds just like that.
Yeah, just like it's it's my accent.
It's not easy.
Won't help me with some of the words, so it's kind of hard for
me to do like quickly.
Yeah.
Like I flew in, you know, English speaking person.
So thank you for your patience.
Yeah, well, he would he work in the in the restaurant and he
would get him 11 top and he would say it's an elephant top.
So now or is it the beginning?
So at the beginning of time, so it there, there's just some
words you'll get used to it as you start using them.
It's it's great.
I love hearing.
It brings me back, umm, that was excellent though.
Thank you.
Does anybody have any questions for resale?
And it's my turn to do.
I have it.
Wesley did have it in his folder for me to show.
So I will pull it up.
We got to do here.
Make sure I'm doing everything I need to do.
OK.
Can you see my screen?
Umm.
Hello everyone.
Today, we're going to talk about smart home technology.
Most of you probably know what this is already.
Most of you probably have one or more devices in your home.
I personally have four or five of them, I think.
So what is smart home technology?
Smart home technology consists of utility and convenience
devices connected to your home Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or even a mesh
network.
The devices communicate with a hub or a mobile phone app, and
even sometimes with each other.
You can access and control them from your phone when connected
to the Wi-Fi, and sometimes some of the devices will let you
connect to them from anywhere as long as you have Internet
access.
So what is the purpose of a smart home device?
Certain devices, such as the nest, which is the thermostat,
can reduce your energy consumption.
It can learn your habits, and it can lower your energy costs and
your power bill.
Other devices simply save you time by letting you do things
from your phone or device.
Another device, instead of having to manually do them, they
can increase your productivity and they simply offer
convenience.
Again, not having to manually do something, there are doorbell
and camera devices that provide extra security.
The doorbell allows you to see someone when they deliver a
package.
They're usually motion activated and some of them will even take
a picture of that.
Indoor security cameras are motion detected, so if you have
a pet at home or someone staying in your house, the camera will
alert you when they move.
So you can kind of check on them and see what's going on.
There are also smart plugs and locks that let you turn off
devices or lock doors if you forget when you leave your
house, which is a great piece of mind thing if you are running
late to work one day and you don't remember if you locked
your door, you can check your app and you can lock it right
from there.
You can turn off lights that you've may have left on to save
your energy while you're away.
Simple things like that.
So we went over kind of the general purpose of a smart home
device, but there are also some extra special features.
These are the ones that I was the most interested in when I
was researching it.
Uh, mostly AI.
Each device has its purpose, but some devices have these special
features, including artificial intelligence and learning.
Certain devices monitor patterns and user habits and preferences
constantly as you're using them as their powered on, they're
watching.
Learning what you do and they can adapt to that.
Some of the AI some use AI to adapt appliances and lighting to
conserve energy during low use periods or during certain times
of day.
So if you use the oven a certain way at a certain temperature, or
you have you turn your lights off at a certain time at night,
the AI will learn from that and it'll adjust your energy
consumption around that, and it'll still find a way to save
you money.
And on your power bill doing that?
There are other devices that learn.
Users preferences to adjust temperature and settings without
having to do some manually, such as the nest thermostat that I
referred to earlier.
I have one in my house.
Actually I have it set to 71 I think and throughout the day
depending on how hot it gets outside, it'll adjust.
Maybe a degree or two to try to save energy but still keep it as
close to that as possible, and then at night it'll turn it down
because I like to sleep with it a little bit colder, so the
thermostat itself has a schedule and it's learned from what I do
to lower the temperature at night.
So I can sleep a little more comfortably instead of me having
to worry about that myself.
Another device I referred to earlier was a smart hub.
There are three different kinds of smart hubs.
There's a bridge.
There are mobile apps on your phone and then there are the
speakers such as Amazon Alexa and the Google.
Most of us probably know what the speaker is.
I have one of those also and that's what early on.
We were afraid of them listening to us as we were talking to
them.
Uh, but a bridge is a a more complicated one.
The bridge is used for all the devices on the network to
communicate on this one device.
The problem is if you have devices from multiple companies
because it's a competitive market, they don't really want
you using another company's device.
So it works best and easiest if you have all the same brands so
they can communicate with each other.
These smart hubs are like the central command for devices.
They are the brain.
They are how you run the whole the whole home, the whole
system.
Certain smart hubs are sorry bridges are such as the Z wave
require a mesh network to allow the devices to communicate with
each other, and the mesh network is a much more expensive,
detailed home Wi-Fi system.
It's like a group of connected routers and devices around your
home so that there's not one.
If one goes out, you don't lose network because the whole rest
of the routers are still up and running.
So let's go into a little more detail on the types of devices I
have spoken about.
Several of these already 1 issue is some people think a smart TV
is a smart home device.
While it is technically not, it is a smart device, but it's not
technically a smart home device.
It's, uh, a device that lets your TV use apps to play video
software like streaming like Peacock or Apple or Prime Video,
but it doesn't necessarily enhance your home in any other
way.
So it's more of a device just for your TV.
So actual smart home devices such as smart speakers are the
most popular device.
They are your virtual assistant.
You can speak to them.
You can have conversations with them.
You can ask them questions.
You can tell them to perform commands like turn off your
lights, start the oven, multiple things like that, and of course
they can play music.
You can ask them to play music for you.
Smart plugs.
Probably the easiest way to get into a smart home device.
They look like a normal plug.
They fit into the wall outlet like a normal plug, but they
have the ability to connect to your Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth
network to allow whatever device is connected into that outlet to
be turned on and off, usually by a phone app.
I have a couple of these for a a fan in my office.
Because of my computer gets pretty hot, then I can just turn
on whenever I want to.
There are smart bulbs.
