Election Campaign Financing Essays - , Term Papers

Election Campaign Financing Chris AlibaruhoBA 243 Topic Report When researching for this paper, I found that the general consensus showedthat special interest financing is a growing influence on the outcomes of elections inrespect to election campaign financing. As you will see I have identified the problemsand then proceed to discuss possible reforms with use of a ?pro and con? method. The first of the main problems in the issue of campaign financing are theindependent expenditures. According to the Federal Election Committee (FEC), anindependent expenditure is ?an expenditure of money for communications expresslyadvocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified federal candidate which is notmade with the cooperation or consent of, or at the request or suggestion of, anycandidate or any of his or her agents or authorized committees.?In other words, they are political expenditures or expenditures frequently made to payfor television and radio advertisements, press conferences, political rallies byindivi duals, groups, or parties seeking to promote a specific message about issues orcandidates during an election season. These expenditures have the potential to affectthe outcome of the race because they imply which candidate is the best withoutdirectly telling voters which candidate to choose. Although they are independentbecause they are produced without consulting the candidate or his campaign, peoplecriticize them for having the same negative impact as direct contributions. This is whyindependent expenditures can be seen as a problem. The second area that needs to be tackled in the issue of campaign financing issoft money. Also referred to as ?nonfederal funds? or ?sewer money?, soft moneyrefers to campaign money raised and/or spent outside the limitations and prohibitionsof the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). According to the FEC, soft moneyoften includes corporate and treasury funds as well as individual contributions inexcess of federal limits. These cannot be legally used in connection with federalelections (elections for the US Senate, US House of Representatives, presidency andvice presidency.) The first assumption of today's campaign finance laws is thatpeople, not organizations, are vulnerable to the potentially corrosive influence ofpolitical money. The second assumption is that state and local political parties andtheir grass roots activities are valuable features of our civil culture that the federalgovernment should not interfere with. This explains why most federal election lawsdo not cover contributions that support state and local ?nonfederal? parties. Private money is raised by national parties to support state party organizationsand does not benefit specific people running for federal offices. Therefore, it is neitheruncommon or illegal for parties to raise as much as $1,000,000 from individuals andorganizations, some of which are banned from contributing directly to candidates.This is one of the many loopholes found in campaign financi ng. For example, thefederal government is permitted only to regulate the way in which campaigns forfederal offices are financed. It is left up to the individual states and municipalities todetermine how campaigns for the state legislature, governor, and local public officesare to be financed and how state and local political parties are to be regulated. Here isthe loophole; national political parties can establish ?nonfederal accounts? to supportstate and local political activities. These accounts are not regulated by federalcampaign finance laws because technically they have nothing to do with federalelections. Many soft money critics point out that candidates, contributors and otherspecial interests can technically obey the ?letter of the law?, but by using soft moneyto get around the contribution and spending limits, they violate the ?spirit? of thesame law. The last of the issues I shall be dealing with in my essay are the issues ofout-of-district distributions and out-of-state distributions. An out-of-state orout-of-district distribution is one of those terms that tries to capture a lot ofinformation in as few words as possible therefore omitting the important details aboutthe whole concept. After some research, it became apparent that out-of-districtcontributions refer to money donated to the House of Representatives and PAC'sresiding outside the district in which the candidate is running. There are 435 Housedistricts in the United States, therefore an out-of-district contribution refers to anycontribution made to a House candidate by a person living in any of the other 434districts. An out-of-state contribution refers to money donated to a candidate for theUnited States Senate by individuals and PAC's residing outside the state in which thecandidate is running. Of course there

The Many Facets of Happiness

The Many Facets of Happiness "Happiness" is a word with many diverse meanings. The Webster's Deluxe Unabridged Dictionary and Bartlett's Roget's Thesaurus gave definitions and synonyms and various resources discussed "happiness" in very different ways. The Home Book of Shakespeare Quotations described how "happiness" would look if it were personified. An article in the "Washington Post" and The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry inferred that "happiness" is a temporary frame of mind, yet The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation inferred that "happiness" could possibly last a lifetime. After researching the word "happiness," I have concluded that "happiness" is a frame of mind to which there are many facets.To begin my research, I looked in an unabridged dictionary and looked up the word "happiness." The definition according to the Webster's Deluxe Unabridged Dictionary is "the enjoyment of pleasure without pain; felicity; blessedness satisfaction (825). The Icelandic people used words such has, "ha pp, good luck, chance, and hap" (825).English: George Bernard Shaw, Nobel laureate in Li...These forms of the word later evolved into the word "happiness." The Unabridged Dictionary provided me with a consistent usage and etymology of the word "happiness."I continued my research by looking up the word "happiness" in Bartlett's Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's supplied me with an abundance of synonyms. The words included "pleasure, joy, satisfaction, rejoicing, welfare, and prosperity" (1012). All of these words are positive words and all fit together. One thing I noticed about these words is that all the synonyms are a state of mind or a state of being. Everyone's idea of "happiness" may be different. What one person thinks "satisfaction" is may be different to someone else's idea of "satisfaction." It is the same with "pleasure, joy, prosperity, etc." These synonyms showed me that everyone's idea of "happiness" might be different.The Home Book of Shakespeare Quotations was my third...

