Many people rely heavily on the internet for running their daily lives. And every day, the number of internet-dependent people increases. From studying, socializing or shopping, many technologically savvy individuals use their computers or mobile devices to run errands and to entertain themselves. While technology has vastly improved our lives, countless dangers lurk on the internet. Cybercrime is on the rise and has already affected many individuals and companies.

Stu Sjouwerman, founder of KnowBe4, a site dedicated to cyber security awareness and training, stated that it has been a challenge to compete with the dynamic “industry” of cybercrime, but it is a challenge that Sjouwerman welcomes.

“There are people in Eastern Europe who go to work, punch the clock, work all day, get health benefits, leave at 5 p.m., and what they do is steal your identity or hack into your network,” Sjouwerman said.

Cybercrime has completely professionalized over the last few decades, in contrast to when only a handful of individuals had the time and money to hack into systems.

While cybercrime evolves into a larger industry, some people have yet to adapt. They are not aware of Sjouwerman’s number one rule in cyber security, “There is no security.”

Additional layers of good security can alleviate an individual’s stress regarding cyber-attacks, but security is no good replacement for human vigilance. It only takes one human error to let criminals into the system.

Professor Sean Peisert, a research computer scientist from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a faculty member of the UC Davis Computer Security Lab, said that most anti-virus or anti-malware software only protects from known threats. As long as a hacker has enough time and resources, he or she can crack through any security system by creating something that security programs have not been programmed to deal with yet.

However, various computer and internet security companies and programmers adapt quickly in response to the challenge, studying from past hackers. Some computer security programmers work directly with hackers to improve security. For example, KnowBe4 has worked together with infamous computer hacker Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick was one of the first true computer hackers, breaking into company networks belonging to Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu and Siemens.

As for UC Davis, the busy people of the UC Davis Cyber-safety Program and the UC Davis Computer Security Lab work for better internet security.

The professors involved in the UC Davis Computer Security Lab explore and research various areas of internet security. Some, like Professor Hao Chen, work with mobile computing and mobile app security, while others, like Professor Karl Levitt, work on a variety of projects from intrusion detection to network tracking, and even election security.

Professor Peisert helped with the cyber attacks on the San Diego Supercomputer Center perpetrated by “Stakkato,” the alias of a group of hackers who broke into systems belonging to the U.S. Military, White Sands Missile Range, NASA and multiple universities.

In particular, Professor Matt Bishop of the UC Davis Computer Security Lab detects weaknesses in security systems.

“I look for vulnerabilities, break into things and try to fix them,” Bishop said.

He often looks at certain aspects of internet security, such as how people hide personal information. In addition, he is interested in computer security education, which includes teaching robust coding, a class of software in which the program can respond elegantly to unknown situations instead of crashing.

“Campus folk are good with security,” Bishop noted when asked about UC Davis’ status.

In the frontline for UC Davis’ cyber security is Robert Ono, IT security coordinator of the UC Davis Cyber-safety Program. Currently, the campus staff upholds the adopted Cybersecurity policy of 2005 through governance models and stringent security standards for campus network devices. While maintaining the program’s website and handling security risks, Ono oversees campus security training.

“A biennial security symposium [hosting] hands-on training and lecture seminars for technologists,” Ono said, is one of the methods for training new staff.

Along with the symposium, training includes log management, threat management and coding techniques.

Although there are companies, professors and staff all working hard to improve cyber security, they provide steps and advice to help the general public to protect themselves.

“Make sure you patch your computer and applications. If there is an update, do the update. Last but not least, use strong passwords and for god’s sake don’t use the same password all over the place,” Sjouwerman said.

Bishop gave an apt analogy regarding passwords.

“Use common sense. Realize that there are nasty folks on the internet. You wouldn’t give your car keys to someone you didn’t know very well, and you shouldn’t do the same with your password.”

Peisert said computer owners don’t need to buy loads of security software, since most end up ignoring the security alerts anyway.

“So, rule number one is back up your systems: Time Machine, CrashPlan, BackBlaze, Mozy, Dropbox and others are simple, inexpensive means for doing this.”

Ono suggested that the public “identify files on [their] computer that contain personal identity information (e.g. your name, Social Security number or credit card/financial account number) and remove the files if at all possible. There are free tools for personal use, such as IdentityFinder, that are available for scanning your Mac and Windows computer(s) for identity information.”

The overall lesson is this: practice caution and be wary, but do not be too paranoid since the internet is still a wonderful tool.

For more information go to knowbe4.com, seclab.cs.ucdavis.edu and
security.ucdavis.edu/cybersafety.html.

VICTORIA TRANG can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

Bacteria are everywhere! They’re even in geothermal vents and other extreme conditions of hot and cold. They’re responsible for many terrible diseases like cholera and the bubonic plague. Staphylococcus aureus, a species often associated with food poisoning, has a size close to 0.6 microns in diameter, small enough to fit approximately 1,000 individual cells on the point of a pencil. What’s the takeaway message? Bacteria are abundant, hardly detectable and wildly dangerous — we should kill as many as possible to protect ourselves! Or should we?

Not all bacteria are pathogens. In fact, if one were to consider the proportion of harmful bacteria that the average person interacts with per unit time compared to the total number of bacteria encountered, the overwhelming majority of bacteria could be considered harmless.

