#Secure System Design

[nyuway]

Secure Software Design

The process of creating software applications in a secure way is referred to as secure software design. In this guide, protection policies are incorporated at every stage of development in respect of confidentiality, integrity and availability. Among the practices carried out, provision of threat modeling, maintenance of secure coding standards, and provision of strong authentication methods are key. Data is protected by encryption whereas addressing potential threats is accomplished through the practice of code review and vulnerability scans. Using OWASP standards for instance helps an application developer to avoid some risks like SQL injection and cross site scripting attacks. In preventing such attacks, secure design encourages making the attack surface as small as possible and upholding the least privilege policy. By designing with security in mind from the beginning, there are no loose ends where user data is concerned, trust between the company and users is preserved, and the law is followed, thus creating a safe online space.

[headspace-of-horrorbrews]

Biggol Marware Lore + Refsheet. Sir why are you so Bug.

[falcyhedgehog]

One of my little roobird guys showing off their wares for sale.

More info about them below vvv

[raitrolling]

Aren't I hurting anyone? Perhaps it's time for me to tear apart For what it is I've been Denote my place within humanity Projecting by my will I've been amassing solid iron claws Ignore the rottenness My recitals will decay in a flash

Happy birthday @cloudbattrolls! my buddy, my pal, my partner in writing hilarious and occasionally deeply cursed crimes

here's your blender gremlin :]

(full view)

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Since my brain is apparently determined to talk about them, I made a Pizzaplex version of the Bonbon and Bonnette hand puppet guys and made them an older Sunny and Moon's magician's assistants. Their names are Bonbon and Bono now. They got Got by Mimic and Roxy had to go down there to get their dusty lil bodies out of there. They have the general maturity of kids and are also Small and very cute but they used to be from a fucking pirate attraction so they keep singing sea shanties and Roxy just kinda has to deal with that now I guess

[coldflasher]

okay since the montgomery 3000 clip is our snart gifset of the week, i wanna talk about my headcanon that actually the only reason len cracked the system so easily is because he figured out it had some incredibly stupid and exploitable design flaw that rendered all its fancy features absolutely useless. because it’s very common for incredibly clever people to make something really complex and cool but then overlook a very basic detail that kind of fucks the whole thing if you think about it for more than 5 seconds

because like. i love him. he’s very smart. but i do think that they kind of overstated his skillset a little bit in that ep. len’s smart and resourceful and he’s an experienced thief, but a hacker? mmm yeah, im not so sure about that. like if you look at how he pulled off his other heists, he wasn’t really hacking computer systems or whatever, it was more like, disabling basic security alarms, freezing lasers (which is... not... yeah, we’ll ignore that), lots of planning and attention to detail. but pulling off a felicity smoak level hack of an unfamiliar security system in 37 seconds? it was always a little bit silly and convenient, and i’m not mad about it, BUT i do have a better explanation for it than just “he’s such a good thief he can crack ANY security system instantly”. 

every time i watch this scene i think about this guy who picks locks on youtube. i wanna say it was thelockpickinglawyer? i can’t remember the exact video, might have been someone else, idk. but anyway, someone had asked him to try and crack open this brand new security lock that was supposed to be super secure. it was meant to be immune to being picked with a traditional lock pick. don’t ask me how, i know almost nothing about lock picking (though i did just get a copy of the CIA lockpicking guide from the international spy museum and i 100% bought it for fanfiction reasons so stay tuned, i will learn!!). but yeah idk, it was something like, the pins resist being lifted individually so you can’t manipulate them the way you usually would with a traditional rake pick, they have this special resistant mechanism, blah blah blah, like i said, i don’t remember the exact details but the point was: you cannot pick this lock. it is unpickable.

so the guy in the video describes all these fancy features that make this lock impossible to pick---and then he examines it for a second, thinks about it and then shoves a metal rod into it really hard and it IMMEDIATELY snaps open because after they’d done all the fancy shit they did to make it unpickable, they totally missed the fact that all you actually needed to do to open it was to essentially like. jab it. 

and that is how i think len cracked the montgomery 3000 in infantino street. he’s not actually an expert hacker, he just has common sense. 

like cisco is there listing all these features this system has that make it impenetrable: it’s bomb proof, it requires voice authentication, blah blah blah, and while team flash are panicking trying to figure out how to hack into this 10 million dollar impenetrable security system, len thinks about it for a second and then just. takes the batteries out.

