Category: Education

Latest read: The Vietnam War: An Intimate History

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 10, 2019

The Vietnam War: An Intimate History by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns have authored one of the finest efforts to address the war from multiple perspectives and is perfect for Gen X and Millennials. This compliments Burns’ highly acclaimed 2017 PBS series.
Many already recognize that Ken Burns is a gifted storyteller mixing media together to produce: The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009), Prohibition (2011), and The Roosevelts (2014).

Prior to the PBS 10-part series, I knew Burns would deliver another great experience. For the book release, Ward and Burns do not disappoint. Their detailed stories and personal testimonials from soldiers and their families are deeply moving. Many young and old will more accurately understand a very tumultuous period in our nation’s history.

Burns’ access to newly released interviews and declassified materials from both sides show greater insights that inject confusion to long-held beliefs. This will lead many to question truths on all sides, from past government leaders to military generals.

Burns and Ward offer a number of key revelations:

Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 3, 2019

Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 by Max Hastings is an amazing read. He joins a select group of amazing authors, journalists, and veterans who have written key histories. His insights should change the views of all Americans about Vietnam.
We are approaching the 75th anniversary of our long, slow walk into Southeast Asia. This book will give a more “stable” view of conditions in which America defended South Vietnam against communist aggression.

Hasting’s efforts will make you question long-held beliefs about the war. His access to new materials, declassified by both the US and Vietnam governments. Hastings truly fulfills his book’s title of an epic tragedy. He writes stories by famous leaders and everyday soldiers affected by three decades of war across Indochina.

His introduction of Ho Chi Minh, the war against Japan and colonial French rule during World War II helped reinforce how Ho Chi Minh would set up a revolutionary party set against the backdrop of wars across both Europe and Asia. From World War I to the Korean War, the role of Asian independence from British, French and Dutch colonial rule set Southeast Asia on a path towards war that would span a full generation. Hastings is very good at looping Americans back to events like the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Tags Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Ho Chi Minh, indochina war, john f kennedy, Le Duan, Lyndon Johnson, max hastings, richard nixon, Vietnam War, vo nguyen giap, william westmoreland

Education Network Ransomware Technology

Philips ISCV and Xcelera flaws

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date February 10, 2019

Philips has yet to patch a flaw that allows cybercriminals to inject ransomware or backdoors which can result in PHI at risk of compromise.

The Philips ISCV version 2.x and earlier and Xcelera 4.x and 3.x the servers contain 20 Windows services of which the executables are being present in a folder where authenticated users have write permissions. The services run as a local admin account or local system account, and if a user were to replace one of the executables with a different program, that program too would be executed with local admin or local system permissions.

Philips confirms these vulnerabilities affect their IntelliSpace Cardiovascular system version 2.3.1, 3.1 and earlier. Also impacted are version 4.x and 3.x Xcelera systems (PDF). In ISCV version 3.x and earlier and Xcelera 4.x and 3.x there are 16 Windows services flaws allow hackers to run the computer with local admin rights.

Tags cybersecurity, medical device, nist, philips, ransomware

Education

Philips medical device cyber attack

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date January 30, 2019

On August 14th, The US Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) issues two alerts for Philips medical devices: PageWriter and IntelliSpace.
Philips announced plans to patch IntelliSpace by October, roughly 45 days from the DHS announcement.

PageWriter will not be patched until “mid-2019” despite the easier, “low level” threat.

A ten month delay provides more ammunition to cyber criminals to aggressively attack healthcare. Announcing an eight to ten month delay in patching adds confusion into the medical device marketplace. The cybersecurity community expresses the need for clinics, hospitals and health systems that monthly patching is the best way to protect assets from cyber attack. Many medical devices in production at the bedside today remain connected to Windows XP PCs.

Tags cybersecurity, healthcare, medical device, orangeworm, philips, ransomware

Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Churchill, America and Vietnam, 1941-45

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date January 28, 2019

When did America actually enter the Vietnam conflict? Churchill, America and Vietnam, 1941-45 by T.O. Smith details Churchill’s attempts to influence FDR to permit France to re-colonize Indochina before World War II. Yes before December 7th. FDR authored the US position of a trusteeship regarding Indochina. FDR’s policy intended to deny France their desire to re-enslave Indochina. Was the American nightmare for the faded glory of colonial empires?
Today it may seem surprising the future of Vietnam was debated between Churchill and FDR prior to the D-Day landings. This places a large part of their correspondence well into 1943. Ten years later the French would suffer defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

America would begin deploying troops a decade later. Smith’s previous book Britain and the Origins of the Vietnam War reveal how Churchill’s desire to expand their empire would entangle France and America across Indochina.

Smith has drawn upon papers from academic studies of Britain and France along with US Presidential libraries. On the surface many point to the Kennedy order placing American troops into Vietnam in 1963. Smith shows how this timeline is backed up to the mid 1940s. The US role is more accurately triggered to the 1954 Geneva Conference following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. Formally US Secretary of State Dulles would return to brief Congress that America would pickup where the French left off to preserve democracy by military means.

Tags Churchill, colonialism, de Gaulle, France, Franklin Roosevelt, indochina, Vietnam War