Automated Protocol to Restrict Password Guessing Attacks

Automated Protocol to Restrict Password Guessing Attacks ABSTRACT Password login services are now widespread and ever increasing. Attacks that take place on password-only remote login services are brute force and dictionary attack. Providing convenient login for legitimate user.In the proposed system we use Password Guessing Resistant Protocol (PGRP) which improves more security by restricting the number of attempts. PGRP allows a high number of failed attempts from known machines. PGRP uses either cookies or IP addresses, or both for tracking legitimate users. Tracking users through their IP addresses also allows PGRP to increase the number of ATTs for password guessing attacks and meanwhile to decrease the number of ATTs for legitimate login attempts. Key Words – Online password guessing attacks, brute force attacks, password dictionary, ATTs. 1. INTRODUCTION: Online password guessing attacks are the most commonly observed against web applications SSH logins. SANS report observed that password guessing attack is the top cyber security risk. SSH servers that doesn’t allow some standard password authentication suffer the guessing attacks. Online attacks have some disadvantages compared to offline attacks i.e., the attacking machines must use an effective interactive protocol which allows a easier detection of malicious attacks.Malicious attackers try only limited no. of password guesses from a single machine being that account is being locked or before being challenged to answer an ATT. An attacker will employ a large number of machines to avoid locking out. Generally users choose weak passwords. As malicious attackers control large bot nets online attacks became much easier.Restricting the no. of failed trails without ATT’s to a very small number is the effective defense system that can be used against automated online passw ord guessing attacks. Also limiting automated programs(or bots) used by attackers for password guesses for a targeted account, even many different machine from a bot net are used. This method inconveniences offers a legitimate user to answer an ATT on next login attempt after the malicious attackers guesses. Other techniques deployed in practice includes: Even though from a given machine when a certain number of failed attempts occur,it allows login attempts without ATTs from a different machine. After a certain time-out period, it allows more attempts without ATTs and also time-limited account lockinMany existing techniques proposals involve ATT’s, assuming that the challenges provided by the ATTs are difficult for botseasy for people(legitimate users). Users are increasing disliking ATTs and feels it as an unnecessary extra step. Successful attacks are being made which break ATTs without human solvers. ATTs that are to be more difficult.As a consequence, present-day ATTs are becoming more difficult for human users. Therefore, we focus more on reducing user inconvenience by challenging users with fewer ATTs and at the same time subjecting bot logins to more ATT’s, to drive up economic cost to attackers.Two well-known proposals using ATTs to limit online guessing attacks are Pinkas and Sander (PS protocol) and Van Oorsc hot and Stubblebine (VS protocol). The PS proposal reduces the ATTs. The VS proposal reduces this but a significant cost to usability.. The PGRP is being developed by using both PS VS proposals. On the other side, PGRP allows high number of failed attempts from known machines without answering any ATTs. Known machines are defined as those from which successful login has occurred over a fixed time period. These known machines are identified by their IP addresses which are saved on the login server as white list or else in the cookies stored on client. Both the white listed IP address and client cookie expire after a time-period. In both graphical user interface(e.g., browser-based logins) character-based interface(e.g.,SSH logins) PGRP can be accommodated). Both PS and VS proposals, requires the use of browser cookies. PGRP uses either cookies or IP address or both for tracking legitimate users. PGRP increases the number of ATTs for password guessing by tracking users through their IP address also to decrease the number of ATTs for legitimate login attempts.In recent years, the trend of logging in to online account through multiple personal devices (e.g., PC, laptop’s,smartphones ) is growing. When used from home environment, these devices often share a single IP address which makes IP-based history tracking more user friendly than cookies. 2. Related work: From the early days of the internet the online password guessing attacks have been known to everyone. Account locking is a mechanism which prevents a malicious attacker from multiple passwords particular username. Although account locking is temporary remedy, an attacker can mount a DOS (denial of service) in some amount of time for a particular username can be done by delaying server response after receiving user credentials, whether the password is correct or incorrect. However, for an attacker with access to a botnet, this above mechanism is ineffective. Prevention techniques that depend on requesting the user machine to perform extra computations before replying to the entered credentials are not effective with such adversaries. To prevent the automated programs (brute force dictionary attacks) ATT challenges are used in some protocols.PS presented a login protocol which challenges ATTs to protect against online password guessing attacks. PS protocol reduces the number of ATTs that authorized users must correctly answer, so that a user with a valid browser cookie will be rarely asked to answer an ATT. A deterministic function AskATT() of the entered user credentials is used to decide whether to ask the user an ATT or not. To improve the security features of the PS protocol, Van Oorschot stubblebine defined a modified protocol in which ATTs are always required, once the no. of failed login attempts for a particular username exceeds a threshold. For both PS and VS protocols, the function AskATT() requires a careful design, because the ‘known function attack’ of poor design of this function AskATT() makes the login protocol vulnerable to attacks and also ‘change password attack’. Because of these attacks, the authors proposed a secure non-deterministic keyed hash function as AskATT() so that each username is associated with one key that changes whenever the corresponding password is changed. This proposed function requires extra server-side storage per username atleast one cryptographic hash operation per login attempt. 2.2 Functions PGRP uses the following functions. They are 1.Read Credential. It shows a login prompt to the user and it returns the entered user name and password and also the cookie received from the user’s browser. 2. Login Correct If the provided user name-password is valid, the function return true otherwise it returns false. 3. Grant Access This function sends the cookies to the user’s browser and then gives the permission to access the specified user account. 4. Message It displays the text message. 5. ATT Challenge This function challenges the user with an ATT. If the answer is correct, it returns â€Å"pass† otherwise, it returns â€Å"fails† 7. Valid This function checks the validity of the cookie and it is considered invalid in the following cases: The cookie username doesn’t match with the login username. The expired time of the cookie. The cookie counter is equal to or greater than K1. This function returns true only when a valid cookie is received. 