The Botnet Threat Bites Again!

Since our last Botnet post in January alot has happened. For our new readers, here is a quick introduction as to what the Beast of Botnet is capable of.

So in the next sentence we will describe what this strange word "Botnet" is. Bot (Robot) + Net (Network) = Botnet, a network of computers. I know, many complicated terms there. Blame Karel Čapek. It is what these computers do which is the horrifically scary part.


In latest news we've seen Wordpress has come under a substantial campaign of attacks from a Botnet. The attacking network utilised more than 90,000 computers to perform Denial of Service attacks or DoS attacks. Another funny word, but thats just when a website shuts down because it can't handle a huge spike in traffic, like a prolific festival website that isn't using our Participant platform for example...zing!

Below is a diagram displaying just how the seasoned Bot Herder uses infected bots to make a resource or site unavailable as hell yo!

But who cares about Wordpress? Well, it turns out this Botnet does, the perfect Botnet attackers are looking to build a more powerful system than the previous (aren't we all?) so after each attack it stands to reason the threat increases it's resources and capabilities, after all, nothing robust got that way from being wrapped in cotton wool. According to W3Techs cotton wool and jargon accounts for 95% of all Wordpress sites, thats a joke, W3 never said that, nor would they want to, they do say however that Wordpress accounts for an estimated 17.7% of all internet sites, which is frankly obscene.

It is reported that in the attack on Wordpress which occurred in mid April 2013, saw Cloudflare (security to Wordpress) fend off around 60million requests in one hour. A staggering amount of work implemented by 90,000 computers, but it gets better. The attack comes a week after Wordpress released a two step log in process. What has also got Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder of Cloudflare worried is that these attacks came from basic desktop computers and there is a distinctive chance that this attack was indeed preparation for a larger DDoS attack (new D = distributed).

For more reading about Botnet and to see where we stole the Bot Herder diagram from click here!

Follow us on Twitter to discuss this in more detail, @ParticipantUK, until next time!

The Doodle Bar & Ferret Comedy Club

The Doodle Bar was first launched as a pop up in 2009, since then it has grown at an exponential rate, playing host to a variety of quirky and interesting events. "The Doodle Bar is a space where people have the freedom to enjoy a good scribble, have a drink and hook up with some fellow doodlers. The bar is set against the backdrop of TESTBED1 - a dramatic and versatile arts and events space for creative innovation, ideas and experimentation"

Recently The Doodle bar have been using the Participant.co.uk system with positive results. The system was first used for The Ferret Comedy Club. Ferret Comedy is a FREE stand up night showcasing London's finest comedians, with occasional payed shows where the profits are donated to charity, and their not just your average comedy night, they also have a house band (ooooh) to sing the acts on stage!! Where else can you get this?! NOWHERE!

The functionality of the system allows organisers to check in attendees with an excel sheet or the Participant mobile app which can be downloaded here.

Jasmin Ford, General Manager of The Doodle Bar had this to say about the system;

"Participant is easy to navigate and the face to face support I receive is also vitally important, it's nice to know there are British based companies offering a cheaper and better alternative to the American ticketing companies that have set up shop here"

As for us, we can certainly recommend that you head down to the Doodle Bar and see The Ferret in it's faboulously furious action. We've popped down to a few events and were lucky enough to see a certain well known special guest comedian throw comedy magic dust onto the crowds, all will be revealed in the picture below.

Russel Howard getting support, from a mic stand

How a festival organiser can sabotage themselves and make it look good

Many businesses and corporations do their best to help their clients, considering the economic hardships we face in Europe not just local communities have stepped into help those most vulnerable. As far as our current research shows, the first festival to lend a shoulder to it's stricken revelers is the Burning Man festival.

The organisers of Burning man have said they to release 4,000 tickets which are heavily discounted to allow those who are struggling financially to attend. Providing adequate documentation is provided, a reveler can walk away with paying $190 for a ticket that costs $390. Excellent work Burning Man, however, the legend of the charitable festival organiser certainly isn't a freak occurrence.

A few years ago, circa 2010 as certain Michael Eavis, (pictured by us here) admitted he once let in thousands of ticketless festival goers. Often an outspoken critic of the festival Eavis has spoken publicly about his frustrations, often promoting the "jump over the wall" tactic that many do not need a second invitation to. The very mind set of festival ticketing has developed a moral compass, however is it wrong to deny people access, turn a blind eye and denounce revelers who paid for tickets. 

It is certainly a divisive question, however Eavis says (paraphrased) that festivals would lose their feel if there weren't people there who had not paid to enjoy the experience, it is very much a classic Michael Eavis, like it or lump it scenario  After all, by his own admission, he's now rich beyond his wildest dreams, after a point, who cares?

