Make It Classic

DNA technology has exhibited its potentials thus there is definite interest in improving it to better address the purposes for which it has shown its strength. For the past years, DNA research has focused on several areas that could possibly increase its potency in solving crimes.

Some of these are the development of a DNA chip technology that makes use of nanotechnology to improve speed and resolution of DNA evidence analysis; the development of more robust methods in the analysis of degraded, old or compromised biological evidence; advanced applications of various DNA analysis methods; the use of animal, plant and microbial DNA to provide links to DNA found on human perpetrators or victims; technologies that will enable DNA identification of vast numbers of samples as triggered by mass disaster or similar situations; and technologies that permit better separation of minute traces of male sexual assailant DNA from female victims. There is no doubt that there is much to be gained if all these are accomplished.

Defining the value of information as contained in a particular system varies according to the primary purpose for which it is used. A personal database will differ greatly with a company database filled with confidential files. However, this is not to say that compromised personal information will not matter as against the compromised information of a company since both scenarios could be equally devastating to those concerned.

Identity theft has emerged as the fastest white collar crime in America. It is evident that personal information has become as coveted as its corporate counterpart. Two of the more strategic moves to ensure information security are to physically protect the system such as locking company servers and installing defense mechanisms such as firewalls and anti-virus software that are regularly updated.

A compromised system would not readily reveal itself unless its user is sensitive to seemingly natural occurrences that aren’t natural at all. A compact disc drive that opens and closes on its own, frequent runtime errors, unexplainable sudden disappearances of files, among others indicate that there is something going on.

The problem with the many symptoms associated with being hacked is that they may be indicative of other things as well. The more usual signs like discovering emails in one’s sent items folder that were written by another, finding that files have been moved and the disappearance of desktop icons and toolbars may also have another explanation. Email bombs and viruses are clear evidence of an infiltrator’s presence but logical attacks or invasion of the network may be more difficult to detect.