Also have a few of these.
They can change color.
They can be dimmed and they have multiple effects like strobe,
lighting, rainbow lighting.
The ones I have I use to turn on in the morning instead of having
to get up, I just hit the button on my phone to turn the light on
and I can demo it or turn it off when I'm gone throughout the day
to to save energy.
There are also smart thermostats.
The thermostat, like the nests that are there, which I have
uses the AI to learn how you use your energy and control
temperatures for different times of day.
This is one of the things that will go into statistics on a
little bit later.
There are security cameras, indoor and outdoor.
Most of them are motion activated and they alert you
when they detect emotion.
There are video doorbells, the most popular being the ring, of
course, that everyone's heard of.
I think that's the one that kind of started it all.
They're like security cameras.
They activate when someone approaches your doorstep.
Most people use them for delivery pretty much with
Amazon.
I think that's the whole thing.
Ring Doorbell and Amazon package delivery.
It's one of the big starters for a smart home devices and I
actually heard that Amazon or sorry read that Amazon, it's
kind of advertising and helping people to get ring doorbells and
supporting smart home technology that way.
They're also smart locks.
These are door locks that can be controlled from your phone or
another device.
They are helpful if you forget to lock your door when you leave
home.
You are driving down the road.
You're like, did I lock the door?
Did I lock the door?
I don't remember.
You don't.
Now you don't have to turn around, drive back home and
check it yourself, especially to realize that you did lock it and
you drive back home for nothing.
You can just pull up your phone, open the app, and check to see
if it's locked, and if it's not, you can hit locked door.
Simple as that.
So here are some of the statistics that I've been
referring to.
Some of these are pretty crazy when you think about it.
Smart home sales in the United States are predicted to increase
by 27% every single year until 2030, at which point they will
reach 5 over $500 billion.
Over half of a trillion dollars.
That's that's insane.
More than 50% fifty 7% of all the US households will own a
smart home device by 2025.
But the demographics for smart home devices?
They're actually pretty even.
When I looked at them, which was surprising, I would think maybe
the early early generation didn't have as many or older
path baby members didn't have any, but they're neck and neck
except for the 25 to 34 year old market. Have maybe.
I think it was 7% higher than the rest of them.
And I'm barely in that.
I'm at the top end of that, so I'm part of that demographic.
60% of Americans say having a smart home device or smart home
technology has had a positive impact made it give them Peace
of Mind.
Like the security cameras give them better security for their
home.
Or just made things a little more convenient for them.
The problem is 75% of all users, you're not trust how data from
all these devices is used because we don't know where it's
going.
We don't know what it's being used for.
We don't now if they're listening or whatever they're
doing technically, but that 75% said they will still use the
smart home device anyways.
So I'm gonna go over a pros and cons list.
This is what anyone should do honestly.
If you're thinking of buying something new or something
extra, something you don't necessarily need or just looking
to invest in something like this.
Slow for the pros.
Yeah, I'm the convenience.
Ease of use and control.
Having smart device is way more convenient than having to get up
physically, manually turn something on, adjust it, turn it
off.
It's way easier that way, and sometimes the device will even
give you more control.
If it's a smart device rather than just a simple on off, maybe
it'll have another function like the dimming lights that I talked
about.
Then some of the devices can lower your energy costs, like
the thermostat.
Most thermostats I've read can lower cost 10 to 12%.
Another statistic I forgot.
If everyone had a smart thermostat in their home in the
US, it would lower the total energy consumption for the
country by 9%, which is astounding.
Some devices offer you security and Peace of Mind, like the
doorbell and the camera, so you can feel more safe in your own
home.
The big one, though, increased home value I read did read some
of the statistics on increased home values.
If they had several home devices, especially the fairly
younger generations that are buying homes like 18 to to 40,
prefer smart home devices again for the some of these other
features that are in here now, the cons of course you're
required to connect to the Internet if you don't have
Internet access.
If you don't have Wi-Fi in your home, none of these are gonna
work.
If your power goes out, none of these are gonna work.
So it kind of renders everything useless.
If you still have power, but for some reason you're in or out,
then you have to go back and manually do everything.
The one I said on the previous slide, you're unsure of how and
where the data is being used.
We're still always afraid of devices listening to us or the
data that it's collecting about us in our home.
What are they doing with it?
Another big one is possible hackers, smart home devices.
Every device has an IP address that's connected to the
Internet, so that's just another way.
Another point for which a hacker to get into your system and try
to access your Wi-Fi.
Compatibility.
I went over earlier also not all devices work well with each
other.
Different brands don't you to buy the other brands, so they're
not gonna be as compatible with the other one.
And then, of course, yes, speakers are always listening.
In conclusion, smart home technology is learning,
progressing and expanding.
I don't think it'll ever stop these devices.
Simplify our lives and provide Peace of Mind and security.
But be mindful of data use.
And Speaking of these devices.
Also, now is the time to invest in this technology.
You solve US statistics on how much is expected to grow and be
worth by 2030.
That's kind of insane.
So should definitely invest in some of these companies right
now.
You should start upgrading your home today.
If you don't have a device, why not buy one of the cheaper ones
like the plug or the light and try it out?
You might like it and then last of course is my resource page.
I used quite a few of these, researched a lot on all these
smart home devices because it's a pretty interesting subject to
me.
Thank you guys and have a good rest of your night.
That was excellent.
Those really great job.
I like that and there was a lot of cons that I can run through
myself when when we just had that storm, you know, we had
lights go out for 24 hours and now I'm fighting to get my
lights to come on by schedule, you know?
So I have to reset everything, not everything, but at least the
lights that I had set already that are supposed to come on at
dusk and you know off at dawn and that that's the that's a big
issue with it, but kind of small.
