How often have you observed, certain actions (or failure to take them), by those, serving as public officials, or in government representation, and thought, it just doesn’t make any sense? Anyone, who has taken the time, to study, examine, and review, history, recognizes, there have been many errors made, and while, making these errors in judgment, might be explainable, when they are done, for the first time, unless/ until, those serving in government, take the time, and make the effort, to relevantly learn, from the past, and not repeat the same mistakes! Today, perhaps more than ever before, in recent memory, we are witnessing, far less, common sense, than ever! With that in mind, this article will briefly examine, review, and discuss. 5 possible reasons, this is the case/ situation.1. Common sense is NOT very common!: Perhaps, one of the greatest oxymorons, is the expression, common sense! For example, voters continue electing individuals, who make empty promises, and flowery rhetoric, rather than someone, who might be better qualified, and actually serve their purposes! When the American public, elected Donald Trump, as President of the United States, in November, 2016, they voted, to a large degree, for his celebrity, supposed achievements in the private sector, and as a vote, in opposition to his opponent, and their perceptions, of the status quo! We’ve witnessed, while common sense tells us, our President, should serve all Americans, and his primary responsibility is to openly and faithfully serve the Constitution, Trump’s core supporters, buy – into his message, etc!2. Ego; self – interest; self – serving: Shouldn’t our leaders sublimate their egos, for the best interests of all Americans, and all the liberties and freedoms? Common sense should tell us, the American way, should be about its citizens, but, we continue to witness, politicians, proceed, according to their self – interests, personal agenda, and politics! As long as our system continues to be financed, as it is, elected officials, risk being overly influenced, by self – serving, and pleasing their donors!3. Politics over policy: We need to demand, our officials focus more on quality policy, rather than politics, and self – serving, political agendas!4. Lack of integrity: Nearly every study, and poll, indicates, so – called, public servants, receive the least respect, etc! Unless/ until, the American public, begins to demand, a higher degree of genuine integrity, nothing will change, for the better!5. Don’t learn lessons, from the past/ history: Until, those we elect, study and learn lessons, from the past, they will continue making the same mistakes, and errors! While this may seem obvious, when Americans elected President Trump, they were willing to elect, one of the least informed individuals, to ever serve in that position!Unfortunately, common sense is extremely rare, especially, when it comes, to those serving in government! Don’t we deserve better?
Types And Benefits Of Collision Alert Systems
A collision alert system is a part of automobile safety which is used to reduce the severity of an accident as much as possible. Such a system is also known commonly as the precash system, the forward collision warning system, and also the collision mitigating system. In order to determine a crash, the automobile makes use of laser, camera sensors and even radar in a perfect combination.Once it has been successfully established that a crash is imminent, either a warning is given to the driver, or the machine takes control of the automobile itself in order to take the required action and avoid the accident. The benefits of collision alert system are self-explanatory; however, following may be the conspicuous features of it which are required to be accentuated here.Features and Benefits Of Collision Alert SystemThere are a number of different kinds of collision alert systems, which are being utilized by different automobile companies in order to enable the driver to avoid as much of road accidents as they can, or at least reduce the severity of them. While the whole list of features, categories, and benefits of the collision alert system may be a huge one, some of the prominent ones may include and are not confined to the following:• The intersection collision warning system enables a driver to get warned of the incoming traffic. It does also warn the drivers if he happens to violate the right of way near the intersections• Obstacle detection systems, as the name suggest, informs the driver about all sorts of obstructions which may be on the way like vehicles, animals, road debris, or a projected pathway which are all detected using state of the art sensors• Lane change warning systems are specifically suitable for bus or truck drivers which alert them of the vehicles in the surrounding lanes as soon as they try to change the lane• Lane departure warning systems are also suitable for bus or truck drivers which alert them immediately if the vehicle is unintentionally going out of an appropriate lane• Rollover warning systems are specifically designed in order to alert the driver if he is moving too fast for an upcoming curve and there is a risk of rollover if he maintains the speed• Road departure warning systems inform a driver as soon as the vehicle is stepping out of the roadway or if the vehicle is moving too fast for an upcoming curve as well• Forward collision warning systems are also extremely useful since they enable a driver to get informed about an imminent crash since the leading vehicle has either stopped completely, or slowing down, and the speed of the vehicle at the back is in a conflict situation• Rear impact warning systems are essentially the same as the forward collision warning systems and is utilized for exactly the same purpose, however, the warning via this kind of collision alert system is given to the driver of the leading vehicle.It is indispensable to mention here that most of the above mentioned collision alert systems are still under performance testing, the lane control warning system as well as the forward collision warning systems have already started to hit the market and are being utilized by a number of different automobile companies.And with the aforementioned benefits that such collision alert systems have to offer, it is only fair to consider it a commendable option. There is no argument over the fact that collision alert systems tremendously reduce the number of road accidents or their severity to say the least.
