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Packed pixel

In packed pixel or chunky framebuffer organization, the bits defining each pixel are clustered and stored consecutively. For example, if there are 16 bits per pixel, each pixel is represented in two consecutive (contiguous) 8-bit bytes in the framebuffer. If there are 4 bits per pixel, each framebuffer byte defines two pixels, one in each nibble. The latter example is as opposed to storing a single 4-bit pixel in a byte, leaving 4 bits of the byte unused. If a pixel has more than one channel, the channels are interleaved when using packed pixel organization. Packed pixel displays were common on early microcomputer system that shared a single main memory for both the central processing unit (CPU) and display driver. In such systems, memory was normally accessed a byte at a time, so by packing the pixels, the display system could read out several pixels worth of data in a single read operation. Packed pixel is one of two major ways to organize graphics data in memory, the other being planar organization, where each pixel is made of individual bits stored in their own plane. For a 4-bit color value, memory would be organized as four screen-sized planes of one bit each and a single pixel's value built up by selecting the appropriate bit from each plane. Planar organization has the advantage that the data can be accessed in parallel, and is used when memory bandwidth is an issue.
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National Cyber Security Policy 2013

National Cyber Security Policy is a policy framework by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) It aims at protecting the public and private infrastructure from cyber attacks. The policy also intends to safeguard "information, such as personal information (of web users), financial and banking information and sovereign data". This was particularly relevant in the wake of US National Security Agency (NSA) leaks that suggested the US government agencies are spying on Indian users, who have no legal or technical safeguards against it. Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India) defines Cyberspace as a complex environment consisting of interactions between people, software services supported by worldwide distribution of information and communication technology. == Reason for Cyber Security policies == India had no Cyber security policy before 2013. In 2013, The Hindu newspaper, citing documents leaked by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, has alleged that much of the NSA surveillance was focused on India's domestic politics and its strategic and commercial interests. This sparked a furore among people. Under pressure, the government unveiled a National Cyber Security Policy 2013 on 2 July 2013. == Vision == To build a secure and resilient cyberspace for citizens, business, and government and also to protect anyone from intervening in user's privacy.It mentioned a five year target of training five lakh cyber security personnel by 2018. == Mission == To protect information and information infrastructure in cyberspace, build capabilities to prevent and respond to cyber threat, reduce vulnerabilities and minimize damage from cyber incidents through a combination of institutional structures, people, processes, technology, and cooperation. == Objective == Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India) define objectives as follows: To create a secure cyber ecosystem in the country, generate adequate trust and confidence in IT system and transactions in cyberspace and thereby enhance adoption of IT in all sectors of the economy. To create an assurance framework for the design of security policies and promotion and enabling actions for compliance to global security standards and best practices by way of conformity assessment (Product, process, technology & people). To strengthen the Regulatory Framework for ensuring a SECURE CYBERSPACE ECOSYSTEM. To enhance and create National and Sectoral level 24x7 mechanism for obtaining strategic information regarding threats to ICT infrastructure, creating scenarios for response, resolution and crisis management through effective predictive, preventive, protective response and recovery actions. -To improve visibility of integrity of ICT products and services by establishing infrastructure for testing & validation of security of such product. To create workforce for 500,000 professionals skilled in next 5 years through capacity building skill development and training. To provide fiscal benefit to businesses for adoption of standard security practices and processes. To enable Protection of information while in process, handling, storage & transit so as to safeguard privacy of citizen's data and reducing economic losses due to cyber crime or data theft. To enable effective prevention, investigation and prosecution of cybercrime and enhancement of law enforcement capabilities through appropriate legislative intervention. == Strategies == Creating a secured Ecosystem. Creating an assurance framework. Encouraging Open Standards. Strengthening The regulatory Framework. Creating a mechanism for Security Threats Early Warning, Vulnerability management, and response to security threats. Securing E-Governance services. Protection and resilience of Critical Information Infrastructure. Promotion of Research and Development in cyber security. Reducing supply chain risks Human Resource Development (fostering education and training programs both in formal and informal sectors to Support the Nation's cyber security needs and build capacity. Creating cyber security awareness. Developing effective Public-Private partnerships. To develop bilateral and multilateral relationships in the area of cyber security with another country. (Information sharing and cooperation) a Prioritized approach for implementation.
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Vatican News App

