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CMS collaboration explores how AI can be used to search for partner particles to the Higgs boson

Cern News - Tue, 20/02/2024 - 14:21
CMS collaboration explores how AI can be used to search for partner particles to the Higgs boson Event display showing two collimated bursts of light. (Image: CMS collaboration)

As part of their quest to understand the building blocks of matter, physicists search for evidence of new particles that could confirm the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). Many of these beyond-SM theories postulate the need for additional partner particles to the Higgs boson. These partners would behave similarly to the SM Higgs boson, for example in terms of their “spin”, but would have a different mass.

To search for Higgs partner particles, scientists at the CMS collaboration look for the signatures of these particles in the data collected by the detector. One such signature is when the particles decay from a heavy Higgs partner (X) particle to two lighter partner particles (φ), which in turn each decay into collimated pairs of photons. Photon signatures are ideal to search for particles with unknown masses as they provide a clean, well-understood signature. However, if the φ is very light, the two photons will significantly overlap with each other and the tools usually applied for the photon identification fall apart.

This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. It is well known that machine learning computer vision techniques can differentiate between many faces, and now such AI methodologies are becoming useful tools in particle physics.

The CMS experiment searched for the X and φ partners of the Higgs boson using the hypothetical process X→φφ, with both φ decaying to collimated photon pairs. To do this, they trained two AI algorithms to distinguish the overlapping pairs of photons from noise, as well as to precisely determine the mass of the particle from which they originated. A wide range of masses was explored. No evidence for such new particles was seen, enabling them to set upper limits on the production rate of this process. The result is the most sensitive search yet performed for such Higgs-like particles in this final state.

How can the scientists test the AI’s effectiveness? It is not as easy as verifying AI facial differentiation, where you can simply check by looking. Thankfully, the SM has well-understood processes, which CMS physicists used to validate and control the AI techniques. For example, the η meson, which also decays to two photons, provided an ideal test bench. Scientists at CMS were able to cleanly identify and reconstruct the η meson when searching for its decay into photons when they applied these AI techniques.

This analysis clearly shows that AI algorithms can be used to cleanly identify two-photon signatures from the noise and to search for new massive particles. These machine learning techniques are continuously improving and will continue to be used in unique analyses of LHC data, extending CMS searches to even more challenging cases.

Read more here

 

 

ndinmore Tue, 02/20/2024 - 13:21 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Wed, 02/21/2024 - 09:30

Quantum transport response of topological hinge modes

Nature Physics - Tue, 20/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 20 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02388-1

Topologically protected hinge modes could be important for developing quantum devices, but electronic transport through those states has not been demonstrated. Now quantum transport has been shown in gapless topological hinge states.

Sound interactions across multiple modes

Nature Physics - Mon, 19/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 19 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02425-z

Some quantum acoustic resonators possess a large number of phonon modes at different frequencies. Direct interactions between modes similar to those available for photonic devices have now been demonstrated. This enables manipulation of multimode states.

Time in a glass

Nature Physics - Mon, 19/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 19 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02419-x

Ageing is a non-linear, irreversible process that defines many properties of glassy materials. Now, it is shown that the so-called material-time formalism can describe ageing in terms of equilibrium-like properties.

Organic molecules pumped to resonance

Nature Physics - Mon, 19/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 19 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02410-6

Interacting emitters are the fundamental building blocks of quantum optics and quantum information devices. Pairs of organic molecules embedded in a crystal can become permanently strongly interacting when they are pumped with intense laser light.

Superradiant and subradiant states in lifetime-limited organic molecules through laser-induced tuning

Nature Physics - Mon, 19/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 19 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02404-4

Laser-induced tuning of pairs of lifetime-limited organic emitters allows the controlled creation of superradiant and subradiant entangled states.

AEgIS experiment paves the way for new set of antimatter studies by laser-cooling positronium

Cern News - Fri, 16/02/2024 - 15:50
AEgIS experiment paves the way for new set of antimatter studies by laser-cooling positronium

AEgIS is one of several experiments at CERN’s Antimatter Factory producing and studying antihydrogen atoms with the goal of testing with high precision whether antimatter and matter fall to Earth in the same way. In a paper published today in Physical Review Letters, the AEgIS collaboration reports an experimental feat that will not only help it achieve this goal but also pave the way for a whole new set of antimatter studies, including the prospect to produce a gamma-ray laser that would allow researchers to look inside the atomic nucleus and have applications beyond physics.

To create antihydrogen (a positron orbiting an antiproton), AEgIS directs a beam of positronium (an electron orbiting a positron) into a cloud of antiprotons produced and slowed down in the Antimatter Factory. When an antiproton and a positronium meet in the antiproton cloud, the positronium gives up its positron to the antiproton, forming antihydrogen.

Producing antihydrogen in this way means that AEgIS can also study positronium, an antimatter system in its own right that is being investigated by experiments worldwide.

Positronium has a very short lifetime, annihilating into gamma rays in 142 billionths of a second. However, because it comprises just two point-like particles, the electron and its antimatter counterpart, “it’s a perfect system to do experiments with”, says AEgIS spokesperson Ruggero Caravita, “provided that, among other experimental challenges, a sample of positronium can be cooled enough to measure it with high precision”.

This is the feat accomplished by the AEgIS team. By applying the technique of laser cooling to a sample of positronium, the collaboration has already managed to more than halve the temperature of the sample, from 380 to 170 degrees kelvin. In follow-up experiments the team aims to break the barrier of 10 degrees kelvin.