Film analysis Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Film analysis - Movie Review Example Only a few religious groups and NGOs in the world lifted a finger to end the violent deaths. This fact alone made Hotel Rwanda a significant movie (Gillespie, 2004). Discussion The origin of the 1994 conflict was the assassination of Rwanda’s Hutu president; Juvenal Habyarimana. The Hutus claimed that it was the Tutsi who shot the president’s jet from the sky. Immediately, the militia and the Hutu army systematically started butchering the minority Tutsi. Following the Hutu extremists massacring the Tutsi population, Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, who was also a Hutu helped save the lives of his family and friends and those of over a thousand refugees. Paul gathered his neighbors and family into their cars and took off to the hotel. He put his own life at risk for the next hundred days by protecting not only his children and wife but also other refugees who were of the Tutsi descents and a genocide mark. Throughout this period, Paul bribed several senior Hutu army functionaries with gifts and money, bluffed and blackmailed them in order to have his hotel protected (Gillespie, 2004). According to this movie, outsiders did not mediate, just because Rwandans were Africans. Racism contributed to outsider’s hesitance to become involved. ... The message is that never again shall this be allowed to take place in Rwanda or any other part of the world. As much as no one would want to experience such an ordeal for a second time, it would be utter naivety to assume that such barbarity is not likely to happen again somewhere in the world (Gillespie, 2004). Hotel Rwanda goes further to show that even in the middle of this crisis and brutality, some people have a heart, and they still care. This is another significant part of this film. Paul Rusesabagina was one of the few people who indeed cared. Paul was the manager of a four-star establishment in Kigali, The Hotel Des Milles Collines (Gillespie, 2004). The man struggled to save people’s lives, and he took too many risks. Paul Rusesabagina is the film’s hero and a favorite character for many viewers. The relationship between Paul and his wife kept the movie grounded. In the beginning of the film, Paul’s intentions were far from selfless. He was more concer ned with grooming favor with the powerful people than helping his fellow man. However, when the massacring began, he did not blink to offer his help. He used his associations with the people in power to protect Hutu and Tutsi refugees. Paul eventually sheltered approximately 1,286 refugees in his hotel. This was such an extraordinary feat by Paul. He made it possible mainly because of his wit, bravery influence, and intelligence (Gillespie, 2004) The envenomed UN colonel was another heroic figure in this movie. His duty was to watch the massacre without intervening. Other heroic figures were a Red Cross worker who was forced to watch the children she was trying to rescue being put to death, a lot of anonymous Catholic nuns and priests, and a young news

Use of Gender Stereotypes in Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Use of Gender Stereotypes in Advertising - Essay Example Gender stereotyping in the advertisements has become one of the major problems seen. For many it is a wrong and unacceptable way since it gives a wrong sense of value to the people for selfish reasons. On the other hand, the groups of people who use gender stereotyping argue that it is to reach the targeted audience and not to immorally harm the society. The issues arise often and the debate goes on. It is important to note that advertisements rely on stereotypes, and despite what the society presents, gender stereotypes play the concrete role. The modern society has been shaped according to the media that surrounds us. The main purpose why advertisers use stereotypes is to make their message stronger and reach the targeted audience. They also think this secures the stereotypes in the society and portrays their position in the society. However, it also causes an inverse effect according to many psychologists. They say these advertisements represent the genders in the society as they exist stereotypically, and also cause these groups to be influenced to stay packed within their stereotyped molds. The advertisement of Weight Watchers is an example of how gender stereotypes are commonly used in advertisements. They have the perspective of looking at men and women so differently that they have used two separate advertisements in order to target them. The advertisement for women launched the ‘Weight Watchers 360’ programme and the advertisement for men launched the ‘Lose like a Man’ programme. The programme for women was very stereotypical as it focused on the ability of the user to, at times, eat what they wanted, such as chocolates. For men the programme used the approach giving them the ability to sometimes eat some of their favourites and still lose weight, such as pizza, burgers etc. The advertisement could not have gotten more stereotypical where it positioned different tactics for both genders, placed the genders in their stereotyped roles and influenced the society to follow them. The relationship between the media and the society is not understandable. It is observed that women face excessive stereotypical pressure, but usually men suffer the same. Gender stereotyping in advertisements is commonly discouraged because it enforces negative and false assumptions in the society through portraying audiences on television, social media or billboards. For selfish reasons advertisers use these groups and create wrong values in the minds of people in the society. Psychological reasons are the most important ones because of which stereotyping in advertisements are immoral and harmful. The advertisement may remind the targeted audience of any incidents that they went through, and influence to think of them as normal. Advertisers sell their products through targeting the psychology where the audience starts to feel they actually lack those so-called attributes (Browne, 2011, p. 33). Advertisements affect people every day in a way that they do not realise. These advertisements portray an idealistic reality which most people are not aware of. The goals and objectives attained by the advertisers cause severe negative circumstances in the society. Psychologists say that women are reminded of the negative stereotypes before they perform any exercise or activity. The stereotyped advertisements create an exaggerated version of a specific group or gender and they present it as normal. This affects the psychology of people who are being targeted and they are not only convinced to buy the product but also start believing themselves to be normally unusual.

