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A Guide to Cryptocurrency Trading Tools – Legal Reader

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As an emerging and continually evolving sector of the financial markets, cryptocurrency

offers huge potential to traders of all levels. Only a few years ago, crypto trading was largely limited to the spot markets, with little opportunity to short trade and profit from bear markets.

These days, cryptocurrency traders can choose from an array of different ways to gain exposure to digital assets. Cryptocurrency futures are booming, with open interest having reached an all-time high in late August. Options are also a fast-growing market, while decentralized finance has opened up a whole new sub-sector of yield farming.

However, no matter how you choose to trade or invest in crypto, a certain amount of risk is inevitable. Therefore, rather than getting blinded by the possibilities of profits, the most successful traders focus on how to mitigate the downside. The best way to do this is by making use of the multitude of trading tools available, either via exchanges or via external sites.

Exchange trading tools to offset risk

In the 24/7 cryptocurrency markets, where volatility is the norm, it can be a risky proposition to walk away from an open position. A flash crash or sudden price spike could wipe out your profits in seconds. Therefore, many exchanges offer conditional ordering, enabling you to configure an optimal exit point where youll either take profit or stop loss.

HollaEx is the first open-source exchange that gives traders the ability to make their own order warning pop ups that will trigger when a trade goes beyond your predetermined set amount. This simple but effective measure helps prevent small typos from turning into big losses.

Phemex is the first exchange to pioneer bracket ordering, allowing traders to place a limit order, with take-profit and stop-loss orders that only become active once the primary limit order is fully filled. They effectively serve as a One Cancels the Other (OCO) order.

A feature like this can help a trader to maximize profits and decrease losses within the same order. It reduces the risk that if they arent keeping an eye on the markets, they may risk missing the optimal exit price.

Perhaps not quite as automated, but in a similar vein, Bybit recently rolled out its strategy alerts feature. This is a customizable feature that will send an alert to users, via the exchanges app, when a particular market event occurs. Along with specific price alerts, it can also notify traders regarding particular market trends, or if theres a turning point from bull to bear markets.

Trading bots

Many traders prefer to go full-on with the hands-off approach and automate their trading using bots. Using a bot can reduce the burden of repetitive tasks, achieve pinpoint precision in timing a trade, and simplify complicated sequences of trades.

Deciding which bot is right for you very much depends on your trading style. For example, if youre trading relatively infrequently and just want a bot to rebalance your portfolio, then Shrimpy is a solid choice.

Its specifically designed for portfolio management and allows you to configure your ideal asset balance. You can set a tolerance threshold for movements, and how often youd like the portfolio to rebalance. It will then automatically buy or sell assets based on price movements to achieve your desired portfolio allocation.

At the other end of the scale is HaasOnline, one of the most advanced automated trading bots. It uses its own scripting language so that traders can design and configure complex algorithms as they wish. Theres also the option to take advantage of the platforms own pre-built bots, and everything can be back-tested before executing in a live trading environment.

If you are looking for a more heavy duty solution, then bitHolla offers a range of liquidity bots that gradually allows big traders to accumulate crypto at the best prices across a range of different exchanges.

Analytical tools

Coinmarketcap might be the go-to aggregator for checking a spot price, but there are plenty more sophisticated aggregators and tools available for traders looking for deeper market insights.

One of the most popular is TradingView, which has become the de-facto platform for charting and technical analysis. With a free account, you get access to basic charting, plus some research and analysis regarding particular assets.

However, more advanced traders are usually willing to stump up the monthly fee for access to extra features. These include the ability to apply multiple indicators per chart, show multiple charts in one window to compare performance, and get rid of advertisements.

Beyond the technicals, many traders also like to keep abreast of news and developments in the cryptocurrency space, which can provide insights into the fundamental factors driving the price. However, there are dozens, if not hundreds of news outlets covering crypto, which is where crypto panic comes in.

Its a news aggregator site that allows you to configure your preferences so you can follow the stories related to assets in your portfolio. It also offers a pro feature giving access to instant alerts about news stories.

With the crypto markets becoming ever-more complex, its more important than ever to pick the right trading tools that work for you. Which ones you choose will depend on the type of trader you are, how much youre willing to spend, which exchanges you like to use, and much more. As with any decision in cryptocurrency, do plenty of research to find a suite of tools that will serve you best.

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A Guide to Cryptocurrency Trading Tools - Legal Reader

1st Amendment – Definition, Examples, Cases, Processes

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The term 1st Amendment is the term used to identify Amendment I to the United States Constitution. Also, a part of the Bill of Rights, the 1st Amendment spells out several basic rights granted to U.S. citizens. It guaranteesfreedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to assemble peacefully. To explore this concept, consider the following 1st Amendment definition.

Noun

Origin

Late-18th century Old French (Amender)

Congress passed the First Amendment on September 25, 1789, and the states ratified it on December 15, 1791. As one of the original amendments to constitute the Bill of Rights, it protects fundamental rights for Americans. The amendment, sometimes referred to as freedom of expression, reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Initially, First Amendment rights only applied to laws at the federal level. However, in 1925, the Supreme Court began applying it to the states through a process known as incorporation. Since the this amendment is rather vague, the Supreme Court interprets the extent of the protection that it offers.