3. Cookies versus Source IP addresses PGRP keeps track of user machines from which successful logins have been initiated previously. If the login server offers a web-based interface, for this purpose choose a browser cookies as a good choice. The login server unable to identify the user in all cases, if the user uses multiple browser or more than one OS on the same machine. Cookies may also be deleted by users, or automatically enabled by the most modern browsers.Cookie theft(eg., through session hijacking)might enable an adversary to impersonate a user who has been successfully authenticated in the past. In addition cookies requires a browser interface.A user machine can be identified by the sourceIP address. To trace users depending on sourceIP address may result in inaccurate identification. This can be done because of various reasons including. 1) The same machine might be assigned different IP addresses. 2) A group of machines might be represented by a small number or a single internet-addressable IP address if NAT mechanism is in place.Drawbacks of identifying a user by means of either a browser cookie or a source IP address include: 3) Failing to identify a machine from which the user has authenticated successfully in the past. 4) Wrongly identifying a machine the user has not authenticated before. Case 1) Decreases usability since the user might be asked to answer an ATT challenge for both correct and incorrect login credentials. Case 2) Affects security since some users/attackers may not be asked to answer an ATT challenge even though they have not logged in successfully from those machines in the past.However, the probability of launching a dictionary or brute force attack from these machines appears to be low. Therefore, we choose to use both browser cookies and source IP address in PGRP to minimize user inconvenience during login process. 3.1. Decision function for requesting ATT’s: The decision to challenge the user with an ATT depends on two factors: 1) Whether the user has authenticated successfully from the machine previously. 2) The total number of failed login attempts for a specified useraccount Fig. 2.Secure but inconvenient login protocol 3.4.1Username-Password Pair Is Valid After entering a correct username-password pair. In the following cases the user will not be asked to answer an ATT challenge. 1. A valid cookie is received from the user machine and the number of failed login attempts from the user machines IP address for that username, FS[srcIP,un], is less than k1 over a time period determined by t3. 2. The user machine’s IP address is in the whitelist W and the number of failed login attempts from this IP address for that username, FS[srcIP,un], is less than k1 over a time period determined by t3. 3.The number of failed login attempts from any ,machine for that username, FT[un], is below a threshold k2 over a time period determined by t2 3.4.2Username-Password Pair Is Invalid After entering a incorrect username-password pair. In the following cases the user will not be asked to answer an ATT challenge. A valid cookie is received from the user machine and the number of failed login attempts from the user machines IP address for that username, FS[srcIP,un], is less than k1 over a time period determined by t3. The user machine’s IP address is in the whitelist W and the number of failed login attempts from this IP address for that username, FS[srcIP,un], is less than k1 over a time period determined by t3. The username is valid and the number of failed login attempts for that username, FT[un], is below a threshold k2 over a time period determined by t2. 4 System Resources No list’s are maintained in the PS protocol because of this there is no extra memory overhead on the login server. In VS protocol only FT is maintained. In PGRP, three tables must be maintained. First, the white list, W is expected to grow linearly with the number of user’s. W contains a list of{source IP address, username}pairs that have been successfully authenticated in the last t1 units of time. Second, the number of entries in FT increase by one whenever a remote host makes a failed login attempt using a valid user name, if entry is added to FS only when a valid{user name, password} pair is provided from an IP address not used before for this user name. Therefore, the number of entries in FS is proportional to the number of IP addresses legitimate users successfully authenticated from. 4.1  Background On Previous ATT Based Protocols Pinkas and Sander introduced the topic based upon a strawman login protocol that requires answering an ATT challenge first before entering the {user name, password}pair. If the user falling to answer the ATT correctly prevents the user from proceeding further. This protocol requires the adversary to pass an ATT challenge for each password guessing attempt. Simple protocol is effective against online dictionary attacks assuming that the used ATT’s are secure, legitimate users must also pass an ATT challenge for every login attempt. Therefore, this protocol affects user convenience and requires the login server to generate an ATT challenge for every login attempt. Pinkas and Sander proposed a new protocol that reduces the number of ATT’s for legitimate user’s are required to pass. This protocol stores a browser cookie on the machine of users who had previously logged in successfully. Once the user requests the login server URL, the user’s browser sense the cookie back to the server. The protocol then requests the user to enter a {user name, password} pair. If the pair is correct and a valid cookie is received from the browser then the protocol gives permission to access the account. If the pair is correct but no valid cookie is received, then an ATT challenge must be answered before account access is granted. Otherwise, if the pair is incorrect then according to a function AskATT(), an ATT challenge might be required before informing the user that the pair is incorrect. With this protocol, legitimate user must passATT’s in the following cases:1) When the user logs in from a machine for the first time. 2) When the user’s pair is incorrect and AskATT() triggers an ATT. For each password guessing attempt an automated program needs to correctly answer ATT except in one case i.e.,when the {username, password} pair is incorrect and a function AskATT() didn’t request an ATT. Van oorschot and stubblebine proposed modifications to the previous protocol which stores failed login’s per username to impose ATT challenges after exceeding a configurable threshold of failures. Hence, for an incorrect {username, password}pair, the decision to request an ATT not only depends on the function AskATT() but also on the number of failed login attempts for the username.After entering correct credentials in the absence of a valid cookie, the user is asked whether the machine in use is trustworthy and if the user uses it regularly .The cookie is stored in the user’s machine only if the user responds yes to the question. This approach aims to reduce the possibility of cookie theft since a negative answer is expected if the user was from a public machin e .The user account is set be in non-owner mode for a specified time window when a login is successful without receiving a valid cookie from the user machine; otherwise the account is set to owner mode.