Primary Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Primary Nursing - Essay Example Thompson ET all introduces the concept of primary nursing right from the beginning of its start in the 60’s. The sprouting of this particular type of healthcare all through the globe and its major influence to patient care is critically discussed. In this article, the author mainly insists on the influence of technology on this field and how hard it was for nurses back when everything was manual. Since the nurse has to work for 24 hours taking care of her patients, this field is thought provoking and in the early days of its invention, most of the primary nurses took care of fewer patients due to the nature of the work that was involved in the monitoring of the patients. The nurse had to manually move to each patient, take care of them and move to the next one. This was tedious and in most cases, the patients never got that right kind of care that they needed. However, due to technological changes in the medical industry, primary nursing has been on the increase and most insti tutions of higher learning have included the field in part of their study.Bowman ET all has similar opinions and insists that there has been improvements in primary nursing ever since its invention. The author compares the current situation of nursing and how it was in its early days and some of the changes that have been seen in the area. Comparing the way primary nursing was in the 60’s and now, it is pretty obvious that the field has undergone a lot of changes. First is the various means that nurses use to monitor patients.

Three Major Categories Of Software

Three Major Categories Of Software Software can be divided into three major categories according to popularity: application software, system software, and web applications. Within each category there are dozens, if not hundreds, of specialized software types, but for the purpose of this study, we will concentrate on the most popular software type of each category. Software applications refer to programs on a client machine which are written to perform specific tasks. Nowadays, there is a wide range of software applications being developed including word processing programs, database management tools, photo editing software, etc. But during the last decade the web has become the new deployment environment for software applications. Software applications that were previously built for specific operating systems and devices are now being designed specifically for the web (web-enabled). Because of this new movement, and as the web becomes increasingly a universal interface for software development, the software industry is experiencing a major evolution toward web-related software applications (Festa 2001). For example, the recent release of Googles Chrome web browser which was specifically designed to enable the execution of web applications and services in the web browser confirms this trend. As the web evolves, the surrounding and supporting technologies are becoming more complex. This is especially relevant in web-enabled applications such as web browsers, email/news clients, VoIP and chat clients which allow the interaction with the web from the client side. Web browsers specifically have become the doorway to the Internet and are currently the most widely used applications and the standard tool for consuming Internet services. This evolution toward web-related applications had a direct impact on the security of such applications. For instance, vulnerabilities and attacks against web browsers became more popular as such attacks compromise the security and privacy and have serious implications for web users. Once a web-related software is infected, the users web interaction can be fully exposed to the attacker. For instance, an infected web browser can expose the victims web addresses, data typed into forms, user sessions and cookies. Moreover, vulnerability risks in a web browser can have a serious implication for intranets (Anupam and Mayer 1998). Most users use the same browser to access information on the intranet as well as the Internet. A user who has been attacked through vulnerable web browser has compromised his or her firewall for the duration of the browsing session (c). Examples of such vulnerability risks against web browsers include key loggers. Key loggers are a form of spyware which can be installed through vulnerability in a web browser and then logs all pressed keys whenever a user visits a certain online banking web site. The increase in vulnerability risks in web-related software is related to the exponential growth of the Internet. As we enter through the second decade of the 21st century, the rapid adoption of the Internet market along its ubiquitous presence will continue to make Internet technologies such as web-related applications a prime target for attackers as they constitute the largest mass of victims. Hypothesis 1a: Vulnerability type will be highly positively related to web-related software applications Hypothesis 1b: Frequency of vulnerability will be highly positively related to web-related software applications Hypothesis 1c: Severity of vulnerability will be highly positively related to web-related software applications System