The Vatican News App is an official mobile application software issued by the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication. Formerly titled The Pope App, the app was launched on January 23, 2013, under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, a now-defunct dicastery that was merged into the Secretariat (now Dicastery) for Communication in March 2016. Initially, The Pope App was available only on iOS devices, but became available for Android phones at the end of February 2013. The app is available for download on iOS and Android in five languages: English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. It was originally promoted as an application with focus on the figure of the Pope which made it possible to follow the Pope's events while they are taking place. Alerts notified the followers by informing and offering access to "official papal-related content in a variety of formats". The app also enabled its users to see areas of the Vatican through webcams allocated throughout St. Peter's Square in Rome that broadcast images. In early 2018, The Pope App was relaunched as the Vatican News App, accompanied by a redesign that eliminated many of the previous version's features, reducing the app to a more conventional news service, with increased emphasis on news from the Vatican and the worldwide Catholic Church and less focus on the day-to-day activities of the Pope.
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Viewport

A viewport is a polygon viewing region in computer graphics. In computer graphics theory, there are two region-like notions of relevance when rendering some objects to an image. In textbook terminology, the world coordinate window is the area of interest (meaning what the user wants to visualize) in some application-specific coordinates, e.g. miles, centimeters etc. The word window as used here should not be confused with the GUI window, i.e. the notion used in window managers. Rather it is an analogy with how a window limits what one can see outside a room. In contrast, the viewport is an area (typically rectangular) expressed in rendering-device-specific coordinates, e.g. pixels for screen coordinates, in which the objects of interest are going to be rendered. Clipping to the world-coordinates window is usually applied to the objects before they are passed through the window-to-viewport transformation. For a 2D object, the latter transformation is simply a combination of translation and scaling, the latter not necessarily uniform. An analogy of this transformation process based on traditional photography notions is to equate the world-clipping window with the camera settings and the variously sized prints that can be obtained from the resulting film image as possible viewports. Because the physical-device-based coordinates may not be portable from one device to another, a software abstraction layer known as normalized device coordinates is typically introduced for expressing viewports; it appears for example in the Graphical Kernel System (GKS) and later systems inspired from it. In 3D computer graphics, the viewport refers to the 2D rectangle used to project the 3D scene to the position of a virtual camera. A viewport is a region of the screen used to display a portion of the total image to be shown. In virtual desktops, the viewport is the visible portion of a 2D area which is larger than the visualization device. When viewing a document in a web browser, the viewport is the region of the browser window which contains the visible portion of the document. If the size of the viewport changes, for example as a result of the user resizing the browser window, then the browser may reflow the document (recalculate the locations and sizes of elements of the document). If the document is larger than the viewport, the user can control the portion of the document which is visible by scrolling in the viewport.
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Griffon (framework)

Griffon is an open source rich client platform framework which uses the Java, Apache Groovy, and/or Kotlin programming languages. Griffon is intended to be a high-productivity framework by rewarding use of the Model-View-Controller paradigm, providing a stand-alone development environment and hiding much of the configuration detail from the developer. The first release is the fruit of the effort by the Groovy Swing team and an attempt to take the best of rapid application development, as indicated by its Grails-like structure, the agility of Groovy, and the availability of components for Swing. The framework was redesign from scratch for version 2, allowing different JVM programming languages to be used either in isolation or in conjunction. Supported UI toolkits are Java Swing JavaFX Apache Pivot Lanterna == Overview == Griffon aims to reduce the typical confusion that occurs with traditional Java UI development. Due to the MVC structure of Griffon, developers never have to go searching for files or be confused on how to start a new project. Everything begins with: lazybones create The generated project follows this structure: %PROJECT_HOME% + griffon-app + conf ---> location of configuration artifacts like builder configuration + controllers ---> location of controller classes + i18n ---> location of message bundles for i18n + lifecycle ---> location of lifecycle scripts + models ---> location of model classes + resources ---> location of non code resources (images, etc) + views ---> location of view classes + src + main ---> optional; location for Groovy and Java source files (of types other than those in griffon-app/) The builder infrastructure enables seamless integration of different widget libraries such as Swing, JIDE, and SwingX. In the first release, three sample applications are included : Greet, a Groovy Twitter client featured in the JavaOne 2009 Script Bowl, FontPicker, an application to view the available fonts on one's machine, SwingPad, a lightweight designer application for Griffon user interfaces. == Plugins == Griffon can be extended with the use of plugins. Plugins provide run-time access to testing libraries such as Easyb and FEST, and all widget libraries besides core Swing are provided as plugins. The plugin system allows for a wide range of additions, for example Polyglot Programming with Java, Apache Groovy, Kotlin. SQL and NoSQL datastores like Berkleydb, CouchDB, Db4O, Neo4j, NeoDatis, Memcached and Riak. == Publications == === Books === Features that would eventually become integral parts of Griffon (UI builders) were featured in these books: Groovy In Action (published by Manning) Beginning Groovy and Grails Books that cover Griffon: Griffon In Action (published by Manning) Beginning Groovy, Grails and Griffon === Magazine === GroovyMag for Groovy and Grails developers
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Channel (digital image)

