Category: Workplace

Workplace

WHAT IS THE MOST SECURE MESSAGING APP?

Posted on by Max Lerner
WHAT IS THE MOST SECURE MESSAGING APP?
Apps mobile

We live to communicate. Thanks to the current innovation in ICTs, our modern society conceives as deviant the individual who does not care at all about things such as the Internet, social networks or messaging applications.
Whoever likes it likes it, we are slaves to Whatsapp, Telegram or Signal, which have a leading role in our daily lives similar to that of toilet paper.

For this reason, and understanding that its use is daily and that it serves as a window to share how much information we have, it is not surprising that we worry about what will be the most secure option.

 

WHATSAPP IS THE MOST POPULAR, BUT NOT THE MOST SAFE

We know that applications like WhatsApp or Telegram currently boast of being unbreakable due to their end-to-end encryption protocol, which prevents a third party from accessing your private conversations. Certainly, although with their clear differences, each one has a similar version. This is stated by Manuel Sánchez Rubio, a doctor in Computer Engineering and a specialist in security and obtaining information on social networks.

However, Sánchez Rubio himself affirms that the “security” problem is not exactly there, where the big companies want us to look.

To understand it better, it is enough to reflect a little about the new privacy policies implemented by WhatsApp and that came into force as of May 15, 2022. Outside of users located in the European Union, all those who currently use WhatsApp, they do so having agreed to the platform sharing their data and information with their parent company. A track. His name starts with F (or M?), and he loves blue.

This only deepens the distrust that many had already felt in 2014, when Facebook decided to buy WhatsApp and make it part of its social network ecosystem porno français. In response, more conscientious users decided to move to alternatives like Telegram, which currently have these and many other features.

 

WHAT ABOUT TELEGRAM?

Before talking about any function that Telegram may or may not have to provide a more friendly or secure user experience, let’s remember one thing: it is an application behind which, like any other, there is a company trying to profit. Therefore, we must assume that, if they do not take your money, they take something equal or more valuable from you, in exchange for an efficient, playful and free service.

I think we know what it is: information. It is not unreasonable or conspiracy to think so. We talk about facts.
According to Sánchez Rubio, we have maximized the interest, use and attention that we put into social networks, and now we see the consequence of it. Faced with the latent need to “want to be part” of “what is happening in the world (Internet)”, we decided to ignore the fact that there are those who silently spy on us.

WHAT ABOUT TELEGRAM?
Telegram

From his perspective, Sánchez Rubio condemns modern society for its optimism in the face of these platforms. A naivete where we let ourselves be fooled by the ludic, and we forget the densest implications, the problems that nobody wants to worry about.

So, to wrap up the question: what is the most secure messaging app? The answer is simple: none. They are all just as safe and just as dangerous, because releasing your information into the vast data network that the internet connects already leaves you exposed.

Faced with this, Sánchez Rubio suggests an efficient and much-needed digital education as an alternative, especially in the use of technology at a young age. Only then, he wants to think, can we be (or at least feel) a little safer in this digital world.

 

 

Related Posts

 

Workplace

International research in Bohemia

Posted on by admin

Young Chinese or Indian scientists are not only smart, but also highly motivated; it’s only up to them whether they get a well-paid position in science or return home. Therefore many of them work twelve hours a day and becoming the “drought horses” of molecular biology. All of our top researchers have a collection of experiences in foreign universities or institutes on their CVs. They obtain professional experiences, learn how to do top science and also earn quite a lot. In the U. S., it is known what benefits this international dimension gives to science. Our scientists understand it too as well. Molecular parasitologist Julius Lukes from The Institute of Parasitology of The Czech Academy of Sciences says: “If anyone from India contacts me, then he probably read one of my articles and in frame of a Ph.D study would like to work on our projects. Both sides profit; he will learn a lot and open the way to West, we will obtain a motivated colleague, who doesn’t think about leaving for a cottage on Friday. In addition, he speaks English so that communication with him is going to substitute for a stay in the U. S. for the students of mine.”