The Argument Against Drilling In Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refu

Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the crowned jewel of the nation’s 544 refuges is in danger of destruction (Lamar and Markey 12). ANWR has been in existence since 1960 and has slowly become one of the most controversial topics to hit Congress. ANWR is composed of 19 million acres on the northeast coast of Alaska. Although the government has been provided with this immense land they are fighting to gain more land. Why? ANWR is the second biggest oil field that is owned by the U.S. Now the government wants more land to construct oil reserves. The refuge is home to many endangered species such as migratory birds, polar bears, and wolves (Lynne and Roberts 1). Most of ANWR’s designated oil area is owned by indigenous Alaskan people (Klyza and Ford-Martin 1). Though these are some of the concerns when debating to stop any further drilling, the more prevalent matters to anti-drillers are; the caribou species, duration of changes (benefits), and why keep a bill that contradicts already existing federal acts. As mentioned earlier, the caribou is a sensitive matter to environmentalist and Alaskan natives. The Porcupine caribou herd is the most concentrated species, 130,000 (Lamar and Markey 12) that roams on ANWR territory. The herd uses ANWR as its calving grounds (Whitten 2008). To each herd there is a distinct calving area (Markey 2004), building a spiritual and survival connection to the land itself. If drilling does continue the number of species will decrease, it has been proven in other caribou locations! The Central Arctic Caribou resided on Prudhoe Bay starting with 23,000 herds after oils reserves began to expand in that area numbers drop to 18,000 (Whitten 2008). ANWR specialists have also figured out that mos... ...s Resource Center . Gale. GILA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL. 20 Feb. 2015 Klyza, Christopher McGrory, and Paula Anne Ford-Martin. "Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (1980)" Environmental Encyclopedia. Eds. Marci Bortman, Peter Brimblecombe, Mary Ann Cunningham, William P. Cunningham, and William Freedman. Vol. 1. 3rd ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2003. 1 pp. 2 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. GILA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL. 20 Feb. 2015 Markey, Edward J.. "The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Should Remain Off-Limits to Oil Drilling. ."At Issue: Foreign Oil Dependence. James Haley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. GILA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL. 20 Feb. 2015 Will, George F. "The Biofuel Follies. " Newsweek. 151.06 (Feb 11, 2008): 64. General Reference Center Gold. Gale. GILA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL. 20 Feb. 2015

Problems on the Supermarket Area

1. INTRODUCTION One of the main reasons research into customer complaints is important is because of competition (Van Horne & Wachowicz, 2000). All Hypermarkets become highly competitive in terms of winning the customers. Hypermarkets which do not get feedback from their customers about their service run the risk of losing them. In addition, if the Hypermarket does not look into this area seriously, the Hypermarket will not have the knowledge to make the necessary changes to their service.To maintain the good reputation for the Hypermarket and the deals between the supplier and the Hypermarket, there is a need to investigate and solve the issue of peculiar taste in frozen lambs sold in the Hypermarket in order to prevent such situation from happening again. Hence, this report will firstly describe the issue that occurs in the Hypermarket, which is the frozen lamb produce peculiar taste after cooking.Then, the report will discuss four possible problems that lead to the situation which are failure to follow the criteria given for every product delivered, low quality product, improper checking when receiving the product and poor management of the stock storage. Besides discussing about the possible problems this report also will provide three solutions and recommendations to prevent this situation from occuring again which are discussion, send staffs for training and courses in handling the stock and service the stock storage. 2. 0 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMIn the third week of September, 2011, the Hypermarket has received more than five customers’ complaints regarding the frozen lamb sold in the Hypermarket. Most of the frozen lamb produced peculiar taste after being cooked. As a result, the customers who bought the frozen lamb and ate them complained that they suffered stomach ache and diarrhea. Looking at these complaints, the Hypermarket feels that this issue should be looked at seriously; as it might cause negative consequences to the Hypermarket such as loo sing more customers and decreasing in sales.As such, the Hypermarket believes that in depth investigation and thorough report should be given to the Branch Manager so that this situation would be prevented. 3. FACTORS THAT LEAD TO THE PROBLEM 1. Failure to Follow the Criteria Given for Every Product Based on the customers’ complaints and discussion among the staffs, one of the possible factors that lead to the peculiar taste of the frozen lamb is failure to follow the criterias given by the Hypermarket. For every order made by the Hypermarket, there will be a list of criterias that should be followed by the supplier.These criterias are significantly important and ought to be followed because it has considered every aspect when choosing a product (Rao, 1989). For instance, when the Hypermarket requests for frozen meat particularly frozen lamb, the supplier has been given several criterias that should be obeyed to. Some of the criterias are the frozen lamb should be safe to be cooked and kept in the freezer, for example. This is to ensure that the frozen lamb are safe to be used, produce good taste while cooking, and will not lead to unhealthy diseases such as diarrhea and stomach ache.Since the complaints are focusing on the peculiar taste, this shows that the supplier has failed to meet the requirements needed. The frozen lamb has produced peculiar taste and resulted negative consequences to the customers. Basically, the Hypermarket believes that the problem aroused is due to the suppliers’ failure to ensure that the frozen lamb has meet the requirements. Moreover, following these requirements are one of the major issues that has been focused when choosing the supplier.Thus, strict actions and improvements should be made on this area, so that this issue would not happen in future. 