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Disaster recovery planning and preventive measures ensure business continuity. The main question is “What if an attacker succeeds and renders an organization’s functions impossible?” Whether the break in business continuity is a short or long one, this is where an organization’s disaster recovery plans comes into play. The disaster recovery plans define the resources, actions, and data required to reinstate critical business processes that have been damaged or disabled because of a disaster. By focusing on disaster recovery plans and preventions, network managers can minimize the impact that catastrophic events may have in their environment. The recovery plan is the best way to insure that a business survives an IT emergency.The various potential disasters that security administrators need to be concerned about can be classified as human induced incidents, natural, internal, armed conflict, and external. Human induced incidents can include loss of power, transportation accidents, and chemical contaminations. Natural incidents can include flood, earthquake, and tornado. Internal incidents include sabotage, theft, and employee violence. Armed conflict can include acts of terrorism, like the 911 attacks, civil unrest, and war. External incidents include hacking, unauthorized use, and industrial espionage.Organizations identify potential threats and analyze what needs to be achieved in order to continue operating as though nothing had happened. After identifying these potential threats, security administrators can be in a better position to protect the mission-critical information systems.Data backup is an essential part of any disaster recovery plan. Data backup allows personnel to restore files and application software that is vital to continue business. An effective data backup strategy should address how often backups are run, type of backup medium, when the backups are run, are backups automated or manual, backup verification, storage, who is responsible for the backups, and the fallback person responsible for backups. Addressing the need for off-site storage may also be an important guideline for organizations with extensive business-critical data (Boswell…, 2003 p. 433).Organizations must include thorough planning and testing and include provisions for business continuity. Anticipating disasters is the first in the process. There is a lot to be learned and corrected from the testing phase and it needs to be taken very seriously. The testing exercise helps minimize losses during an actual attack. An effective disaster recovery plan should include the following documents: a list of covered disasters, a list of the disaster recovery team members, a business impact assessment, a business resumption and continuity plan, backup documentation, and restoration documentation.It has been said that the most important step in managing potential disasters is to have in place a well-trained and ready to respond team including a member from senior management, members of the IT department, representatives from facilities management, and representatives from the user community affected by the crisis. In a real crisis, the disaster recovery team meets to evaluate and determine the sources of the disaster and identify the critical components that are affected. The team than assesses the business impact of the disaster, estimating how long the disaster may disrupt business continuity. In this process the cost of the disaster is also ascertained. Exhaustively documenting changes that are implemented during the rush to solve the problem is also crucial.It is also important that organizations show their commitment to these plans that come from the IS department by adopting well-defined security policies and human resource policies that reflects their support to information security. A useful and well-written security policy should include sections on acceptable use, privacy, due care, separation of duties, “need-to-know” issues, password management, service-level agreements, and the destruction or disposal of information and storage media (Boswell…, 2003 p. 437). Human resources policy deals with personnel management. There should be thorough hiring practices including background, reference, and educational checks. To minimize a security risk, employees should have periodic reviews and rotate job functions and duties, which is beneficial in an emergency due to the more even distribution of information. Employee termination practices are also important in the protection and prevention of threats. Exit interviews should be conducted, individuals should be escorted off the property, and the terminated employee’s computer accounts and passwords should be deactivated and changed. A code of ethics should also be included in an organization’s human resources policy. This would help define and clarify the company’s stance on information security and provide a foundation built on ethics (Boswell…, 2003 p. 441).An incident response policy can also play a critical role. This policy covers how to deal with a security incident after it has occurred. Following a sound incident response methodology lessens the likelihood that incompetent and inefficient actions will occur and contributes to the practice of due care. An incident response policy should follow the steps of preparation (being ready before an incident occurs), detection (recognizing the presents of malicious code or whether files have been altered), containment (preventing further loss or disruption of services), eradication (removing viruses or malicious code along with cleaning and reformatting hard drives that were affected), recovery (restoring the system), and follow up (develop set of lessons learned) (Boswell…, 2003 p. 442).In conclusion, in is important to combine a disaster recovery plan with a well-defined and documented security policy, human resources policy, and incident response policy, which can minimize the effects of a catastrophic event and help assure business continuity. It is said, “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”Works Cited
Boswell, S., Calvert, B., Campbell, P. (2003). Security + Guide to Network Security
Fundamentals. Boston, Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.