Day: March 19, 2024

Just as you can plug in a toaster, and add bread...

You can plug this API Appliance into your database, and add rules and Python.

Blockchain technology is a novel solution to privacy concerns and risks associated with the storage and maintenance of biometric data. Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology that shares infrastructure across several cybersecurity applications. It underlies cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and has a potential role to play in identity verification, supply chain integrity, and assured data provenance. In essence, it allows digital information to be distributed but not copied. Data is organized into blocks and then chained together, meaning that it is secure by design and persistence. The key differences between blockchain to traditional data storage methods are that the data is decentralized and it is tamper-evident — or, in some applications, effectively tamper-proof. Also, because each block contains a timestamp and a reference to the previous block, the information is stored in a linear fashion which aids in accessing and maintaining the data. These features make blockchain an attractive proposition for any system that manages and stores sensitive information.

User privacy is a major issue in the developing field of biometric authentication. Before the arrival of biometrics, privacy in the digital domain was focused on the area of preventing the unauthorized collection of personal data and its misuse. However, in the context of biometric authentication, the collection of a biometric sample, such as a fingerprint, is only the start of the process. Once that data is captured, it is turned into a template, a mathematical representation of the sample, and it is this data that is actually used by the system. It is therefore necessary only to gain access to the template data in order for an individual's biometric data to be compromised. Also, biometric data, once stolen or otherwise obtained, cannot be replaced and individuals are forced to live with the increased risk of identity theft for the remainder of their lives. For these and many other legal, social, and ethical reasons, preventing unauthorized access to personal biometric data has become a major focus for research and development in the field.

After JUnit 5 was released, a lot of developers just added this awesome new library to their projects, because unlike other versions, in this new version, it is not necessary to migrate from JUnit 4 to 5, you just need to include the new library in your project, and with all the engine of JUnit 5 you can do your new tests using JUnit 5, and the older one with JUnit 4 or 3, will keep running without problem. 

But what can happen in a big project, a project that was built 10 years ago with two versions of JUnit running in parallel?

In February 2024, a slew of notable entities fell victim to cybercrime, ranging from UnitedHealth and the personal accounts of Axie Infinity's co-founder to Hewlett Packard Enterprise, AnyDesk, and various French healthcare payment service providers like Viamedis and Almerys. Even critical institutions such as Integris Health, Schneider Electric, Lurie Children's Hospital, and a California union, alongside infrastructure like Trans-Northern Pipelines, were not spared from these attacks.

These incidents underscore a stark reality: in today's digital landscape, no organization, regardless of its size or stature, is impassable to cyber threats. The past three months alone have witnessed a surge in cyber and ransomware attacks, showcasing the indiscriminate nature of such malicious activities.

To navigate the digital landscape safely, organizations must prioritize building robust cloud infrastructures, and sanctuaries for their valuable data. The foundation of a secure cloud architecture requires steadfast principles and guiding decisions like invisible forces that form a resilient structure. Here we explore the key tenets for building a secure environment within the cloud.

Least Privilege

The concept of 'Least Privilege' dictates that a person or system should have the minimal level of access or permissions needed to perform their role. This security measure is akin to compartmentalization, limiting the spread of damage should a breach occur.

In Sept 2023, MLPerf, the authoritative benchmark for AI performance, introduced its Storage Benchmark. This benchmark test allows for large-scale performance testing of storage systems in AI model training scenarios, simulating machine learning I/O workloads without the need for GPUs.

MLPerf supports two types of model training: BERT (natural language model) and UNet3D (3D medical image segmentation). Although it does not support large language models (LLMs) like GPT and LLaMA, BERT and LLMs share the multi-layer transformer structure. LLM users can still obtain valuable insights from the BERT training results.

In the realm of software development, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are akin to a magic glue that binds different systems together, allowing them to communicate and work in harmony. An API acts as the user interface for API consumers and developers and should play a central role in your product strategy. It should be designed carefully and deliberately to provide API consumers with the best extensibility and experience.

As the famous saying goes, "With great power comes great responsibility." As an API producer, you have a profound impact not only on the growth and transformation of your business but also on the security and stability of your applications. That means you should tread carefully.

Netty is a powerful, asynchronous, event-driven networking framework for building high-performance, scalable applications. It simplifies the development of network applications by providing an easy-to-use API and robust abstractions for handling various networking protocols and data formats.

Key features and benefits of Netty include:

Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers that works with both Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS. With AWS Fargate, we can run applications without managing servers (official information page).

In this post, we will take a step-by-step approach to deploying and running a .NET Core Web API application on AWS Fargate Service.

Joining the Agile framework provides access to resources and support that can help your organization maximize the benefits of Agile. It also provides a platform to connect with other Agile practitioners to share best practices and learn from each other. 

Practicing Agile working methods allows teams to pursue their goals at their own pace and with as much creativity as they want, and they're also a great way to bond as a team. 

As enterprises strive to produce results rapidly in a dependable and sustainable manner, the significance of the underlying data becomes paramount. A major challenge in managing this data is the diverse set of capabilities required within a data architecture. It's important to consider not only the time needed to integrate various data integration and management capabilities for a seamless experience but also how these processes vary across different segments of the organization.

Moreover, with the emergence of new innovations and advancements in technology, these capabilities must be continuously updated and refactored. Against this backdrop, it becomes critical to construct a data platform — or more aptly, a data ecosystem — that can be utilized enterprise-wide, offering complementary, flexible, and scalable capabilities.

In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), extracting meaningful knowledge from vast datasets has become critical for both businesses and individuals. Enter Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), is a breakthrough that has turbocharged the capabilities of AI, empowering systems to not only generate human-like text but also pull in the relevant information in real time. This fusion produces responses that are both rich in context and precise in detail.

As we set sail on the exciting voyage through the vast ocean of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it's essential to understand the three pillars that will be our guiding stars: Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), LangChain, Hugging Face, and the useful application on this RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation).

The world of web development is ever-evolving, and at the forefront of this change lies the battle for the ultimate front-end framework. Two titans stand out: Angular and React. Both are powerhouses capable of crafting exceptional user interfaces, but which one deserves a place in your next project? Angular or React?

Developed by Google and Facebook respectively, these frameworks have revolutionized the way developers approach front-end development, offering powerful tools and methodologies to create robust applications.