2. Low Quality Product Apart from failure to follow the criterias given, another factor that might contribute to the problem is the low level of quality product. Accord ing to Deloof and Jeggers (1996), quality can be defined a state of being free from defects, deficiencies and significant variations, brought about by the strict and consistent adherence to measurable and verifiable standards to achieve uniformity of output that satisfies specific customer or user requirements.This means that having a good quality product provides a confirmation to customers that the product they buy are well measured, built and produced. It is important to have a good quality product; this will retain customers on buying that particular product because they trust the product. In relation with the problem faced byt the Hypermarket, the frozen lamb supplied by the branch might be considered as low quality product as it produces peculiar taste. This might due to the condition of the lamb itself, and how it is being run by the staffs.Furthermore, the lamb might be received in unfresh condition, or it has been taken from unreliable sources. Therefore, this report is to ensure that the branch will reevaluate the supplier of the lamb, so that this situation could be prevented in future. Besides, having low quality product will increase company expenses, as customers will keep on returning the product that they bought (Long, Malitz & Abraham, 1993). Consequently, there will be another process of reevaluating the product which demand cost and time.This will somehow decrease the sales of the product and increase the budget for that particular product which in this case, the frozen lamb. Hence, a thorough evaluation on where the lamb is taken from should be done to ensure the good quality of the frozen lamb that being sent to the Hypermarket. 3. Improper Product Checking when Receiving and Delivering The third possible factor that leads to the peculiar taste of the frozen lamb is improper product checking during receiving and delivering. It is off paramount importance for the sender and receiver to check on every product when they arrive at the storage place.This stage is known as internal control where before we deliver the product to our branch or sell it in front of the customers, there is a need to check on every single product receive (Deloof & Jeggers, 1996). This is to ensure that every product is in their best condition. Sometimes the product might be over- looked from the outside. However, due to the delivery service the product might be damaged or having defects. Hence, it is very important to check on the product entirely so that these possible situation would not happen.In conjunction with the problem of hampering the frozen lamb, some of the issues regarding improper product checking are; the branch and the hypermarket might not do proper checking when sending and receiving the frozen lamb. The branch should do thorough checking of the frozen lamb when receiving from the supplier before the frozen lamb are sent to the Hypermarket. Many external factors should be looked at while delivering the frozen lamb to the Hyperm arket because through out this period there are numerous possibilities for the lamb to be defected.For example, some of the frozen lambs might probably fall out of the storage in the lorry, and this has affecting the lamb as well as the taste of the lamb when cooking. Thus, whenever a product is received, there is a need to check each of the product condition, so that we could avoid any negative experiences with the customer. 4. Poor Management of the Stock Storage The fourth possible factors that contribute to the problem occured in the Hypermarket would be poor management of the stock storage.Basically, There are five principles of stock storage that should be followed which are labelling, position, rotation, humidity and temperature (Doyle, Beauchat & Montville, 1997). For each product that being kept in the storage, it must follow closely this principles based on what type are they (Pitt & Hocking, 1997). For instance, the raw materials and ingredients stored in establishment sh all be kept in appropriate conditions, as to prevent harmful deterioration and to protect them from contamination. In addition, items such as cleaning chemicals, other chemicals, and insect and rodent poisons in separate areas to food and food packaging.There are two types of storage which are dry goods and chilled storage that could cater to frozen and dried products (Palmer, 1983). Knowing these principles of stock storage and the appropriate way of handling the storage, it shows that there could be some mishandling cases that lead to the peculiar taste of the frozen lamb. The staffs might not securely and completely wrapped all the frozen lamb in refrigerators and freezers. In addition, the workers might not use accurate trays or containers while keeping the frozen lamb.Regenstein & Regenstein (1979) revealed that it is important to wrap all the frozen lambs in order to prevent cross-contamination and to maintain quality. Besides, the trays or containers should have enough space for liquid from defrosting items, or blood, from the lamb. Instead of the stock storage, the stock rotation of in the stock storage should be looked at as well. A suitable system of stock rotation should be applied to make sure older foods are used first to avoid spoilage. This applies to chilled and frozen foods as well as other products (Regenstein & Regenstein, 2000).For example, foods with an expired ‘use by’ date, which you are returning to the supplier for credit, should be clearly marked to show they are not intended for sale or place them in a clearly marked container. In relation to the frozen lamb case in the Hypermarket, these principles might be overlooked and caused peculiar taste. The frozen lamb might be expired or not being kept securely in the chilled storage. As stock management is the utmost possible reason that leads to the peculiar teaste of the frozen lamb, strict actions should be given in this area so that this problem would not be happening agai n. . SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM 1. Discussion Apart from seeking for the possible factors that lead to the peculiar taste of the frozen lamb, the purpose of this report is also to suggest ways to improve and overcome this situation. The first strategy that should be taken to address the issue is by having a discussion between the supplier, the branch manager and the store manager. The discussion is effective to be conducted, as it involves a process of exchanging the ideas and opinions.The involved parties could brainstorm and become more aware of the problem (Richard & Laughlin, 1980). Furthermore, it shows that through discussion allows every side to solve the problem and able to implement the strategies to overcome the problem. Besides, the discussion would be a form of verbal warning to the supplier and other branches that this situation should not happen again in future. In case it happens, everybody would be aware of the other consequences such as the c ancellation of the deal where the Hypermarket could request to change to a new supplier. . Training and Courses for Staffs Secondly, after having in depth discussion in investigating the issue of the peculiar taste of the frozen lamb, there must be other follow up