Religion has played a large role in United States politics since the colonial era. After suffering religious persecution in England, the Puritans and Pilgrims fled to New England in the 1600s. The Puritans did not tolerate opposing religious views and banned Catholics, Quakers, and other non-Puritan groups. A banned Puritan, Roger Williams, founded Rhode Island and granted religious freedom to everyone.

In 1779, Thomas Jefferson drafted a bill to guarantees all Virginians religious freedom, but the bill failed. In 1785, when James Madison drafted the First Amendment, which included constitutional protection for freedom of religion. The First Amendment addressed the subject of religion with two provisions: the and the Establishment Clause.

The Free Exercise clause grants citizens the right to accept and practice any religious belief, and attend the houses of worship, of their choice. It also protects actions made on behalf of those beliefs unless those actions harm others. The clause also prohibits the government from making laws that specifically target religious groups or practices. One example is Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944). In this case, the Supreme Court held that states could force inoculation of children, even if it contradicted religious beliefs.

The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment protects freedom of religion by prohibiting the government from establishing a religion. The clause also prevents the government from supporting, endorsing, or becoming too involved in religious activities of any one sect or another. In most Establishment clause cases, the Supreme Court applies the Lemon Test. This test derived from the case of Lemon v. Kurtzman, and now referred to as the Lemon Test, uses three requirements that state law must meet:

Both clauses protect freedom of religion, and commonly a violation of one results in a violation of the other. For example, mandatory prayers in public schools violates the establishment clause since public schools are considered government spaces. It also violates the free exercise clause of students who may not believe in prayer. It does not, however, prevent those who wish to pray in public schools from doing so, as long as they do not try to coerce others to follow suit.

When it comes to the government however, protecting one clause risks violating the other. For instance, allowing student-led prayer on school property may violate the Establishment Clause. But, if it prohibits all school prayer on school property, it violates the Free Exercise Clause.

The First Amendment guarantees citizens the right to express information, opinions, and ideas without fear of government censorship. On the most basic level, it grants people the right to express their opinions without fear of censorship by the government, even if the opinion is unpopular. It also protects all forms of communications including printed materials.

Freedom of speech does not mean people can say anything they want, however. For example, the First Amendment does not apply to speech that incites violence, or which causes severe distress to others. It also does not protect speech that incites illegal actions or solicits other people to commit crimes. Other forms of speech not protected include:

The Supreme Court has also addressed the issue of freedom of expression, also known as artistic freedom. Freedom of expression is only subject to restriction if it will cause direct and imminent harm. The Supreme Court uses a principle known as content neutrality to make decisions regarding artistic freedom. This means that the government cannot censor artistic expression just because part of the population finds it offensive.

The 1st Amendment also protects the right of peaceful assembly and petition. The right to assemble ensures that the citizens can have public meetings without fear of government interference. It also allows people to form associations. However, these rights are not absolute. The government can restrict the time and place of assembly. These restrictions are permissible if the assembly interferes with the rights of others, or encourages or involves criminal activity.

The Right to Petition gives people the right to petition and lobby government officials. It also allows one to make a complaint against the government or ask for assistance without fear of punishment.

Freedom of the press is crucial to democracy since it encourages the free exchange of ideas. This section of the 1st Amendment gives citizens the right to circulate opinions in print without government censorship. Like the other freedoms granted in the amendment, freedom of the press has limitations. Citizens can seek redress if false statements damage their reputations. It also does not protect the leaking of government documents that pose an immediate threat to military forces.

One notable case example on the 1st Amendment is that of Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947). A New Jersey school authorized reimbursement by school boards for transportation to and from school, including private schools. Over 95% of the schools benefitting were parochial Catholic schools. A taxpayer in Ewing Township, Arch R. Everson, filed a lawsuit claiming the indirect aid to religion violated the First Amendment and the state constitution. The lower courts ruled against Everson, and he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts decision. It ruled that the law did not violate the U.S. Constitution since it did not directly support the Catholic schools. Rather, the law helped parents of all religions transport their children to and from school.

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1st Amendment - Definition, Examples, Cases, Processes

Another Voice: Coney Barrett should explain First Amendment views – Buffalo News

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Freedom of and from religion are equally important in our culture and under our constitution to secure the blessings of liberty for all of our citizens.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett needs to be questioned extensively at her confirmation hearings about her legal views on the relationship of the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment. Will she continue the dangerous trend the Supreme Court has exhibited recently?

This past term, in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, the court held that the Little Sisters could not be compelled to provide employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives, on the ground that doing so would infringe upon the Little Sisters right to practice its religious beliefs free from state interference.

Fulfilling a legal obligation to provide contraceptive insurance coverage is not practicing religion. It does not compel anyone to buy and use contraceptives. Nor does it imply approval of contraceptive use. Taking the coverage away from employees does do one thing for certain: It penalizes them financially if they decide to exercise their liberty interest and legal right to obtain and use contraceptives.