It's just a matter of really having too.
Do it all over again, you know.
Umm well, that was egg.
Great job, Wesley.
When you're watching this and who do we have next?
They go up to the list.
Anthony.
Hello, can you hear me OK?
Yes.
OK, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen, just let me
know if you can see once I do.
OK.
Can you see it?
Yes.
OK.
And when I full screen it when I do play from the beginning, can
you still see it?
Yes.
OK, cool.
All right.
Well, hi everyone.
My name is Anthony Picciano and I'm here today to provide some
information regarding starting your own IT business, so maybe
some of you are on the fence about starting your own IT
business, whether this be cyber security networking or web
development.
I put this PowerPoint together in hopes that I could encourage
you to go off on your own, but also provide some useful
information.
So uh, that that there is hence the title name, independent
business challenges and success.
So let's see.
Can I?
There we go.
OK, so in introduction, the small business is a collective
that faces known and unknown threats, risks, and challenges.
But you're also gonna have two secrets to success, and we're
going to tie into these continuously throughout the
presentation.
But is scarcity of the services that you want to provide to a
potential client and the conveyed confidence that you
have in your abilities to be able to convince a potential
client that, hey, I can do what you want me to provide and
before I get into this any further, I want to say that this
is not intended to be financial, legal or any other kind of
advice.
Consult your legal advisors.
I have neither I financial advisor and I'm not a legal
advisor.
So when we talk about cybersecurity and the cyber
security realm, we often think about threats like malware,
ransomware and crypto malware, for example.
We know about the most recent Sony and The MGM casino
ransomware incidents.
However, while these are important, we must also consider
that there are these operational risks, such as equipment
failures, network disruptions, critical IT system breakdowns
and things of this nature, right?
Things that aren't necessarily caused by quote unquote hackers
and as IT professionals, it's crucial for us to be both
mindful of these traditional and operational aspects of
cybersecurity.
So I just want to get into a little bit of background.
You know, how did I get here?
So why did I do this?
How did it happen and where did it?
When did it take place?
This all began when I left brick and mortar university during
COVID and I transferred to Purdue Global immediately after
this happened, I started my own consulting business and I gained
my first to Internet service provider contracts and through
these contracts I worked hybrid actually.
So there were times where I was working remotely and on site and
I provided break fix support, troubleshooting and I also
brought proprietary telecom knowledge to the table that I
learned while I was in my previous university through red
come zone and Calix systems.
And I just want to let you know my my business has been
profitable so far.
I've been able to pay for school and I've been able to fund my
certification journey so far and that's what I wanna focus on is
you can do this too.
This is open to anyone that wants to do it.
You just have to keep in mind these two keys to success and
these four pillars that we're going to cover.
So with all of this in mind, I ran into some growing pains
along the way, and one of those was endurance.
When you're providing a service, it's different than providing a
product.
You have to do that continuously.
It's not once and done like a product, so I had to learn how
to run a business from scratch and provide a service.
And two years ago, I knew nothing about running a business
or anything regarding liability insurance or anything like this.
I had to actually form the ESCORP developed the business
partnerships and I also had to advocate for myself.
I couldn't go door to door and just solicit.
Hey I'm a network engineer.
Can you hire me?
It's this doesn't work.
We don't like solicitors and it's the same way in this self
made business industry with it.
And lastly, the final growing pain was learning how to give
not just good customer service but effective customer service,
people, people and people.
We work with people.
Tech is actually not that difficult when you master it,
but and I'm kind of waving my hands above my head right now.
It's the the challenge is bringing this abstract ball of
wax down to something that you can relate to the human
experience so that non technical people, your potential clientele
can understand.
And finally, I just want to shoehorn into this conversation
that this can be your journey too.
Anyone can do this and all you need are those two keys to
success is scarcity of the services and a really good
salesman's attitude where you take into account very
thoughtful conversations with people you want to be careful
how you word things and it's important to note that we are
knowledge workers.
You need a natural level of confidence when you're dealing
with potential clients.
Not only must they believe that you're competent, but more
importantly, you must be competent and you must be
confident in your own abilities as an IT professional.
But this does not go without saying.
Don't forget to provide a good service.
Don't shortchange your customers.
Don't.
Uh, yeah.
No.
The services that you provide don't.
Don't try to make quick dollar.
Your clients are going to figure this out.
That's what you're trying to do, and they're not going to want to
work with you anymore.
In other words, as a service provider for another service
provider, the end goal is making sure that they are satisfied
with your services.
So this kind of leads into the first pillar.
Here, let me I was on the wrong keyboard here.
Hello.
OK, there we go.
OK, so the first pillar that I want to talk about, you might be
asking yourself well, Anthony, how do I start a company?
Well, if I were to ask myself this and advise myself, what I
would say is to start as one person, maybe even a single
individual, and try to work up from there.
A single network engineer CUZ network operations is what I do.
A single network engineer can service and ISP with up to about
1000 users, give or take.
So anything more than that is going to be probably way too
much starting out.
You're also going to want to set small goals for yourself.
Don't try to overwhelm yourself with a large contract or a
diverse number of services.
And don't be afraid to cut back if life gets complicated.
I've had to do this.
I've had to say I'm sorry I'm not available to provide this X
blank service and do not, I repeat, do not jump into
something you are unfamiliar with to provide a good service
you need to know how technology works.
Also consider an hourly rate that factors in your time and
your other expenses.
Time really is money.
Consider if you have a work vehicle, what happens when this
vehicle ends up in the shop, right?
What are you going to do?
You can't work for a week and on contract you usually don't get a
like allowances for these types of issues and they happen all
the time.
And do you need to acquire products and materials for your
clients?