Well, the people of Brazil care, by 2016 Brazil would have held the two largest festivals of Sport on the planet, the Olympics in 2016 and the World Cup in 2014. Out of the some 3 million tickets available for the events 10% will be estimated to be sold at a cut price. South Africa did this very tactic also, where 50% of the South African population lives below the poverty line, the organisers and FIFA sold tickets for £13, creating a loss for each ticket sold. Furthermore,  Brazilian organisers have said they do not want discounted tickets, rather, they want to give away free tickets. These free tickets will be given members of society on especially low income, for example, the indigenous population and other disadvantaged demographics. However the buck won't stop there, tickets for foreign travelers will also be extremely cheap compared to that of other world cups as Brazil have identified that in order to stimulate tourism they low cost ticket price will aid in offsetting other travel and accommodation costs.

"You've got mud in your welly, let me get that off for you"

The benefits from E-Ticketing Part 2

A few weeks ago we began discussing just how amazing E-ticketing (ET) actually is, and after discussing it in the office over the past few weeks we've come to realise that at first, as if it was possible, we may have underestimated just how incredibly influential and amazing ET has become.

Firstly! You will never lose your ET. You may lose your telephone, your email address password, even your marbles, however your ticket will be secure for an awfully long time to come. This means that you don't have to reprint, if that is, you've had to print in the first place.

The major factor that we discussed in our last post was just how much the environment benefits from e-ticketing. For example, the International Air Transportation Service says that 50,000 trees would be saved a year.

Apart form the environmental cost, we also see an increase in usability  particularly as the ticket is stored on our ergonomic friends, the smart phone, but we also see a huge reduction in administration, meaning no more printing and sending slips of confirmation to clients and attendees, and most of all, an e-ticket is virtually impossible to copy. Which leads us onto our last point, by introducing e-tickets to your events and courses you are giving your customer more security. Which can never be a bad thing!

Thank you for reading.

Professor Participant.

Benefits of e-ticketing - Part 1

Today we discuss one of the benefits of e-ticketing or 'ET'. We will focus on a variety of different industries that use ET and how they each lay claim to heralding a new era of technology. However how easy is it to send and scan e-tickets and what benefits do they bring?

The Airline Industry, the multifaceted face of travel would unceremoniously like us all to believe that they have paved the way for e-tickets. The past week alone has seen an incredible amount of marketing jargon coming form more airline companies in a thinly veiled attempt at diverting attention from their inherent carbon unfriendliness.

The companies in this over burdened sector have found a new way to make their customers forget they are actually riding in expensive, fuel guzzling crafts of metal and fiberglass. But it's OK, they do e-ticketing, so its financially and morally OK to be burning fossil fuels with seemingly no return on investment.

In reality, Airline companies were arguably the pioneers of ET, however much like Apple, they may have invented the 'app' but open source engineered them to be what they are today. Open source is simply a pragmatic view that software should be distributed for FREE! The link in "FREE!" is our app. Which obviously costs nothing.

The other ET

So to answer the question of; "Just how easy is it to distribute and scan your own e-tickets?" Well, it's very easy, with our simple set up you can create an event site to distribute your tickets within minutes! Then download our app to start scanning in your attendees. Simple. If you don't believe us call on 020 88973 2591 and we'll talk you through it.

We have been championing the e-ticket/carbon friendly cause for nearly 5 years, and we're still finding ways of allowing our customers to have the ability to send and scan without having to buy or rent all of the unnecessary and over priced hardware. Our scanning app is approximately £300 cheaper and equally as secure as a hand held USB scanner, and it lives in your phone! YAY

Gone are the days of additional rental charges for scanners! Gone are the days of long wires connected to laptops and scanning terminals, join us on our journey to easy event management and embrace the technology.

Regards,

Professor Participant

Tech Bosses Who Lost It. Part 3

With little introduction, here is John McAfee. Pioneer of antivirus protection, wanted criminal and disgustingly eligible for this, the third part of our series.

When we say pioneer, we mean pioneer, he is arguably one of the first to trade in ecommerce, driving to computer owners in need of anti virus help in the 1980's which eventually sold to Intel for just under $8 Billion Dollars. Nothing to be sniffed at.

With an insatiable appetite for, it seems everything, McAfee has ventured into many interesting ventures. And here we present the top three not so venerable ventures that McAfee unsucssefully ventured in. Straight in at number three we have...