[03349656115]

appleiphone

[sono-yume]

Did I really sign up for this?

[paxtonvaldovinos]

Smart Home Solutions at Palm Beach Audio Visions

At Palm Beach Audio Visions (PBAV), we are passionate about delivering exceptional audio visual, home automation, lighting, and technology integration solutions for residential and commercial projects. From the initial concept to the final system deployment, we are dedicated to ensuring that projects are completed on time and within budget while exceeding industry standards for quality. Our team of experienced professionals brings a wealth of expertise in the high-end market and a strong focus on building lasting relationships with our clients. Feel free to visit us!

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

*giggling and twirling my hair and sighing like I have a crush*

Welchia… she’s so… beautiful…

I wanna run her on a Blaster-infected PC and watch her work…

[jcmarchi]

RAGEN: AI framework tackles LLM agent instability

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/ragen-ai-framework-tackles-llm-agent-instability/

RAGEN: AI framework tackles LLM agent instability

Researchers have introduced RAGEN, an AI framework designed to counter LLM agent instability when handling complex situations.

Training these AI agents presents significant hurdles, particularly when decisions span multiple steps and involve unpredictable feedback from the environment. While reinforcement learning (RL) has shown promise in static tasks like solving maths problems or generating code, its application to dynamic, multi-turn agent training has been less explored.   

Addressing this gap, a collaborative team from institutions including Northwestern University, Stanford University, Microsoft, and New York University has proposed StarPO (State-Thinking-Actions-Reward Policy Optimisation).

StarPO offers a generalised approach for training agents at the trajectory level (i.e. it optimises the entire sequence of interactions, not just individual actions.)

Accompanying this is RAGEN, a modular system built to implement StarPO. This enables the training and evaluation of LLM agents, particularly focusing on their reasoning capabilities under RL. RAGEN provides the necessary infrastructure for rollouts, reward assignment, and optimisation within multi-turn, stochastic (randomly determined) environments.

Minimalist environments, maximum insight

To isolate the core learning challenges from confounding factors like extensive pre-existing knowledge or task-specific engineering, the researchers tested LLMs using RAGEN in three deliberately minimalistic, controllable symbolic gaming environments:   

Bandit: A single-turn, stochastic task testing risk-sensitive symbolic reasoning. The agent chooses between options (like ‘Phoenix’ or ‘Dragon’ arms) with different, initially unknown, reward profiles.

Sokoban: A multi-turn, deterministic puzzle requiring foresight and planning, as actions (pushing boxes) are irreversible.

Frozen Lake: A multi-turn, stochastic grid navigation task where movement attempts can randomly fail, demanding planning under uncertainty.

These environments allow for clear analysis of how agents learn decision-making policies purely through interaction.   

Key findings: Stability, rollouts, and reasoning

The study yielded three significant findings concerning the training of self-evolving LLM agents:

The ‘Echo Trap’ and the need for stability

A recurring problem observed during multi-turn RL training was dubbed the “Echo Trap”. Agents would initially improve but then suffer performance collapse, overfitting to locally rewarded reasoning patterns. 

This was marked by collapsing reward variance, falling entropy (a measure of randomness/exploration), and sudden spikes in gradients (indicating training instability). Early signs included drops in reward standard deviation and output entropy.   

To combat this, the team developed StarPO-S, a stabilised version of the framework. StarPO-S incorporates:   

Variance-based trajectory filtering: Focusing training on task instances where the agent’s behaviour shows higher uncertainty (higher reward variance), discarding low-variance, less informative rollouts. This improved stability and efficiency.   

