The Invincibility Paradox – Zubin Somervell

Introduction

Information Technology and its applications have contributed

enormously to the amazing growth of International Business. The mind

would be hard pressed to put forth a single instance where

international trade without the advantages of technology is plausible.

The boom in information technology and its related services has

proved to be a shot in the arm for the process of global trade. This has

also opened up new avenues for exploration that were never thought

to be physically possible and financially feasible before. Though

multinational companies are dominating the scene, local companies

are also learning to compete effectively against them using information

technology as their force multiplier. Gone are the days when

companies needed to be deep pocketed to do well. Today any start-up

with the right idea, the appropriate tools for the job and the will to

implement the idea can make it to the big league. The paeans sung go

on and on about the advantages of information technology and the

essential role it plays in international business. The power of

computing and networking has become the backbone of the thriving

global business community today.

One of the essential factors which drive the engines of growth is the

sense of security that information technology applications provide. This

secure feeling enables the businesses to conduct transactions, transfer

funds, manage accounts, offer services, deliver solutions, take orders,

confirm payments and do everything online. The dependence of

international business on information technology has also brought out

challenges which were never before imagined. The convergence of

technology and trade has resulted in the presence of another Achilles,

invincible yet mortal. The inherent contradiction has fascinated many

and made them examine this paradox which seems to go against the

fundamental principles of nature. But it can be theoretically explained

that it is a basic tenet of existence that immortality is distanced from

invincibility.

Invincibility is defined as being too strong to be defeated or having the

power to be unbeatable. Immortality is defined as the ability to defeat

death. Mythology tells us tales of invincible heroes like Achilles and

Bhishma. They were invincible but immortality evaded them. They

could not be defeated but they could be killed. We also know of the

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gods and deities. They were immortal but they could be defeated. The

Titans subjugated the gods in Greek mythology. Mahishasuran,

Narakasuran and Kamsan defeated the gods in Indian mythology.

From times immemorial, invincibility and immortality have been at

opposite ends of the scale. This sounds a bit odd. But logically it has

been seen that defeat is the only thing that ensures constant growth

and development leading to perennial existence which can be equated

to immortality.

Adversity is the mother of evolution and necessity is the mother of

invention. Without adversity there is no scope for further improvement

and there is a phase of dull and static equilibrium which is detrimental

to advancement. Darwin in his theory of evolution said that the actual

solution to the selection of species in existence is nothing but the

survival of the fittest. This holds true even today in all situations where

the available resources are limited and the users are many.

Information technology applications are facing many threats in

numerous varying forms. The daily operations of businesses are being

threatened by more and more sophisticated dangers. The impact of

these threats on the global business scenario is very powerful and

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causes a whole lot of problems which require increasingly complex

solutions.

Review of Literature

The fascination of humankind with immortality has it’s roots in the

concept of Godhood that humans have adored, worshipped, envied

and coveted from the infancy of human existence on the planet. For

everything in the Universe, humans felt and accepted the presence of

a creator. They knew this creator must have been in existence even

before the beginning of the Universe and would be there after it’s end.

From that evolved the idea of an everlasting force that was

omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. The Holy Bible says that God

is one without a beginning and without an end. Humans have always

tried to attain immortality. Right from Adam and Eve trying to eat the

fruit from the tree of knowledge to become god-like to the quest for

the elixir of life of alchemists, the secret of eternal life has evaded the

clutches of human knowledge. But the paradoxical relationship

between immortality and invincibility has been reinforced countless

times through numerous illustrations.

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In Indian mythology, there are incredible ideas like the Brahmastra

and other astras or divine weapons of war, the vimanas or aerial

transport machines, the formations of battle, the mobile fortifications

and military manoeuvres which once seemed just illustrations of the

poetic flights of fancy of the authors. But now with the advances in

science and technology we are able to equate the astras with weapons

of mass destruction or tactical nuclear warheads, the vimanas with

fighter aircraft and the mobile fortifications with tanks. So it is

undeniable that the ancients were wiser beyond our wildest dreams

and had access to amazingly advanced sources of knowledge which

even now is beyond the grasp of our most technologically advanced

nations. It is also becoming clear that the so-called ‘myths’, as they

were dismissed derisively earlier, are factual recordings of historical

occurrences. So the Indian epics like the Ramayana and the

Mahabharata are no longer imaginative narratives but authentic

accounts of ancient history. Adam’s Bridge between India and Sri

Lanka is undeniable proof of the exploits of the army of Rama on their

rescue mission to Ravana’s Lanka. Though this might seem to be a

digression, the implication is that if these are true then the rest of the

facts in these epics are also undeniably true.