Color digital images are made of pixels, and pixels are made of combinations of primary colors represented by a series of code. A channel in this context is the grayscale image of the same size as a color image, made of just one of these primary colors. For instance, an image from a standard digital camera will have a red, green and blue channel. A grayscale image has just one channel. In geographic information systems, channels are often referred to as raster bands. Another closely related concept is feature maps, which are used in convolutional neural networks. == Overview == In the digital realm, there can be any number of conventional primary colors making up an image; a channel in this case is extended to be the grayscale image based on any such conventional primary color. By extension, a channel is any grayscale image of the same dimension as and associated with the original image. Channel is a conventional term used to refer to a certain component of an image. In reality, any image format can use any algorithm internally to store images. For instance, GIF images actually refer to the color in each pixel by an index number, which refers to a table where three color components are stored. However, regardless of how a specific format stores the images, discrete color channels can always be determined, as long as a final color image can be rendered. The concept of channels is extended beyond the visible spectrum in multispectral and hyperspectral imaging. In that context, each channel corresponds to a range of wavelengths and contains spectroscopic information. The channels can have multiple widths and ranges. Three main channel types (or color models) exist, and have respective strengths and weaknesses. === RGB images === An RGB image has three channels: red, green, and blue. RGB channels roughly follow the color receptors in the human eye, and are used in computer displays and image scanners. If the RGB image is 24-bit (the industry standard as of 2005), each channel has 8 bits, for red, green, and blue—in other words, the image is composed of three images (one for each channel), where each image can store discrete pixels with conventional brightness intensities between 0 and 255. If the RGB image is 48-bit (very high color-depth), each channel has 16-bit per pixel color, that is 16-bit red, green, and blue for each per pixel. ==== RGB color sample ==== Notice how the grey trees have similar brightness in all channels, the red dress is much brighter in the red channel than in the other two, and how the green part of the picture is shown much brighter in the green channel. === YUV === YUV images are an affine transformation of the RGB colorspace, originated in broadcasting. The Y channel correlates approximately with perceived intensity, whilst the U and V channels provide colour information. === CMYK === A CMYK image has four channels: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). CMYK is the standard for print, where subtractive coloring is used. A 32-bit CMYK image (the industry standard as of 2005) is made of four 8-bit channels, one for cyan, one for magenta, one for yellow, and one for key color (typically is black). 64-bit storage for CMYK images (16-bit per channel) is not common, since CMYK is usually device-dependent, whereas RGB is the generic standard for device-independent storage. ==== CMYK color sample ==== === HSV === HSV, or hue saturation value, stores color information in three channels, just like RGB, but one channel is devoted to brightness (value), and the other two convey colour information. The value channel is similar to (but not exactly the same as) the CMYK black channel, or its negative. HSV is especially useful in lossy video compression, where loss of color information is less noticeable to the human eye. == Alpha channel == The alpha channel stores transparency information—the higher the value, the more opaque that pixel is. No camera or scanner measures transparency, although physical objects certainly can possess transparency, but the alpha channel is extremely useful for compositing digital images together. Bluescreen technology involves filming actors in front of a primary color background, then setting that color to transparent, and compositing it with a background. The GIF and PNG image formats use alpha channels on the World Wide Web to merge images on web pages so that they appear to have an arbitrary shape even on a non-uniform background. == Other channels == In 3D computer graphics, multiple channels are used for additional control over material rendering; e.g., controlling specularity and so on. == Bit depth == In digitizing images, the color channels are converted to numbers. Since images contain thousands of pixels, each with multiple channels, channels are usually encoded in as few bits as possible. Typical values are 8 bits per channel or 16 bits per channel. Indexed color effectively gets rid of channels altogether to get, for instance, 3 channels into 8 bits (GIF) or 16 bits. == Optimized channel sizes == Since the brain does not necessarily perceive distinctions in each channel to the same degree as in other channels, it is possible that differing the number of bits allocated to each channel will result in more optimal storage; in particular, for RGB images, compressing the blue channel the most and the red channel the least may be better than giving equal space to each. Among other techniques, lossy video compression uses chroma subsampling to reduce the bit depth in color channels (hue and saturation), while keeping all brightness information (value in HSV). 16-bit HiColor stores red and blue in 5 bits, and green in 6 bits.
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Spyglass (app)