Also this past term, the court held in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berry that the government may not interfere with religious schools decisions to hire or fire their lay teachers, that the schools decisions are outside of the protections afforded by fair employment laws, even though these laws are designed to protect the liberty interests of the public-at-large regardless of their religious beliefs.

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Another Voice: Coney Barrett should explain First Amendment views - Buffalo News

First Amendment Right to Record Child-Protection Visit to Your Home – Reason

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From yesterday's Pennsylvania appellate decision in In re Y.W.-B., by Judge Carolyn Nichols, joined by Judges Mary Murray and James Gardner Colins:

Mother and Father are the parents of Y.W.-B., born in June 2012, and N.W.-B., born in January 2015 (collectively, Children). On May 31, 2019, DHS filed the instant petitions to compel Mother's cooperation with a home visit.

In its petitions, DHS [Department of Human Services] alleged, in part, that on May 22, 2019, it received a report that three weeks earlier, the family slept outside a Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) office, and that on May 21, 2019, Mother was outside the PHA office from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with a child. The petitions further stated that Mother told a Project Home outreach worker that she was not homeless, but that her previous residence was burned down. According to the petition, it was "unknown if [Mother] was feeding [Children while] she stood outside of the PHA office for extended periods of time." According to the petitions to compel, DHS workers attempted to assess the family's home on the same day it received the GPS report, but Mother and Father refused them entry to the home or access to Children.

The appellate court held that "DHS presented the trial court with probable cause to search Mother's home in support of its petitions to compel cooperation," but vacated a trial court order that "Mother is NOT to record or video" the visit. The court quoted Fields v. City of Philadephia (3d Cir. 2017), which had said:

The First Amendment protects the public's right of access to information about their officials' public activities. It goes beyond protection of the press and the self-expression of individuals to prohibit government from limiting the stock of information from which members of the public may draw. Access to information regarding public police activity is particularly important because it leads to citizen discourse on public issues, the highest rung of the hierarchy of the First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection. That information is the wellspring of our debates; if the latter are to be uninhibited, robust, and wideopen, the more credible the information the more credible are the debates.

To record what there is the right for the eye to see or the ear to hear corroborates or lays aside subjective impressions for objective facts. Hence to record is to see and hear more accurately. Recordings also facilitate discussion because of the ease in which they can be widely distributed via different forms of media. Accordingly, recording police activity in public falls squarely within the First Amendment right of access to information. As no doubt the press has this right, so does the public.

The court went on to note, relying on Commonwealth v. Bradley (Pa. Super. Ct. May 5, 2020):

"The Third Circuit [in Fields], however, cautioned that all recording was not protected or desirable. 'The right to record police is not absolute. It is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions.' The court, however, did not address the constitutional limits of this important First Amendment right because the defendants offered no justification for the action. Accordingly, the court noted that no 'countervailing concerns' existed to justify a departure from the general right to free speech under the First Amendment."

In Bradley, this Court addressed such "countervailing concerns" in a case in which the defendant challenged his conviction for defiant trespass for recording in the lobby of a police station in which there was a "no-filming" policy in place. The Bradley Court specifically concluded that the no-filming condition in the lobby passed constitutional muster, reasoning:

"The Commonwealth presents several countervailing concerns to [the a]ppellant's argument that he had an absolute right under the First Amendment to videotape in the Lobby. Principally, the Commonwealth highlights Corporal McGee's testimony that the police department's no-filming condition in the Lobby was based on several reasons: (1) preventing the disclosure of confidential information relating to ongoing investigations discussed within secure areas of the police department; (2) safeguarding the identity of confidential informants and undercover officers; (3) ensuring their safety by preventing the risk of retaliation against them; and (4) ensuring and preserving the privacy of crime victims. Indeed, the trial court found 'Corporal [ ] McGee testified with regard to numerous grounds upon which the no[-]filming policy was based, citing confidentiality and victim safety as fundamental components.' Thus, the restriction or condition at issue is reasonable.

"The no-filming condition applies to all members of the public who visit the Lobby. In other words, members of the public are granted a license to enter and remain in the Lobby, provided that they abide by the condition. Among other things, the no-filming condition ensures the integrity of police investigations and activity. The condition applies only to the Lobby and the interior of the police station, and not to areas outside of the police station, such as steps or entrances. Admittedly, it prohibits only the recording, taping, and photographing within the Lobby. The condition does not bar the use of parchment and quill in the Lobby. It, therefore, is a reasonable restriction under the First Amendment because it is narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, i.e., to ensure the safety, security and privacy of officers, informants and victims. Moreover, it prevents interferences with police activity. Accordingly, under the circumstances of this case, the recording or filming in the Lobby by members of the public is not a protected activity under the First Amendment."

Fields recognized that "[a]ccess to information regarding public police activity is particularly important because it leads to citizen discourse on public issues, the highest rung of the hierarchy of the First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection." Although this case involves DHS officials rather than police, and official actions within Mother's home rather than in public, we conclude that First Amendment protections extend to restrictions on "the stock of information from which members of the public may draw" when discussing public issues. Therefore, we conclude that Mother's claim that the trial court improperly curtailed her right to record the DHS officials conducting a home visit is subject to intermediate scrutiny.