And what about Czech laboratories?
USA has already simplified the immigration terms for foreign researchers so that a scientific institute or a university just picks the interested person, fills-in one form and asks for a visa. The sentence “We want this person, he is going to work on our project” is sufficient to obtain almost immediately a three-years-visa from any of the U. S. embassies, with an almost automatic possibility of extension. In the Czech Republic, it is absolutely different. “To obtain a visa requires a bureaucratic war lasting at least one year. It happens too often, that in the moment when everything is finally done, it is already pointless. Skilled and interested people usually ask at different places at a time and so another country will accept them more quickly,” notes dr. Michal Zurovec from the Institute of Entomology and adds: “The state and society is losing with such an approach, for it means that it is only a Ukrainian worker who is coming. We surround ourselves with the Great Wall of the Czech bureaucracy and think that the progress will come by itself.”

THE STORY OF ONE RESEARCHER

“I really like to have foreign researchers in the lab. That’s the only reason why I’m still trying,” explains Dr. Lukes. Last time he felt just like in Kocourkov (stays for a “mad land”) when Sandesh Regmi, 28 from Nepal, showed an interest to work in his laboratory. “The unbelievable “hassle” started. Absurd requirements like that visa application must contain a confirmation that accommodation will be provided for the foreign scientist or Ph. D. student. This must be signed by the dean or director and confirmed by an extract from the land register. Next, we must add an authorized institute charter, then an extraction of the Czech criminal record. Everything must be done twice because we have to apply for both study and work visa,” Dr. Lukes says. Next, the labor bureau has to give consent. “The bureaucrat has no idea what is DNA catenation. How could he know whether any Czech is waiting for this job or not? The American laboratory’s boss does not need to deal with anyone,” laments Dr. Lukes. But let’s return to Sandesh’s story, who wants to study on Leishmania, a parasite responsible for severe diseases in his country and so approached the Faculty of Biology of the University of South Bohemia and the Institute of the Parasitology. A sequence of events reminiscent of the fairy tale “About the hen and the cock” commences.

BUREAUCRATIC BANQUET
When all the necessary documents were put together including super apostled diplomas – specially approved by expensive interpreters from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a few words for 2000,-Czech crowns), Sandesh was accepted for the Ph.D study on the bows of a recommendation letter from an English professor. With all these papers, he visited the Czech consulate in Kathmandu, Nepal. The consulate it self does not process the visa and passed them to Czech Embassy in New Delhi, India. From there the consent of Czech Foreign police for issuing a visa is requested. Four months later, the visa was issued– but only the study one. The embassy didn’t issue the working one since copies of some documents were missing. “All this happened because of misinformation by the consulate employee, for that of course no one is going to be punished” adds Lukes. “But even without this error everything would take almost a year due to official terms. Just a remark! Our officials know two kinds of visas for Ph.D. students- the study and the working one. Thanks to several motivated Czech scientist a law has been passed that allows obtaining both visa at once. It means that the applicant can get a part-time job at an institute or an award from a grant together with the state support for a PhD student ( 5000 Czech crowns/month). One can survive on that.

VISA AT LAST!
The battle hasn’t been won yet. Before issuing the study visa the foreign police asked, whether Sandesh had already been matriculated for regular study. “I was explaining: You’ve got a paper signed by the dean that he was accepted. However, it is illegal to matriculate a student not knowing in which semester he will be able to start his study! The foreign police replied, we wouldn’t issue the visa until he is matriculated. Lukes describes the never-ending story. Finally, the study visa was generously issued and Sandesh arrived”. But what about the working visa? “According to our law it’s possible to ask for it only abroad and only in person at one of the Czech embassies the one in Bratislava was picked up by us. To get there, unfortunately, Slovaks has to issue an entry visa to Sandesh. Thanks to collaboration between the Komenius University, we made it finally through the hassle. It just took another few months and a personal visit was again required. Almost after one year Sandesh finally received also the working visa” says Lukes. After reading this for, the reader probably won’t be surprised that the visas are given to foreigners for one year only and any prolongation means a next series of bureaucratic steps.

