Steganography :: Essays Papers

Steganography Introduction to Steganography Codes have been around for centuries ranging from wax, invisible ink, Morse code, the Enigma used by the Germans during World War II and now steganographic. Steganography is the latest form to insidiously hide information over the Internet without a trace of a file being altered. You are able to hide messages within images, voice or music. Steganography is an ancient method of hiding messages. Today messages are hidden in images and music. Steganography can be traced back to the ancient Greek who would write messages on tablets and cover them in wax. This made the tablets look blank and unsuspicious (Kolata, F4). Citizens of ancient civilizations would tattoo messages on their shaved heads. They would then let their hair grown in and travel across enemy lines to deliver the message (Seper, G1). During World War II the Allies placed a ban on flower deliveries with dates, crossword puzzles and even report cards (Kolata, F4) for fear of a message being hidden with in. Steganographers fi rst alter their data by using encryption and then place the image into a pre-select image. Steganographers look for a piece of code that would be the least significant and look the least altered to the human eye (Kolata, F4), being as inconspicuousness and random as possible. This makes the messages undetectable unless you knew that there is a message hidden and you were able to crack the code. Hacking and Unhacking Hackers and terrorists have been using this form of technology for years. The United States governmental officials had suspected an attack on the United States for a period of time and thought the information to be hidden using steganography. Anyone can use and get access to steganographic materials. It's easy to download on numerous sights and no software is required. It's an easy and cheap way to keep information secure and undetectable. The number of steganography sites has doubled in the past two years (Kolata, F4). The United States government is also trying to place restrictions on encryption methods to prevent another catastrophic attack in the world such as the World Trade Center attacks. By having access to a private key the government would have unlimited access to secure information and crack codes all for safety reasons (USA Today). A " private key" is needed to decode any steganographic messages. Images are made up from a combination of an abundant of pixels (tiny dots).

Changes in technology Essay

Technology enhances globalization. In past two decades, technology burst out like an explosion, definitely, the improvements of technology make our lives much more convenience. And, the advanced technology in microprocessors, Internet, and transportation enable the spreading out of globalization. Hill, C., (2001) stated â€Å"Globalization has two main components: the globalization of markets and the globalization of product.† In other words, the changing in technology would lead to an influence on globalization of markets and globalization of production. The widely use in microprocessors and telecommunications increasing the amount of information being transferred, but lower its cost. This is very helpful in merging markets. The opportunities for companies to expend businesses are raised, due to plummeting in global communication cost. Updated data can be collected, and monitoring overseas markets trend would become easier. Moreover, population of using Internet grows continuously since 1995 (Hill, C., 2001). This helps to create a global audience; advertisings are not restricted by geographic region anymore. Products can sold at overseas, such as Hill, C. (2001) pointed out customer can buy Levi’s jeans in Paris; McDonald’s restaurant located in Tokyo. And, the cost of transportation plummeted, due to the revolutionized in transportation business, also helpful for expansion of business. Manufacturers can transport products at a lower cost and in a shorter time. As the trendy of globalization of production, productive activities spread out over the world, invention and widely use of microprocessors and Internet help supervisor to control the productive activities, and easier to communication to other in the process. The dispersal of production, for instance Hewlett-Packard separated its operations activities to different places, but reducing cost at the same time (Hill, C. 2001). As the decreasing cost in transportation, many businesses move their manufacturing plants to nations that provide cheaper raw materials and nature resources, in order to diminishing their production cost. Summering the above points, the three main changes in technology (microprocessors, Internet, and transportation) have a great supportive to  the globalization of markets and production. If the lower cost of communication does not exist, people around the world would not have so many chances to connect with others and business would not be willing to put money to widen their markets. If the world without Internet and the World Wide Web, people might not able to get the most updated information, the production skills cannot be improved and productive activities cannot be shared. Without the convenience transportation system, customer and provider would not connect each other; products cannot transfer to overseas market. Therefore, people would lose the opportunities to enjoy different products from all around the world. Finally, markets from different countries should not be merged together, and the production process should not spread out. That’s why the technology essential and enhance globalization. The above assignment is coming from the resources of Hill, C., â€Å"Globalization†, International Business, 2001, 3rd ed, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, New York.

Prehistoric Life During the Paleogene Period

The 43 million years of the Paleogene period represent a crucial interval in the evolution of mammals, birds, and reptiles, which were free to occupy new ecological niches after the demise of the dinosaurs following the K/T Extinction Event. The Paleogene was the first period of the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago to the present), followed by the Neogene period (23-2.6 million years ago), and is itself divided into three important epochs: the Paleocene (65-56 million years ago), the Eocene (56-34 million years ago) and the Oligocene (34-23 million years ago). Climate and Geography. With some significant hiccups, the Paleogene period witnessed a steady cooling of the earths climate from the hothouse conditions of the preceding Cretaceous period. Ice began to form at both the North and South poles and seasonal changes were more pronounced in the northern and southern hemispheres, which had a significant impact on plant and animal life. The northern supercontinent of Laurasia gradually broke apart into North America in the west and Eurasia in the east, while its southern counterpart Gondwana continued to fracture into South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica, all of which began drifting slowly to their present positions. Terrestrial Life Mammals. Mammals didnt suddenly appear on the scene at the start of the Paleogene period; in fact, the first primitive mammals originated in the Triassic period, 230 million years ago. In the absence of dinosaurs, though, mammals were free to radiate into a variety of open ecological niches. During the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, mammals still tended to be fairly small but had already started evolving along definite lines: the Paleogene is when you can find the earliest ancestors of whales, elephants, and odd- and even-toed ungulates (hoofed mammals). By the Oligocene epoch, at least some mammals had begun to grow to respectable sizes, though they werent nearly as impressive as their descendants of the ensuing Neogene period. Birds. During the early part of the Paleogene period, birds, and not mammals, were the dominant land animals on earth (which shouldnt be all that surprising, given that they had evolved from recently extinct dinosaurs). One early evolutionary trend was toward large, flightless, predatory birds like Gastornis, which superficially resembled meat-eating dinosaurs, as well as the meat-eating avians known as terror birds, but subsequent eons saw the appearance of more diverse flying species, which were similar in many respects to modern birds. Reptiles. Although dinosaurs, pterosaurs and marine reptiles had gone completely extinct by the start of the Paleogene period, the same wasnt true for their close cousins, the crocodiles, which not only managed to survive the K/T Extinction but actually flourished in its aftermath (while retaining the same basic body plan). The deepest roots of snake and turtle evolution can be located in the later Paleogene, and small, inoffensive lizards continued to scurry underfoot. Marine Life Not only the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago; so did their vicious marine cousins, the mosasaurs, along with the last remaining plesiosaurs and pliosaurs. This sudden vacuum at the top of the marine food chain naturally spurred the evolution of sharks (which had already been around for hundreds of millions of years, though in smaller sizes). Mammals had yet to venture fully into the water, but the earliest, land-dwelling ancestors of whales prowled the Paleogene landscape, most notably in central Asia, and may have had semi-amphibious lifestyles. Plant Life Flowering plants, which had already made a cameo appearance toward the end of the Cretaceous period, continued to flourish during the Paleogene. The gradual cooling of the earths climate paved the way for vast deciduous forests, mostly on the northern continents, with jungles and rainforests increasingly restricted to equatorial regions. Toward the end of the Paleogene period, the first grasses appeared, which would have a significant impact on animal life during the ensuing Neogene period, spurring the evolution of both prehistoric horses and the saber-toothed cats that preyed on them.