In the instant case, there was no evidence of any countervailing interests to support DHS's request for a no-recording provision. See [Transcript] (indicating that the trial court denied DHS's request to recall Ms. Richardson and granted DHS's request for a no-recording provision based on DHS's counsel's assertion that there were "videos, photography taken, posted on social media that made her feel intimidated").

[W]e acknowledge the trial court's concerns regarding the privacy interests of Children. However, our review is necessarily limited to the issue raised in this appeal, specifically, the right to record, under the First Amendment, DHS employees conducting an assessment of a home, and not Mother's posting of such videos on social media. {We add that there were no indications that Mother took videos containing images of Children or DHS employees interacting with the Children during her previous interactions with DHS.}

Therefore, under the specific circumstances of this case, and in light of Mother's and DHS's arguments, we conclude that DHS failed to establish that its request for a no-recording provision was reasonable. We emphasize that our holding does not make the right to record absolute, consistent with established case law, it is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions.

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First Amendment Right to Record Child-Protection Visit to Your Home - Reason

FIRST 5: Trump and COVID-19 — How ‘free’ are/should we be? – Salina Post

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Gene Policinski. Photo courtesy Freedom Forum

By GENE POLICINSKI

Just how free should a free press be to report on the illness and condition of a sitting president during a national health emergency?

And how free are we to publicly offer our thoughts on the matter?

Both questions have the same legal answer: The First Amendment places no limits on what journalists, bloggers or others might report, and what we might say or speculate about the health of the president.

So, whats left are the First Amendment-ish concerns for reporters from longstanding national security concerns to a possible zone of personal privacy.

And given our fractured, polarized and politically divided society, the rise of social media puts all of us in that kind of -ish situation balancing our right to speak out in any way we choose against the social norms we should consider and the fact that theres no First Amendment insulation for us from the reaction to what we say.

The news that President Trump was infected with the COVID-19 virus came first in his own tweet, not through the news media, just after midnight on Oct. 2. Within minutes, news organizations relayed that dramatic news. Social media began firing up, with comments, forecasts and to put it gently sharp examples of the nations political divide.

To top it all off, a whirlwind of announcements, reports and commentary some contradictory on Trumps illness, brief hospitalization and now his ongoing treatment at the White House is unfolding in the midst of the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign.

For the record, U.S. history offers any number of examples of non-disclosure, image manipulation, complaints about White House transparency and press coverage of presidential health and public debate over the public comments about it all.

AfterPresident James Garfieldwas shot in 1881 at a Washington D.C., railroad station, official statements reported his condition as good or stable despite the reality that he suffered for two months from a bullet that could not be removed, before dying. With the bulletins distributed nationwide by telegraph, published in the nations newspapers and followed closely by the public, the story of Garfields fight to survive could be considered Americas first live media event, historianRobert Mitchellwrites inThe Washington Post.

President Woodrow Wilsoncollapsed from exhaustion in 1919 during a national speaking tour, and we now know he suffered a stroke a month later that left him partially paralyzed. Americans didnt learn even basic facts about Wilsons health until he left office.

Not only were there no White House announcements, some historians now dub his wife Edith as the first female president given the 17-month stint in which she consulted with him on virtually all presidential business and screened all contacts and correspondence.

As USA TODAY noted in a story this week, in 1944 a similar scene played out whenPresident Franklin Delano Rooseveltwas diagnosed with acute congestive heart failurethat forced him into seclusion for months. The report noted that the country was in the midst of World War II and the U.S. military was in the final stages of preparing for the D-Day invasion that opened the second front in the war.

Similar national security concerns have been raised about press reports of the details on Trumps condition. Would terrorists or hostile nations seek advantage or perhaps plan an attack in the U.S. or abroad knowing the commander-in-chief of U.S. forces remained on the job even as we learned from journalists that he was hospitalized, or facing medication and treatment for high fever and low blood oxygen levels that could have reduced his ability to converse or process information?

There are two unique circumstances with Trumps illness that werent present even as recently as when President Ronald Reagan was wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt, or underwent colon surgery: A global, instantaneous, 24/7 news environment, coupled with todays pervasive social media.

Beyond the national security concerns, are there some health matters that should remain private and not placed openly before the planet either out of personal consideration or to avoid becoming distorted as election-year fodder?

And there is the often-harsh tenor and frequently unsourced/unverified content of social media. Even a brief sampling showed posts ranging from conservative speakers making unsupported claims that journalists were hoping Trump would die, to Trump opponents posting images comparing Trumps balcony salute as he returned from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to similar poses struck by dictators such as Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Juan Peron. To be fair, there also were great numbers of well wishes, too.

Again, while the First Amendment save for actual physical threats protects what we could say online, even as it provides no limits or advice on what we should say.

A free-press issue of a different sort has erupted. On Monday, White House Press SecretaryKayleigh McEnanyrevealed she had tested positive for the virus. Various press reports said correspondents were angry they had been exposed during briefings and other meetings with her and other officials over the previous few days.