It's not likely that they're gonna pay for your training,
your education.
It's not likely that they're going to want to do anything for
you.
They want you to bring that to the table.
So the bottom line here is that you're knowledge is worth an A
measurable amount to someone who either doesn't have the time to
learn it themselves or they don't understand their
technology stack.
And this can happen in a variety of circumstances, one
circumstances where they contract someone else to install
their network and they don't know how it works.
So if your place a network component, that's money.
If you replace an Ethernet cable, guess what?
That's also money if you don't provide anything material and
you just you render a service and you spend time tracing a
line to identify a network fault.
OK, we're starting to get the picture here.
Whatever you do for your clients, you need to be
compensated for, but this does not go without saying.
Don't short charger up charge or bill astronomical rates that are
beyond reasonable.
Keep integrity.
As we've mentioned at the center of what you do as a technology
professional, but don't forget you have a business checkbook to
balance and your own checkbook and it's very likely that you
pay yourself through your company.
So there's multiple sets of taxes that are going on there
and there's liability insurance costs.
There's all these different things.
It's literally endless and I cut it on to pull all this together
into one concept.
So in the top corner here I established a new service for my
client after their long distance calling system failed.
So this was essentially a system that just came out of the 90s.
You had to dial into it, download data and we don't do
that anymore.
We do everything over IPV 4 so I had to configure his system.
I had to engineer and I had to design it.
I had to find a system and set it up from scratch.
I had to create a new service that didn't exist previously and
not only did I charge 1 1/2 times the price of this
hardware, but I also charged for the time that I spent installing
and learning and reading the manual about this new system and
that's kind of where we start to bridge into this idea of
teaching yourself and training yourself.
So let's see.
Is this 3?
I can't remember for the second or third pillar, but it's one of
the pillars and it's important.
I think it's the third one, but yeah.
Anyways, now that we've covered some of the foundational aspects
of some of these like questions, how do we start?
How do we go from here and do something with it?
We need to cover how we're supposed to educate ourselves in
a classroom and at Purdue Global specifically.
I'm to use this example on Excel track.
I have unlimited opportunities to fail successfully.
I can just keep pushing that assignment until I get 100.
You know, it doesn't matter, right?
But when you're on call and you're in the field, things need
to be done quickly and correctly.
The first time and quote unquote getting paid by the hour, it
just doesn't cut it.
That doesn't work.
It doesn't fly.
Don't do that.
That's violating your integrity as a service provider, so the
solution to this is just to practice, practice and practice
again at home until you have this process down before you go
to do something and deploy yourself to the client
environment and this kind of goes back to what we were
talking about with.
Uh.
Continuous improvement.
It's one of those non hacker types of concepts that exist
within cybersecurity.
CISSP covers this wonderfully.
But uh, we need to consider our own practices and our own
processes, and we need to work on ways to be faster at what we
do.
But also we have to be as equally as effective as we are
fast, otherwise it gets done incorrectly and while practicing
you also want to learn as much as you can about the services
that you provide.
And if you can figure out a better way to do something your
clients respect your expertise.
That's why they hired you in the 1st place.
So I want to turn your attention to the first photo here at the
top, I am replacing the motherboard of an HP switch and
instead of replacing the entire unit, all I had to do was
replace the motherboard in the photo below that I'm learning
about and I'm teaching myself about minus 48 volts in network
telecom racks.
This is an important number if you want to work with IT.
Racks and network racks and the photo below that we're gonna
shoehorn back to this image down here at the bottom, but this is
where I was learning how to deploy a dark fiber link to the
T-Mobile cell tower project before my work window started.
And this allowed me, and this is kind of going back to that
practicing that we were talking about, we need to be able to
practice so that our two hour work window doesn't pass and we
violate our service level agreement.
So now that we've covered this, we need to we need to establish
what the next step is.
The next step I would say, and this depends on what you do, if
you're cybersecurity, if your web dev, this is more likely
going to be like a software license or something like that.
But for me, for network operations, this is acquiring
hardware I have to purchase core routers I have to purchase
switches, fiber NIDS network interface Devices, CPE, customer
premise equipment, backup batteries and systems and
computers.
So I have to have a lot of space for this stuff because they're
not ready to purchase these items at the time that I'm I get
them.
So this is an important concept.
You need to sell the items that you buy at a markup and why we
do this is because the items that you buy for the future are
going to take up space, likely in your own home like me.
So don't let business products live rent free in your house.
I am literally surrounded by 30 to 40 hobby computers in my
bedroom right now, but that doesn't really mean I wanna trip
over 10 Gigabit core routers every morning.
So with this idea in mind, we need to also be wary of the used
and second hand telecom equipment, and that's all I need
to say about that.
You can guess that something went wrong there or something
did go wrong.
And I'm not gonna touch on it.
But what I am going to touch on is here at the top photo I have
all times I have about 150 feet of fiber optic cable that I keep
on me ahead of fiber optic repairs and the second photo
below that is just the batch of what we call SFPS or small form
factor pluggable.
This is a 40 kilometer transceiver of fiber optic and
it shoots an LED from point A to point B and back again.
That's transceiver, right?
Receiving transmit.
It can do both of those things.
I keep this batch on hand so that I can troubleshoot with a
known good part so that I can rule out start ruling out layer
one and layer two issues and start to get down to the core of
it.
Because you don't always have that visibility in a client
network, they don't sometimes let you have that visibility.
So this is the final pillar and everyone is going to hate this
pillar, but it's so important to talk about.
But as a contractor, you are solely responsible for the
services that you render for clients and other words, there's
no room for an oopsie or an uh.
Also, do not exceed your.
I mean all of us, I know all of us are very passionate people
and getting out there.
