Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Rose-Hulman Scholar The Rose Thorn Archive Student Newspaper Winter 2-6-2017 Volume 52 - Issue 16 - Monday, February 6, 2016 Rose Thorn Staff Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.rose-hulman.edu/rosethorn Recommended Citation Rose Thorn Staff, "Volume 52 - Issue 16 - Monday, February 6, 2016" (2017). The Rose Thorn Archive. 1154. https://scholar.rose-hulman.edu/rosethorn/1154 THE MATERIAL POSTED ON THIS ROSE-HULMAN REPOSITORY IS TO BE USED FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP, OR RESEARCH AND MAY NOT BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE. SOME CONTENT IN THE MATERIAL POSTED ON THIS REPOSITORY MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT. ANYONE HAVING ACCESS TO THE MATERIAL SHOULD NOT REPRODUCE OR DISTRIBUTE BY ANY MEANS COPIES OF ANY OF THE MATERIAL OR USE THE MATERIAL FOR DIRECT OR INDIRECT COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGE WITHOUT DETERMINING THAT SUCH ACT OR ACTS WILL NOT INFRINGE THE COPYRIGHT RIGHTS OF ANY PERSON OR ENTITY. ANY REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ANY MATERIAL POSTED ON THIS REPOSITORY IS AT THE SOLE RISK OF THE PARTY THAT DOES SO. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Newspaper at Rose-Hulman Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Rose Thorn Archive by an authorized administrator of Rose-Hulman Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ROSE-HULMAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY • THEROSETHORN.COM • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2016 • VOLUME 52 • ISSUE 16 Marc Schmitt systems are compromised by a malicious source code and then compare those bina- actor. ries to assure that they are in fact legiti- Editor-in-Chief The real shift in thinking required, ac- mate. However, this idea is difficult to im- cording to Barnes, is developing systems plement given the complexity of the binary The Computer Science and Software En- that spread risk out over multiple systems. generation process. All of the dissimilari- gineering department hosted a software se- This means compromises must be made in ties between two computers are carried over curity talk by Richard Barnes on Monday, the business sense where control and trust to their respective binaries. While there are January 30. As the Head of Security for are distributed to multiple actors. A diffi- some software projects out there that have Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, Barnes cult mindset must be adopted, that software had some success in implementing repro- talked about the needs and challenges of vendors should not trust themselves. ducible builds, the goal is far from being protecting users from malware. In discussing open source software, the accomplished for the vast majority of soft- The talk three areas in which solutions primary benefit, according to Barnes, is the ware. and techniques can be applied to minimize ability for everyone to conduct analysis on a Another idea put forth is called binary risk to users while increasing the quality of piece of software’s source code. If you can transparency, where all updates are pub- the software. Barnes started off by discuss- see what is in a piece of software, then you lished in a public log. In this system there ing the benefits of open source software, can spot the malicious code before running are multiple authorities that sign a software reminding those in attendance of Firefox’s it. update, that is to say they are verifying its freely accessible source code. There are caveats to this approach, spe- authenticity, and a quorum of authorities In moving to a broader scope, Barnes cifically dealing with the size of the soft- are required to release an update. Cross- asserted that a guiding principal in building ware as well as the process in producing the verification of software updates can further secure software is to best defend the user runnable program from that source code, improve the security of updates by spread- from the software developers. A user should called a binary. ing trust among multiple actors, reducing be protected in the case that a developer’s Firstly, when a piece of software is small the risk to users in the case that one actor it is relatively easy to see all of the code is compromised or acts in a malicious man- that goes into the program, but this process ner. Problems exist with this system as quickly breaks down when you get to mod- well, such as vulnerabilities in the public ern day programs. To put it in perspective, log, but they can again be mitigated by spe- Microsoft’s Windows operating system has cific policies and transparency throughout over 40 million lines of code. On top of systems. that, the