Software: System software refers to the set of computer programs which are required to support the execution of application programs and maintain system hardware. Operating systems, utilities, drivers and compilers are among the major components of system software. Such components are the enablers and service providers to software applications. Among these components, the operating system is the most popular and important one. The operating system market for client PCs has evolved along the lines predicted by theories of increasing returns and network externalities (Shapiro and Varian 1999). But with this increase in network externality, there has been a dramatic increase in vulnerabilities (cite xxx). For instance, between 2007 and 2009, the number of operating system vulnerabilities almost doubled from 220 to 420 vulnerabilities (CVE 2010). Such increase in vulnerabilities can be caused by several reasons. First, network externality implies larger user base which makes operating systems an a ttractive target for hackers. In addition to that, viruses and worms can spread more rapidly because of the large installed user base and network effect. Second, the architecture of some operating systems like Windows allows vulnerabilities to gain a direct access to the operating system files through external scripts; meaning that if malicious scripts are sophisticated enough, they can exploit system files through software applications or through system software directly. And last, the fame factor for discovering vulnerabilities in systems with significant installed user base make them potentially significant target for hackers. Lately, new technologies such as web-based cloud computing, virtualization and Just enough Operating System (JeOS) have been gradually diminishing the importance of the traditional operating system (Geer 2009). With cloud computing technologies, users can access web applications through their web browser; meaning that an OS like Google Chrome will only be needed to run the web-browser. Moreover, with virtualization technology a personal computer or a server is capable of running multiple operating systems or multiple sessions of a single OS at anytime without having the user rely on a single OS. Similarly, Just enough Operating System (JeOS) focuses on running applications which require minimal OS. As these technologies are gaining popularity and becoming more adopted by users, the role of an OS is starting to decrease so does its network externality. With this is mind, we hypothesize that attackers interests and vulnerability risks will gradually shift to other technologies as they become more popular. Hypothesis 1d: Vulnerability type will be positively related to system software Hypothesis 1e: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to system software Hypothesis 1f: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to system software Web Applications: The remarkable reach of web applications into all areas of the Internet makes this field among the largest and most important parts of the software industry. As of today, the Internet consists of hundreds of thousands of small and large-scale web applications ranging from e-Commerce applications to social networking sites to online gaming. This popularity has attracted large user base which made web applications lucrative targets for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities. Web applications are currently subject to a plenty of vulnerabilities and attacks, such as cross-site scripting (XSS), session riding (CSRF) and browser hijacking (Mansfield-Devine 2008). Hence, the landscape of vulnerabilities has changed significantly during the first decade of the 21st century. Previously, buffer overflow and format string vulnerabilities accounted for a large fraction of all vulnerabilities during the 1990s, but as web applications became more popular, new vulnerabilities and attacks such as SQL injections and XSS attacks exceeded earlier vulnerabilities. According to CVE surveys, security issues in web applications are the most commonly reported vulnerabilities nowadays. In response, web application vendors dedicated more resources towards securing their products as they tend to receive more attention as potential targets because of their large pool of possible victims (Mercuri 2003). The problem of web application vulnerabilities is becoming more complicated with the recent movement towards Web 2.0 technologies. The landscape of Web 2.0 enables new avenue of vulnerabilities by using sophisticated scripts on the client side. Moreover, Web 2.0 websites are becoming riskier than traditional websites because they use more scripting capabilities to allow users to upload content, share information and gain more control. Despite the growth of web applications and Web 2.0, these technologies are still limited by the available resources such as network bandwidth, latency, memory and processing power. More specifically, its argued that web applications are constrained by the capabilities of the web browser they are running in. With this drawback, web application users will ultimately have to rely on their own resources to accomplish magnitudes of tasks. Compared to system and software applications, we hypothesize that web applications will continue to experience vulnerability risks but at a lower rate than other popular software. Hypothesis 1g: Vulnerability type will be least positively related to web applications Hypothesis 1h: Frequency of vulnerability will be least positively related to web applications Hypothesis 1i: Severity of vulnerability will be least positively related to web applications Targeted Operating System Software producers often create applications to run on a single or a combination of operating systems (OS). From a software viewpoint, maintaining security is the obligation of both the OS and the software program. But since computer hardware such as the CPU, memory and input/output channels are accessible to a software programs only by making calls to the OS, therefore, the