We wanna go above and beyond, but when you're contracting,
don't go above and beyond in ways that go out goes outside
the scope of the legal agreement.
The solution to this is just to revise the contract with your
client and say hey can I do this too?
That's the proper way to do it.
Otherwise, you're at grounds for getting sued, and you're also
just going to want to meet with them regularly to ensure that
they are happy with your level of service that you're providing
as a service provider.
And this is also not a fun topic, but you need to purchase
liability insurance, and you're gonna want to consider
cybersecurity add-ons, and you're gonna want to consider
$1,000,000 policies.
You know, let's imagine the worst case scenario.
Let's say I've burned down and the building where all of their
network equipment as well.
I'm going to have to figure out how to cough up $1,000,000 and
that goes into the next point that I wanna address.
It's very critical this industry is very cutthroat.
Yes, Sir.
And yes, ma'am, are your go to responses.
And so in other words, you don't have the opportunity usually
when the contract is drafted, you don't have the ability to
extend an issue out like there's no way to handle something
tomorrow if you're.
And I'm speaking from experience here.
If your job is to repair fiber optic cuts in 24 hours and the
problem gets reported late in the day, it's likely that you're
gonna be out in the middle of the field until 4:00 in the
morning, splicing fiber.
And so I want to turn your attention to the photos here.
The bottom photo is the cut itself and I had to actually
take this picture to prove to the homeowners insurance that
they were the ones that cut the fiber and this was an expensive
bill.
Don't cut fiber.
Called before **** ****.
Please, it saves everyone a hassle.
Might make me money, but it makes it it knocks like a dozen
people off the network and so essentially what happens here in
the top photo is I had to pull back both of these ends because
obviously you can't pull them back together.
There's not enough slack.
You have to add 1/3 middle segment and this doubles the
amount of splices that you have to do.
So let's say you have a 12 count fiber.
Well, you have to splice 12 counts on the on one end.
You have to splice 12 counts on the other end, so just keep that
in mind.
It typically also charge per splice.
You know, so if you get up into these 144 count fibers and all
these higher fibers, it gets really expensive.
So the the blessing here at the end of the day, after looking at
these photos, is backhoes and digging and fiber optics do not
mix.
And also you need to document document, document, take
pictures even if it's a minute like service or work order
document.
Please, you're gonna save yourself a lot of legal hassle.
And after after this is all said and done, I wanna end on a note
and I wanna talk about some of my favorite projects that I got
to do so on the left here we just have a different angle at
that fiber optic splice and that one that's one end of the
splice, there's two fibers going in.
One of them is the old fiber.
One of them is the new segment and what you do is you splice
these two together color for color and it's like Ethernet
coloring, but it has more colors.
There's like Aqua slate Gray.
It's it's interesting, but yeah, you match for color to color and
then you put it in this enclosure and you put it
underground and you bury it essentially to repair and
emergency cut in the middle photo here.
I had to go through and reconfigure the patch panel for
my clients because the provisioning on their passive
optical network, their GPON wasn't correct.
So I had to reprovision it and relay out the customer layout
and on the right here this was my absolute most favorite
project, but in this ties back to what I was talking about with
practicing with the dark fiber link with the T-Mobile Tower.
This is the T-Mobile Tower and I had a 2 hour window to go up at
2:00 in the morning.
One evening, one cold winter evening and I had to go and
install a part up here, but I since I had practiced that
beforehand before I knew I was going to go up here, I knew how
to do it and I didn't run into any issues and if I violated my
SLA, that's grounds to get sued. So.
Here are my references and I just want to conclude on a note
here.
Anyone can do this.
You need your two keys to success.
You need a scarcity and your geographic area of the services
that you wish to provide, and you need to be confident in what
you can do and you need to be able to convey confidence in
your abilities to your potential client so that they'll want to
hire you.
And now that we've covered these four different pillars, that
could help get someone oriented and on their feet.
And doing this you don't eat anything else.
And that's really all I have.
So if anybody has any questions, I'll be happy to answer.
Excellent job.
That was great.
Just to see that you know, I mean, for a starting a business
and and you know getting through it all, starting it up, working
finding clients all that congratulations cause you know
that's a big job, it's a big thing to start one off and get
going like that and this is great information to give to
everybody.
Thank you.
I I appreciate it.
It was a long journey, but I made it then.
Yeah.
Yeah, I did.
I think I did my first one back in the day.
I was 20.
26.
And.
It was crazy.
Got a clients?
Scared.
Nervous.
The whole thing now I'll open one and it's no big deal.
You just LLC.
You're good to go.
You got everything set.
You know, you just go on to the next one.
You get used to it.
It gets so easy.
For sure for sure.
Yeah, great job.
That was a excellent.
Thank you.
Presentation.
Alright, see if we can.
We got two more people, so let's see if we can get these done
pretty quick.
We're running kind of late here and I I'm really thinking about
because we have so many and maybe we should start eight
o'clock 830.
Umm.
Maybe starting next week I will let you guys know next Tuesday
for sure over forehand.
If you're listed for the next master class, but uh, let's go
ahead with Sam.
Are you here?
And haven't left me.
Yes.
Alright, awesome.
Yep, I'm here.
Let's share.
Umm.
You just have to make sure I'm sharing the right.
Screen.
OK.
OK, that's why, OK.
Cancel that chair.
Hmm, well looks like I can only share one screen.
So that's why that is, oh, there we go.
OK, one more time here share.
You choose a screen or a window.
OK.
Well, I'm just going to share this.
I wanted to share my beer screen, but that's not gonna
work.
Alright so.
Oops.
Well, that's my God.
Help me.
We can get my PowerPoint on the right screen here.