Spyglass is a navigation and orientation mobile application developed by Pavel Ahafonau. It combines data from a digital compass, GNSS positioning, motion sensors, maps, and the device camera to provide direction finding, waypoint navigation, and measurement tools. The application is designed for offline and off-road use and is used in outdoor navigation, orientation tasks, astronomy, and fieldwork. == History == Spyglass was created by independent software developer Pavel Ahafonau as a personal project in 2009, following the introduction of a digital compass sensor in the iPhone. It initially focused on combining compass, GPS, and camera data into an augmented-reality tool for navigation and orientation. In September 2009, a public prototype was demonstrated, showing a live camera view combined with a digital compass overlay aligned to device orientation, presenting an early augmented-reality, location-aware heads-up display. The application was released on the Apple App Store in October 2009. In February 2010, a major update introduced target-based navigation, allowing users to navigate to saved locations, bearings, and selected celestial objects. The update also added visual measurement tools, including an optical-style rangefinder, as well as a vertical speed indicator displaying ascent and descent rates derived from device sensor data. In December 2010, Spyglass was featured by Apple in iTunes Rewind 2010 under augmented-reality applications. The application expanded to Android on 28 October 2017. In May 2021, Spyglass expanded its offline mapping capabilities by adding support for additional map styles by Thunderforest, extending the range of available cartographic themes for offline use. Also in 2021, navigation satellite tracking was introduced, allowing visualization and tracking of major GPS/GNSS satellite constellations. In 2022, a searchable offline database of major locations was added, including airports, seaports, mountains, castles, and landmarks, along with nearest-airport tracking functionality. In July 2024, previously separate iOS editions (Spyglass, Commander Compass, and Commander Compass Go) were consolidated into a single Spyglass application. At the same time, the app transitioned to a freemium model. == Features == Spyglass provides navigation and orientation functions by combining sensor data from the device. Core functionality includes a digital compass, GNSS-based positioning, waypoint creation and tracking, and map-based navigation with offline support. The application includes an augmented-reality viewfinder mode that overlays navigation and sensor information onto the live camera view. Displayed data may include heading, bearing, distance to targets, pitch, roll, yaw, altitude, speed, and estimated time of arrival. Additional tools include an altimeter, speedometer, vertical speed indicator, inclinometer, artificial horizon, coordinate conversion utilities, optical rangefinding, and angular measurement tools. Spyglass also supports celestial navigation features, such as tracking of the Sun, Moon, stars, and global navigation satellite systems. Spyglass uses data from the device's GNSS receiver, digital compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer (when available), and camera. Sensor data are combined to calculate position, orientation, movement, and measurement overlays. The application is designed to function without an internet connection. Navigation tools, sensor readings, waypoint tracking, augmented-reality features, celestial tracking, and the built-in location database operate offline. Internet access is required only for loading online map tiles; previously downloaded offline maps remain available without connectivity.
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Viewport

A viewport is a polygon viewing region in computer graphics. In computer graphics theory, there are two region-like notions of relevance when rendering some objects to an image. In textbook terminology, the world coordinate window is the area of interest (meaning what the user wants to visualize) in some application-specific coordinates, e.g. miles, centimeters etc. The word window as used here should not be confused with the GUI window, i.e. the notion used in window managers. Rather it is an analogy with how a window limits what one can see outside a room. In contrast, the viewport is an area (typically rectangular) expressed in rendering-device-specific coordinates, e.g. pixels for screen coordinates, in which the objects of interest are going to be rendered. Clipping to the world-coordinates window is usually applied to the objects before they are passed through the window-to-viewport transformation. For a 2D object, the latter transformation is simply a combination of translation and scaling, the latter not necessarily uniform. An analogy of this transformation process based on traditional photography notions is to equate the world-clipping window with the camera settings and the variously sized prints that can be obtained from the resulting film image as possible viewports. Because the physical-device-based coordinates may not be portable from one device to another, a software abstraction layer known as normalized device coordinates is typically introduced for expressing viewports; it appears for example in the Graphical Kernel System (GKS) and later systems inspired from it. In 3D computer graphics, the viewport refers to the 2D rectangle used to project the 3D scene to the position of a virtual camera. A viewport is a region of the screen used to display a portion of the total image to be shown. In virtual desktops, the viewport is the visible portion of a 2D area which is larger than the visualization device. When viewing a document in a web browser, the viewport is the region of the browser window which contains the visible portion of the document. If the size of the viewport changes, for example as a result of the user resizing the browser window, then the browser may reflow the document (recalculate the locations and sizes of elements of the document). If the document is larger than the viewport, the user can control the portion of the document which is visible by scrolling in the viewport.
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Clesh

