TECHNICIAN
vol.
xcvi xiii issue
technicianonline.com
wednesday august
19 2015
Raleigh, Raleigh,North NorthCarolina Carolina
technicianonline.com
Keeping phishers at bay: OIT warns against hackers Gavin Stone Assistant News Editor
But we didn’t do that. I understand that. You have a lot more rivers that are born in North Carolina and flow into South Carolina. If all the folks in North Carolina want to use the water for agriculture, folks in South Carolina might be robbed of that resource. So how do you work out equity across political boundaries that don’t really respect riverine boundaries or aquatic boundaries? So that’s a challenge. The land conservation movement across the country has been enormously successful. We don’t have a lot of resources, but we enter voluntary agreements with landowners in the form of conservation easements, and sometimes we buy land. And more land has been saved by land
Each month, about 50 NC State email accounts are compromised as a result of phishing attacks, according to Marc Hoit, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Office. Phishing is the term for social engineering methods that are used to manipulate a person into giving up his or her account information, and it comes in many forms. “Phishers will send you a message that causes you to get nervous, to worry, to think it’s legitimate, to go ‘oh my gosh, I need to fix something,’” Hoit said. “Their goal is to make you trust them by either pretending to be an authority figure using everything from your shopping account, to mentioning something you are doing that may be slightly illegal but very common, and they hit a nerve that makes you go ‘oh my gosh, somebody could find this out.’” Once you click on the link or type in your information, phishers can get into your computer to load software that will make you the source for the next attack, known as “spearphishing,” spreading their reach through your contacts and increasing their chances of finding something valuable that they can use, according to Hoit. “There’s all sorts of stuff they can do with it; if they can find enough information they will get your bank account number to do ID fraud, to steal money, to try to get your social security number, or they can sell it to someone else,” Hoit said. “Social security numbers sell on the black market for, I think, $2 a piece now. When you think about it, the federal government just had a 20-million-account breach — 20 million social security numbers at $2 a piece is a lot of money.” This unseen tech battle is constant, due to relentless efforts by hackers to undermine the checks put in place by service providers, according to Neal McCorkle, an information security officer in the Office of Information Technology. “They are able to mimic the page design from sites like Shibboleth and in several cases have shown an understanding of the source coding to the point where they are able to fix issues that the creators of the page hadn’t seen,” McCorkle said. Many of the phishing attempts can be traced back to foreign countries such as Iran, Russia and China, who see NC State as an “easy target” because of its large number of accounts that it supports, McCorkle said. “NC State is responsible for about 180,000 accounts right
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BANU GANESHAN/TECHNICIAN
Jay Leutze is the author of “Stand Up that Mountain,” the 2015 Common Reading book. He addressed students at convocation in the PNC Arena on Monday. His book focuses on modern-day environmental challenges.
Common Reading author discusses conservation challenges Ravi K. Chittilla Staff Writer
Members of Student Media sat down with Jay Leutze, author of the 2015 NC State Common Reading book, “Stand Up that Mountain” Tuesday afternoon. The book deals with a small community’s efforts to combat a mining firm which intended to exploit the mountain town for economic profit. The following interview has been condensed for the space alloted. Q:I know that you have been continuing to work on growing national parks and conserving land. How much [money] have you been able to raise to conserve this land? A: There are 23 land trusts in North
Carolina, plus the Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Republic Land and The Conservation Fund. Those are sort of the big land trust organizations. So my land trust, the Southern Appalachian Highland Conservancy, has accumulated 68,000 acres of land over the last 40 years. The Nature Conservancy statewide has protected more than 700,000 acres. The numbers are starting to add up. If you take all the nature conservancies together, we’re really making an impact. Of course, North Carolina is a political unit with state boundaries that are artificially drawn, so they don’t follow ridge lines necessarily, or watersheds. I think it would make a lot more sense to have our states be the ‘State of Neuse River Basin’ or the ‘State of the Watauga River Drainage.’ That’s a more rational way to divide resources into political boundaries.
Iraqi students experience Wolfpack community Kaitlin Montgomery Editor-In-Chief
Fourteen Iraqi students sat clustered around plush red, black and grey chairs and ottomans in Talley Student Union on Friday. As they whispered amongst themselves about what they had seen while touring and exploring NC State, giggles and excitement filled the air. All between the ages of 15 and 17, the students were recruited from all provinces in Iraq. The students are part of the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program. For four weeks in the summer they take part in an exchange program in the United States. According to World Learning, the program focuses on bringing, “English-speaking secondary school students from Iraq to explore the themes of leadership development, civic rights and responsibilities, respect for diversity, and community engagement.” “They’re having so much fun,” said Adrienne Smith, one of the leaders of the Raleigh group. “Each
of the groups that come to visit focuses on something different. There’s a group that learns about the environment and another about pubic health. We’re here to learn about social justice and laws.” The students from Iraq work with U.S. students, leaders and mentors to develop their own leadership skills and build action plans to strengthen the future of Iraq and the U.S. “We’ve learned so much,” said Kawther Al-hajjaj from Muthanna and a student of the Ruqaia High School For Distinguished Girls. “[NC State] is very different from how things are where we’re from. You need perfect marks to go to a good school. Even if you’re close, it’s still not enough. I would love to go to a place like this.” Al-hajjaj, along with her fellow students, asked questions beyond their years. They quizzed student leaders on some of life’s tougher questions.
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ALEX DARR /TECHNICIAN
Ye Htet, freshman in international studies, competes in the gauntlet competitons as students look on from the edges of the octagon. The gauntlet was one of the many activities that took place during Rec Fest on August 16th in Miller Field. Htet decided to join in the festivities at Rec Fest because of his interest in joining club soccer.
Target Run, RecFest successful again Inez Nicholson News Editor
Kristen Bradford Photographer
As if spontaneously, another school year is upon us, and what would a new school year be without Wolfpack Welcome Week?
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This first week is prime time for new and returning students alike to familiarize themselves with life on campus. The two biggest Wolfpack Welcome Week events, the Target run and RecFest, drew lots of chaos, waiting and excitement. The free goodies attracted the crowds. Shots of
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