Paul – Page 26 – Paul's Tech Talk

How the IATA travel pass can verify USA or other countries vaccine cards

PaulJune 9, 2021

Verification of Vaccine Cards

Several countries around the world are wanting people to have a way to verify that people who are coming into their country has gotten the vaccine. There have been a number of news articles of people who have faked the vaccine card for one reason or another usually just because they don’t feel like they need to get the vaccine. Requiring vaccine cards have never been new or original in traveling around the world. There has always been countries that require vaccines like rubella or Hepatitis B vaccine to enter their countries. We’ve seen many countries who would like to proof of vaccine and proven ways to knows that it’s not forged.

Stopping the forgery

Each country is wondering how they can stop the forgeries of vaccine cards. No country wants to have take financial responsibility for someone who might get really sick due to the covid19. This is why countries are really wanting way to provide a way to know that someone has gotten the vaccine. The problem is that some people think they really don’t need the vaccine because of herd immunity, so why are they so worried about it. It’s one way to know that their immune system has been given enough protection from getting the severe version of covid19. I am sure there are other reasons and that is what I always hear.

The IATA Travel Pass Verification

When I say that IATA could verify that each vaccine cards in the USA or other countries to be authentic, is saying something that no other airline could do. If countries are looking to verify that the vaccine cards from countries that don’t want to share their vaccine data due to laws, such as the US. They can at least do some minor things while you register for a vaccine passport on their IATA travel pass app. I’m going to talk in length about this so please be patient and maybe someone will actually implement this in the IATA Travel Pass app.

There are several ways they can verify the picture of the vaccine passport to be authentic. They can have the Iata travel pass do image searches to see if there are images that are unique or close to the same exact type that is being submitted. There are several ways you can do that:

These are only two of several ways they can search the web and find out if it is not authentic or original, from the vaccine card that is being submitted.

Images not on the Internet

What if the criminals are being sneaking and keeping these cards off the internet. What options do the Iata Pass have to verify that it isn’t be used in other countries or accounts on the IATA travel pass? This is where it gets really interesting because there are several ways that can be used to verify that the vaccine card hasn’t been used in the past. They can get the Hash Value of the picture and store it in their servers for later on. Don’t worry, the hash value doesn’t save the picture on the server but keeps a copy of the hash value so they can search for that value and probably even keeps the account that it is associated with it for security reasons.

As you can see it’s is really an easy process for phones around the world to hash a picture and send the hash to server to either use it to search for a copy or to record it so no other person can use it. I really suggest you go check out the pyimagesearch site and see all the ways that can be used to search for a duplicate hash. This would be a great resource for people to authenticate if they have a unique vaccine card or not.

Examine the Metadata

Metadata is according to Google “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data.” Basically when you take pictures with your phone, your phone records what type of phone was being used and many different things sometimes including the GPS location of the image being take. So they can examine the metadata and see a lot of stuff from the submitted picture of the vaccine card is coming from and also keep record of that information also in a database for reference for obvious reasons. They can also prevent photos being used if they have been edited before uploaded, for example there is a good little photo editor like Snapseed. It’s a great little app that can be used in Android devices to edit or change a photo.

Once it has been edited the metadata would show that it was edited by snapseed or any other photo editing software and thus should be thrown out for security reasons like that. So if someone is trying to get around the vaccine authentication they probably would have a very hard time in verifying there vaccine card.

This is what I would think should be implemented when making the IATA travel pass to help governments to know that the vaccine cards are as authentic as possible. I won’t say that people will not come up with ways to still submit forgeries, that will always be a problem. It however will make it more difficult for people to do that. It is my hope that we won’t have to use this for very long and this would just be a stop gap way to get travelers back to traveling around the world.

What do you think about this idea? Do you think they did this or do you think they will do this in the future? What’s your experience with the IATA travel pass?