An unnamed reporter wasquoted inVanity Faironline saying, People are livid. There are a lot of us, like dozens of reporters, who feel its unsafe to be doing it the way its being done. CBS News Ben Tracy commented on Twitter: I felt safer reporting in North Korea than I currently do reporting at The White House. This is just crazy.

As of Tuesday, three journalists in the White House press pool had tested positive. In theVanity Fairreport, White House Correspondents Association PresidentZeke Miller, a reporter for The Associated Press, said that journalists at the White House have been mindful of these risks for months. At the end of the day, were there to keep the American people informed and to be their eyes and ears. That job needs to get done. Were assuming some of these risks, were there to do the job.

In the final analysis, performing that First Amendment job of being a watchdog on government even during a pandemic by reporting the facts, fairly and accurately, as they can be found, is the best medicine for a health democracy.

. . .

Gene Policinski is a senior fellow for the First Amendment at the Freedom Forum, and president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute. He can be reached at[emailprotected], or follow him on Twitter at@genefac.

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FIRST 5: Trump and COVID-19 -- How 'free' are/should we be? - Salina Post

What is Open Source Code?. Collaboration For The Greater …

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Youve heard it time and time again, people talking about a new project that involves whats called open source code but do you really know what that means? If not, then youve come to the right place! Lets go over what makes the code behind the curtain open source and how it makes some of your favorite cryptocurrency projects run.

Before we can dive into how open source code & software functions, lets go over some important terminology.

Open Source: In general, open source refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available.

Source Code: Source code is the fundamental component of a computer program that is created by a programmer. It can be read and easily understood by a human being. When a programmer types a sequence of C language statements into Windows Notepad, for example, and saves the sequence as a text file, the text file is said to contain the source code.

Free Distribution: Free distribution doesnt sound like a specialized term, does it? Its not, but understanding how this term fits into the open source community will help you understand what open source is and isnt. Open source isnt just free access to the source code. Not only can you use open source to develop a custom application, you may then freely distribute your application.

Community: Once the original programmers distribute an open source program, it goes out into the wide, wide world, where everyone uses and supports it. Thats the programs community a collaborative effort, where developers improve the code and share what theyve learned. An active and knowledgeable community is vital to the health and success of an open source program.

Open source code, as stated above, refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. However, simply putting your code online for others to see doesnt necessarily make it open source. There are a few requirements for it to actually be considered open source code.

The software being distributed must be redistributed to anyone else without any restriction. Also, the source code must be made available, so that the receiving party will be able to improve or modify it. Additionally, the license can require improved versions of the software to carry a different name or version from the original software. As long as these characteristics are present in your code, it can be considered open source and inspected by anyone.

Open source software programmers can actually charge money for the software that they create or help out with. However, some programmers charge users money for software services and support instead, as theyve found it to sometimes be more lucrative. This way, their software remains free of charge, and they make money helping others install, use, and troubleshoot it.

Although some open source code and software remains free of charge, having the skill of programming and troubleshooting can be quite valuable for some people. Many employers specifically hire programmers with experience working on open source software.

Open source code refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. Open source software programmers can actually charge money for the software that they create or help out with.

As opposed to closed source code and software, open source code differs in several ways. Obviously, open source code is available to essentially anyone with access to it, while closed source code is not. However, there are more differences that go beyond just accessibility.

One of the main advantages of open source software is the cost; however, the term free actually refers to the freedom from restrictions and not so much its price. If a business (or even you) has the in-house capabilities and technical expertise to maintain the software and resources to implement, train and provide support to staff, then open source may turn out to be the most cost-effective solution.

Another thing to consider is the fact that open source software relies on a loyal and engaged online user community to deliver support, but this support often fails to deliver the high level of response that many consumers expect and require. These communities must also be found on the web and some would argue theres no incentive for the community to address a users problem. On top of that, another area of high criticism is in its usability.

For closed software, usability is actually a high selling point due to expert testing that can be executed for a more targeted audience. User manuals are also provided for immediate reference and quick training, while support services help to maximize use of the software. For large companies, security is of extreme importance and thats where open source code becomes an issue.

On a much broader scale, open source code actually has a good number of tangible benefits outside of just efficiency and accessibility. The very concept of having open source code allows for strong communities to emerge out of programmers dedicated to innovating. The global communities united around improving these solutions introduce new concepts and capabilities faster, better, and more efficient than internal teams working on proprietary solutions. Overall, the key pros and cons surrounding open source code depend on the user and their technical capabilities along with the situation at hand.

One of the main advantages of open source software is the cost. Also, the very concept of having open source code allows for strong communities to emerge out of programmers dedicated to innovating. Nonetheless, the key pros and cons vary depending on the situation of the user.

It turns out that open source code and software can be extremely helpful to all kinds of people outside of just the programming fields. Because early inventors built much of the Internet itself on open source technologies like the Linux operating system and the Apache Web server application anyone using the Internet today benefits from open source software. Not into programming or just dont know too much about code? You can look at and read through source code to learn more about how programming works. Afterall, the best way to learn about a concept is to familiarize yourself with as much new information as possible.