solutions that need to be done in order to prevent this situation from happening again. It is important to ensure that every staff in this area are well informed about the job scope (Maher & Graves, 2007). Every staff ought to attend a training and courses before being employed. The training and courses are designed to enhance the quality of every staff’s service.For example, every staff needs to understand analytically on how to run dry goods and frozen products. The staffs should be aware that the stocks that will be expired in a short time should be marked clearly. This is to avoid the products from being arranged and displayed in the shelves. Furthermore, the staffs should aware that expired or nearly expired pr oduct will cause negative consequences to the customer if they happen to buy them. In the case of frozen lamb in the Hypermarket, one of the possible reasons that lead to the problem is perhaps the lamb has reached the expiry date.The selected staffs must know how to manage and arrange frozen foods such as lamb in order to retain the quality of frozen lamb in the Hypermarket. This proves that through training and courses the management of the every product sold in the Hypermarket could be enhanced tremendously. These types of training and courses are also valuable in maintaning the quality of every staff’s service. Apart from merely learning how to handle the product in practical, there is a strong need to provide sufficient theoretical input of it to every staff. Hence, it would be beneficial to conduct a test at the end of the training and courses.The purpose of the test is to set a standard (Hind, Moss & McKellan, 2007) before the Hypermarket employ somebody into the field . Therefore, every staff have to pass the test and this will somehow maintain the quality service offered by the Hypermarket. Consequently, such situation like having frozen lamb with peculiar taste could be prevented from happening again. 3. Service the Stock Storage Regularly Finally, one of the utmost important ways to solve the problem regarding the peculiar taste of frozen lamb in the Hypermarket is servicing the stock storage regularly.It is known that stock storage is a place where all the products are being kept (Palmer, 1983). The importance of having storage is to ensure the availability of the products. In the storage, all products are being storaged according to the type of food whether they are dry goods or chilled foods. In addition, the shelf life and date codes of items can be determined based on the correct storage conditions, including temperatures and labels (Doyle, Beauchat & Montville, 1997).For instance, food with a short shelf life in which food poisoning orga nisms can grow such as frozen foods are labelled with a USE BY date (Pitt & Hocking, 1997). It is an offence to have on display, or sell, food after the use by date has expired, even if it appears to still be fit to eat. These are some of the rules that should be followed in the stock storage. To ensure that the storage is safe for every product to be kept; therefore, regular servicing should be done.Regular servicing is to prevent defects and deficiencis of the products such as cockroach bites at the edge of the packaging or for chilled food, there will be bacteria in the food due to inappropriate temperature (Regeinstein & Regenstein, 2000). Doyle, Beauchat and Montville (1997) also suggested that the storage should be serviced at least once a month in order to maintain the cleanliness of the storage and safety of the products. Instead of servicing the storage as a whole, the place where we keep frozen foods is most important to be serviced monthly.This is due to the condition of the food like frozen foods tend to produce excessive water and smell due to their type of food. For example, frozen lamb will definitely produce blood and water but in frozen condition. These excessive waste will stay in the storage even we have taken out the food from the place. So, to clean up the storage twice a month is appropriate in order to avoid contamination from happening to the frozen food. Besides, packaging and wrapping materials and catering disposables to be used for food should also be kept in clean, dry, pest and contamination free stores (Pitt & Hocking, 1997).Thus, in relation to the frozen lamb in the Hypermarket, regardless of the supplier, the branch manager and the hypermarket, the stock storage in every place should be serviced regularly to prevent contamination. As a result, any incident like peculiar taste from the frozen lamb could be avoided from happening again in future. 5. CONCLUSION In summary, this report has elaborated three main areas that should b e looked at in order to solve the issue of peculiar taste for the frozen lamb in the Hypermarket which are problem, factors and solutions.The report has identified that the peculiar taste produced by the frozen lamb result several consequences to the Hypermarket. Some of them are; the customers suffer diarrhea and stomach ache after eating the lamb and several complaints about similar issue have received. The Hypermarket believes that this issue should be investigated in order to retain customers. There are four factors that have been identified which are failure to follow the criteria given for every product delivered, low quality product, improper checking when receiving the product and poor management of the stock storage.Thus, to solve this situation as well as address these factors, this report has come out with three solutions which are discussion, send staffs for training and courses in handling the stock and service the stock storage. It is hoped that this report will be ben eficial to all parties especially the Hypermarket in addressing the issue of peculiar taste produced by the frozen lamb. To ensure the success of a business, everybody should play a big role in making that happen. (2780 words)

Ford Fiesta Movement

In April 2009, The Ford Motor Company launched a new marketing campaign called the Ford Fiesta Movement. The campaign had an unusual approach, never previously used before by Ford since being incorporated in June 1903: Ford used amateurs to create ads for Ford Fiesta, their new B category car and relied on (an artificially designed) Word of Mouth Marketing that used online social media to build awareness. Their thinking was unusual in two ways: Today, it’s a familiar case to everyone to use blogs and social media to engage buyers, but in 2009 letting consumers take over your brand was unheard of.Plus, Ford decided to create a campaign for a product that was not on sale and would not be sold for another 12 months from the start of the campaign (‘atypical timeline’ –Exhibit E). Two months into the campaign the marketing team responsible for the effort had to evaluate the campaign’s performance and possible next steps. There are two key questions: How d o you evaluate a marketing campaign’s performance for a specific product, when in reality you haven’t sold anything? What should Ford do after the campaign to leverage the newly build brand awareness and convert interest into sales?Measuring Campaign Efficiency – Will we make enough profit at the end? 1) Calculate expectation: There are very few hints in the case study that allows the reader understand how would Ford measure success: Ford targeted 9% market-share from the total amount of new passengers in the B category, a segment that consisted of 437,000 passengers – that works out to an expected 39,330 cars sold At the start of the campaign Ford expected a 100. 