3. Aerotrekking

Aerotrekking a sport which involves a hang glider, a human, and a small rear facing propellor as demonstrated in the link. It is a sport, of sorts, created by the man who brought us instant messaging (yes he did that also). McAfee, short on adrenaline has named this winged engine "Icarus", perhaps symbolic of McAfee's own spectacular fall from grace.

Why is this a failed venture? Well, in 2006 it was reported that one of McAfee's engine strapped to a glider things had possibly malfunctioned and caused the death of a highly experienced pilot. An ex American Air Force pilot no less, no facing a $5-6 million lawsuit, this is McAfee's inaugural entry into the top three "Not so venerable ventures that McAfee unsuccessfuly ventured in".



2. Pharmaceutical Company

In at number two is McAfee's Medicine company, allegedly started with a 17 year old girlfriend, was designed to develop a anti viral made from naturally occurring substances and alkaloids. We suggest you glance at the linked article which is interesting to say the least. Unfortunately for McAfee the local authorities in Belize (where McAfee decided to move to as he was done to his last $4 million) thought that this was actually a cover for a meth lab, hardly surprising considering McAfee's past.

5 months after the raid on his house and lab McAfee was implicated to be the prime suspect in the murder of his next door neighbor. These claims are denied by the dotcom king who maintains that the President of Belize and police officials made an assassination attempt on McAfee but misidentified the house and killed his neighbor instead...sounds legit.


1. Every investment he ever made
Straight in at number 1 has to be every investment McAfee has ever made. He was, or rather is entrepreneurial however, successful serial investor, he is not. Serial investor, he certainly is. Unfortunately McAfee is all but broke, with latest news clearly indicating that he is looking towards Hollywood for a revival, having sold his story and film rights, the world has not heard the end of John McAfee. Prof P's prediction; another train wreck awaits.

Tech Bosses who lost it. part 2

Masayoshi Son, serial investor, serial looser?

Masatoshi Son is a man of two halves, for those eagle eyed readers among us, yes his name is part Korean, part Japanese, and it becomes more interesting.

Many people in the west have not heard of Masatoshi Son before, and it may come as a surprise that he is infact the second richest person in Japan, dubbed the East's answer to Bill Gates. Not because he can jump over a chair without a run up, but because he is, infact a serial investor with a extensive track record of what on the face of it looks like wild gambling that often reaches disgustingly lucky heights. But is it luck or the intuitive mind that has allowed Masayoshi Son to attain lofty billionairdom, 

Early Life 

Son was sent to the United States as a teen to learn English and study, it is reported he spent the vast majority of his time making money opposed to more conventional classroom learning. His first business was to import and lees pacman machines to bars and cafe's in California. Son began to rise when he struck up a deal with Forrest Mozer who invented the first ever rudimentary speech synthesizer in the early 1970's.

Fast forward to present day, Son's multiple investments have seen him bamboozle market analylists the world over. He is zealous, eager and above all visionary in his procurement and buying power. However, recently, Son has been setting in the land of the rising sun.

     

Masayoshi Son before he purchased spec savers

Present Day


After his acquisition of Softbank, of which Masayoshi is CEO he introduced with the iPhone to Japan, no mean feat, he also purchased Vodafone, a mean feat. It seems Masayoshi knows full well the cycle of investment. Take for example Softbank's acquisition of Sprint last year. Sprint's share price rose by a smug 14% whereas SoftBank's share dropped to a staggering 17% in a single day. Horrific news indeed, considering that Groupon's CEO just committed economical harikiri for a 77% share drop, Masayoshi should have at least removed a digit or two, no? Well, infact no.
SoftBank eventually recovered, however their bounceback-ability is henceforth limited. MAsayoshi's purchase of Vodafone has sent the company reeling into a spiral which it has not fully recovered from. Although there are signs that Masayoshi has no plans in losing further. Rather, it seems Son's dream of SoftBank dominating the market place are receiving much attention. In 2010 Son furthered his plan for world dominance, all be it posthumously.


"A Person's life is over in 50 - 100 years, but a company lives on through the people it is composed of and SoftBank group has to survive even after I'm gone."


Strong words for a man who lost $70 billion, it seems Masayoshi is indeed the CEO that everyone would like to have, shrewd and modest, ethical and honest.
As a demonstration of Son's humanitarian spirit he has agreed to cover the living costs of a few residents of Tamura, which is one of the cities hardest hit by the Japanese Tsunami. By a few residents we mean 1,200 residents, he also pledge to give those left orphaned by the Tsunami a free phone with all bills paid for until the age of 18.

Indeed it has never been so true that one man's loss is another's gained.

Thank you for reading and we hope you enjoy the weekend.

Regards,

Professor Participant