OS bears a tremendous burden in achieving system security by allocating, controlling and supervising all system resources. For the most part, each of todays streamlines OSs has a main weakness. For instance, earlier OSs such as Windows NT, UNIX and Macintosh had a weakness in their access control policies (Krsul 1998). Such OSs didnt specify access control policies very clearly which meant that applications that ran by users inherited all the privileges that the access control mechanisms of the OS provided to those users (Wurster 2010). An access control policy requires an OS to give a program or a user the minimum set of access rights necessary to perform a task. In his work, Denning (1983) illustrated the working of an access control policy which typically consists of three entities namely, subjects, objects and access rights matrix. Subjects refer to users or domains whereas objects are files, services, or other resources and access rights matrix specifies different kinds of privileges including read, write and execute which are assigned to subjects over objects. A configuration of the access matrix d escribes what subjects are authorized to do. Vulnerabilities in OSs tend to rely on weaknesses in configuration of access control matrices to gain access to software applications and system software. This creates a serious problem since vulnerabilities can exploit software applications through the OS gain access and ultimately take over the system. An example of an access control policy failure is Java virtual application. The Java virtual machine was among the applications which defined, and enforced its own access control matrix. Its sandbox was compromised of a number of OS components which ensured that a malicious application cannot gain access to system resources. But once the access control mechanism of the virtual machine fails, a malicious applet can be given access beyond the sandbox (McGraw and Felten 1997). Meaning that the OS can allow a malicious applet full access to the users files because to the OS there is no difference between the virtual machine and the applet. Moreover, even with an access control policy in place, consideration must be given to system design. The OSs which are in use today have different architectures and are designed with different kernels without considering security and controlled accessibility as significant design criteria. For instance, a large portion of UNIX and Linux vulnerabilities result from boundary condition errors which are commonly known as buffer overflow (cite xxx). These boundary conditions result from a failure to properly check the bound sizes of buffers, arrays, strings. Attackers tend to exploit this weakness in UNIX and Linux OSs to gain access to system software and software applications. On the other hand, vulnerabilities in Windows OS tend to be evenly divided among exceptional conditions, boundary conditions and access control validations (cite xxx). With these types of vulnerabilities root break-in and execution of arbitrary code are common types of attacks. When it comes to writing software for different platforms, programmers must acknowledge the potential vulnerabilities and threats targeting their software. Since different OSs have different vulnerabilities, the task of designing a secure application tend to become much difficult since they have to consider vulnerability risks of each OS. Therefore we hypothesize that: Hypothesis 5a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to software which target more operating systems Hypothesis 5b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to software which target more operating systems Hypothesis 5c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to software which target more operating systems Software Free Trial Free trial strategy is used by many vendors to promote and sell their goods. This strategy is especially popular and found to be effective to promote and sell digital goods such as software and music. Unlike physical goods, the intangibility of digital products prevents consumers from assessing the products before the consumption and adoption (Heiman and Muller 1996). Such uncertainty of product functionality reduces consumers motivation to adopt the product and is considered a source of market failure. Nowadays, offering software free trial at a low marginal production cost has resulted in the prevalence of free trials strategy. For the software market, there are two strategies of free trial, namely a fully functional free version with limited trial period (time locked version) and a limited functional version (demo version). Each of these strategies has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance a demo version has an advantage of capturing the network effect from both trial users and the buyers. In contrast, some consumers may find it adequate to use only the limited functionalities provided in the demo version rather than purchasing the full version software. Similarly, offering time locked software version can negatively affect the software vendor as consumers with limited usage can utilize this short-term to fully take advantage of the free trial without buying the full software product. Based on these trial strategies, there have been numerous studies regarding the effect of free trial on software learning curve (Heiman and Muller 1996), software piracy (Chellappa and Shivendu 2005) and software performance (Lee and Tan 2007). For this study, we are interested in measuring the effect of free trial strategies on software vulnerabilities. Although software vendors often release demo or time locked versions, such versions can still contain good source of information for the attackers. Attackers typically misuse the trial versions to look for, find and exploit vulnerabilities. Furthermore, attackers can reverse engineer the limited code and find vulnerabilities (Sutherland et al. 2006). This technique has become particularly important as the attacker can apply vulnerabilities found in free trial