000 test drives within the 12 months Calculating with Ford’s expectation of market share, it sounds like Ford expected to sell 39.330 cars out of the 100. 000 expected test drives, which tells us that every test drive, in Ford’s mind has a 39% conversion rate. This is one benchmark we can use to assess the prospects of the campaign At the time of evaluation Ford accounted for 6,000 test drives for the 2 months, unless there is a fundamental change in the number of cars available for test drives, the trajectory is that this will allow Ford to assume a total of 30,000 test drives ONLY for the next 10 months of the campaign, and a sum of 36,000 test drives for the total year.Calculating with the assumed 39% test-drive success rate Ford seems well behind on its plans to reach a 9% market share. (36,000 x 0. 39= 14,040 vs. 39,330) Why is this problem? 2) Will this trajectory make enough profit? What sort of profit does a car manufacturer make on a new car? Unfortunately, no profit margin % figures were given in the case study, but if one looks at industry averages on the internet (Exhibit A), the average manufacturer makes about 4.13% net profit margin on every car.I am going to use this percentage and the given selling prices in the case: both the low-end and hig h-end selling prices in order to calculate potential revenue and profit generated against the year to date and year to go spend to assess whether the test drive figures for Ford Fiesta are an indication of an acceptable Return on Investment or could they be dangerously low? The calculation above shows worth case and best case scenarios.The calculated figures above show that Ford needs to be very careful: If the test drives remain this low, and the majority of buyers chose a low-end, lower spec, low priced car, the campaign with industry average net profit margins would probably not be on break-even. This tells us that It would probably be worth importing more test cars from Europe – see cost reasoning below – as soon as possible or/and transform some cars that are now currently used by the advocators into test driving cars, e. g. Ford could make a policy that the bottom 20% advocators would have to hand over their cars for better use.These two steps (importing more car s and converting advocators cars) seemingly would be vital to deliver business success. 3) Measuring Campaign Efficiency – Other Performance Indicators – The Reach and CMP Based on the case study Ford is happy about their early results when it comes to their website visits, video-views, tweets and blog mentions, these all perform above expectations they say. But how can we make sure that the spending of $3,000,000 is justified for the amount of impressions Ford experienced in the first 2 months?Calculating the total Reach is relatively easy, we could in theory add up all the impressions from all internet sources mentioned in the case study to get an arbitrary number for total impressions reached with this spending – see below chart. Ford exposed a total of 5,049,256 people to their Fiesta Movement. This means that the target audience watched and paid attention to what Agents got up to, leaving comments and replying to videos, and linking the Agent content on the ir own web-sites. But was this the most effective spend of the $ 3 million?To compare this, we need to calculate the CPM and compare this to different media spend at the time of the campaign – 2009. The CPM: using the cost of the campaign and dividing that by the number of impressions, expressed in thousand is: 3,000,000/ (5,049,256/1000) = 600. This number is atrociously high when compared to TV ($10), Magazine ($7), Cable TV ($6) CPMs in 2009 (Exhibit B) – I hope I calculated this correctly. So the question is: Would TV/Radio/Cable TV be able to generate the same number of test-drives and conversion? We do not have data for this, unfortunately.What Ford was looking at at the time was that the campaign was on track when it comes to building a buzz around the new product and the total cost of the campaign was going to be small when compared to the overall cost of a nation-wide TV campaign. Below I compared the expected web-visits, video-posts, calculated indexes and al so calculated total impressions for areas like Video’s posted online, photos posted online and tweets. Mid-term corrections The measure of success of a marketing campaign in the car industry is the number of test drives that can turn into sales.As mentioned above, these were WELL BELOW expectations in the case of Ford Fiesta because of the limited cars available. This was not just an opportunity for Ford; it was a must to increase the number of cars available for test drive. It would have been a crucial business decision to import more cars suitable to drive in the U. S. to expand the number of cars available to try for the Public. The cost of a test car is around $20. 000 ($2 million divided by the 100 cars employed from the case)– this includes import duties and running costs. Let’s say a car can bare an average 5 drives a day, with 10 months remainingfrom the campaign that would be (365/12*10 x 5) 1. 520 test drives per car and we expect 39% of those turning into sales = 593 potential car sales – that is a potential $5,931,250 Revenue and $244,961 profit (calculating with 4,13% average industry margin). This means each and every car added to the test-drive pool has a huge potential to generate incremental revenue and sales for Ford. On top of this, cars should have been taken from the bottom 20% of bloggers based on their performance and put into the test drive pool. Converting Interest into SalesThere are a number of ways one can convert interest into sales. Without testing these Ford would not know which ones deserve more resources than others, so I am going to list these ideas, but will not elaborate as no test results are available: Using the collected e-mails to send out newsletters with special videos, personal messages and even promotional offers (one year insurance for free if you buy now†¦) Following up promotional e-mail messages with a Telemarketing effort inviting people who opened e-mails for test drives Embeddi ng promotional offers to all YouTube videosAsking newest Ford Fiesta buyers after the launch to become brand ambassadors and post their positive experiences on their personal social media circles (Facebook, twitter, YouTube).I think not using fresh, new buyers for a product for future testimonials is a lost opportunity Promoting the opportunity of test-drives in all social media channels and in Point