As such, there are also tons of people who prefer open source code due to its increased control, security, and stability. Programmers can inspect the code and carefully read through what its doing. The idea of having readily available and to mention completely free of charge code can benefit people in a lot of ways, including making them better programmers, increasing their program security, and giving them more control.

Open source code isnt solely relevant for programmers and coders, as we all can benefit from open source thinking. People use open source code to learn more about coding, create the best cryptocurrency projects, and build a community of innovators.

All of the major cryptocurrency and open blockchain projects operate on an open source model. In fact, Linux is probably the largest and most important example of the open source model. All of these projects create computer networks that allow connected participants to reach an agreement over shared data (the blockchain of the cryptocurrency).

Projects like Bitcoin utilize an open network to create incentives toward cooperation and, ultimately, agreement over every scrap of data needed to make a currency. That decentralization is built on open consensus mechanisms and open source software. If the code wasnt open source, the participants who happen to be complete strangers on the internet would never be able to understand and trust the system they are joining.

Most genuine projects within the crypto space utilize their open source code and network to help build their decentralized network. In fact, the open source code used to accomplish all that it does is itself decentralized. Open source forking is a popular thing to do among the programming community, resulting in tons of Bitcoin forks that are still currently running.

All of the major cryptocurrency and open blockchain projects operate on an open source model. Most genuine projects within the crypto space utilize their open source code and network to help build their decentralized network.

In case you want to learn more about open source code or are just curious about more technical intricacies, there are numerous online resources that will help you get more familiar with everything:

Each of these resources can help guide you in the right direction for learning more about open source, coding, and open source software.

Open source code is actually one of the largest catalysts of broad programming innovation. By collaborating on accessible code, programmers have the ability to create communities of innovators who can make programs that we benefit from. In addition to the plethora of direct efficient advantages that come with open source coding, there are many broader benefits of utilizing open source code and learning more about it. Familiarizing yourself with this concept gives you a much strong appreciation for many major cryptocurrency and blockchain projects which currently exist, emphasizing the notion of open collaboration for the greater good.

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New infosec products of the week: October 9, 2020 – Help Net Security – Help Net Security

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Checkmarx provides automated security scans within GitHub repositories

Checkmarx announced a new GitHub Action to bring comprehensive, automated static and open source security testing to developers. It integrates the companys application security testing (AST) solutions Checkmarx SAST (CxSAST) and Checkmarx SCA (CxSCA) directly with GitHub code scanning, giving developers more flexibility and power to work with their preferred tools of choice to secure proprietary and open source code.

Consistent with the Apricorn line of secure drives, all passwords and commands are entered by way of the devices onboard keypad. One hundred percent of the authentication and encryption processes take place within the device itself and never involve software or share passwords / encryption keys with its host computer.

Many internal and legacy PKI solutions require massive consulting investments to implement and maintain. Venafis new solution is a simple and fast way to replace these antiquated systems. Venafi Zero Touch PKI creates and integrates root and intermediate certificate authorities (CAs) and maps them to an organizations needs.

APIsec provides a 100% automated and continuous API security testing platform that eliminates the need for expensive, infrequent, manual pen-testing. With this latest release, APIsec now produces certified and on-demand penetration testing reports required by the compliance standards, enabling enterprises to stay compliant at all times at a fraction of cost.

DejaVM enables system-level cyber testing without requiring access to the limited number of highly specialized physical hardware assets. The tool creates an emulation environment that virtualizes complex systems to support automated cyber testing. DejaVM focuses on improving software development, testing and security via its advanced analysis features.

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Researchers map threat actors use of open source offensive security tools – The Daily Swig

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Malware cartographers offer their insights

UPDATEDSecurity researchers have developed techniques to chart how malicious hackers make use of open source offensive security tools.

The research, presented by Paul Litvak of Israeli start-up Intezer at the VB2020 localhost conference last week, informs the long-running debate on whether the development and publication of offensive security tools is beneficial or harmful to security as a whole.

Critics argue that offensive security tools give miscreants an advantage over the security community. Those on the other side of the argument contend that offensive security tools help defenders to mitigate newly discovered techniques and probe their own defenses for flaws.

These tools are also said to have both instructional and educational value, particularly to new starters in the industry.

Up to now, little research has been presented to support either argument, and this has only served to inflame disputes on the topic that occasionally flare up on Twitter.

Litvak himself remains somewhat ambivalent about the ethics of developing open source offensive security tools.

"It's a hard question really, and I don't think we still have the full picture (hard data for the benefits of OST projects)," Litvak told The Daily Swig. "We can see that some classes of OSTs like C2 frameworks and RATs are more commonly used than other tools, and pack a bigger punch since these kinds of tools pack all the features you need for your next intrusion, so I have my doubts regarding how beneficial these kinds of tools are."

Adversaries with all types of sophistication levels use offensive security tools, from ransomware groups to top government agencies.

Intezer examined the effect of libraries that provide offensive security capabilities, or strips of code taken from larger framework-style tools (such as Mimikatz and Metasploit), that are incorporated into malware.