Clesh (clip load edit share) is a cloud-based video editing platform, created by Forbidden Technologies plc, designed for the consumers, prosumers, and online communities to integrate user-generated content. The core technology is based on FORscene which is geared towards professionals working for example in broadcasting, news media, post production. Video, audio, and graphical content is uploaded to Clesh via a standard web browser, a mobile device such as a phone / tablet, or desktop software for DV capture over FireWire. The hosted material can then be reviewed, searched, edited, and published online by anyone with a standard web browser or compatible mobile device. Clesh supports storyboard shot selection, frame-accurate editing, transitions and various other functions such as; pan, zoom, colour and light correction, and audio levels. Content can be published in formats for example; Podcast, Mpeg2, HTML video or in a proprietary Java format. Cloud-based software provides greater scope for sharing information and collaborating compared to LAN or desktop based systems. Users of cloud-based software rely on the cloud's owner for adequate security, performance and resilience. Clesh does not assert any rights over uploaded content in contrast to other platforms (such as YouTube). All rights to any content uploaded to Clesh remain with the Author. == Features == Some of the services available to Clesh users: Access via Java enabled desktops or Android smartphones or tablets Real-time video rendering including effects and transitions Multiple audio tracks Secured log-on Frame accurate timeline for fine cut editing Logging / meta-data annotation assigns text to portions of video (usable by Clesh and web search engines) Storyboard assembles rough cuts using drag-and-drop Import, host, organise and search for media (DV tape and various video, audio, and still image formats) Publish content to in formats such as podcast, MPEG-2, web (Java Applet), Flash, Ogg, HTML and JPEG Chatrooms to talk to other Clesh users Showreel (a gallery for publishing material visible to internet users) Moderation for approval of material prior to distribution downstream Re-branding and integration support for white-label deployment == Technology == Clesh is based on the same technology as FORscene. An array of servers on the internet backbone provide the cloud computing platform to host Clesh. As a white-label solution Clesh would be branded and hosted per the client requirement. == User interface == End-users access Clesh on clients such as standard Java-enabled Web Browsers and / or Android enabled mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. == History == Clesh was launched January 2006 and subject to several upgrades during the year to extend functionality including; storyboard, podcasting, moderation, chat and a showreel. During 2007 consumers are offered Clesh via a subscription model. Upgrades include Web Start and graphics upload. Mr Paparazzi selects Clesh as the platform to host its video offering and TrueTube does the same in 2008 by choosing to use Clesh to manage its video portal. Several further upgrades are applied and include; better audio quality, image enhancement controls, transitions, fades, titles, and additional publishing options such as JPEG. In 2010 a version of Clesh is demonstrated on an Android OS tablet device (Samsung Galaxy S Tab), and several upgrades are applied including; HTML publishing, pan, zoom, and overlays.
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SCADA Strangelove

SCADA Strangelove is an independent group of information security researchers founded in 2012, focused on security assessment of industrial control systems (ICS) and SCADA. == Activities == Main fields of research include: Discovery of 0-day vulnerabilities in cyber physical systems and coordinated vulnerability disclosure; Security assessment of ICS protocols and development suites; Identification of publicly Internet-connected ICS components and secure it with help of proper authorities; Development of security hardening guides for ICS software; Mapping cybersecurity on to functional safety; Awareness control and delivery of information regarding the actual security state of ICS systems. SCADA Strangelove's interests expand further than classic ICS components and covers various embedded systems, however, and encompass smart home components, solar panels, wind turbines, SmartGrid as well as other areas. == Projects == Group members have and continue to develop and publish numerous open source tools for scanning, fingerprinting, security evaluation and password bruteforcing for ICS devices. These devices work over industrial protocols such as modbus, Siemens S7, MMS, ISO EC 60870, ProfiNet. In 2014 Shodan used some of the published tools for building a map of ICS devices which is publicly available on the Internet. Open source security assessment frameworks, such as THC Hydra, Metasploit, and DigitalBond Redpoint have used Shodan-developed tools and techniques. The group has published security-hardening guidelines for industrial solutions based on Siemens SIMATIC WinCC and WinCC Flexible. The guidelines contain detailed security configuration walk-throughs, descriptions of internal security features and appropriate best practices. Among the group’s more noticeable projects is Choo Choo PWN (CCP) also named the Critical Infrastructure Attack (CIA). This is an interactive laboratory built upon ICS software and hardware used in real world. Every system is connected to a toy city infrastructure, which includes factories, railroads and other facilities. The laboratory has been demonstrated at various conferences including PHDays, Power of Community, and 30C3. Primarily the laboratory is used for the discovery of new vulnerabilities and for evaluation of security mechanisms, however it is also used for workshops and other educational activities. At Positive Hack Days IV, contestants found several 0-day vulnerabilities in Indusoft Web Studio 7.1 by Schneider Electric, and in specific ICS hardware RTU PET-7000 during the ICS vulnerability discovery challenge. The group supports Secure Open SmartGrid (SCADASOS) project to find and fix vulnerabilities in intellectual power grid components such as photovoltaic power station, wind turbine, power inverter. More than 80 000 industrial devices were discovered and isolated from the Internet in 2015. == Appearances == Group members are frequently seen presenting at conferences like CCC, SCADA Security Scientific Symposium, Positive Hack Days. Most notable talks are: === 29C3 === An overview of vulnerabilities discovered in the widely distributed Siemens SIMATIC WinCC software and tools that are implemented for searching ICS on the Internet. === PHDays === This talk consisted of an overview of vulnerabilities discovered in various systems produced by ABB, Emerson, Honeywell and Siemens and was presented at PHDays III and PHDays IV. === Confidence 2014 === Implications of security research aimed at realization of various industrial network protocols Profinet, Modbus, DNP3, IEC 61850-8-1 (MMS), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) 61870-5-101/104, FTE (Fault Tolerant Ethernet), Siemens S7. === PacSec 2014 === Presentations of security research showing the impact of radio and 3G/4G networks on the security of mobile devices as well as on industrial equipment. === 31C3 === Analysis of security architecture and implementation of the most wide spread platforms for wind and solar energy generation which produce many gigawatts of it. === 32C3 === Cybersecurity assessment of railway signaling systems such as Automatic Train Control (ATC), Computer-based interlocking (CBI) and European Train Control System (ETCS). === China Internet Security Conference 2016 === In "Greater China Cyber Threat Landscape" keynote by Sergey Gordeychik an overview of vulnerabilities, attacks and cyber-security incidents in Greater China region was presented. === Recon 2017 === In talk "Hopeless: Relay Protection for Substation Automation" by Kirill Nesterov and Alexander Tlyapov security analysis results of key Digital Substation component - Relay Protection Terminals was presented. Vulnerabilities, including remote code execution in Siemens SIPROTEC, General Electric Line Distance Relay, NARI and ABB protective relays was presented. == Philosophy == All names, catchwords and graphical elements refer to Stanley Kubrick’s film, Dr. Strangelove. In their talks, group members often refer to Cold War events such as the Caribbean Crisis, and draw parallels between nuclear arms race and the current escalation of cyberwar. Group members follow the approach of “responsible disclosure” and “ready to wait for years, while vendor is patching the vulnerability”. Public exploits for discovered vulnerabilities are not published. This is on account of the longevity of ICS and by implication the long process of patching ICS. However, conflicts still happen, notably in 2012 when the talk at DEF CON was called off due to a dispute of persistent weaknesses in Siemens industrial software.
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Esdat