of Sales more aggressively for a set period of time (Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook) – (assuming the issue with lack of cars for test drives has been corrected) Partnering with selected car dealers agreeing that they would fill their full car park with Ford Fiesta’s for a two week period and no other cars would be placed on their premises (based on the successful Heineken pub case)Sending direct mail packages to selected previous Ford users if such list is available, whose cars are about to reach a certain age (5-7 years) with a message that it is time to change. The list needs to be well selected, assuming that we target people who are in need of a B category car Campaign in high-schools or around the teen-age target audience (teenage car show? ) building messaging on Ford’s highest safety perception in 2009 & 2010 listed in the case study Closing Remarks Although the case is set two months into the Fiesta Movement, as the team evaluates just the first set of metrics and seemingly they are behind target on their most crucial metric: number of test drives, we already know that Ford decided to continue the Fiesta Movement and thus created a unique campaign that left everybody much (!) wiser about marketing in the digital space and proved everyone that social media has tremendous potential for business organizations.Ford Fiesta became the company’s best performer, far exceeding the company’s expectations, helped turn around not just Ford’s business performance but stock performance as well (Exhibit D). This is probably becau se the campaign worked with a perfect idea of identifying and using capable individuals who are able to generate a steady-stream of content to raise interest level AND who are positively motivated to share their experiences when a Ford Fiesta is in their daily lives. This combination created tremendous market receptivity.We now also know that the effects of the campaign are beyond any imaginations or forecasts*:†¢Ford sold 10,000 cars in the first week of sales for the fraction of the cost of a national TV campaign†¢The campaign generated over 30,000 original content, 40,2 million Twitter and Facebook impressions and 229 million consumer engagements†¢Produced over 50,000 requests for more information from people who never used a Ford before†¢The campaign also generated high profile media coverage in outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today and CNET. According to Ford’s research, 60% of the public is now aware of the Fiesta brand even though the vehicle has not yet debuted, a metric that would have cost $50 million in traditional media spend to achieve. (*Enhanced Online News, 2010 July: Action Marketing Group Awarded Golden Effie for Ford Fiesta Influencer Campaign)

buy custom Site Visit Report essay

buy custom Site Visit Report essay Introduction The element of religion can be evident over the world and throughout the history of mankind. It has developed to become one of the largest factors that influences the culture, beliefs and traditions of humanity. Therefore, from the civilization period to the modern era, religion is evident at all levels of life cycle. It is the pattern of practices and beliefs which are important in bringing out the specific characteristics of a community that are regarded as ultimate and secret part of life (Van 5). In order to cognize the essence of religion, it is crucial to integrate into traditions of a given community, analyze them, so that first-hand experience can be acquired. In this regard, I together with a fellow student visit the Wat Buddha Smakidhan Temple with a fact finding mission concerning the religious organization as well as the activities of the Columbus people. This paper gives a description of the experiences that we underwent during our visit to the Wat Buddha Smakidhan Templ e. Description of the visit to the Wat Buddha Smakidhan Temple Physical setting The Wat Buddha Smakidhan Temple is located at 3296 Watkins Rd. Columbus, OH 43207 US. It has serene and quiet environment which can be compared to a retreat center. On entering the temple, there is a comfortable area that is used by visitors as a resting place. The main meditation hall is located inside of the building, having neatly laid cushions on the floor. There is also such religious artifact as the white statue of Buddha with flowers arranged close to it, accompanied with small votive candles on one end of the statute. The flowers known as the lotus are taken from the muddy waters of Columbus and act as a symbol of Buddhism. There are a hand-bell and a drum that are strategically located in the front area of the meditation hall as they used in the course of the prayers during the day. The participants The experience in the temple was one of the best I ever head. It gives an opportunity to interact with people of different culture and religion including men, women and children. The monks play a specific role in taking care of the Wat Buddha Smakidhan Temple. Men are responsible for cutting the grass around the building, cleaning its interiors and taking an active part in the ceremonies. There are also laymen and laywomen whose role is to prepare foods as the monks pray. The women are responsible for preparing plates with food for the monks contained in alms bowls. A majority of the participants are monks while the number of nuns is lower. Children serves as the monks attendants while helping in carrying alms bowls and cleaning the rooms where the monks stay. Women wear white robes covering their heads and the rest of the body. Elements of the event The typical day at the temple started at 5 a.m., followed by prayers at 5.30 a.m. At 6.30 a.m., the monks bring the alms. The sermons are conducted in the main temple which is prepared in advance by middle aged women. While praying, everyone is required to put the palms together as crouching three times. After the prayers, meals are served and monks taste the food from each plate before the rest can start eating it. Some of the rituals they take include pouring holy water in memory of the deceased. There is no music within the precincts of the temple, with the exception of drum and a hand-bell. Analysis of what was learnt from the visit to the Wat Buddha Smakidhan Temple Given the research that was conducted with the purpose of studying the behaviors of the monks and other people in the temple, one can assume that the activities and actions that were done were in compliance with what was expected (Wat Buddhasamakidham n.d.). To my mind, this experience was very useful as it enabled me to understand the speecific features of the people who attend the temple.. They can be depicted as god-fearing ones with a unique culture that is characterized by the combination of earnest morality and deep meditation. Also, the experience was fairly distinct from other events taken place in Christianity and Muslim. The main idea that I understood after visiting the temple is that person should follow his/her own heart and wisdom but not what the teacher