Overall, 80 projects were checked for code reuse against a database of thousands of labeled threat actor samples from multiple vendor reports from the last few years. A total of 29 additional script-based tools were added using existing vendor reports.

INTERVIEW Metasploit founder HD Moore on bug bounties and coronavirus

The researchers developed templates or fingerprints based on elements of these tools and scripts before searching for matching patterns across a database of millions of malware samples.

The work shed light of elements of threat actor tradecraft such as the favored use of code injection, privilege escalation, and lateral movement technique implementation projects by some groups.

Intezers work allowed it to develop an interactive map that displays threat actors proclivity for open source offensive toolkits.

The project is open source and can be updated by anyone (via GitHub), but "we're considering a more friendly format, so it'll be easier to edit and more inviting", according to Litvak.

Intezer found the most commonly adopted projects were memory injection libraries and remote access trojan (RAT) tools.

The most popular memory injection tool was the ReflectiveDllInjection library, followed by the MemoryModule library. For RATs, Empire, Powersploit, and Quasar were the leading projects.

Attackers varied widely in their level of sophistication, with Litvak categorizing them into three groups.

Lurking at the bottom were threat groups who simply copy and pasted code with little understanding of how it worked. Such lazy coders routinely forget to remove incriminating strings or artifacts.

More sophisticated miscreants, mainly made up from cybercriminals, plagiarized open source tools. Such groups have an understanding of tools and their protocols and are capable of applying customizations and of integrating open source components into their existing toolsets.

The third tier was made up of groups that integrated tools within their own toolsets or made subtle use of frameworks.

Litvak told The Daily Swig that the most sophisticated abuse of OSTs is associated with, but not restricted to, state-sponsored attackers.

"A government affiliated group can pour many more resources to their operation than a crimeware group," Litvak said. "This is actually a big motivator for crimeware groups to use OSTs since they have to use their resources more efficiently (outsource tools to public OSTs rather than build it themselves)."

For example, the so-called Turla group has made use of Metasploit as an initial infection vector for the last two years. Litvak explained:

The research points to how it might be possible to turn their use of open source tools against threat actors.

Litvak explained: "In my presentation, I presented a technique to create YARA signatures for OST code, which is hard to obfuscate unlike strings. This would mean we'll be using their usage of OSTs to detect their malware."

Intezer told The Daily Swig that the company has been able to identify a number of malware campaigns based on its mapping project.

For example, back in June it found many almost undetected samples of Lazarus tools by looking for MemoryModule memory injection library users.

This story has been updated throughout to add comment from researcher Paul Litvak

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Researchers map threat actors use of open source offensive security tools - The Daily Swig

Gitpod Raises $3M USD Seed Funding, Announces Native Integration with GitLab – GlobeNewswire

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KIEL, Germany, Oct. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gitpod, the first open source developer platform to automate the provisioning of ready-to-code development environments, today announced $3M USD seed funding from Crane Venture Partners, Speedinvest, and Vertex Ventures US, as well as a partnership and native integration with GitLab, the DevOps platform delivered as a single application. Gitpod is an open source GitOps solution that leverages the version control system as the canonical source of truth to automate everything a developer needs to start coding. Gitpod frees engineering teams from the friction of manually setting-up local dev environments, saving dozens of hours and enabling a new level of collaboration to create applications much more quickly than ever before.

This is an exciting time in Gitpods history teaming up with experienced investors in the world of developer tools and open source software as well as working together with GitLab to provide developers with critical cloud-based dev environment automation, said Sven Efftinge, co-founder and CEO of Gitpod. Gitpods first mover advantage and vibrant open-source community enables developers today to treat development environments as automated, yet customizable, resources they can spin up whenever they need them and close down and forget about them when they are done with their task.

Setting up and maintaining dev environments is tedious and requires lots of time. With Gitpods integration into GitLab, code reviews, bug fixes, building new features and exploring new projects is frictionless while increasing development productivity, efficiency and velocity. Developers can easily launch fresh dev environments for each new task directly from the GitLab interface via a new dropdown option from any project or merge request.

Gitpod is a true open source solution powered by the community, spins up magically fast, can be self-hosted and is the only solution that works with almost any cloud provider and code-hosting platform including GitLab, GitHub Enterprise, and Bitbucket.

GitLab is excited to build a partnership with Gitpod, said Brandon Jung, vice president of alliances at GitLab. Gitpods expertise in automating cloud-based dev environments on GitLab combined with their focus on cloud native development workflows makes them a great fit for our customers helping enable them on their digital transformations.

Gitpods $3M USD seed round was led by Speedinvest with participation from Crane Venture Partners and Vertex Ventures US. Previously bootstrapped, this marks Gitpods first fund raise. The funding will be used to further refine the leading platform for development environment automation, as well as to expand Gitpods open source community and relevant ecosystem partnerships.

As a developer, I am more than excited to team up with Gitpod. Moving the last missing piece in the DevOps pipeline into the cloud is the logical next step to streamline software development, said Dominik Tobschall, principal at Speedinvest. The push towards remote work will only accelerate this.