Critic incorporation: Using methods like PPO (Proximal Policy Optimisation), which employ a ‘critic’ to estimate value, generally showed better stability than critic-free methods like GRPO (Group Relative Policy Optimisation) in most tests.   

Decoupled clipping and KL removal: Techniques adapted from other research (DAPO) involving asymmetric clipping (allowing more aggressive learning from positive rewards) and removing KL divergence penalties (encouraging exploration) further boosted stability and performance.   

StarPO-S consistently delayed collapse and improved final task performance compared to vanilla StarPO.   

Rollout quality is crucial

The characteristics of the ‘rollouts’ (simulated interaction trajectories used for training) significantly impact learning. Key factors identified include:   

Task diversity: Training with a diverse set of initial states (prompts), but with multiple responses generated per prompt, aids generalisation. The sweet spot seemed to be moderate diversity enabling contrast between different outcomes in similar scenarios.   

Interaction granularity: Allowing multiple actions per turn (around 5-6 proved optimal) enables better planning within a fixed turn limit, without introducing the noise associated with excessively long action sequences.   

Rollout frequency: Using fresh, up-to-date rollouts that reflect the agent’s current policy is vital. More frequent sampling (approaching an ‘online’ setting) leads to faster convergence and better generalisation by reducing policy-data mismatch.

Maintaining freshness, alongside appropriate action budgets and task diversity, is key for stable training.   

Reasoning requires careful reward design

Simply prompting models to ‘think’ doesn’t guarantee meaningful reasoning emerges, especially in multi-turn tasks. The study found:

Reasoning traces helped generalisation in the simpler, single-turn Bandit task, even when symbolic cues conflicted with rewards.   

In multi-turn tasks like Sokoban, reasoning benefits were limited, and the length of ‘thinking’ segments consistently declined during training. Agents often regressed to direct action selection or produced ��hallucinated reasoning” if rewards only tracked task success, revealing a “mismatch between thoughts and environment states.”

This suggests that standard trajectory-level rewards (often sparse and outcome-based) are insufficient. 

“Without fine-grained, reasoning-aware reward signals, agent reasoning hardly emerge[s] through multi-turn RL.”

The researchers propose that future work should explore rewards that explicitly evaluate the quality of intermediate reasoning steps, perhaps using format-based penalties or rewarding explanation quality, rather than just final outcomes.   

RAGEN and StarPO: A step towards self-evolving AI

The RAGEN system and StarPO framework represent a step towards training LLM agents that can reason and adapt through interaction in complex, unpredictable environments.

This research highlights the unique stability challenges posed by multi-turn RL and offers concrete strategies – like StarPO-S’s filtering and stabilisation techniques – to mitigate them. It also underscores the critical role of rollout generation strategies and the need for more sophisticated reward mechanisms to cultivate genuine reasoning, rather than superficial strategies or hallucinations.

While acknowledging limitations – including the need to test on larger models and optimise for domains without easily verifiable rewards – the work opens “a scalable and principled path for building AI systems” in areas demanding complex interaction and verifiable outcomes, such as theorem proving, software engineering, and scientific discovery.

(Image by Gerd Altmann)

See also: How does AI judge? Anthropic studies the values of Claude

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[fathimaglobo]

Top-Rated ELV Service Providers in Oman for Smart, Secure, and Seamless Solutions

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[grefetinternational]

Innovating Spaces: How Aluminium Windows and Doors are Redefining Modern Architecture in India

The architectural landscape in India is undergoing a remarkable transformation, driven by the need for sustainable, functional, and visually appealing designs. As the country embraces modern construction practices, the choice of materials has become a critical factor in shaping the future of buildings. Among the materials leading this change is aluminium, particularly for windows and doors. Lightweight, durable, and versatile, aluminium is redefining the way architects and builders approach design, offering a perfect blend of aesthetics, performance, and sustainability.