always says. In addition to this, the specific community does not worship or obey a given God but pays allegiance to the Buddhist image with regards to what it distinctly represents. The experience at the Wat Buddha Smakidhan Temple was very unique taking account the nature of the worship through which the monks and participants go. In other religions, people believe in a supernatural being, while the religion of the Columbus people is based on the belief that the Buddha exists. The misconception that was developed before the visit to the temple is that the individuals in this community worship statutes and pay allegiance to the existence of a supernatural being. However, the obtained experience opened up the understanding such supposition was wrong. This characteristic makes the worship experience distinctly Buddhist. The religious aspect was brought out by offerings of incense and flowers to the Buddhist statute. Also the prayers that are conducted by this particular community are of the form of a private conversation with a supernatural being represented by the statute. Conclusion The experience gained at the temple has a clear connection with the Religious Studies and Theology topic. This is because it was related with religion and idea of how specific communities depict religion. Also, given that theology involves the study of religious beliefs and the nature of God, this experience was crucial in representing the specific religious behavior, traditions and beliefs and how it shapes the way of peoples life. Buy custom Site Visit Report essay

Titration is a method to find out how much acid would neutralize an alkali Essays

Titration is a method to find out how much acid would neutralize an alkali   Essays Titration is a method to find out how much acid would neutralize an alkali   Essay Titration is a method to find out how much acid would neutralize an alkali   Essay The following equation shows the neutralisation reaction between iron and potassium manganate i will be carrying out this reaction in my experiment 5Fe2+(aq) + MnO4- (aq) + 8H+ 5Fe+3(aq)+Mn+2(aq) + 4H2O(l) We made the ammonium sulphate solution with the concentration of 0.05moldm3 with the volume 250cm3 To calculate the molecular mass i added up all the elements, (Fe(NH4)2 (SO4)2 6H2O), the molecular mass is 391.90 We can calculate the number of moles by using the following formula Number of moles = concentration x volume So 0.05 X 0.025(this has to be converted dm3) = 0.0125 APPARATUS: * Volumetric flask * 10 cm pipette * 100 cm conical flask * burette * distilled water * clamp stand * standard solution * Lab coats should be worn during the practical * Eye protection should also be worn Titration Rough 1 2 3 4 Initial burette reading 28.00 26.60 26.90 26.80 26.60 Titre 28.00 26.60 26.90 26.80 26.60 METHOD 1) set up apparatus 2) fill burette with potassium manganate solution 3) get 250ml of the standard solution transfer it to a flask using a pipette 4) while swirling add potassium manganate to the solution 5) use a white tile to see a colour change (pink) 6) record the end point the first will be rough repeat method to get concordant results Results Table Titration 1 2 3 4 5 Final reading 28.00 26.60 26.90 26.80 26.60 26.60 Average = 26.60cm3 5Fe2+(aq) + MnO4- (aq) + 8H+ 5Fe+3(aq)+Mn+2(aq) + 4H2O(l) The reaction shows that 5 moles of iron II neutralises 1 mole of potassium mangnate 0.00125/5 = 0.00025 From this we can work out the no of moles of potassium mangnate 0.000251000/26.60 = 0.0093 To find the percentage of iron i used this equation Moles of iron in 25cm3/moles in 25cm3XMr = 0.069/0.466=0.14263X100 = 14.8% i checked this value and compared my result to the original value of 14.3 and noticed i wasnt far off

Tips and Tricks for Getting Your Students Attention

Tips and Tricks for Getting Your Students Attention One of the biggest challenges teachers face is getting (and keeping) their students attention. Learning to do so takes time and practice, but effective teaching requires it. Here are 20 attention signals to help get your students attention. Plus: simple strategies to get them to hang on to your every word. 20 Attention Signals Here are 20 call and response teacher attention signals to use in your elementary classroom. Teacher says, One, Two - Students response, Eyes on you.Teacher says, Eyes - Students response, Open.Teacher Says, Ears - Students response, Listening.Teacher says, If you can hear me clap once, if you hear me clap twice.Teacher says, Hear Ye Hear ye - Students response, All eyes on the queen.Teacher says, Give me five - Students respond by raising their hand.Teacher says, Peanut butter - Students say Jelly.Teacher says, Tomato - Students say Tomahto.Teacher says, Ready to Rock? - Students response, Ready to Roll.Teacher says, Hey - Students respond with Ho.Teacher says, Macaroni - Students respond with Cheese.Teacher says, Marco - Students respond, Polo.Teacher says, One fish, Two Fish - Students response, Red Fish, Blue Fish.Teacher says, Silent Guitar - Students respond by playing air guitar.Teacher says, Silent Wiggles - Students respond by dancing around.Teacher says, Hocus, Pocus - Students response is Everybody focus.Teacher says, Chocolate - Students response, Cake. Teacher says, All set - Students say, You bet.Teacher says, Hands on top - Students say, That means stop!Teacher says, Chica Chica - Students say, Boom Boom. Tips for Getting Students Attention Practice, practice, practice! Go over your attention signal until your blue in the face.Praise students for getting (and doing) the signal correctly.Make it fun! Change it up and say (or do) the signal fast, or slow, soft or loud. Non-Verbal Ways to Keep Students Quiet Tips for Keeping Students Attention Once you figure out which attention signal works best for you and your students, your next job is to keep their attention. Here are a few tips to help you do just that. Create interactive hands-on lessons - Students are more apt to stay engaged when they are actively involved in the lesson. Try a cooperative learning lesson or use classroom learning centers to keep students engaged.Get students up and moving - Help students refocus their energy by getting them up and moving. Play a learning game sitting on their desks, have them stand up while working, or take a break every thirty minutes where students get up and do a series of quick exercises.Change the scenery - The monotony of the everyday routine in the same room, learning the same way can be dull and boring for students. Once a week, change it up by teaching outside, in the hallway, or any other room other than your classroom. This is a surefire way to get and keep your students attention. More Tips and Ideas Wear bright clothesUse humor in your lessonsVideotape your lesson and play it to your classroomHave students take notesPlay background musicGive students a checklist of what they need to knowTurn the lights off while teaching a lessonHave students use a computer or iPadHave students take photos during a lesson that pertain to the lesson