NOBODY IS COMING
The result is clear: foreigners are not coming. “Or the third rank at the best, because the first and the second one are rather going to German or Canada,” complains Libor Grubhoffer, the vice-rector of University of South Bohemia. “Well, it’s true that there it’s much worse in Russia, since a scientist Turkmenistan must pay a special fee there. Yet, science is on its knees there!.” Does all these status matter to Czech science? Prague remains attractive for scientists and a number of international meetings take place there. Without the bureaucratic obstacles the second grade would surely be coming and not only to Prague. “We know about an American colleague who wanted to come but in the end gave up,” remembers professor Grubhoffer, “the necessity to apply in person as well as all the bureaucratic requirements have already killed a number of international collaborations in the Czech Republic.”

NO FOREIGNERS, NO PROBLEMS
“A laboratory that has no one from abroad in the team has no problems. I want to do good science, I want it to have as international dimension – besides the fact that the team should be international – and so we have problems,” Lukes says and adds: “Here we are trying to bring the intelligence – and from what else than the brain influx will the society profit. But here we are facing a machinery that doesn’t care whether you are smuggling in a Ukrainian guy for an illegal work or an American professor for a top science!”

HOW TO GET A FOREIGN SCIENTIST HERE?
The lack of foreign scientists is an evergreen issue for Czech Academy of Sciences chair, she does not deny that. “We are trying to simplify the rules within the boundaries of our capabilities,” she says. Multiple discussions with the foreign police lead to an agreement that one document only instead of four approved by a notary, suffice. The change of the law for employment is also being prepared: in collaboration between the Academy and the Czech government. “We hope to achieve that the labor bureau issues a permission to employ a foreign scientists for the Academy regardless of situation on the labor market. And let’s hope this permission will one day be for a longer period than a year.” According to professor Illnerová, the negotiation’s aim is to favor long-term applicants whose stay is of special interest to the Czech Republic – foreign scientists being a prominent group among Tesla. “This practice has already been well established in many countries,” concludes Illnerová.

Workplace

Passivity in the Workplace

Posted on by admin

In addition to our tendency to inadequately empathize, assuming similar past experiences is another common tendency. In our minds, all our past experiences become similar to everyone else’s, and we don’t customarily imagine, say, a victim of abuse or neglect or some other heinous criminal act as standing or sitting right there beside us, quietly keeping that traumatic experience from becoming known. On the flip side of that notion, we don’t customarily imagine the possibility of some deviant individual standing or sitting right there beside us, working hard at gaining your trust, say, to take advantage of that later. Note that this is not an issue of paranoia; this is about possibility. You’re a professional; thinking in terms of possibility is part of your job now. Forget about what is probably true. You must now consider the BIG picture

….people often distort their thoughts about reality in order to make themselves feel more comfortable or happier. — (Norman) Stuart Sutherland, Irrationality: Why We Don’t Think Straight!, 1992.

People like to kid themselves.
— Detlof von Winterfeldt and Ward Edwards, Decision Analysis and Behavioral Research, 1993.

It is now time to turn your brain on and start recognizing possibility over probability. Billions of personalities in our world, with only one — yours — to comprehend them.

II. Policy and Procedure

Three problems plague the workplace:

• Rules that don’t take into account certain, specific possibilities

• Employees — superiors and subordinates — who either just don’t try imagining or simply choose to disregard alternate possibilities other than those currently addressed

• No means in place by which an alternate possibility or exception could be discreetly suggested and appreciated


A. Rules that don’t take into account certain, specific possibilities 
There is an exception to every rule … almost. You should always be suspicious of any rule written without at least one exception, because it more than likely sanctions or dictates some course of action that should be avoided in some particular situation. What happens if … or in the case of …? Brainstorm to eliminate all possible irrational consequences that could result from a poorly thought out rule before one surprises you some day.