3.
OK.
I see us if that helps.
So that's the screen you're sharing, is the one with all our
bubbles.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK.
OK, well unfortunately I'm not seeing how I can run my
PowerPoint slide on the right screen, so I'm just going to go
through this.
And so my presentation is, I really didn't.
Do a lot of research on this, I besides my own trial and error
and I wanted to put myself in an uncomfortable position, some off
to good start.
Uh, my presentation is it's kind of a mixed bag.
I wanna show some uses for chat GPT.
And, you know, demonstrate some of its limitations and stumbled
across chat GPT by accident and.
Because I was grasping at straws looking for a lifeline to help
me because I was having no luck with tutoring when it came to
coding umm.
And ever since then, I've been obsessed.
Before I started my degree at Purdue Global for data
Analytics, I knew 0 coding, but despite my limited progress in
my coding skills along the way, uh chat, GPT has advanced those
skills, arguably by two to three years, because instead of
writing code I I can prompt code and and one thing I've learned
is that chat GPT is only as good as your prompt.
So this presentation isn't about the inner workings workings of
chat, GPT, because I only have 15 minutes, but hopefully you
will gain some insight.
For, you know, through my demonstrations and umm.
With that.
You know, literally ask Chad GPT and you have to say in one
sentence because he will go on forever.
** *** it.
It's a conversational agent based on AI.
GPT architectural design to understand and generate human
like text. Umm.
In, in my purposes, it's going to be used as like an advanced
Google.
I'm not kidding.
Full capability from it, but how does it work?
By analyzing the text prompt.
Uh.
Literally human like text and response based on the patterns
it's learned on the training set that it was.
And it's quite an extensive training set.
We couldn't do it online, just a personal computer.
Umm but yeah, I I needed tutoring and that's how I got
kind of hooked.
And it does a you know, I'm stuck on something.
On my code I can have it explained to me what it is.
You know, I've already had two copy directions down for an
assignment and have it explained to me what they're saying
because it was just too convoluted in my opinion.
But umm, anyway, I'm going to pull this up and I think we're
just going to do this.
Live here.
What?
This is the it's for presentation.
OK so.
What I've learned about chat GPT is you wanna you don't rent,
write some.
Some prompt.
That's really elaborate and and you want to fit it all into one.
Uh query, so you know if you start, I mean, this is just like
this is a novelty, but it it it kind of gives you an idea of
what it can do even if you don't know how to use Python.
So create a program using Python And search my G.
We can't see the screen you're using.
Ohh.
Now we still see ourselves.
Umm.
So when you go to share, if you see the screen.
I might have to.
If you see one of the screens that you have open that you want
to share, that's the one you want to click onto a screen or a
window.
Hmm.
OK, there it is.
Can you see that?
Yes.
You see them? OK. Sorry.
Now I see I see code.
Yeah, awesome.
Yeah.
Alright, so gosh, I think I got it this time.
So literally I could just after that prompt I can put this in
here.
I mean, obviously you wanna look at it, but you can see that I
want to search my Google Drive.
Umm, one thing.
I've not been very good at his organizing.
My competency assessments along the way, they are scattered.
I mean, they're on my Google Drive, but they're not in one
spot.
Umm, but luckily there's one thing that is in everyone of my.
Of file names and that's Schwartz so.
I think I told it here in the prompt to use Schwartz which
drived to do and if you copy this in here umm and I'm just
going to show you this.
So I'm not cheating.
I'm going to go ahead and delete all this.
This is my Schwartz folder and I will.
Pull this back up when I'm done running this code.
I mean, I literally made no changes to this and if I run it,
it's going to run and.
It's actually going to take longer than I thought.
Umm.
Ohh what's up?
I just put in this info.
Ohh OK, never mind.
I didn't tell it to copy it in there.
OK, I'm I'm way ahead of myself, so all I do is start with a
basic you know it, it tells me the files that I asked for, all
of them that have Schwartz in there.
Umm, if we keep going.
Then I'll just kind of coax it along here, so if I OK, but only
include my docs files and I put that in there.
Of see this is amazing to me because I'm not that great of a
coder, but I can I can follow along and I can see that it's
searching for my docs folders.
Umm and G with Schwartz name and.
These are all doc folders, so just to keep things moving
along.
Umm.
Change it the codes and so Schwartz I could put a user
input in instead of ask for a user ask for user input, so
again I'm taking this right off of what chat GPT.
Umm.
Produced for me.
I mean, I didn't write this code at all.
I can't take credit for it, but I can use it and and it benefits
me.
Umm, so now I wanna search for let's say IN files IN 402.
And those are docs.
So now I have an input.
Umm.
And it will return only those folders in my G drive like.
To me, that's just like magic compared to having no coding
ability at all.
Umm.
So if I keep going here, but I only want, you know, give me a
user input for how many days ago it was modified.
So again, if I copy this code, I'm just in China.
The long here, coaxing it along, I find if you put too much in
there and and I got an example where Pat GPT just goes off the
rails.
Umm I'll go docs.
And I'll just go with three days ago.
May not come back with anything actually.
OK.
So that's, I mean I I can, I can really narrow this down now.
If I'm looking for a file that I made in the last two days, umm.
And it it's becoming more useful.
So how does this?
So instead of umm.
Just printing these folders and let me know where they're at,
copy them to a folder.
Alright, so I'll do that and it's just building on
everything.
So I'll just go through my inputs and I'll go through.
Towards and I'll go through.
You'll see ex.
And let's see you.
It's going.
It's gonna put it in my.
Just in my C drive.
That's it.
It's just gonna be in my C drive. Umm.
Surprised I didn't name it, but I'm gonna keep going here. Umm.
