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How AI Impacts Education Sector

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On January 11, 2019

In Security

Artificial intelligence (AI) has unlimited potential and its applications are far reaching. It has made a positive impact in the field of education too. AI has changed the traditional approach of learning by making education more accessible to students as well as automating various learning tasks.

Let us understand in detail the ways in which AI impacts education sector:

  • Automating Administrative Tasks: AI has helped education sector by expediting the administrative tasks. It is being used to perform tasks like evaluating & grading the homework, measuring student responses, etc. This not only helps in saving time and effort of teachers as well as evaluators but also paves the way for creating more systematic and organized records. Machines such as OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) reader are already being used to grade tests with multiple choice questions. However, soon there will be machines that will reduce human effort and would be able to check descriptive response work as well. This will streamline the administrative processes and reduce the workload.
  • Create Smart Content : With AI, it is possible to create digital content with the same competence as humans. Ever since AI has entered the classrooms, the traditional outlook has undergone a humungous change. From digitized textbooks, customizable learning, digital interfaces that condense the textbook content to audio/video content; AI has automated the whole process.
  • Outside The Classroom Support: Students might need help with the academics post school, however teachers may not be available at that time. This is when AI based programs come to their rescue. Since the tools are quite advanced, they help students understand the basic concepts easily. AI based test modules can choose level and test content based on previous test results of the user.
  • Virtual Lectures & A Learning Environment: Automation in the field of education has brought a major breakthrough. These days you can often find virtual human guides and facilitators who act like humans by using gesture recognition technology. Not only this, they respond to both verbal and nonverbal cues.
    The digital environment that we persist in, has enabled learning through computer animation and social interaction with the character of the story. With the collaboration of education & augmented reality, virtual facilitators will soon become a part of modern classrooms.
  • Enables Personalization: It is often a challenge for a teacher to keep pace with the learning speed of each student. However, AI enables a personalized teaching pattern by interacting and predicting the speed of each individual. Thus, the content presentation and speed is adjusted as per the student.

AI based classrooms are the future of education which will benefit students, teachers as well as administrators.

For more information, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

Benefits & Risks Associated With Digital Currency

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On December 29, 2018

In Tech Buzz

In last couple of years, awareness about cryptocurrency (also referred as digital currency) has risen significantly. There are more than 1600 virtual currencies with Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Tether & Stellar being the most popular ones.

However, to leverage maximum benefit of this growing currency type, it is important to understand the benefits and risks associated with it.

Benefits Of Using Digital Currency

  • Helps In Avoiding Fraud: This is because virtual currencies can neither be counterfeited nor reversed by the sender arbitrarily.
  • Quicker Settlement: Funds on the credit card can remain locked up for some days, if a customer asks for a chargeback. This might lead to unnecessary delays in payment. So, with virtual currency like bitcoin the settlement procedure is much quicker as compared to conventional credit card settlements.
  • Lower Fees: You might have to shed away a few dollars as transaction fee while making payments through credit card, specifically with international transactions. However, a much lower or sometimes no transaction fee is charged for cryptocurrency exchanges. This is because the cryptocurrency miners are compensated by the network.
  • No Inflation: Cryptocurrency is not susceptible to inflation unlike physical currency which is leashed by its effects because virtual currency is governed by controlled quantity limits & algorithms in the system.
  • More Confidentiality: Credit cards work on a ‘pull’ mechanism i.e. once the payment is initiated by the store, it is pulled out from your account. So, if any cash or credit transaction is made, the bank usually goes through the entire transaction history as a reference document. However, cryptocurrency transactions are much more confidential as exchange of information between the two parties is done on a ‘push’ mechanism. Thus, the recipient will receive the limited information that you wish to send. This helps in guarding off your financial history and prevents it from being exposed at various points in the transaction chain.
  • Access To Everyone: Anyone, in the world, who has access to the internet or mobile phone can deal in cryptocurrencies. This has made it easier for businesses to reach out to the customers all across the globe.

Risks Associated With Digital Currency

  • You Can Be Hacked: The data on the devices of people, who deal in cryptocurrency, faces the risk of being hacked. Cybercriminals often inject a virus, malware or Trojan to lay hands on your private key and steal away the virtual currency. Once you lose your private keys, the funds are gone forever.
  • You Are On Your Own: If someone breaches your bank account or payment card, then the associate bank or payment company might help you recover some or all of the funds. However, in case of virtual currencies there is no help available if the money is stolen from your digital wallet.
  • No Government Insurance: Your funds in a bank or credit union are insured by government i.e. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund protects your funds, in case the financial institute fails to pay it. However, there is no such backup available in case of virtual currencies. So, if you lose your digital money, the government won’t cover up for it.