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Coming back to our thread of discussion, we see that even during

those times, there were two distinct bands of people – the immortals

and the invincibles. Bishma, Drona and Vaali were invincible in battle

but they were all killed. On the other hand, the Pandavas were

vulnerable and could be defeated but they came out on top. Similarly

Rama lost his kingdom and had to rely on the help of the Vanaras to

win against Ravana. In the western world, the Son of God, Jesus

Christ, had to die and rise again from the dead. He was defeated but

he was immortal. So we can very safely assume that it is not a new

phenomenon that invincibility and immortality are at opposite ends.

Coming to another source, we see that in The Matrix, Neo is at first

beatable even though he is the last hope of the free humans in Zion.

The movie has at it’s core the same concept which is encapsulated in

the epics. The moment Neo becomes invincible, his shot at immortality

is void. Finally we see that to defeat Agent Smith, the rogue

programme, he has to submit himself to the will of the very machines

against which he was waging war in the first place. This is a paradox

within a paradox. The rogue programme runs amok and the machines

and the human anomaly come together to regain control. Such

paradoxes are a part of life as we now must unquestioningly accept.

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Another illustration according to Joseph S. Nye, Jr. is the lone

superpower today. Twenty years ago, it was thought that after the end

of the cold war, in terms of militarily might the USA was in decline and

that Japan had won on all fronts where economic progress was

concerned. Many hoped that the USA would follow the UK in imperial

decline because of the unilateralism and triumphalism it followed.

There was a complacence and arrogance which was emphasized by the

US’ unilateral actions in many international crises. Since Rome, no

other nation has dominated over the other nations in terms of military

power. Today the USA is more than a super power, a hyperpower, so

great that the American military budget is equal to the budgets of the

next eight countries combined and the American economy is equal to

the size of the next three countries combined.

But this sense of invincibility has been rudely shredded by a dozen

desperados with four or five commercial aircraft. The American

hegemony is being more forcefully opposed today all over the world

today than even during the height of the cold war. The aura of

invincibility is vanishing with once ignored economies like China and

Brazil competing with the US for global success. It does not mean that

the destruction of the US is imminent. But it implies that unless the US

is defeated, it could be destroyed.

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In Bach’s Illusions, he says the final conclusion of a person’s life is his

death. Unless he dies, his purpose in life is not fulfilled. He further

adds that what for some is the death of a caterpillar is for others the

birth of a butterfly. A metamorphosis has to occur to cause

development. Thomas Bulfinch in his Age of Chivalry speaks of the

invincibility of King Arthur and of his ultimate end. Considering all

these it is hard not to come to a conclusion that the paradoxical

relationship between invincibility and immortality has been dealt with

in much detail and that it has been accepted as an inevitable part of

life.

Methodology

Since this topic is a bit abstract, a sincere effort has been made to

explain it. The materials used for this study are mostly secondary

sources. No primary data was collected used because the topic does

not justify the use of any primary data. The data collection was done

using only the internet. The major tools used for data collection were

the Google site and the Wikipedia site. The data is analysed and used

in the means thought most cohesive. The structure of the paper is a

bit crude because there is no possible “correct” or “perfect” way in

which this collection of apparently irrelevant material from seemingly

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unrelated fields can be put together. The data collected has been used

only to illustrate only the topic concerned and has no scope or

meaning beyond what it means here. Nothing should be read between

the lines and attributions to anything unrelated to the topic are not

implied directly or indirectly.

Again, this is not a topic where there is quantifiable data or something

which can be plotted onto graphs and charts. The assumption which

pervades the entire paper is to ensure that the reader understands,

accepts and acknowledges the views expressed in the paper as

plausible and probable. It is impossible to argue out all possible angles

of any topic and there will always be such limitations even in the best

researched paper. There are always exceptions to the rule. Some of

the material used might seem to be twisted out of context and used to

justify the views presented. But care should be taken to remember

that all data collected were done with the view to strengthen the

arguments for the case and the counterpoints are just to present a

balanced view. There are also certain inadequacies in the data

collected because many worthy references which might have been

added to this paper were ignored. This was because it is physically

impossible to go through the 372,000 references thrown up by a single

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search. Within certain limits, the subject has been dealt with as

comprehensively as possible.

The Invincibility Paradox

The information technology industry has today become one of the

primarily targeted industries because of the extreme vulnerability it

exhibits. The major problems faced by the information technology

industry include piracy, reverse engineering, hacking and viruses.

These and various other issues have forced developers to outthink

potential malevolent threats. The reason why issues like a virus

outbreak or software piracy hog the limelight is that the entire

international business community has become more and more

dependent on the IT industry for most of their needs. So anything that

affects popular software is likely to affect all the millions of users who

depend on that software for their livelihood. For example, Microsoft

has for long been the invincible player in operating systems especially

with its Windows line. It’s domination in some markets is so strong is

that the competition’s market share is in decimal points. This strength

of Microsoft has led it to become complacent and arrogant – the same

two characteristic traits attributed to the lone superpower. The

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invincibility it portrayed has been torn to tatters by hordes of hackers

and Windows is the most targeted OS by almost all viruses, worms,

Trojans and malicious software.