Gitpods developer-centric obsession has enabled them to build the best-of-breed technology in the rapidly growing market around dev environment automation. We are proud to back this exceptional team building a category defining company, said Krishna Visvanathan, co-founder and partner at Crane Venture Partners.

Gitpods team has a track record of creating multiple open source developer tools used by millions of engineers. With software engineering moving to remote but collaborative work, we see Gitpod securely allowing multiplayer mode for developers while saving VPs of Engineering hundreds of hours of tool setup-time. This will be an integral part of any professional software delivery pipeline, said Sandeep Bhadra, partner at Vertex Ventures US.

Gitpod is available today as an open source solution free to any developer seamlessly integrating with different cloud-providers and git-hosting-platforms. Visit https://www.gitpod.io/docs/gitlab-integration/ for more information about Gitpods native integration on GitLab or email contact@gitpod.io.

About Gitpod The team at Gitpod.io is driven to enable all professional development teams to immediately start working and collaborating in a fully prebuilt, secure dev environments on any project, any branch and any device. Gitpod invented the notion of prebuilds allowing developers to describe dev environments as code and get an immediately productive development environment for any GitLab, GitHub and Bitbucket project. The company is founded by experienced developer tools experts that worked together for 10+ years creating programming languages and growing open source communities (Xtext, Theia). Gitpod operates a flight-proven product and leads the pack of fully-functional Cloud Dev Environments with more than 250k registered developers. http://www.gitpod.io

About CraneCrane is a London-based VC firm focused on early-stage investments in European start-ups that are solving real problems for the enterprise and enterprise workers. We back ambitious founders building category defining companies who are redefining the enterprise stack. Cranes portfolio includes 7Bridges, Axiom, Foundries, Harbr, Onfido, Shipamax, Tessian and Virtuoso. http://www.crane.vc

About SpeedinvestSpeedinvest is a European venture capital fund with 400M+ AUM and more than 40 investment professionals working from Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, Vienna and San Francisco. Employing a sector-focused investment structure, we fund innovative early-stage technology startups in the areas of Fintech, Digital Health, Consumer Tech, Network Effects, Deep Tech and Industrial Tech. Speedinvest actively deploys its global network and dedicated team of in-house operational experts to support our 150+ portfolio companies, including with US market expansion. Learn more: http://www.speedinvest.com

About Vertex Ventures US Vertex US is an early-stage venture capital firm that backs companies transforming industries through software and data. With investments including LaunchDarkly, PerimeterX, and Desktop Metal, Vertex US brings pioneering experience to pioneering enterprises. In Sik Rhee and Jonathan Heiliger co-founded Vertex US in 2015. For more information, visit vertexventures.com.

Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:Nichols Communications for GitpodRay Georgeray@nicholscomm.com +1 650-922-3825

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Gitpod Raises $3M USD Seed Funding, Announces Native Integration with GitLab - GlobeNewswire

NVIDIA NeMo: An Open-Source Toolkit For Developing State-Of-The-Art Conversational AI Models In Three Lines Of Code – MarkTechPost

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NVIDIAs open-source toolkit, NVIDIA NeMo( Neural Models), is a revolutionary step towards the advancement of Conversational AI. Based on PyTorch, it allows one to build quickly, train, and fine-tune conversational AI models.

As the world is getting more digital, Conversational AI is a way to enable communication between humans and computers. The set of technologies behind some fascinating technologies like automated messaging, speech recognition, voice chatbots, text to speech, etc. It broadly comprises three areas of AI research: automatic speech recognition (ASR), natural language processing (NLP), and speech synthesis (or text-to-speech, TTS).

Conversational AI has shaped the path of human-computer interaction, making it more accessible and exciting. The latest advancements in Conversational AI like NVIDIA NeMo help bridge the gap between machines and humans.

NVIDIA NeMo consists of two subparts: NeMo Core and NeMo Collections. NeMo Core deals with all models generally, whereas NeMo Collections deals with models specific domains. In Nemos Speech collection (nemo_asr), youll find models and various building blocks for speech recognition, command recognition, speaker identification, speaker verification, and voice activity detection. NeMos NLP collection (nemo_nlp) contains models for tasks such as question answering, punctuation, named entity recognition, and many others. Finally, in NeMos Speech Synthesis (nemo_tts), youll find several spectrogram generators and vocoders, which will let you generate synthetic speech.

There are three main concepts in NeMo: model, neural module, and neural type.

Even though NeMo is based on PyTorch, it can also be effectively used with other projects likePyTorch LightningandHydra. Integration with Lightning makes it easier to train models with mixed precision using Tensor Cores and can scale training to multiple GPUs and compute nodes. It also has some features like logging, checkpointing, overfit checking, etc. Hydra also allows the parametrization of scripts to keep it well organized. It makes it easier to streamline everyday tasks for users.

Github: https://github.com/NVIDIA/NeMo#tutorials

Web: https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-nemo

Pytorch Blog: https://medium.com/@samfarahzad/nvidia-nemo-neural-modules-and-models-for-conversational-ai-ea041e4cd4

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NVIDIA NeMo: An Open-Source Toolkit For Developing State-Of-The-Art Conversational AI Models In Three Lines Of Code - MarkTechPost


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