For more information about IT Security, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

Things To Include In Your Data Response Plan

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On December 27, 2018

In Security

Making efforts to ensure organizational data security is of utmost importance in the wake of rising identity data breaches as well as cyber-attacks. It is extremely important to stay aware and alert of data breach incidents to minimize the effect and loss. Thus, in order to avoid the implications of data loss, one needs to design a data breach response plan.

Data Breach Response Plan acts as a guiding force to be followed when a data breach is discovered. If you already know what to do and how to do it; it would help in saving both time as well as efforts. Also, a well drafted strategy helps you avoid missteps at the time of crisis.

Setting Up A Response Plan

  • Define Breach: The first step is to define the term ‘breach’ i.e. deciding the type of incident that would initiate a response. For example, a phishing email might not have as much impact on the company as a ransomware attack. So, a business needs to categorize the serious issues and then work on the causes of disruption. There are many aspects that need to be monitored i.e. from compromise of private & confidential information to material loss such as distributed denial of service (DDoS).
  • Form The Response Team: There are numerous things that need to be done once a data breach is discovered. So, a good data response plan pre-sets the roles that everyone needs to perform. Every individual has a designated and defined task that he has to perform in the need of hour. Following are the teams who should be assigned the roles & responsibilities beforehand:
    • IT Security Team
    • Legal Team
    • Communication Team
    • Risk Management Team
    • Human Resource Team

    However, it is important to make sure that you vest this responsibility in your trusted employees who understand the complexity of the situation. Other factors such as size of the company, type of data breach etc. also govern the size and composition of response team.

  • Design Course Of Action For Every Scenario: The response plan should lay down a proper procedure of steps that need to be taken when a data breach occurs. Decide the course of action that needs to be followed for escalating the incident through the organization hierarchy once a data breach is discovered.
  • Setup A Follow-Up Procedure: Once you have been able to implement the plan to control a data breach, sit with your response team and review. Do a follow up and list down the problems faced by members, lessons learnt, etc.

For more information about IT Security, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

Cybersecurity Trends For 2019

By

On December 24, 2018

In Security

PDF Version: Cybersecurity-Trends-For-2019

How To Stay Anonymous Online

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On December 18, 2018

In Security

Internet has become an integral part of daily life because everything possible is seemingly available online. This is the reason, why there is a constant risk of your privacy being hacked by cyber criminals. Not only can they track your online presence but also snoop away on everything you do.

This constant tracking imposes the need of staying anonymous online. Following are some ways through which you can achieve the desired anonymity:

  • Hide Your IP: The best way to stay unidentified online is to hide your IP with an anonymous VPN service. This way a virtual IP replaces your real IP address and prevents cyber criminals in gaining a sneak peek of your online activities.
  • Keep Your Web Searches Private: Conducting searches on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. collects a lot of information such as your IP address, searches made, device used to make the search, location, etc. This is the reason why users are now opting for alternate search engines which do not track the search history and retain their privacy.
  • Block Third Party Cookies: Advertizers often use third party cookies to keep a track of your browsing habits. However, it is possible to hide them by blocking third party cookies within the browser settings. If you want to delete the cookies and other browsed information, you may use programs like CCleaner./li>
  • Use HTTPS: In order to prevent sensitive information from being intercepted Transport Layer Security (TLS) is extremely important. However, every website does not support a TLS connection and in that case HTTPS can help. It helps in keeping the internet traffic secure & private by enforcing TLS connections on the websites you visit.
  • Opt For Anonymous Email Communication: There are two ways to ensure email anonymity in a situation where you want to send somebody an email without letting them know your email address. You can use an alias which is essentially a forwarding address and allows the recipient to see your forwarding address only. The other way is to use a disposable email account which can be done by creating a new email account which you can use when you need. Another alternative to is to create a temporary forwarding address. This address gets deleted after a specific time, so it is best to use it while signing up on untrusted websites.
  • Encrypt Your Emails: Encrypting your emails can help you prevent unauthorized access by a middleman. There will be a limiting control as only you will have a private key for it.
  • Enable Privacy Settings: Your social media profile speaks volumes about you and hackers usually resort to a victim’s social media accounts to garner their private information. So make sure that you enable your privacy settings and hide personal information from public view.

For more information about IT Security, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.

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