The ease of use which makes windows so appealing to it’s users is also

it’s greatest flaw. Lax security and the secrecy shrouding it’s source

code has made it difficult for other companies to write protective tools

thus making the users the victims. Pouncing on this opportunity open

source software like Linux is being widely accepted today and used as

a substitute for Windows. In the Server segment, Windows NT and

Windows Server have lost ground considerably because they are not

as good as they have to be. The feeling of undefeated pride made

Microsoft a bit lethargic when it came to supplying patches, warning

about flaws, preventing security lapses and providing updates.

Also, Microsoft Windows is a kind of lumbering mammoth nearing

extinction. For every single useful programme in it’s array, there are at

least ten useless programmes which a user does not need. This clutter

of junk goes on accumulating. Another major problem with Windows is

the way in which it insists on saving your every move. This also goes

on adding to the bulk and might also compromise your privacy. The

updates are just patches on a leaking roof and the entire

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superstructure is sure to come crashing down. Now a new update to

the Windows line is coming up. Windows Longhorn a.k.a Vista is said

to incorporate a new file system WINFX, a communications

infrastructure INDIGO and a new graphics engine AVALON. There are

also numerous security features like an inbuilt firewall, anti-virus

security, User protection and many other frills. Considering Microsoft’s

penchant for springing nasty surprises, we can only hope that it keeps

it’s word. The beta version release had already been postponed to

June. So the commercial release will be available only in late 2006.

The illustration here is that Microsoft has to constantly evolve newer

and better products to stay in the race.

The threats earlier mentioned may be examined in detail. In

Information technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that

spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or

documents. Thus, a computer virus behaves in a way similar to a

biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells.

Extending the analogy, the insertion of the virus into a program is

termed infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not

part of a file) is called a host. Viruses are one of the several types of

malware or malicious software. In common parlance, the term virus is

often extended to refer to computer worms and other sorts of

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malware. This can confuse computer users, since viruses in the narrow

sense of the word are less common than they used to be, compared to

other forms of malware such as worms. This confusion can have

serious consequences, because it may lead to a focus on preventing

one genre of malware over another, potentially leaving computers

vulnerable to future damage.

While viruses can be intentionally destructive (for example, by

destroying data), many other viruses are fairly benign or merely

annoying. Some viruses have a delayed payload, which is sometimes

called a bomb. For example, a virus might display a message on a

specific day or wait until it has infected a certain number of hosts. A

time bomb occurs during a particular date or time, and a logic bomb

occurs when the user of a computer takes an action that triggers the

bomb. However, the predominant negative effect of viruses is their

uncontrolled self-reproduction, which wastes or overwhelms computer

resources. Today viruses are somewhat less common than network-

borne worms, due to the popularity of the Internet. Anti-virus

software, originally designed to protect computers from viruses, has in

turn expanded to cover worms and other threats such as spyware.

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Prior to the arrival of the hybrid, worms were the fastest growing form

of threat (see chart at right), and later became a key piece of the

hybrid threat’s foundation. A worm is a software program that

propagates, by itself, across a network. Unlike viruses or Trojans, it

executes on a system without human intervention, and typically

performs a task in which it attempts to find other potentially

vulnerable systems. It enters a system by exploiting bugs or

overlooked features in commonly used network software already

running on the target, using an automated approach very similar to

those employed by human attackers. Worms often exist purely in

memory, avoiding the file system and making them invisible to file-

scanning antivirus software.

Trojans are named after the mythical Trojan horse. Like that famous

masquerade, Trojans appear to be a useful piece of software, but carry

a dangerous payload that executes on the target computer with all the

privileges of the user. A Trojan does not reproduce on its own, so it

does not spread without assistance. Like a virus, however, it relies on

fooling the user into running it as trusted software. Hacking is done by

a brilliant computer programmer or technical expert who uses the

skills to circumvent security systems, intrude into networks, break

codes and enter servers. The problem with hacking is that it might be

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done by anyone using a single node connected to the internet. With

the proper tools, a hacker is a deadly threat to security.

