Ransomware Mitigation in the Modern Era: A Comprehensive Review, Research Challenges, and Future Directions

Although ransomware has been around since the early days of personal computers, its sophistication and aggression have increased substantially over the years. Ransomware, as a type of malware to extort ransom payments from victims, has evolved to deliver payloads in different attack vectors and on multiple platforms, and creating repeated disruptions and financial loss to many victims. Many studies have performed ransomware analysis and/or presented detection, defense, or prevention techniques for ransomware. However, because the ransomware landscape has evolved aggressively, many of those studies have become less relevant or even outdated. Previous surveys on anti-ransomware studies have compared the methods and results of the studies they surveyed, but none of those surveys has attempted to critique on the internal or external validity of those studies. In this survey, we first examined the up-to-date concept of ransomware, and listed the inadequacies in current ransomware research. We then proposed a set of unified metrics to evaluate published studies on ransomware mitigation, and applied the metrics to 118 such studies to comprehensively compare and contrast their pros and cons, with the attempt to evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we forecast the future trends of ransomware evolution, and propose future research directions.

Math and Modernity: Critical Reflections

Besides the birth of new revolutionary concepts and methods, and of new areas of research, mathematicians, logicians, and philosophers have put into question the foundations of the discipline itself and the whole meaning of “mathematical truth.” Before then, at the end of the eighteenth century, mathematics was mainly concerned with explaining the “real world” and its laws. At the beginning of the “modern era” things started to change, sometimes slowly, other times abruptly. Abstract mathematics was no longer intimately related to the real world and its description. This abstract approach, both on research and on mathematical education, generated critical reactions in the mathematical community, and some “modern” ideas were rejected or neglected after several decades of experimentation.

A Biographic Researcher in Pursuit of an Aesthetic: The use of arts-based (re)presentations in “performative” dissemination of life stories

The (re)presentation of biographic narrative research benefits greatly from embracing the art of its craft. This requires a renewed interest in an aesthetic of storytelling. Where do we find an aesthetic in which to base our new “performative” social science? The 20th Century was not kind to 18th Century notions of what truth and beauty mean. The terms need to be re-examined from a local, quotidian vantage point, with concepts such as “aesthetic judgment” located within community. Social Constructionism asks us to participate in alterior systems of belief and value. The principles of Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics offer one possible set of convictions for further exploration. Relational Art is located in human interactions and their social contexts. Central to it are inter-subjectivity, being-together, the encounter and the collective elaboration of meaning, based in models of sociability, meetings, events, collaborations, games, festivals and places of conviviality. Bourriaud believes that Art is made of the same material as social exchanges. If social exchanges are the same as Art, how can we portray them? One place to start is in our (re)presentations of narrative stories, through publications, presentations and performances. Arts-based (re)presentation in knowledge diffusion in the post-modern era is explored as one theoretical grounding for thinking across epistemologies and supporting inter-disciplinary efforts. An example from my own published narrative biography work is described, adding credence to the concept of the research report/presentation as a “dynamic vehicle”, pointing to ways in which biographic sociology can benefit from work outside sociology and, in turn, identifying areas of possible collaboration with the narrator in producing “performances” within published texts themselves.

Conclusion: The Narrow Road to Martyrdom

The conclusion of this collection of studies endeavors to recapture five major questions that this special issue of the Journal of Jesuit Studies poses on the subject of martyrdom: Is this gesture a form of imitation of Christ (or imitatio Christi) or is it itself a sacrifice? How does it get rid of the shadow of suicide or voluntary death? How do the singularity of its experience and the community within which and in the name of which it is exercised articulate? Can martyrdom be defined as a renunciation of human love, and in this sense as the ultimate step in a process of conversion? How does martyrdom take its place in the writing of the religious history of the modern era, in particular, as far as the Society of Jesus is concerned, in the historiography of the nineteenth century? These five questions open this collection of essays to a field of research that remains to be pursued.