One of the key players driving this transformation is GREFET, a leading system supplier of aluminium windows and doors in India. What sets GREFET apart is its use of advanced Belgian technology, which brings precision engineering and cutting-edge innovation to the table. This technology enables GREFET to deliver products that not only meet but exceed the expectations of architects, builders, and homeowners, making them a preferred choice for modern construction projects.

The Rise of Aluminium in Modern Architecture

Aluminium has emerged as the material of choice for contemporary architecture due to its unique properties. Unlike traditional materials like wood or steel, aluminium is lightweight yet incredibly strong, allowing for sleek, minimalist designs with slim profiles and expansive glass panels. This design flexibility enables architects to create spaces that are flooded with natural light, enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of buildings.

GREFET’s use of Belgian technology takes this a step further, offering customizable options in finishes, colors, and styles to suit diverse project requirements. Whether it’s a high-rise residential tower, a commercial complex, or a luxury villa, GREFET’s aluminium windows and doors seamlessly integrate with various architectural styles, from modern and contemporary to traditional and rustic.

Durability and Performance

One of the standout features of aluminium is its durability. Resistant to corrosion, weathering, and wear, aluminium windows and doors are built to last, even in India’s diverse climatic conditions. GREFET’s products, powered by Belgian engineering, ensure superior insulation and energy efficiency. This not only reduces energy consumption but also aligns with the growing demand for sustainable building practices.

In a country where energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important, GREFET’s aluminium windows and doors offer a practical solution. By minimizing heat transfer, these products help maintain comfortable indoor temperatures, reducing the reliance on air conditioning and heating systems.

Security and Safety

Security is another area where GREFET excels. Their windows and doors are designed with robust frames and state-of-the-art locking mechanisms, providing enhanced safety without compromising on design. The integration of Belgian technology ensures that GREFET’s products meet the highest standards of performance and reliability, making them a trusted choice for both residential and commercial projects.

Sustainability and the Future

As India moves towards smarter and greener cities, the role of aluminium in construction is set to grow even further. Aluminium is 100% recyclable, making it an environmentally friendly choice for modern buildings. GREFET’s commitment to sustainability is evident in their use of Belgian technology, which not only enhances the functionality and aesthetics of their products but also contributes to a more sustainable future.

The future of architecture in India lies in the integration of innovative materials and technologies. Companies like GREFET are leading the charge by offering solutions that combine design excellence with functional performance. Their aluminium windows and doors are not just building components; they are a testament to the possibilities of modern architecture.

Conclusion

In a world where design meets functionality, GREFET’s aluminium windows and doors are proving to be a game-changer. By leveraging advanced Belgian technology, they are setting new benchmarks for modern architecture in India. As the construction industry continues to evolve, GREFET’s innovative solutions are paving the way for smarter, greener, and more beautiful spaces.

For architects, builders, and homeowners looking to redefine their spaces, GREFET’s aluminium windows and doors offer the perfect combination of style, performance, and sustainability. Together, they are shaping the future of modern architecture in India.

[lexmetech]

Website Design and Development: Lexmetech Systems Makes It Simple and Powerful

In today’s digital world, your website is your online identity. It’s where customers find you, learn about your business, and decide whether to trust you. At Lexmetech Systems, we make website design and development easy, effective, and tailored to your needs. Let’s explore how we can help you create a website that stands out and works hard for your business.

Why Your Website is Your Best Tool

Your website is like a 24/7 salesperson. It's the initial thing individuals notice when they look up your company.A good website builds trust, shares your story, and turns visitors into customers. A bad one? It can push them away. That’s why we focus on creating websites that are not just pretty but also practical and powerful.

What Lexmetech Systems Offers

Custom Designs Just for You No templates, no shortcuts. We design websites that match your brand perfectly. Your colors, your style, your vision—brought to life.

Works on Every Device Phones, tablets, or computers—your website will look great and work smoothly on all of them. No one likes a site that’s hard to use on mobile!