We inhibit learning when we view people as machine-like, suggesting that they follow instructions like a machine, and force them to justify behavior exclusively in terms of previously articulated plans…. People do not simply plan and do. They continuously adjust and invent. Managing this process means managing learning, not managing application of a plan.
William J Clancey, “Practice Cannot be Reduced to Theory: Knowledge, Representations, and Change in the Workplace,” 1995, in Organizational Learning and Technological Change, by S Bagnara, C. Zuccermaglio and S. Stucky (Editors); papers from the NATO Workshop held September 22-26, 1992 in Siena, Italy.

B. Employees — subordinates and superiors — who either just don’t try imagining or simply choose to disregard alternate possibilities other than those currently addressed 
EMPLOYEES! Don’t let your personal mood interfere with your professional outlook. Don’t make excuses and perform according to how you “feel” or according to “what the policy is,” but aspire to take a step back, analyze the situation and consider the possibility for an exception to the rule. What is the right thing to do here? ..the responsible thing to do? ..any safety concerns? ..quality of life issues? Learn to CARE. You may not always be able to empathize depending on your own personal prior experiences, but you can still IMAGINE possibilities.

We lead our lives day-to-day, typically, in a relaxed, easy state. Our thoughts revolve around information picked up by our senses and analyzed in a cognitive manner or style shaped by our experiences and influenced by our personal emotional attitudes. This is passive thinking.

Passive thinking finds no safe place among professional decision makers. Professional decision makers have learned how to brainstorm and use their imaginative abilities to the utmost in the way of arriving at unforeseen solutions. They recognize their own personal attitudes and beliefs and disallow those thoughts from shaping or influencing professional decisions constituting their own individual responsibility. Instead, they stick to the tried and true scientific method of formulating hypotheses and conducting carefully controlled experiments to test their validity.

Professional decision makers don’t expect good ideas to just “happen.” They search for them, create them, imagine every possible contingency surrounding them and prepare for them before they even practically exist.

Similarly, professional decision makers don’t expect themselves to be immune to bad ideas or erroneous thinking. We’re all human; we all make mistakes. But professional decision makers know how to study their ideas to root out the bad ones so as to safeguard themselves and others from possible unwanted or undesirable consequences. The idea is to rack your mind and use your imaginative and analytical capabilities to the fullest to recognize all the possibilities and discover what other possible approaches there may be so that you can compare and contrast their feasibilities, pros and cons before trying to do something that you may later regret.

There is nothing magical going on here. Just self-discipline and putting your own mind to work even when you don’t want to, doing what you have to do to get a job done … professionally. It centers on CARING about what you do and how well you do it: caring for all those who will be affected by your decision, before you decide to implement it.

C. No means in place by which an alternate possibility or exception could be discreetly suggested and appreciated.

Quality never comes easy. Professional decision-making entails a lot of hard work that cannot possibly be accomplished by any single person in every single situation. In most cases, it entails a formidable job for even a group of dedicated individuals and over a very lengthy period of time. Although optimal solutions may take some time to arrive at good, safe, viable solutions can usually be found which can be improved upon in time, assuming that we will later possess the ability and motivation to do film porno gratis so.

But how can you ever hope to find that optimal solution if you stifle creativity among your subordinates? Ideas can hide in the most inaccessible places sometimes, well beyond your imaginative reach. Listen to and consider other perspectives! If you cannot prove that some particular idea bears no further scrutiny, allow for that possibility, regardless of your own personal beliefs or attitude. Appreciate and encourage all suggestions. You’re gonna’ get an outstanding one some day!

As true as that may be, still you must recognize a possibility for some timidity among the personalities in your gang. Even if they all seem to be outspoken individuals, certainly at times some things shouldn’t be blared out for everyone to overhear. The means of communicating ideas (and complaints!) should be a discreet — and anonymous — one if so desired.