versions to exploit full version software. Moreover, there are many hacker groups on the internet who specialize in cracking free trial and full versions software and releasing them on the internet under what is known as warez. Such groups usually compete with one another to be the first to crack and release the new software. These cracked versions (warez) can also serve as potential targets for attackers looking for vulnerabilities. Hence, while providing free trial versions of software by software vendors is a marketing strategy, vendors should also expect such free versions can become targets for vulnerabilities and early exploits. Hypothesis 6a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to software which offer trial versions Hypothesis 6b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively to software which offer trial versions Hypothesis 6c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively to software which offer trial versions Software License The diversity of the software business model drives the need for different types of software licenses. A software license is a legal agreement forming a binding contract (relationship) between the vendor and the user of a software product and its considered an essential part in the evolution of the software to a market product. Software license is regarded as one of the fundamentals of OSS as there are currently close to 73 different licenses (Perens 2009). Most OSS licenses are classified based on the restrictions they impose on any derivative work (Lerner and Tirole, 2005). Examples of OSS licenses include GPL, LGPL and BSD. General Public License (GPL) is currently the most popular OSS license which states that any derived work from other GPL software has to be distributed under the same licensing terms. The Lesser GPL (LGPL) and the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) are other popular alternatives to GPL with similar characteristics. OSS projects rely heavily on code reuse as shown by DrDobbs (2009). In their work, 1311 OSS projects were analyzed and 365000 instances were found of code reuse among those projects. In principle, most of the OSS licenses allow programmers to modify and reuse existing code. This degree of code inheritance can have positive and negative effects on the security of the software. In their work, Brown and Booch (2002) discussed how reuse of OSS code can inherent insecurities and talked about the concerns which companies have regarding OSS code and how it was developed and in particular the origins and the reuse of its code. Indeed an analysis study by Pham et al. (2010) suggested that one of the key causes of vulnerabilities is due to software reuse in code, algorithms/standards, or shared libraries/APIs. They proposed the use of new model which uses algorithm to map similar vulnerable code across different systems, and use the model to trace and report vulnerabilities to software vendors . Reuse of OSS software has caused concerns as developers might inherent vulnerabilities from existing code but regardless of the open source community or software vendors positions on this debate, the possibility of security issues by reusing OSS code has been sufficient to the point where some vendors stopped reusing OSS code in their software. From a security perspective and when it comes to reusing OSS, vendors tend to follow one of the following approaches. Abandon OSS software; only reuse code which has been extensively reviewed; or maintain a relationship with the OSS community and get involved with the development process (Brown and Booch 2002). Its our belief that licenses which allow developers to reuse source code will be more susceptible to vulnerabilities than closed source proprietary licenses. Meaning that software licenses which allow code reuse are more likely to inherit or contaminate derivate work. In contrast, commercial licenses which dont share or allow code reuse are less susceptible to inherit or contaminate vulnerabilities. Hypothesis 4a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to open source software licenses Hypothesis 4b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to open source licenses Hypothesis 4c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to open source licenses Source Code Availability Security of open source software (OSS) and closed source software has been a hot topic with many arguments repeatedly presented. Advocates of OSS argue that more reviewers strengthen the security of the software as it eases the process of finding bugs and speeds it up given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow (Raymond and Young 2000). Opponents of this idea disagree and claim that not all code reviewers and testers have enough skills and experience compared to code reviewers at companies who are more skilled at finding flaws. The argument is that oftentimes code reviewers and testers need to have further skills other than programming such as cryptography, stenography and networking. Moreover, proponents of closed source software claim that security by obscurity is the main strength of closed source software since its harder to find vulnerabilities when the code is not accessible. However, proponents of OSS argue that its possible to gain access to closed source code through publicl y available patches and disassembling software (Tevis 2005). Its important to note that the impact of the availability of source code on security depends on the open source development model. For instance, the open source cathedral model allows everyone to view the source code, detect flaws/bugs/vulnerabilities and open reports; but they are not permitted to release patches unless they are approved by project owners. OSS projects are typically regulated by project administrators who require some time to review and approve patches. Attackers can take advantage of the availability of source code and published vulnerability reports to exploit them (Payne 2002). However, proponents of OSS argue that vulnerabilities in OSS projects can