Easy to Use We make sure your website is simple to navigate. Visitors should find what they need quickly, without getting frustrated.

Search Engine Friendly What’s the point of a website if no one can find it? We optimize your site so it ranks higher on Google and brings more visitors.

Ready to Grow with You As your business grows, your website can too. We build sites that can handle more products, services, or features in the future.

Sell Online with Ease Want to sell products or services online? We create secure, easy-to-manage online stores that your customers will love.

We’ve Got Your Back After your website goes live, we’re still here. We offer support, updates, and maintenance to keep your site running smoothly.

Why Choose Lexmetech Systems?

We’re not just another web design company. Here’s what makes us different:

We Listen: Your ideas matter. We work with you to create a website that reflects your goals.

We Keep It Simple: No confusing tech talk—just clear, straightforward solutions.

We Deliver Results: Our websites don’t just look good; they help your business grow.

Our Promise to You

At Lexmetech Systems, we’re passionate about helping businesses succeed online. We don’t just build websites—we build tools that help you connect with your customers and achieve your goals.

Let’s Build Something Amazing Together

Your website is more than just a page on the internet—it’s your chance to shine online. Whether you’re starting fresh or upgrading an old site, Lexmetech Systems is here to help. Let’s build a website that puts in the same effort as you do.

Contact us today to get started. Your ideal website is merely one click away!

Lexmetech Systems Simple. Smart. Successful. Your Partner in Digital Growth.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

Cybercriminals are abusing Google’s infrastructure, creating emails that appear to come from Google in order to persuade people into handing over their Google account credentials. This attack, first flagged by Nick Johnson, the lead developer of the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), a blockchain equivalent of the popular internet naming convention known as the Domain Name System (DNS). Nick received a very official looking security alert about a subpoena allegedly issued to Google by law enforcement to information contained in Nick’s Google account. A URL in the email pointed Nick to a sites.google.com page that looked like an exact copy of the official Google support portal.

As a computer savvy person, Nick spotted that the official site should have been hosted on accounts.google.com and not sites.google.com. The difference is that anyone with a Google account can create a website on sites.google.com. And that is exactly what the cybercriminals did. Attackers increasingly use Google Sites to host phishing pages because the domain appears trustworthy to most users and can bypass many security filters. One of those filters is DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), an email authentication protocol that allows the sending server to attach a digital signature to an email. If the target clicked either “Upload additional documents” or “View case”, they were redirected to an exact copy of the Google sign-in page designed to steal their login credentials. Your Google credentials are coveted prey, because they give access to core Google services like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Maps, Google Play, and YouTube, but also any third-party apps and services you have chosen to log in with your Google account. The signs to recognize this scam are the pages hosted at sites.google.com which should have been support.google.com and accounts.google.com and the sender address in the email header. Although it was signed by accounts.google.com, it was emailed by another address. If a person had all these accounts compromised in one go, this could easily lead to identity theft.

How to avoid scams like this

Don’t follow links in unsolicited emails or on unexpected websites.

Carefully look at the email headers when you receive an unexpected mail.

Verify the legitimacy of such emails through another, independent method.

Don’t use your Google account (or Facebook for that matter) to log in at other sites and services. Instead create an account on the service itself.

