PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015
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Nobel Laureate Tree Planting 2013
Nobel Laureate Tree Planting 2013
Awarding of Honorary Fellowships 2013
Technion Folk Dance Troupe at the Opening Ceremony
A Quick Look at 2013 Board of Governors Events
A Quick Look at 2013 Board of Governors Events
HACKERS ahead… Technion defends cyber space.
Technion Students Hack OSPF, the Most Popular Routing Protocol on the Internet.
The attack was part of a student project in the Computer Science Department and has attracted substantial interest in two scientific conferences; the students will be awarded the Technion Amdocs Prize.
Alex Kirshon and Dima Gonikman, students in the Technion Computer Science Department, showed how to hack the OSPF routing protocol, the most common protocol on the internet. The attack was part of a student project in the Laboratory of Computer Communication and Networking. It attracted substantial interest in the two scientific conferences it was presented where it was presented. Alex and Dima, supervised by Dr. Gabi Nakibly and Itai Dabran, will be awarded the Technion Amdocs Prize for Best Project in Computer Science.
Hundreds of thousands of routers work on the internet, linking the different networks. Each router is supposed to “know” all the other routers and to “talk” to them (to obtain information about their neighbors and about networks connected to them). The incessant involvement of the routers in the transmission of this information encumbers them and diminishes their effectiveness. Hence, the internet is in fact split into autonomic systems that “talk” to each other. The routers in each such system “know” each another.
The most popular protocol for the transmission of information between routers in autonomic systems is OSPF. If it malfunctions, many messages will not reach their destination. Moreover, there is concern that these messages will reach the attacker of the protocol. Accordingly, stringent security measures are in place for the protocols of network routers.
One of the important defenses is called “fight-back”. When it is implemented – when a router recognizes that another router has sent data in its name – it immediately issues a correction.
With help from their supervisors, Alex Kirshon and Dima Gonikman “targeted” this correction. They triggered a fight-back from a router on the network, but immediately before it was sent, they sent a fight-back with false data that was received by some of the other routers. When these routers received the fight-back of the compromised router, they rejected it.
The “attacking” students also identified in advance which fight-back the attacked router will send, so that the other routers received it “without doubts or questions”. From the moment they received the “fake” fight-back, routers on the network have incorrect routing tables.
Such an attack can disrupt the entire operation of the autonomic system, prevent messages from reaching their destination and unnecessarily create substantial traffic on the network.
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HACKERS ahead… Technion defends cyber space.
Technion Students Hack OSPF, the Most Popular Routing Protocol on the Internet.
The attack was part of a student project in the Computer Science Department and has attracted substantial interest in two scientific conferences; the students will be awarded the Technion Amdocs Prize.
Alex Kirshon and Dima Gonikman, students in the Technion Computer Science Department, showed how to hack the OSPF routing protocol, the most common protocol on the internet. The attack was part of a student project in the Laboratory of Computer Communication and Networking. It attracted substantial interest in the two scientific conferences it was presented where it was presented. Alex and Dima, supervised by Dr. Gabi Nakibly and Itai Dabran, will be awarded the Technion Amdocs Prize for Best Project in Computer Science.
Hundreds of thousands of routers work on the internet, linking the different networks. Each router is supposed to “know” all the other routers and to “talk” to them (to obtain information about their neighbors and about networks connected to them). The incessant involvement of the routers in the transmission of this information encumbers them and diminishes their effectiveness. Hence, the internet is in fact split into autonomic systems that “talk” to each other. The routers in each such system “know” each another.
The most popular protocol for the transmission of information between routers in autonomic systems is OSPF. If it malfunctions, many messages will not reach their destination. Moreover, there is concern that these messages will reach the attacker of the protocol. Accordingly, stringent security measures are in place for the protocols of network routers.
One of the important defenses is called “fight-back”. When it is implemented – when a router recognizes that another router has sent data in its name – it immediately issues a correction.
With help from their supervisors, Alex Kirshon and Dima Gonikman “targeted” this correction. They triggered a fight-back from a router on the network, but immediately before it was sent, they sent a fight-back with false data that was received by some of the other routers. When these routers received the fight-back of the compromised router, they rejected it.
The “attacking” students also identified in advance which fight-back the attacked router will send, so that the other routers received it “without doubts or questions”. From the moment they received the “fake” fight-back, routers on the network have incorrect routing tables.
Such an attack can disrupt the entire operation of the autonomic system, prevent messages from reaching their destination and unnecessarily create substantial traffic on the network.
You might also like:
Stem Cells & Fertility
New research reveals that certain embryonic stem cells may substitute human eggs in conception,
Technion researchers from the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Faculty of Medicine found that cells in the fetal Amnion membrane may be a source of human eggs, according to dissertation of doctoral student Ayelet Evron mentored by the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Eliezer Shalev.
The Amnion membrane constitutes a part of the inner layer of the amniotic sac or “bag of waters” , which protects the fetus throughout the pregnancy period. Typically, upon being ruptured during the birth, and/or directly after birth, both the placenta and membranes come out of the body.
Amnion membrane cells develop at the very early stages of the life of the fetus (on the eighth day after fertilization) and are known to maintain the plasticity of embryonic cells prior to cellular differentiation. These cells have the potential of joining any one of the cell groups that later develop into different tissues in the body. To date, the capability of Amnion membrane cells to differentiate into germ cells with specific gene markers that develop into human eggs, has never been documented.
The research work was undertaken in collaboration with Dr. Shlomit Goldman at the research laboratory of Women’s Division of Gynecology and Obstetrics in the Emek Medical Center (in Afula). It uncovered for the first time that when growing hamnion membrane cells on growth medium also used in IVF (in vitro fertilization), these cells display specific signs of gene expression like those of germ cells, which develop into human eggs, at both the gene and protein levels, as well as in appearance (resembling large round cells that resemble eggs). Later, the cells express markers that mimic the characteristic of markers in human egg development, which enable division reduction upon entry (division that is essential in human egg development), and remain in this state.
Researchers still face a major challenge – for these cells to be used in substitute of human eggs, they need to properly complete the reduction process upon entry. Only after finding a solution to this problem it will be possible to check whether or not Amnion membrane cells may be used as a new source for human eggs that would be suitable for women who cannot produce them on their own.