be fixed faster than those in closed source software because the OSS community is not dependent on a companys schedule to release a patch. Despite the continuous debate on OSS security, advocates from both sides agree that having access to the source code makes it easier to find vulnerabilities but they differ about the impact of vulnerabilities on software security. First of all, keeping the source code open provides attackers with easy access to information that may be helpful to successfully launch an attack. Publically available source code gives attackers the ability to search for vulnerabilities and flaws and thus increase the exposure of the system. Second, making the source code publicly available doesnt guarantee that a qualified person will look at the source and evaluate it. In the bazaar style environment, malicious code such as backdoors may be sneaked into the source by attackers posing as trustful contributors. For instance, in 2003 Linux kernel developers discovered an attempt to include a backdoor in the kernel code (Poulsen 2003). Finally, for many OSS projects there is no a priori selection of program mers based on their skills; project owners tend to accept any help without checking for qualifications or coding skills. Given the issues surrounding source code availability in OSS, we hypothesize that making source code publically available will induce attackers and increase vulnerability risks. Hypothesis 1a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to source code availability Hypothesis 1b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to source code availability Hypothesis 1c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to source code availability Software Programming Language Selecting a suitable programming language is one of the most important decisions which have to be made during software planning and design. A chosen programming language has direct effect on how software ought to be created and what means must be used to guarantee that the software functions properly and securely. Software programs which are written using an insecure language may cause system dependent errors which are known to be difficult to find and fix (Hoare 1973). For example, buffer overflows vulnerabilities and other low-level errors are well known issues in C and C++ languages (Cowan 1999). As of today, there exist numerous programming languages but the topic of security in programming languages has been widely disregarded as its believed that programming errors and flaws should be eliminated by the programmers themselves. Current approaches to this issue are essentially ad hoc where best programming practices and secure programming techniques are implemented during or after the design stage. Although this approach helps in preventing coding errors and flaws by relying on programmers skills and experience, it is difficult to say with any certainty what vulnerabilities are prevented and to what extent. More importantly, the ad hoc approach doesnt protect against new and evolving vulnerabilities as it only handles known vulnerabilities and specific coding flaws. In his paper, Hoare (1974) stated that a programming language is secure only if the compiler and run time support are capable of detecting flaws and violations of the language rules. The main issue with this statement is that current compilers and debugging tools are not reliable since they parse code differently; therefore, its impossible to guarantee the same results for programs. Additionally, such tools dont help the programmer in finding vulnerabilities or flaws as they only report syntax errors. Typically, compilers and debugging tools dont allow for security checks on debugging runs, therefore no trust can be put in the results. An evolving trend in secure programming has been the use of formal language semantics. Formal language semantics try to reason with and prove security properties of the code. For example, in their paper, Leroy and Rouaix (1998) developed a formal technique to validate a typed functional language to ensure that memory locations always contain appropriate values to avoid buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Although the use of formal language semantics has been advocated (Dean et al. 1996, Meseguer and Talcott 1997, Volpano 1997), it wasnt widely adopted among programmers. When it comes to software languages, security is essentially dependent on numerous factors such as language developers, programmers and debugging tools. With so many factors, we believe that correlating software language with vulnerability risks will be insignificant. Hypothesis 2a: Vulnerability type will be insignificantly correlated with software language Hypothesis 2b: Frequency of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with software language Hypothesis 2c: Severity of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with software language Targeted Software Users There are many different types of computer users with a wide range of background, skills, and learning habits. Computer users are typically classified into two distinct groups, namely sophisticated and novice (unsophisticated) users. Sophisticated users have an advanced understanding of computer and Internet technologies; they tend to be more security-aware. Novice users refer to non-technical personnel who are not experienced with computers and the Internet; they rely on computers for simple tasks such as word-processing, spreadsheets, and occasional web surfing. Such users are more prone to security issues due to their inexperience. For instance ignoring software updates and security patches, failing to run essential protection utilities such as an anti-virus or firewall applications are typical security issues with novice users. Because of differences in experience level between both groups, some argue that vulnerabilities affect novice users more than sophisticated ones. Although this might be true for viruses and worms and old vulnerabilities, but when it comes to dealing with zero-day