Let's just go with 11.
Ohh, there's the folder.
It's asking me for the folder now, so I'm gonna go with
Schwartz.
I've already created it, but you can see there's nothing in here
and if I hit enter.
It is going to.
Copy those folders in there past 11 days and I could just have
they're duplicates.
I can delete them, I can, but they know exactly where they're
at. Umm.
And then here's the other thing now.
But these are not so good because what they have done is
created a copy that that we're all created on 928.
Now if I want to search through, you know, a week ago quickly, I
don't have that.
But if I all I have to do is say umm.
OK.
But and again, I'm just continuing our conversation
here.
OK, but preserve the metadata.
Umm.
Actually created this quicker than I could present it, but umm
I wanna copy this over.
And I want to.
I just wanted to these folders files.
Ohh my God, I just deleted the wrong thing.
I think I just killed my power.
OK, that was not good, so.
I'll go back to here and I'm gonna delete all these.
And I'm going to run this file now.
And.
I'm just gonna go Schwartz again now, right.
And docs.
I wanna go back.
Wait two days.
And I want to put it in.
Towards folder and then I come back here.
And.
I have all my metadata saved, now I can go back a week.
I can organize it by date modified and I don't have to
worry about the type.
Umm.
Let's see.
What else did I do to?
Is that the end of that?
OK.
So and then what I did was.
I created this.
Hopefully can you see that icon?
So just I I made a shortcut on my desktop and I'll do the same
search.
And.
And how many days say?
We'll just go seven days.
Actually, I didn't even show you my shortcut here, so go back.
This thing is going off the rails. Umm.
So here's my file.
And it pulls it up on.
Yeah.
Hello.
Sorry to interrupt you just always see as a white screen
right now.
Can you see that?
Sorry, all I see is white.
Ohh OK.
Umm.
I don't know what my paused.
And you see that?
Sorry, no.
No, it's still just the white screen.
I don't know why, maybe I should just unplug my other screen
here.
OK, you should be able to see that, yes.
Now we see no the bubble screen of us.
Hopefully.
Yeah.
OK, so here's the file shortcut I made to that Python.
I'm not sure what you actually seen, but you know you just make
a shortcut to it to your Python folder, or even drag your Python
folder in there.
Can you see that?
No, just it's still white screen.
And they're now OK, well, let me see if I can.
Stop sharing and I'll see her again.
This time I'll choose.
Hmm.
OK.
Can you see that?
No.
So I see.
Yeah, I see file search.
Yeah.
So what I did was I.
Created this.
I can't.
I don't know if you could see that.
Can you see this icon?
I'm dragging around.
No.
OK, whatever.
So I put a shortcut on my desktop and it basically does
the same thing.
Umm and.
Whatever I don't.
I guess I don't need to go through this.
Books, but I will.
Umm.
Yes, it's not going to show you my results.
So that's kind of pointless, OK.
Hmm.
Well, ohm.
Let's see if I could do one more thing here really quickly.
Actually I'm done with my 15 minutes, but I guess that one
off the rails pretty good.
But it gives you an idea.
Hopefully what you can do with chat GPT I didn't give you a
chance to really show you how.
Limited is in his capabilities, but.
I I hope somebody got something out of that.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you, Sam.
No, that was good for the parts that we did see for chat, GPT.
It was good, good.
And that's what I heard.
You really have to make sure you know what you're putting in the
prompt to get out what you want from Chad.
GBT.
That's the biggest thing.
And you don't want to load your program or your coding in there,
just blindly.
Either you should be able to understand it and follow along
and see what's going on, but for me to sit down and write that it
would, it would have taken me a lot longer and I would have to
Yeah, right.
look up things.
No.
Well, good job. Great.
Taylor, did you have a question?
Your hand is up.
OK.
So.
All right, last but not least, we have Chris.
Are you ready?
Yes.
Can you hear me right?
Yes.
Let's see if I can share here.
Uh, can you see my screen?
I do.
OK, here we go.
So I'm what is a hacker?
That's my presentation.
I'm ohh by the way.
Good evening.
I'm Chris quiroz.
And we'll start with the slides.
So what is a hacker?
Hackers breach defenses to gain unauthorized access in the
computers, phones, tablets, IoT devices, networks, or entire
computing systems.
Hackers also take advantage of weaknesses and network security
to gain access the weakness.
Weaknesses can be technical or social in nature.
With technical weaknesses, hackers can exploit software
vulnerabilities or weak security practices to gain unauthorized
access or inject malware, for example.
Social weaknesses hackers can also use social engineering to
convince those with privileged access to targeted systems to
click on malicious links, open infected files, or reveal
personal information, thereby gaining access to otherwise
hardened infrastructures.
And what makes someone a hacker?
Much of today's computing computer hacking has been
automated, which is why it currently poses such a threat to
Internet security.
Some hackers are still highly trained technical professionals,
but others are much less skilled and are able to launch
successful attacks simply by buying attack tools.
Now with hacker demographics, it used to be the case that hackers
were often teenagers trying to break in.
The prominent organizations simply to gain notoriety.
But today's hacker community is far more diverse and is made up
of individuals with many different motives.
What are these motives?
Ohh, some of the leading motives for online hacking or financial
gain activism?
Corporate espionage state sponsored attacks against
opposing nation states or even cyber terrorism.
Now thread actors are more likely to gain notoriety as
hackers in mainstream accounts, and here are some famous hackers
that did just that.
Anonymous is a group of hackers from around the world who meet
on online message boards and social networking forms.
They mainly focus their efforts on encouraging civil
disobedience and unrest via DOS attacks, publishing victims,
personal information online, and defacing and defaming websites.