ESdat is a data management, analysis and reporting software for environmental and groundwater data, developed by EarthScience Information Systems (EScIS). It is used to manage many types of environmental data including laboratory chemistry (analytical results, QA data, lab sample planning, and electronic Chain of Custody), field chemistry (water, gas, and soil), hydrogeological data (groundwater, borehole and well construction, lithological, geotechnical and stratigraphic, and LNAPL), meteorological data (rain, wind, and temperature), emission data (dust deposition, HiVol, air quality, and noise) and logger data. Data can be compared against environmental standards or site-specific trigger levels to generate exceedence tables, time series graphs, maps, statistics, and other outputs. ESdat integrates with Power BI and ArcGIS and data can also be exported in a range of other database formats, including USEPA Regions 2,4 & 5, and NYS DEC. ESdat is used by environmental consultants, government, mining and industry for validation, interrogation, and reporting of data derived from complex environmental programs, such as contaminated sites, groundwater investigations, and regulatory compliance for landfills or mining operations.
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Gas (app)

Gas (sometimes stylized in all caps), formerly known as Melt as well as Crush, was an American anonymous social media app. Launched in August 2022, the app is oriented towards high schoolers. The app was developed by Nikita Bier, Isaiah Turner, and former Facebook engineer Dave Schatz. Gas was largely based upon the prior tbh app developed by co-founder Nikita Bier, along with Erik Hazzard, Kyle Zaragoza, and Nicolas Ducdodon in September 2017. tbh was acquired by Facebook inc. (now Meta Platforms) on October 16, 2017, and nearly a year later in July 2018 was dissolved, owing to low usage. Gas follows a similar purpose to tbh in being a social media app oriented towards high schoolers. In the app, users participate in anonymous polls regarding pre-written complimentary statements to their peers, such as "I'd say yes if (blank) asked me out on a date," "I think (blank) is the coolest kid in school," or "would make an ugly face and still look pretty." Winners of said polls receive a "flame." The name of the app is derived from this, with "gassing someone up" being Gen Z slang for complimenting someone. Users can pay a $6.99 subscription that enables "God Mode," which shows hints regarding who voted for them in a poll. Gas overtook TikTok and BeReal as the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store in October 2022 (the app is currently not available for Android). The app has over 5.1 million downloads as of early November 2022, over a million active users and 300 thousand daily downloads as of October 2022. Currently, the app is available in Canada and the majority of the United States. On January 17, 2023, Gas was acquired by Discord, however it would remain a standalone app and its developers became Discord staff members. On October 18, 2023, Discord announced that service for Gas would be permanently ending effective November 7, 2023, due to a steep decline in users. Effective November 7, the app became completely unusable. == Controversy regarding human-trafficking == Beginning in October 2022, rumors spread largely throughout TikTok and Snapchat alleged that the app was linked to human trafficking (in particular sex trafficking). According to Bier, the rumor originated with a single user review from China on October 5, and then was disseminated through TikTok accounts with "few to no US teen followers." Although largely dismissed as a hoax by experts, who cite how the app doesn't log user locations and general anonymity, the hoax became pervasive to the extent that various police departments, school systems, and local news outlets began issuing warnings regarding the app. For instance, on October 31, 2022, the police department of Piedmont, Oklahoma issued a warning to parents, encouraging them to check their children's phones, while on November 3, the Oklahoma Oktaha Public School system stated in a Facebook post that "Children are being kidnapped in other towns and this new app is thought to be the source of predators finding their location." (both statements have since been retracted by Police Chief Scott Singer and Superintendent Jerry Needham respectively). Additionally, local medial outlets such as KOCO in Oklahoma City ran stories making similar statements. The rumor had a negative impact on the app, with downloads plateauing for a two-week period in late October and with 3% of users in a single day reportedly uninstalling the app. Revenue and ratings have also reportedly dropped and the company's social media accounts have been bombarded with comments labeling them as sex-traffickers. Additionally, the four-person development team has reportedly been bombarded with various death threats as a result.
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NRD Cyber Security