vulnerabilities everyone becomes a victim regardless of their sophistication level. Zero day vulnerabilities refer to unreported exploitable vulnerabilities for which a patch is not available from software vendors (cite xxx). Moreover, when it comes to attackers and potential targets, eventually everyone is a target. Despite the type of computer users, the objective of vulnerability attacks is to hack as many computers as possible with the least amount of effort (Spitzer 2002). Attackers tend to focus on a single vulnerability and use automated scanning tools to search for as many systems as possible for that vulnerability. Such automated tools are often called autorooters and can be designed to scan a specific network for vulnerable machines or scan a range of IP addresses until a victim is found. Its important to note that these tools dont distinguish between software user s as they look for any vulnerable target in sight. Hypothesis 8a: Vulnerability type will be insignificantly correlated with to targeted software users Hypothesis 8b: Frequency of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to targeted software users Hypothesis 8c: Severity of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to targeted software users Software Price Software price plays an important role in modifying the individuals attitude toward the software in many ways. For example, research studies which looked at software piracy found that software price to be a significant factor (incentive) which influenced the intention to pirate (Gopal and Sanders 2000). In their work, Peace et al. (2003) conducted a survey of 201 respondents and found that software price was among the major reasons for illegally copying software. Following the same analogy, studies have shown that attackers attitudes and hackers motivations for finding vulnerabilities are associated with several factors such as: peer approval, self esteem, politics, publicity, financial gains, curiosity and sabotage (Shaw et al. 1999). Within the hackers community, hacking achievements typically help individuals gain higher and more respectable status as it refers to the persons skills and mastery level. Reaching a higher status is oftentimes associated with noteworthy achievements such as hacking popular software. For those hackers who seek publicity or peer approval, they tend to target software with large user base due to their significant reach. So despite software price, hackers look for vulnerabilities in open source and proprietary software as long as there is a significant user base. Similarly, infamous social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are constant vulnerability targets regardless of their service cost. Outside the hackers community, hackers incentives tend to vary among political reasons (example: Google-China Hacking 2010), financial gains (example: ransom money attacks), self esteem and sabotage. Again, by analyzing each incentive, we find that software price doesnt play any role in v ulnerability risks. We therefore hypothesize that: Hypothesis 7a: Vulnerability type will be insignificantly correlated with to software price Hypothesis 7b: Frequency of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to software price Hypothesis 7c: Severity of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to software price

Influence of Stereotypes in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Essay e

Introduction Section One: Harper Lee’s Life Section Two: Time Period Influences on Lee’s Writing Section Three: Influence of Stereotypes Section Four: To Kill a Mockingbird Reviews Conclusion Works Cited Introduction Which doll is better? In the 1950s, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark asked black children between three and seven to answer this simple, yet revealing question. The kids were shown four dolls that were exactly the same except for their skin colors. Almost three quarters of the children chose the white doll as being superior and attributed positive characteristics to it. When asked why they picked it, they replied with, â€Å"Because it’s white† (Abagond). Almost half a century later, in 2005, Kiri Davis repeated the test to see if psychology has changed in any way. Results show 71% of the children preferring the white doll (Edne). These tests demonstrate the incredible stereotypical beliefs still present today. The belief that there is only one acceptable perception to anything is ingrained into society’s minds, and limits individuals from thinking for themselves. Author Harper Lee explores this topic as she displays to readers prevalent stereotypes and thei r effects in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Section One: Harper Lee’s Life Harper Lee was born April 28th, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman (A.C.) Lee, was a former newspaper editor who served as a state senator and lawyer. Due to his occupations, A.C. had a tremendous influence on her writing. Not only is A.C. a writer just like Lee; but, the main character in Lee’s novel, Scout Finches’, father, Atticus, also practices law. Atticus defends a black man accused of raping a white woman who is found guilty and murdered. Simil... ...ompany, 1960. McLeod, Saul. "Asch Experiment." SimplyPsychology. N.p., 2008. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. . Pauli, Michelle. "Harper Lee Tops Librarians' Must-read List." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 02 Mar. 2006. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. "POLL FINDS WHITES USE STEREOTYPES." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Jan. 1991. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. . "The Scottsboro Case | The Nation." The Scottsboro Case | The Nation. N.p., 31 Aug. 2010. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. . Shmoop Editorial Team. "Harper Lee: Childhood." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 08 Feb. 2014. . Teen Help Blog." Teen Help Blog. N.p., 28 Dec. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.