TRANSFORMASI KOMUNIKASI LAGU GENJER-GENJER DARI LAGU POPULER KE POLITIK

Abstrak Kreativitas karya budaya melalui lagu dalam sejarah Indonesia semenjak dahulu hingga kini ternyata sangat efektif menjadi alat komunikasi perubahan sosial dan politik. Di zaman dahulu dalam tradisi budaya Jawa ada yang disebut tembang atau lagu yang dipakai sebagai sarana komunikasi untuk memberikan arah petunjuk bagi perubahan tersebut. Tembang atau lagu ternyata menjadi alat menghela pesan kesadaran publik atas berbagai persoalan yang terjadi. Kajian atas sarana komunikasi melalui lagu itu ternyata dapat menjadi penanda atas perubahan sosial politik yang menandai sebuah era zaman. Dalam tulisan ini membahas soal perubahan komunikasi sebuah lagu di era menjelang kemerdekaan Indonesia atau era modern Nusantara. Lagu rakyat Banyuwangi yang dikenal dengan nama ‘Genjer-genjer’ yang pada awal pembuatannya di zaman Jepang hanya sebatas berfungsi lagu hiburan semata, namun pada suatu waktu dalam sebuah arus zaman bisa berubah menjadi lagu yang sangat kental dengan pesan sebuah ideologi dan politik. Bahkan, lagu rakyat yang memakai syair bahasa daerah Jawa dengan dialek Banyuwangi ini, nantinya berubah dan dianggap sebagai alat propaganda yang efektif sebuah kekuasaan politik yang bersifat nasional bahkan internasional. Di masa kini lagu Genjer-genjer semakin menarik karena telah dinyanyikan oleh orang asing dengan memakai bahasa asing atau melepaskan syair aslinya. Akibatnya lagu ini yang dahulu begitu popular, kemudian dalam beberapa puluh tahun saat terjadinya perubahan rezim menjadi terlarang dan menghilang dari telinga publik, kini mulai dikenal dan terdengar semarak kembali. Adanya kenyataan tersebut, maka melalui kajian ini, publik kemudian menjadi memahami kembali arti dan nilai pentingnya sarana komunikasi dari karya budaya melalui sebuah lagu pada umumnya, serta lagu ‘Genjer-genjer’ pada khususnya. Sebuah lagu ternyata bisa sangat efektif menjadi sarana komunikasi. Lagu ternyata tak bermata tunggal, yakni hanya hiburan dan pelepas ekpresi pribadi belaka. Lagu punya banyak fungsi dan wajah. Abstract The creativity of artistic works through songs in Indonesian history from the past until now has become very effective as a communication tool for social and political change. In ancient times in the Javanese cultural tradition, a so-called tembang or song was used as a means of communication to provide directions for these changes. Tembang or song turned out to be a tool to convey a message of public awareness of the various problems that occurred. The study of the means of communication through the song became a marker for the socio-political changes that marked an era. This paper discusses the difference in the transmission of a song in the period leading up to the independence of Indonesia or the modern era of the archipelago. The Banyuwangi folk song known as 'Genjer-genjer' which at the beginning of its creation in the Japanese era was only limited to functioning as an entertainment song, but at one time in a period, it could turn into a song that was very thick with the message of an ideology and politics. This folk song, which uses Javanese rhymes with the Banyuwangi dialect, will later change and be considered an effective propaganda tool for a political power that is national and even international. Nowadays, the song Genjer-genjer is more interesting because it has been sung by foreigners using a foreign language or releasing the original lyrics. As a result, this song, which used to be so popular, then in a few decades when the regime change took place, became banned and disappeared from the public's ear, is now starting to be known and sounds lively again. With this fact, through this study, the public will then understand the meaning and value of the importance of means of communication from cultural works through a song in general, and the song 'Genjer-genjer' in particular. A song can be very effective as a means of communication. The song does not have a single eye, that is, it is only entertainment and a mere release of personal expression. Songs have many functions and faces.