NRD Cyber Security is a Lithuanian company that provides cybersecurity solutions, consulting, and other services. The organization specializes in CSIRT and SOC creation, modernization and training. It has helped to establish national and sectorial CSIRTs around the world, including countries, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Bhutan, Kosovo, Malawi and others. NRD Cyber Security was found in 2013 to provide quality cybersecurity services to nations and organizations. In 2018 it was included in The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in Europe list. In 2024 it was awarded the #98 place in MSSP Alert Top 250 world's managed security service providers. The company is a member of various cybersecurity organizations, such as Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), The Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), Unicrons Lt. It is a strategic partner of The Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC) at University of Oxford.
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MultiValue database

A MultiValue database is a type of NoSQL and multidimensional database. It is typically considered synonymous with PICK, a database originally developed as the Pick operating system. MultiValue databases include commercial products from Rocket Software, Revelation, InterSystems, Northgate Information Solutions, ONgroup, and other companies. These databases differ from a relational database in that they have features that support and encourage the use of attributes which can take a list of values, rather than all attributes being single-valued. They are often categorized with MUMPS within the category of post-relational databases, although the data model actually pre-dates the relational model. Unlike SQL-DBMS tools, most MultiValue databases can be accessed both with or without SQL. == History == Don Nelson designed the MultiValue data model in the early to mid-1960s. Dick Pick, a developer at TRW, worked on the first implementation of this model for the US Army in 1965. Pick considered the software to be in the public domain because it was written for the military, this was but the first dispute regarding MultiValue databases that was addressed by the courts. Ken Simms wrote DataBASIC, sometimes known as S-BASIC, in the mid-1970s. It was based on Dartmouth BASIC, but had enhanced features for data management. Simms played a lot of Star Trek (a text-based early computer game originally written in Dartmouth BASIC) while developing the language, to ensure that DataBASIC functioned to his satisfaction. Three of the implementations of MultiValue - PICK version R77, Microdata Reality 3.x, and Prime Information 1.0 - were very similar. In spite of attempts to standardize, particularly by International Spectrum and the Spectrum Manufacturers Association, who designed a logo for all to use, there are no standards across MultiValue implementations. Subsequently, these flavors diverged, although with some cross-over. These streams of MultiValue database development could be classified as one stemming from PICK R83, one from Microdata Reality, and one from Prime Information. Because of the differences, some implementations have provisions for supporting several flavors of the languages. An attempt to document the similarities and differences can be found at the Post-Relational Database Reference (PRDB). One reasonable hypothesis for this data model lasting 50 years, with new database implementations of the model even in the 21st century is that it provides inexpensive database solutions. == Data model example == In a MultiValue database system: a database or schema is called an "account" a table or collection is called a "file" a column or field is called a field or an "attribute", which is composed of "multi-value attributes" and "sub-value attributes" to store multiple values in the same attribute. a row or document is called a "record" or "item" Data is stored using two separate files: a "file" to store raw data and a "dictionary" to store the format for displaying the raw data. For example, assume there's a file (table) called "PERSON". In this file, there is an attribute called "eMailAddress". The eMailAddress field can store a variable number of email address values in a single record. The list [[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]] can be stored and accessed via a single query when accessing the associated record. Achieving the same (one-to-many) relationship within a traditional relational database system would include creating an additional table to store the variable number of email addresses associated with a single "PERSON" record. However, modern relational database systems support this multi-value data model too. For example, in PostgreSQL, a column can be an array of any base type. == MultiValue Basic Language == Multivalue Basic (now commonly styled as mvBasic) is a family of programming languages more or less common (and portable) to all the multivalue databases derived from the original Pick Operating System. The variations between implementations are known as flavours. The language originates from Dartmouth Basic and the earliest implementation of PickBASIC (now D3 FlashBasic). Over time various customisations and extensions have been added to take advantage of capabilities added to the different flavours while staying mainly in sync. mvBasic statements and functions are designed to access and take advantage of the multivalue database model and providing the usual capabilities of most modern languages. For example, cryptography and communications. mvBasic is typeless and lends itself to structured programming techniques. Example code is available but limited. Whilst there are commercial applications and tools available, the multivalue database community has not embraced the open source library/package model to the degree seen with other languages. The typical mvBasic compiler compiles program source to a P-code executable object and runs in an interpreter, with D3 FlashBasic and jBASE being notable exceptions. == MultiValue Query Language == Known as ENGLISH, ACCESS, AQL, UniQuery, Retrieve, CMQL, and by many other names over the years, corresponding to the different MultiValue implementations, the MultiValue query language differs from SQL in several respects. Each query is issued against a single dictionary within the schema, which could be understood as a virtual file or a portal to the database through which to view the data. LIST PEOPLE LAST_NAME FIRST_NAME EMAIL_ADDRESSES WITH LAST_NAME LIKE "Van..." The above statement would list all e-mail addresses for each person whose last name starts with "Van". A single entry would be output for each person, with multiple lines showing the multiple e-mail addresses (without repeating other data about the person).
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Frame grabber