Mr Jonathan James gain notoriety for hacking into multiple
websites, including those of the US Department of Defense and
NASA, as well As for stealing the software code when he was a
teenager in the year 2000, James became the first juvenile at
just 16 years old to be incarcerated for computer
hacking.
Adrian Lamo hacked into the systems of several
organizations, including the New York Times, Microsoft and Yahoo,
to exploit their security flaws.
Blammo.
Was arrested in 2003.
Convicted in 2004, sentenced to six months of home detention at
his parents home and two years probation, also ordered to pay
about 65 grand in restitution.
Mr Kevin Mitnick was convicted of a number of criminal computer
crimes after evading authorities for 2 1/2 years.
It was once one of the FBI's most wanted for hacking into
networks of 40 high profile corporations.
Mitnick was arrested in 1993.
And served five years in a federal prison.
Now we look at specific types of hackers, starting with Black Hat
Hacker.
Historically, Black Hat hacker has been used to describe one of
who has malicious intent, such as theft of information fraud or
disrupting systems.
Now the term Black Hat has been used to differentiate criminal
hackers from White hat and Gray hat hackers.
These categories were inspired by early Western movies, where
the heroes could be identified by the white hats they wore and
the villains by their black hats.
Now the white I hacker or ethical hacker is someone who
uses hacking skills to identify the security vulnerabilities and
hardware software or networks.
However, unlike black hats, the white hats respect the rule of
law as it applies to hacking.
Many white hat hackers actually are former black hats.
Those white hats also are only seek vulnerabilities or exploits
when they are legally permitted to do so.
They may do research on open source software as well as on
software or systems they own, or have been authorized to
investigate, including products and services, to operate bug
bounty programs.
These types of programs reward individuals with money for
disclosing security flaws.
The Gray hat hackers.
They fall somewhere between the ethical hackers and threat
actors, or their motives may be similar to those of the two
groups.
Grey hats are more likely then ethical hackers to access
systems without authorization.
At the same time, they are more likely to avoid doing
unnecessary damage to the systems they have, although they
are typically motivated by money, Gray hat hackers may
offer to fix vulnerabilities they have discovered through
their own unauthorized activities rather than using
their knowledge to exploit vulnerabilities for illegal
profit.
Now and often cited Gray Hat hacker example took place in
August of 2013, when Khalil Shrek, an unemployed computer
security researcher, hacked the Facebook page of Mark
Zuckerberg.
His motivation for doing so was to force action to correct the
bug.
He discovered what she allowed him to post to any users page
without their consent.
Get informed Facebook of this bug only to be told by Facebook
that the issue is not a bug.
Of course, he wasn't satisfied and took matters in those hands
and actually had Zuckerberg's personal page to post a message.
Which definitely got Facebook's attention after the incident,
Facebook corrected this vulnerability, which could have
been powerful weapon in the hands of a professional
spammers.
Unfortunately, Caleb was not compensated by Facebook.
Facebook's White Hatten program, because they say he violated
their policies.
So now I'm looking at the a deeper dive into the
psychological makeup of of a hacker.
Now the dark Triad is a set of three personality traits often
associated with hackers.
They include psychopathy.
Who are impulsive, emotionally cold, which probably explains
why they wear hoodies and lack of remorse.
Machiavellianism pertains to those who are manipulative, self
interested in domineering narcissism or or narcissist
displays.
Grandiosity of perceived superiority and have some sense
of entitlement in general.
The dark triad traits are viewed as undesirable, of course.
However, research from a German study in 2016, so just that
these traits have a dark side and a positive side.
Excuse me?
It was found that leaders with Machiavellianism and psychopathy
traits were direct metal to employee well being.
But in contrast, the same research determined that leaders
rated high on the narcissism scale reported better career
success, higher salaries and more promotions.
The real seeking was moderately important for white hat and
Black Hat hacking and opposition to authority was significant for
the Greyhounds.
What does this all mean?
Well, natural question is whether or not white hats would
drift to becoming Gray hat or even Black Hat hackers.
A famous example of this drift to the dark side can be found in
a book called American Kingpin by Nick.
Nick Bilton it is a story of Ross Albright, who developed the
darkest the darknet market website called Silk Road.
One of the government agents investigating him was
subsequently lure to the criminal side because of the
monetary attraction.
New Reese.
New recent research suggests that monetary incentives could
play an essential role in the next generation of employees
with the propensity to violate privacy laws.
However, hacking knowledge is A2 edged sword that can be used for
mischief, and the counterattacks against individuals,
organizations and society.
White hats were found to have Machiavellianism, narcissism,
psychopathy, and thrill seeking traits, but that does not mean
they will migrate to become Black Cats.
More importantly, they are needed to counter Black cat and
Grey hat attacks.
Well, now that we know what a hacker is, question is are you a
hacker and if so, which one are you?
Thank you all for your time and happy hacking.
Excellent job.
That was great.
Thank you.
This is a lot of information there I think I know a few
people off of that dark triad, but they're not hackers.
Ohh.
I think they're just one of those types.
Ohh no.
Maybe now I know what they should do.
Right.
They fit the bill.
Any questions for Chris?
It was excellent.
Just looking in the chat to see if there's any questions.
Great job, great work.
Awesome.
Yeah, well, I know we're running late, but we did get through all
of them.
I thank you everybody for staying as long as you did.
This is absolutely optional, so you know other than them
presenting everybody here definitely.
Loyal to those working with you in the internship.
So thank you for staying and giving them an audience.
They did a great job.
Congratulations everybody and UM, definitely looking forward
to next week.
I will have this up in the playlist as soon as I can and
thank you everybody for resenting and doing such a great
job and all your wonderful topics.
Have a great rest of the evening.