Reverse engineering is the process of taking a software program apart

and analyzing its workings in detail, usually with the intention to

construct a new program that does the same thing without actually

copying anything from the original. Reverse engineering is commonly

done to avoid copyrights on desired functionality, and may be used for

avoiding patent law, though this is a bit risky. Reverse engineering is a

often used by military, in order to copy other nations' technology,

parts of which have been obtained by intelligence operations. It was

often used during Second World War and Cold War. Reverse

engineering software or hardware systems for the purposes of

interoperability, for example in order to support undocumented file

formats or hardware peripherals, is mostly believed to be legal, though

patent owners often aggressively pursue their patents. Other purposes

of reverse engineering include security-auditing, removal of copy

protection, circumvention of access restrictions often present in

consumer electronics and customisation of embedded systems. One

very famous case of reverse engineering was the first non-IBM

implementation of BIOS. The Samba software, which allows systems

that are not running Microsoft Windows systems to share files with

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systems that are, is a classic example of software reverse engineering,

since the Samba project had to reverse-engineer unpublished

information about how Windows file sharing worked, so that non-

Windows computers could emulate this. Reverse engineering of

software can be accomplished by various methods. The two main

groups of reverse engineering is analysis through observation of

information exchange (most prevalent in protocol reverse

engineering), disassembly using a disassembler, or decompilation

using a decompiler.

These threats are being repulsed successfully by using software and

hardware technologies like Antivirus, Firewalls, Access restriction

methods, Encryption and Intrusion detection systems. Anti-virus

software consists of computer programs that attempt to identify,

thwart and eliminate computer viruses and other malicious software.

Anti-virus software typically uses two different techniques to

accomplish this. They are examining (scanning) files to look for known

viruses matching definitions in a virus dictionary and identifying

suspicious behaviour from any computer program which might indicate

infection Additionally, antivirus cleanup focuses on removing infected

files, quarantining them or healing them. With hybrid threats installing

backdoors, applying new vulnerabilities, and modifying the system,

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antivirus software lacks the ability to patch and protect against these

types of damage.

A firewall is a piece of hardware or software which functions in a

networked environment to prevent some communications forbidden by

the security policy. It has the basic task of controlling traffic between

different zones of trust. Typical zones of trust include the Internet (a

zone with no trust) and an internal network (a zone with high trust).

The ultimate goal is to provide controlled connectivity between zones

of differing trust levels through the enforcement of a security policy

and connectivity model based on the least privilege principle. Network

security analysts distinguish between a personal firewall, a software

application which normally filters traffic entering or leaving a single

computer; and a traditional firewall, normally running on a dedicated

network device or computer positioned on the boundary of two or

more networks or DMZs. Such a firewall filters all traffic entering or

leaving the connected networks. Firewalls determine whether to block

or allow network traffic by simply looking at TCP/IP packet headers to

determine if the packets are in accordance with predetermined

security policy guidelines. They do not, however, examine the data

load within any given TCP/IP network packet. Therefore, firewalls in

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general do not have the capability to recognize malicious code, nor any

means to prevent its transfer to a target system.

An Intrusion Detection System or IDS is a software tool used to detect

unauthorized access to a computer system or network. This may take

the form of attacks by skilled malicious hackers, or Script kiddies using

automated tools. An IDS is required to detect all types of malicious

network traffic and computer usage. This includes network attacks

against vulnerable services, data driven attacks on applications, host

based attacks such as privilege escalation, unauthorized logins and

access to sensitive files, and malware (viruses, Trojan horses, and

worms). An IDS is composed of several components, Sensors which

generate security events, a Console to monitor events and alerts and

control the sensors, and a central Engine that records events logged

by the sensors in a database and uses a system of rules to generate

alerts from security events received. There are several ways to

categorize an IDS depending on the type and location of the sensors

and the methodology used by the engine to generate alerts. In many

simple IDS implementations all three components are combined in a

single device or appliance.

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Until there is constant threat from outside, the IT industry is going to

focus only on increasing the graphics quality of games, consuming

more RAM and propagating their monopolistic practices. These threats

are constant reminders that one single slip and they are out of the

game. All the flaws being exposed are for the good of the society as a

whole. There are also threats like credit card fraud, identity theft and

phishing. But these rely more on the interaction of humans i.e. their

curiosity or carelessness. Hence this constant yapping of the hounds

on the heels of the cattle is necessary to get them home safe and

sound.

Conclusion

The Businesses today are more networked – and more dependent on

being networked – than ever before. The advantages are obvious. With

more connections come innovative, cost-effective ways for

corporations to better serve customers, suppliers, investors and

employees. But the threats are also increasing. The businesses must

constantly be on the look out for ways to improve their services in all

respects. They must never let the threats impede their business. The

theory that being the market leader or the number one in something

guarantees perennial success is a myth. If there is a leader, there will

always be a challenger. Invincibility does not guarantee immortality. If

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immortality is the goal, defeat is inevitably part of the deal. But one

can learn from defeat using it as a stepping stone for success. The

paradoxical relationship is undeniable.

Bibliography

The Holy Bible

The Ramayana

The Mahabharata

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://google.co.in

http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/

http://www.jivemagazine.com/

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