Technical details Analyzing the URL used in the attack on Nick, (https://sites.google.com[/]u/17918456/d/1W4M_jFajsC8YKeRJn6tt_b1Ja9Puh6_v/edit) where /u/17918456/ is a user or account identifier and /d/1W4M_jFajsC8YKeRJn6tt_b1Ja9Puh6_v/ identifies the exact page, the /edit part stands out like a sore thumb. DKIM-signed messages keep the signature during replays as long as the body remains unchanged. So if a malicious actor gets access to a previously legitimate DKIM-signed email, they can resend that exact message at any time, and it will still pass authentication. So, what the cybercriminals did was: Set up a Gmail account starting with me@ so the visible email would look as if it was addressed to “me.” Register an OAuth app and set the app name to match the phishing link Grant the OAuth app access to their Google account which triggers a legitimate security warning from no-reply@accounts.google.com This alert has a valid DKIM signature, with the content of the phishing email embedded in the body as the app name. Forward the message untouched which keeps the DKIM signature valid. Creating the application containing the entire text of the phishing message for its name, and preparing the landing page and fake login site may seem a lot of work. But once the criminals have completed the initial work, the procedure is easy enough to repeat once a page gets reported, which is not easy on sites.google.com. Nick submitted a bug report to Google about this. Google originally closed the report as ‘Working as Intended,’ but later Google got back to him and said it had reconsidered the matter and it will fix the OAuth bug.

[dsp-consultants]

DSP Consultants: Enhancing Physical Security in KSA Through Comprehensive Consulting Services

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the demand for robust physical security solutions has never been greater. As the nation undergoes rapid development, driven by Vision 2030, new mega-projects, critical infrastructure, and high-profile events require advanced security measures. At DSP Consultants, we bring our expertise from Dubai to KSA, offering comprehensive physical security consulting services that help organizations assess, design, and implement integrated protection systems tailored to their specific needs.

With transformative initiatives reshaping the Kingdom—such as NEOM, the Red Sea Project, and Qiddiya—the security landscape is evolving. Infrastructure expansion in energy, transportation, and healthcare introduces heightened risks, including unauthorized access, vandalism, and terrorism. Addressing these challenges requires a strategic, multi-layered approach to physical security, and that’s where we excel. 

Our Approach to Physical Security 

We provide end-to-end security consulting services based on three key pillars: 

● Electronic Security – We design and implement state-of-the-art security systems, including CCTV surveillance, access control, intrusion detection, and alarm systems, ensuring rapid threat detection and response.

● Architectural Security – By collaborating with architects and engineers, we integrate security measures into building designs, optimizing barrier placement, lighting, and controlled access points to minimize vulnerabilities. 

● Operational Security – Beyond technology and infrastructure, we focus on training security personnel, developing operational protocols, and crafting emergency response plans to enhance preparedness. 

Our Work on Shurayrah Island 

One of our flagship projects in KSA is our work on Shurayrah Island, part of the Red Sea Project. As a key security consultant, we have played a pivotal role in designing and implementing cutting-edge security solutions to safeguard this ultra-luxury tourism destination. By integrating smart surveillance, biometric access control, and perimeter protection, we are ensuring that Shurayrah Island remains a secure and seamless environment for visitors and stakeholders alike. 

Comprehensive Security Solutions 

Our expertise covers every stage of security design and implementation, ensuring seamless integration of security systems into any project. Our deliverables include: 

● Concept & Plan Design – Crafting tailored security strategies that align with project requirements. 

● Schematic & Detailed Drawings – Visualizing and refining security system placements for optimal efficiency. 

● System Specifications & Tender Documentation – Ensuring industry-standard compliance and seamless procurement. 

● Commissioning & Supervision – Overseeing installations to guarantee optimal functionality. 

● Security Audits – Conducting assessments to identify and mitigate security gaps. Why Choose DSP Consultants in KSA? 

At DSP Consultants, we combine cutting-edge technology, industry expertise, and a commitment to excellence. Our holistic approach ensures that electronic, architectural, and operational security elements work together seamlessly. Whether it’s securing high-rise buildings, critical infrastructure, or large-scale events, we provide future-proof solutions tailored to the unique challenges of the region. 

Conclusion 

As Saudi Arabia continues its path toward economic diversification and global prominence, the role of physical security remains critical. We at DSP Consultants are proud to contribute to this transformation, delivering integrated security solutions that safeguard assets, people, and

operations. Our work on projects like Shurayrah Island exemplifies our dedication to creating secure environments that align with the Kingdom’s vision for the future. By blending innovation with strategic design, we are helping build a safer, more secure Saudi Arabia.