How Internet of Things are changing our lives

PaulJune 8, 2021

IOT Security

When we say the Internet Of Things(IOT) it really brings about a bad thought into our minds, or at least in mine. I never really understood why someone would come up with this term because it bring a bad connotation and that can bring about a lot of hesitancy to buy the devices. It can be quite hard to understand or even harder to conceptualize the use the devices in question. IOT is in its simplest form is just that a device that needs to be connected to the internet and be able to connect to a server in some other location such as an camera that is outside to watch the property, or even a wireless connection that is used to monitor the door being locked or unlocked. This however can be bad because like any other way we have seen bad people figure out ways around this technology and use it for their own devices or against the owners. The privacy and security of the devices have been almost overlooked in the past due to the newness of the technology and how companies didn’t think about how to implement it in the right way.

IOT Benefits

Security and privacy aside right now, the benefits of using an IOT device is become easier to use. Even now the technologies associated with the IOT devices are becoming more mature and more reliable. According to IOT-Analytics There are 40+ emerging technologies from the IOT devices such as Hardware, IOT Marketplace, and even 6G technologies being developed. The IOT device helps secure out homes and our properties and also help make our lives just a little bit better each day by allowing us to let them to the small jobs in our life or makes it so we feel a little bit more secure in our own little home. The benefits allows us to automate cleaning the floor or even to communicate with machine to machine which helps speeds up processing of a certain task in the house or allows us to monitor what is going around in the house. I am not sure the interconnectivity of devices is a huge benefit but it is a benefit to some and I can’t imagine our lives not getting better in the long run. I think IOT devices and benefits have a long way to go before they will make a bigger difference in our lives.

How the digital divide can be solved

PaulJune 6, 2021

The Digital Divide

Let’s begin with the simple facts at hand, that the digital divide is just that a divide again the populations around the world that have very little change to have internet. One such organization, One laptop per Child a non profit did try to do that to help bring the digital devices and educational needs to the areas with the greatest need. It however went terribly wrong. We can only identify areas that need the digital signals and try to provide for them. This is where Elon Musk’s idea of StarLink is being conceived to do just that. This will greatly help people with low income or places that has no access to wired internet to be able to get digital signals to them. In all truthfulness, I really don’t have a lot of ideas on how to address this divide but I am sure it’s only a matter time before someone else comes up with the ideas that will make it work even better than I could imagine it.

Addressing it

Some way I guess we could address this issue is simply by making it inexpensive to countries that can’t afford to pay 100$ for the internet and or pay for the One Laptop Per Child. I would think if we can get governments around the world to embrace stuff like this and help pay for the technology or even just the internet than more people around the world would be able to access the digital devices like everyone else. I can think of maybe a few ways to help decrease the amount of the device or even just the internet to people who have little or no internet. Make it free for everyone around the world but then who’d pay for it? Who’d keep our privacy safe? Who’d make sure they didn’t misuse our information? That’s the real big question when it comes to how to make a free internet, because we will always have to worry about someone using our information for bad or even making money off of us in one way or another. Still this is just one way we can at least attempt to fix the problems with the digital divide. It isn’t going to solve every problem but at least it would make it so much easier for people to get onto the internet and we wouldn’t have as big of a divide like we do today.

How companies use Big Data and Analytics

PaulJune 3, 2021

Big data by Nick Youngson
CC BY-SA 3.0
Pix4free

What is Big Data?

The term “big data” refers to data that is so large, fast or complex that it’s difficult or impossible to process using traditional methods. The act of accessing and storing large amounts of information for analytics has been around a long time.— Sas.com (https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html)

Even that information is a little more harder to understand than we think. Big data is the use of servers with massive hard drive space and massive cpu power to use to analyze and look for patterns or maybe it is even simpler it is a bitcoin rig that is trying to find the hash to make a profit out of. Either way it requires a big amount of data and processing power to find the right hash to unlock bitcoins. This is what big data is, it has to analyze the hash and find the possible algorithms to for he bitcoin and make money for the user. It’s really a long process but the idea is simple it requires a lot of data and sending and receive of data to verify if the bitcoin is unlocked or not and each time it uses even more data to check it hashes as it tries to work out the formula for the bitcoin. This is what big data is about in a fashion.

