Week 3: [11.04-.17.04.2016] The World's Parkour and Freerunning

The World's Parkour and Freerunning

Parkour was created in France and the first person whose practiced it was David Belle, Traceur and an actor best known for the films 13 District and 13 District ultimatum. He is pattern for another traceur and everyone want be want like run how him.

Rys.1. David Belle

source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cjibtmSLxQ4/maxresdefault.jpg

The following link to the interview with David Bell where you can see a few tricks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjibtmSLxQ4

The main idea of Parkour is to get to your destination in an unconventional way, e.g. when everyone goes in a normal manner by and sees obstacles, try go around this. But Traceur (person who grown parkour) jumps on  or try jump them in a very impressive way. In parkour we distinguish many styles of movement that are developed by a traceur. Very often a traceur not only runs and jumps but he also climbs on different buildings and monuments. It's dangerous but for a traceur it's a place where he can get great skills and he can exercise flow. Basics tricks are: one hand vault, two hands vault, monkey vault and roll.

 

Rys.2. One hand trick

Source: http://img01.deviantart.net/857c/i/2012/218/e/f/speed_vault_vector_by_kaka916kayz-d5a0nsj.jpg

Rys.3. Monkey Vault

Source: http://o4.fbl.pl/w640/fbl-2008/200812/27467315/monkey-vault.jpg

More advanced tricks are: balance, gap jump, kong vault, cat vault, climb up, back flip and many more. Very performing arts are for me flag and half flag.

Rys.4. Flag

Source: http://m.ocdn.eu/_m/be657a0a8fa6e13519013e5a3627c22c,62,37.jpg

Rys.5. Kong Vault

Source: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6d/65/11/6d651180e32a22559f1131f311920d80.jpg

Rys.6. Jump

Source: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/parkour/images/c/cb/4508_1002576923124_1785871406_700_918771_n.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100406145016

Very often parkours are an inspiration to create feature films. The best example was a film Yamakasi and Yamakasi 2 where we can see a group of young people whose run and do various stunts to do something for bigger objective. It's a very interesting film for a person whose likes fast action and the French type of humour. It’s a good film for a Friday  evening or for see in bigger package of friends in Saturday meeting.

Rys.7. Yamakasi

Source: http://1.fwcdn.pl/po/14/17/31417/7537330.3.jpg

Sometimes this type of film show young people whose develop their passions  what great tricks and skills can be learned, expressing some involvement. Therefore, for persons whose want to rest from the computer, was created a lot of schools where under the guidance of coaches can improve technics and skils.

This sport is for everyone who want have fit and durable body. Who want impressive overcome obstacles. If you like train hard, you can be the best traceur in your district, town or country.

Questions:

1. Have you ever heard about Parkour and what do you think about it?

2. Have you ever try do it? Which tricks are the most liked?

3. How do you think, whether the sport has a chance get more popularity?

Week 3 [11.04-.17.04.2016] Is your data safe?

Is your data safe? A new ransomware threat: Locky

Locky ransomware is a program that spreads through a milicious Word document attached to an email. The email that distributes Locky Ransomware usually goes in the form of an invoice. This malicious Word document can immediately execute a malicious encryption process.

What does Locky ransomware really do?

As you can see, this virus is called "Locky", which itself reveals its function. This ransomware blocks the user files placed on the persecuted PC without the possibility to recover them unless you have the decryption key or a backup copy of the files stored on an external drive. To be more precise, the Locky virus starts processes that scan your computer and detect audio files, documents, videos, photos, databases, archives and other files. What's more, you can find Locky external drives and even network drives connected to your device. Upon the detection of such files, the virus encrypts them using the AES encryption algorithm. What's more, the virus deletes the shadow copies (records Volume Snapshot Service), which can be used to recover encrypted files.
After  Locky finishes its dirty work, it leaves a ransom note (_Locky_recover_instructions.txt) in each folder that has some of the encrypted files on it and  changes your desktop wallpaper to an image that shows the same ransom note information. It tells you to open an anonymity network TOR and pay a ransom of about 0.5 Bitcoins, which currently is around 1600zł

You can check the current rate at http://www.money.pl/pieniadze/bitcoin/

How fast does it spread?

Even though it is a new  threat, researchers at Palo Alto Networks have recorded 446,000 sessions involving this new ransomware, over half of which (54%) were detected to have affected victims in the United States. So far, there is no way to recover your data.

Last month  for example, a Hollywood hospital paid $17,000 to the ransomware hackers. You can read more about it at http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hollywood-hospital-ransomware-attack

I think if the FBI is unable to deal with it,  there is no chance for it for a normal user. There were also several cases of infections in Poland and the only „saved” data was that which was backed up.
It is estimated that the creators of Locky earned millions of dollars.
This ensures that even if the antivirus companies  deal with this threat, we can be sure that soon there will be new versions of the malware.

How can you avoid it?

Firstly, something that seems obvious. Never open or save attachments from senders you do not know or you are not sure that this is a message from a trusted source.
Also, create backup copies of the files that are important to you. The exception is when you haven’t got such data so then you have got no problem.

Questions:

1      Are you careful with email messages?

2      Do you have a copy of files which are very important to you?

3     Would you pay to recover your data from “bad” people?

Sources:

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/02/17/locky-ransomware-what-you-need-to-know/

http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/locky-ransomware-aggressive-hunt-victims

https://kc.mcafee.com/resources/sites/MCAFEE/content/live/PRODUCT_DOCUMENTATION/26000/PD26383/en_US/McAfee_Labs_Threat_Advisory-Ransomware-Locky.pdf