Mooshabaya Meetings at Research Lab

October 27th, 2009 [Dr.Srinath/All members/CSE Research Lab] : Updates on the project. Eventing component issues and masup deployment and authentication issues. Discussed about the upcoming first formal presentation.

November 19th, 2009 [Dr.Srinath/K.D.B.C.De Alwis, A.S.Malinga, K.Pradeeban/CSE Research Lab] Demonstration of the project update using a screencast. Design and development issues, further updates, and the potential usage of the ongoing project on transferring Extreme! Labs projects from using XSUL to Axis2 were also discussed.

December 14th, 2009 [Dr.Srinath/All members/CSE Research Lab]
Discussed about the eventing module integration into carbon to call the eventing module methods from mashup server. Project Draft Report and the upcoming project schedule was also discussed.

December 15th, 2009 [Mrs.Vishaka Nanayakkara/All members/HoD Office]
Discussed about the draft report with the project's internal mentor Mrs.Vishaka Nanayakkara. Suggestions for potential enhancements and improvements to the draft report were given.

Open Source Viruses!

Back Orifice (Currently known as BO2K) (often shortened to BO) is a controversial computer program designed for remote system administration, well known for its launch as an open source project. This program can effectively control your computer from a remote location once your computer has become a client. As BO2K server can be installed without the user's interaction, it can be distributed as payload of a Trojan and hence listed into the virus database by Anti-Virus programs, neglecting its legitimate use as an administrative tool.

It is often discussed whether 'open source virus' is a concept in practice or just a myth. Murphy's Law: Sometimes, an Open-Source Virus is Just a Virus - Views mentioning a virus/malware can never be considered to be open source, as it is not installed with a user agreement, as a reply to the post "Why virus writers are turning to open source". Another post focusing the Back Orifice developers - "Transatlantic Cable : Could the Cult of the Dead Cow be your friends?"

"Behind the scenes of online fraud" discusses about the online frauds along with some precautions. We were discussing more about Ethical hacking, malwares, and the behaviors of crackers during one of our recent CS4050 module lectures (Hence got the idea of a small research on Open Source Viruses ;)). From the discussions we had, it seems online fraud has become a popular hobby. Computer Crime, Act, No 24 of 2007 published by the Parliment of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka discusses the identification, investigation, and prevention of computer crimes. Online crimes are no more considered a fun that is tolerated!