Data Analytics

When we talk about analytics it can seem strange to say or even think that a company will use it to make a profit. It however is the thing in today’s market because most of the time, companies are trying to figure out what the user is wanting and leveraging what they want with making money. So what’s Analytics and why should I need to know about it?

Analytics is simply the process of looking for patterns in users and data to find common paths and understanding why those paths are being used.

Let’s face it, Companies want that information because they can figure out how to advertise to you or even bring more people to a landing page to convert into you buying their products or services. If they know 20 year olds like a certain vehicle or likes a movie, they will advertise to these groups of people and make sure their products are seen more widely to them so they can make a profit from these 20 year olds who didn’t know they were being used to make money from.

Websites

Most websites now are getting as much data as they can to find those common paths to help increase their profit and make money off of the web. It is always going to be that way, after all advertising is a really good commodity for those who can harness the data and leverage advertisements to people who visit their site. I say that with some understanding of this because I do this from time to time on my site and it isn’t any harder than what most think. I am constantly looking at what people are doing or where people are going on my site. This way I can get the advertisers to advertise for me and bring me some money to help support my website and help support my data needs for the site. I am hopeful that it will bring even more people to my site and bring them into my world and want to be loyal readers but in reality I also know when I have loyal readers they are more likely to support me and keep my site running in many ways. This is the nature of analytics and that is why it is so widely used. After Facebook does this and they know you are know it in one way or another. In truthfulness we really don’t have any more privacy when we are on the web because everyone is going to use that data for one purpose or another.

How LDR will change with this Pandemic

PaulJune 1, 2021

It’s Been over a year Now!

The Pandemic has hit every nation and every country hard the last months. We’ve seen a new variant to the covid19 and we even seen several companies develop a covid19 vaccine. It’s been over a year for me personally, it will most likely be 2 years if the Philippines doesn’t open up this fall or winter. I am in a LDR and I still don’t know what to expect from this government. Granted I still have to worry about my own government, but it is nothing compared to what I have been seeing from the Philippine government as of late. I guess this will be a little bit of a rant myself. I really wish everyone would get there act together and figure out a way for Fiances,GF, or BF to be able to see their loved ones.

Philippines open up already

I suspect that it will eventually open up but it been way to long and way to slow to do what is needed to open up. I know I am not living in the country or anything like that but I do think I have a right to complain because I have been patiently waiting to see my Fiance for well over a year and half. There is another petition going around to allow unmarried couples to get into the Philippines to see their loved ones. I am not against them being cautious or take precautions, in fact they make foreign nationals do a lot of stuff to verify we do not have Covid19. Let’s just be a little reasonable that’s all I am asking. We should try to make it where we can have enough time to be with our loved ones. Some Filipinos can really can get out of country due to family obligations or even because they can’t stop working because there is no way they can take time off. So I get that and I support them for doing the right thing.

It’s bound to open up sooner or later

I still think the Philippines will open up later this year maybe November or December. Although this is all speculation on my part and maybe I’ll be totally wrong. I do see things heading that way and I’ll keep preaching this until it either happens or it doesn’t happen. I know most of you have your own theories or maybe even might even see that it might be this year. I am hopeful just like everyone else but it has to open up with economy being like it is will need to open for there people to survive.

Tickets

I suspect that tickets will start to get more expensive as more countries open up. I even suspect that when the Philippines open up the air fare will start to go up. So I will be constantly looking to find those cheap tickets anywhere and everywhere I can think of. Even then I will probably be paying for the time these airlines are trying to make up for the lost revenue they had before this pandemic even started. I am sure we will see a steady spike of prices in all international travel as the air fare will be increased. Some other ways to save money is quite simply knowing when to buy and how to plan your trips. Even then it will still probably be higher than you used to get them, I can pretty much see that happening.

Finally

When each country starts to open up, you can bet there will be a rush of people to get into the country as quick as they can so they prices for tickets will be increased also. Higher demand will ultimately increase the price of the tickets on planes. So once you know, you really shouldn’t wait to find the best tickets but rather buy the cheapest one as quickly as possible or else you might be paying 3 times as much when you finally do decide to buy those plane tickets.