Many hand sanitizers advertise to kill approximately 99 percent of bacteria living on any surface. People frequently use hand sanitizers to combat the spread of the common cold and the flu. However, these antibacterial agents are arguably ineffective against the pathogens that cause the common cold and influenza because these maladies are caused by viruses, not bacteria.

Through the excessive use of antibacterial products, not only do we fail to kill the virus that causes the common cold, but we also kill many bacteria that are potentially beneficial to our health. Furthermore, should any of the harmful bacteria happen to survive the Purell bath, they will then go on to produce a new generation of bacteria that are completely immune to the original antibacterials.

Bacteria have a number of things going for them that makes the study of their genetics and evolution interesting. They have large populations and short generation times. When the above two factors are compounded, the result is a series of genetic changes that occur over a relatively small timeframe. Bacterial evolution can occur on the scale of hours to minutes, whereas humans have to wait decades.

Another source of genetic variation in bacteria comes from horizontal transfer. Even though bacterial populations exhibit objectively rapid changes from mutation, their lack of a nucleus allows for bacteria to share DNA amongst themselves. In human terms, it’d be like being able to catch blue eyes, red hair, or any other trait from one’s neighbor. For bacteria, it means passing the blueprints for new proteins, which could allow for things like virulence or drug resistance.

While not all resistant bacteria are harmful, and not all harmful bacteria are resistant, as we increase the population of one group, the chances that they’ll gain the other trait increase as well. Through excessive use of antibacterial agents, we artificially increase the proportion of the resistant population. As the resistant population grows, the chance of a resistant strain developing virulence gradually changes from a dangerous possibility to a statistical inevitability.

Don’t get me wrong, antibacterials are useful. They play crucial roles in fighting infection and preventing the spread of many diseases like tetanus and syphilis. However, there needs to be an understanding of their function and use. While judicious and measured application of antibiotic agents has improved the general quality of patient care and increased life expectancy, their abuse could lead to dangerous consequences.

ALAN LIN can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

Medical scientists are constantly looking for a cure to the world’s deadliest diseases. One of these diseases holds the Center for Disease Control’s number two deadliest disease title: cancer. Of the different types of cancer, lung cancer is one of the most common and has a death rate of more than 150,000 people per year. UC Davis researchers aim to change that.

Recently, a team of UC Davis researchers found a protein on the surface of lung cancer cells that could prove to be useful in developing effective cancer treatments.

“We have been studying proteins on the surface of leukocytes for years,” said Dr. Joseph Tuscano, co-principal investigator of the study and professor of hematology and oncology in the UC Davis Department of Internal Medicine. “We developed antibodies against [the protein] to treat cell lymphomas.”

Leukocytes are white blood cells that defend the body against diseases. There are five different types of leukocytes, including B cells. Lymphomas are cancers that affect the immune system, most commonly found in lymph nodes.

The protein the researchers found is called CD-22, a sugar-binding transmembrane protein. This means it binds to specific sugar molecules and goes from one side of a membrane to the other. CD-22 is typically found on mature B cells. Initially, researchers thought CD-22 was only found on B cells, but they recently discovered that it also appears on lung cancer cells. Additionally, they found other lung cancer cell lines expressed CD-22.

The discovery was even more exciting and significant because there was already an antibody developed that targeted CD-22. The monoclonal antibody, HB22.7, was tested in mice and found to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the cancer of lymph tissue. Monoclonal antibody therapies are very effective because they destroy cells containing the antigen, in this case, CD-22.

“Currently, lung cancer is most commonly treated in a ‘stage-dependent’ manner. More recently, there has been a push to develop targeted therapies. Targeted treatments are directed towards specific genetic or molecular defects found on cancer cells,” said Dr. Raj K. Batra, an associate professor of medicine and researcher for the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center.

“There are three main targeted interventions currently approved for treating lung cancer … in general, these drugs occasionally or often yield a dramatic response, but unfortunately, these responses are of limited duration.”

After testing HB22.7 on mouse models for lung cancer, the treatment reduced tumor growth in the treated mice by about 50 percent. Lung cancer metastasis, the cancer cells’ ability to circulate through the bloodstream and implant in other organs, was studied as well, using the mouse models. There was very little evidence of any tumor growth and the growth that was spotted was insignificant. Also, the treated mice had a much higher survival rate than the untreated mice; 90 percent of the treated mice were still alive at the end of the 84-day trial.

“It has been an exciting time recently for lung cancer research,” said Dr. Edward B. Garon, assistant clinical professor and director at the Thoracic Oncology Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “We have been in a situation where we have been able to start working towards personalizing care for a percentage of patients … our ability to treat the disease is [overall] more effective.”

In medical research, many fields of study overlap and together bring about solutions to common problems. Cancer research is no different.

“We are looking into prostate cancer and other cancer types,” Tuscano said. “Research in one area is often beneficial to many areas … [This] research may help us understand many cancers or many diseases.”

The research will aid in the battle against life-threatening cancers of all types and will hopefully send cancer to the bottom of the Center for Disease Control’s deadliest disease list.

NICOLE NOGA can be reached at science@theaggie.org.