Projects Under Review
Due to general inactivity and a lack of overall manpower, various projects are being reviewed for closure. A long standing complaint throughout CA has been that many projects are never completed. A quick look over the existing projects will show that many have had little to no activity over the past few months. In an effort to reverse the thinning effects multiple projects have on manpower, all but the most popular and important projects are being considered for closure. However, this doesn?t mean they are being scrapped. All information collected and worked on in a project will be archived and considered for use at a later date.
CyberArmy History Project Closed
CyberArmy History Project, formerly known as CyberArmy Manifesto, will be closed and archived due to inactivity. The project started strong enough early 2001. However, due to inactivity around mid 2004, the project ceased performing. Around the beginning of 2005 attempts to rejuvenate the project began and shortly thereafter changed it?s name from Manifesto to History Project. Yet again, this project suffered from what others seem to endure, one or two active members who could not sustain the project long term. After considering the activity level of the project and it?s overall priority, it has been decided to archive the project until a later date.
Submission to /files Rejected
A recent .zip file containing an executable file was rejected due to security reasons. Members are asked not to submit executables, scripts or macros for obvious reasons. The integrity of binary executables can be difficult to confirm and increase overhead with checking. Source code is allowed, however users are cautioned to review any material thoroughly before compiling and executing.
#cyberarmy sees ChanOps Return
During the end of 2002, a decision was made to reduce the visibility of ChanOps in #cyberarmy for various reasons. As a result, auto Ops was discontinued and the majority of Staff no longer Op?d themselves unless a situation needed direct attention. However, over the last few months, the channel has seen several incidents which weren?t dealt with in a timely manner by ChanOps. As a result, IRCOPs handled the situations. This often resulted in complaints of IRCOP abuse, acting outside of the scope of their responsibilities. After reviewing the overall situation, two things were found. First, a ChanOp was not available to address the situation in a timely manner and second, some IRCOPs are in fact ChanOps, perfectly within their rights to act on a situation. However, a decision was made for Staff to take a greater role in monitoring the channel, thus reducing the burden of IRCOPs to do so. As has already been seen, the channel will now see various members of Staff OP?d in an effort to catch issues and resolve them before they get out of hand.
As a reminder, any and all complaints involving IRCOPs should be submitted to IRC at CyberArmy dot net for review.
Donations to CyberArmy
Recent inquiries lead to the discovery that the donations page had disappeared. As a result, HowToDonate was added to the Wiki. Donations can be submitted directly using paypal at CyberArmy dot net or merchandise can be purchased via the CA Store: http://store.cyberarmy.net/.
Congratulations to New Promotions!
LtKer anvar, CPTs CyberTNT, Gisterose, Ravn, LTs FiberOptix, MaDvLaD, Mycroft and 2LTs AcidIce, crtw, Darkwater685, Ladycray and Tragedy. Congratulations on the deserved recognition!
Alphaplex Challenge - Follow-up
Last month we discussed the review of the No Challenge Discussion policy and stated that an updated policy would be released this month by the ChalDev team. Gen Total released the following policy update:
In the past there has always been a complete ban on all challenge discussion related to CyberArmy challenges. This has now changed.
The Alphaplex challenge was based on the hardest parts of the Zebulun challenge, and as such requires some advanced skills, in several areas. The idea behind this change in policy is to create an environment of teamwork, help to educate CyberArmy users, and as a secondary goal, encourage more users to attempt the Alphaplex challenge. It will also bring the challenge in line with our community ideals, as stated in our mission statement, to support "free creation, development and proliferation of ideas and knowledge" and "seek to educate people".
For this purpose we have created a new forum, the "Challenge Discussion Forum". You will now be allowed to discuss solutions (within reason) to the Alphaplex challenge in this forum, and only this forum. Posting complete solutions to parts of the challenge will not be allowed, however we encourage the discussion of the skills needed for parts of the challenge, and will allow discussion of ideas.
We (the ChalDev team) reserve the right to delete any posts from this forum.
In discussing possible solutions you should also be aware that there are built-in anti-cheat mechanisms. Your password will not be the same as everyone else?s. If you share passwords (and attempt to use them) you may be automatically banned from the challenge. You are being given the opportunity to ask for hints, and discuss ideas, but if this is abused we will go back to a complete ban on challenge discussion and the forum will be removed.
Any discussion in other forums, on IRC, via CMS, or any other means may result in you being banned from the challenges.
Good Luck, and if you have any questions please contact Gen. Total or Mar. Tacheon.
Help with CAU Testing Center
Gen adtrace writes:
Ok, I'd really like to try to get CAU's Testing Center back online. If you guys aren't familiar with this project, the name is quite self-explanatory. It's intended to serve as a self-assessment station for everyone on anything IT-related. The coding has been completed for probably around 6-8 months but we've been unable to release it due to a lack of content/quizzes. CA finally completed a project, and we can't even get it out and public. Very sad..
Anyway, though anyone is free to submit a test on any subject of their choosing, I'd like to start by focusing particular attention on class logs. It's my personal belief (though I think it's shared) that having a quiz or a test on our classes would be a huge compliment to them as they can sometimes be difficult to comprehend and fully understand. You read the log/article, and then if you're curious how much you've understood or absorbed, you take the quick multiple choice test. Very simple. Very practical.
So I'd like to ask for your help. I've got approximately 15 tests that have been compiled on class logs but most are incomplete. Before a test can be approved, it requires 25 questions. Each question is in multiple choice format and should have 5 responses (though this is not required, for example, true/false questions can be asked). I am going to post this set of first quizzes in responses to this first post. From each, please feel free to comment on the existing questions or suggest new ones (the latter being much preferred) based on the related class log. Again, keep in mind 25 is the magic number. As soon as a quiz reaches 25, we can finalize it in the TC. If we can just complete this first set of 15 quizzes, we'll be able to finally launch the TC to the public.
So I hope to hear some replies. Help us get the Testing Center back off the ground. We're damn near there and just need a little help.
Following are tests yet to be completed:
Active Server Pages 101
Database Modeling and Design
Exploits 101
Form Vulnerabilities
Human Resources 101
Linux Security 101
Basic Networking Concepts 101
Paint Shop Pro GFX 101
Perl 105
VB 101
VB Scripting 101
This article was originally published by CyberArmy.net in the CyberArmy Library.
|
|