A frame grabber is an electronic device that captures (i.e., "grabs") individual, digital still frames from an analog video signal or a digital video stream. It is usually employed as a component of a computer vision system, in which video frames are captured in digital form and then displayed, stored, transmitted, analyzed, or combinations of these. Historically, frame grabber expansion cards were the predominant way to interface cameras to PCs. Other interface methods have emerged since then, with frame grabbers (and in some cases, cameras with built-in frame grabbers) connecting to computers via interfaces such as USB, Ethernet and IEEE 1394 ("FireWire"). Early frame grabbers typically had only enough memory to store a single digitized video frame, whereas many modern frame grabbers can store multiple frames. Modern frame grabbers often are able to perform functions beyond capturing a single video input. For example, some devices capture audio in addition to video, and some devices provide, and concurrently capture frames from multiple video inputs. Other operations may be performed as well, such as deinterlacing, text or graphics overlay, image transformations (e.g., resizing, rotation, mirroring), and conversion to JPEG or other compressed image formats. To satisfy the technological demands of applications such as radar acquisition, manufacturing and remote guidance, some frame grabbers can capture images at high frame rates, high resolutions, or both. == Circuitry == Analog frame grabbers, which accept and process analog video signals, include these circuits: Input signal conditioner that buffers the analog video input signal to protect downstream circuitry Video decoder that converts SD analog video (e.g., NTSC, SECAM, PAL) or HD analog video (e.g., AHD, HD-TVI, HD-CVI) to a digital format Digital frame grabbers, which accept and process digital video streams, include these circuits: Digital video decoder that interfaces to and converts a specific type of digital video source, such as Camera Link, CoaXPress, DVI, GigE Vision, LVDS, or SDI Circuitry common to both analog and digital frame grabbers: Memory for storing the acquired image (i.e., a frame buffer) A bus interface through which a processor can control the acquisition and access the data General purpose I/O for triggering image acquisition or controlling external equipment == Applications == === Healthcare === Frame grabbers are used in medicine for many applications, including telenursing and remote guidance. In situations where an expert at another location needs to be consulted, frame grabbers capture the image or video from the appropriate medical equipment, so it can be sent digitally to the distant expert. === Manufacturing === "Pick and place" machines are often used to mount electronic components on circuit boards during the circuit board assembly process. Such machines use one or more cameras to monitor the robotics that places the components. Each camera is paired with a frame grabber that digitizes the analog video, thus converting the video to a form that can be processed by the machine software. === Network security === Frame grabbers may be used in security applications. For example, when a potential breach of security is detected, a frame grabber captures an image or a sequence of images, and then the images are transmitted across a digital network where they are recorded and viewed by security personnel. === Personal use === In recent years with the rise of personal video recorders like camcorders, mobile phones, etc. video and photo applications have gained ascending prominence. Frame grabbing is becoming very popular on these devices. === Astronomy & astrophotography === Amateur astronomers and astrophotographers use frame grabbers when using analog "low light" cameras for live image display and internet video broadcasting of celestial objects. Frame grabbers are essential to connect the analog cameras used in this application to the computers that store or process the images.
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