automated tools to analyze code Unfortunately, all the solutions dis- are only so good at detecting malicious code cussed above take time and effort to design or bugs that can be exploited. Controlling and implement, which are even more bur- code additions is a recognized weakness in densome when the software already exists. both open source and closed source soft- Firefox, for example, is only in the prelimi- ware. nary stages of implementing binary repro- The chain of steps required when pro- ducibility. Barnes argued that continued ducing the binary represents another liabil- scrutiny and a focus at the beginning of ity with open source software. The chal- software projects should be given to securi- lenge here is how to assure the correct ty. This is a required shift in thinking for source code was used to generate a given CSSE students but also for other students binary, which threatens to negate the bene- that deal with sensitive information. fit of open source software. That the binary The Computer Science and Software En- generation process is spread over many sys- gineering department will be hosting a talk tems only serves to increase the complexity on deep learning in computer vision on Richard Barnes is the head of security for of the challenge. Tuesday, February 7 during 10th hour in Barnes offered two techniques to com- the GM Room. The talk will be given by Da- Mozilla’s Firefox web browser. bat this problem. One is the idea of repro- vid Crandall, an associate professor at the ducible builds, where multiple actors can School of Informatics and computing at In- Photo from Linkedin.com produce the same binary from the same diana University. Page 4: Musical medley: Jazz Age Z and contemporary Sing The Rose Thorn Page 5: Diary of an assassin: Part 2 Page 6: Keep your <religion> out of my <group>! Meet Tuesdays Page 7: RHIT Sports and Golden State’s Domination O259 5:15pm Lauren Wiseman students’ spirits. comments. She spent many son from her segment on Part one of the night is the years trying to garner the ap- Laughs on FOX, which she News Editor standup routine of Jose Bar- preciation she deserved. now hosts. Tomlinson also has Winter quarter is nearly rientos. Barrientos took being Tomlinson used to self - a featured role on Adam over, but there are still a cou- a class clown to a whole new deprecating wit to make her a Devine’s House Party. ple of grueling weeks ahead level, spending four whole staple at clubs, campuses, The event kicks off Febru- for Rose-Hulman students. To months of his college career and, according to her website, ary 10 at 8 p.m. in the Kahn combat the winter blues while with a “typical Hispanic immi- “other suspicious, rented Room. So take a night off and the season looms large over grant accent, ” according to spaces across the country. ” have a laugh —Rose’s student campus, the Month of a Mil- his website. The spur-of-the- Some may recognize Tomlin- body has earned it. lion Laughs continues with a moment act grew and was doc- pair of comedians sure to lift umented in series of youtube videos. In the series, Barrien- tos added comically large sombreros and a backstory that cast him as a piñata mak- er with an insatiable love for David Hasselhoff. There is a twist, because his website goes on to say the prank evolved into something more, a bit of a “social experi- ment.” Barrientos and the prank went viral, quickly drawing the attention of na- tional news program 20/20. Since the prank, Barrientos has been travelling the coun- try sharing his comedy through the eyes of an immi- grant. Taylor Tomlinson will also be taking the stage in the Taylor Tomlinson be on cam- Khan Room. Her stand -up ca- Jose Barrientos demonstrating his faux-heritage as a piñata maker. reer beings at just sixteen - pus on Friday, February 10. years -old. For years, Tomlin- This clip was apart of his viral prank that launched his standup career. son would offer up sarcastic Photo from Facebook Photos Courtesy of The Daily Mail Ads 2 Want to access your favorite old issues of The Rose Thorn? Find them at scholar.rose-hulman.edu/ rosethorn/ NOW RENTING FOR 2017-2018 IDEAL HOUSING DOWNTOWN CLOSE TO 6TH STREET WITH A VARIETY OF PRICES TO FIT YOUR BUDGET We Offer... Renovated grand, historic homes Charming, well-managed residences Residences include all or some utili- Contact Us! (812)-877-1146 RENTAL PROPERTIES 615 Farrington St. www.sharpflats.com ROSE-HULMAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, 5500 Wabash Ave, CM 5037, Terre Haute, IN 47803-3920 • [email protected] ISSUES of The Rose Thorn are published on the second through ninth Our Mission Statement: Mondays of each academic quarter We are Rose-Hulman’s independent student newspaper. WEEKLY MEETINGS occur at 5:15 p.m.