AEgIS’ laser cooling of positronium opens up new possibilities for antimatter research. These include high-precision measurements of the properties and gravitational behaviour of this exotic but simple matter–antimatter system, which could reveal new physics. It also allows the production of a positronium Bose–Einstein condensate, in which all constituents occupy the same quantum state. Such a condensate has been proposed as a candidate to produce coherent gamma-ray light via the matter-antimatter annihilation of its constituents – laser-like light made up of monochromatic waves that have a constant phase difference between them.

“A Bose-Einstein condensate of antimatter would be an incredible tool for both fundamental and applied research, especially if it allowed the production of coherent gamma-ray light with which researchers could peer into the atomic nucleus.” says Caravita.

Laser cooling, which was applied to antimatter atoms for the first time about three years ago, works by slowing down atoms bit by bit with laser photons over the course of many cycles of photon absorption and emission. This is normally done using a narrowband laser, which emits light with a small frequency range. By contrast, the AEgIS team uses a broadband laser in their study.

“A broadband laser cools not just a small but a large fraction of the positronium sample,” explains Caravita. “What’s more, we carried out the experiment without applying any external electric or magnetic field, simplifying the experimental set-up and extending the positronium lifetime.”

The AEgIS collaboration shares its achievement of positronium laser cooling with an independent team, which used a different technique and posted their result on the arXiv preprint server on the same day as AEgIS.
 

Further material:
Video collection
Photo collection 1
Photo collection 2

About AEgIS:
The AEgIS collaboration is composed of several research groups from CERN, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (units of Milano, Pavia and the Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications), the University of Oslo, the Universite Paris-Saclay and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the University of Liverpool, the Warsaw University of Technology, the University of Trento, the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, the Raman Research Institute of Bangalore, the University of Innsbruck, the University and the Politecnico of Milan, the University of Brescia, the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, the University of Latvia, the Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Czech Technical University of Prague.

sandrika Fri, 02/16/2024 - 14:50 Publication Date Thu, 02/22/2024 - 16:30

AEgIS experiment paves the way for new set of antimatter studies by laser-cooling positronium

Cern News - Fri, 16/02/2024 - 15:50
AEgIS experiment paves the way for new set of antimatter studies by laser-cooling positronium

AEgIS is one of several experiments at CERN’s Antimatter Factory producing and studying antihydrogen atoms with the goal of testing with high precision whether antimatter and matter fall to Earth in the same way. In a paper published today in Physical Review Letters, the AEgIS collaboration reports an experimental feat that will not only help it achieve this goal but also pave the way for a whole new set of antimatter studies, including the prospect to produce a gamma-ray laser that would allow researchers to look inside the atomic nucleus and have applications beyond physics.

To create antihydrogen (a positron orbiting an antiproton), AEgIS directs a beam of positronium (an electron orbiting a positron) into a cloud of antiprotons produced and slowed down in the Antimatter Factory. When an antiproton and a positronium meet in the antiproton cloud, the positronium gives up its positron to the antiproton, forming antihydrogen.

Producing antihydrogen in this way means that AEgIS can also study positronium, an antimatter system in its own right that is being investigated by experiments worldwide.

Positronium has a very short lifetime, annihilating into gamma rays in 142 billionths of a second. However, because it comprises just two point-like particles, the electron and its antimatter counterpart, “it’s a perfect system to do experiments with”, says AEgIS spokesperson Ruggero Caravita, “provided that, among other experimental challenges, a sample of positronium can be cooled enough to measure it with high precision”.

This is the feat accomplished by the AEgIS team. By applying the technique of laser cooling to a sample of positronium, the collaboration has already managed to more than halve the temperature of the sample, from 380 to 170 degrees kelvin. In follow-up experiments the team aims to break the barrier of 10 degrees kelvin.

AEgIS’ laser cooling of positronium opens up new possibilities for antimatter research. These include high-precision measurements of the properties and gravitational behaviour of this exotic but simple matter–antimatter system, which could reveal new physics. It also allows the production of a positronium Bose–Einstein condensate, in which all constituents occupy the same quantum state. Such a condensate has been proposed as a candidate to produce coherent gamma-ray light via the matter-antimatter annihilation of its constituents – laser-like light made up of monochromatic waves that have a constant phase difference between them.

“A Bose-Einstein condensate of antimatter would be an incredible tool for both fundamental and applied research, especially if it allowed the production of coherent gamma-ray light with which researchers could peer into the atomic nucleus.” says Caravita.

Laser cooling, which was applied to antimatter atoms for the first time about three years ago, works by slowing down atoms bit by bit with laser photons over the course of many cycles of photon absorption and emission. This is normally done using a narrowband laser, which emits light with a small frequency range. By contrast, the AEgIS team uses a broadband laser in their study.

“A broadband laser cools not just a small but a large fraction of the positronium sample,” explains Caravita. “What’s more, we carried out the experiment without applying any external electric or magnetic field, simplifying the experimental set-up and extending the positronium lifetime.”

The AEgIS collaboration shares its achievement of positronium laser cooling with an independent team, which used a different technique and posted their result on the arXiv preprint server on the same day as AEgIS.
 

Further material:
Video collection
Photo collection 1
Photo collection 2

About AEgIS:
The AEgIS collaboration is composed of several research groups from CERN, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (units of Milano, Pavia and the Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications), the University of Oslo, the Universite Paris-Saclay and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the University of Liverpool, the Warsaw University of Technology, the University of Trento, the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, the Raman Research Institute of Bangalore, the University of Innsbruck, the University and the Politecnico of Milan, the University of Brescia, the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, the University of Latvia, the Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Czech Technical University of Prague.

sandrika Fri, 02/16/2024 - 14:50 Publication Date Thu, 02/22/2024 - 16:30

Accelerator Report: The accelerator complex gears up for action after the yearly winter maintenance break

Cern News - Thu, 15/02/2024 - 11:11
Accelerator Report: The accelerator complex gears up for action after the yearly winter maintenance break The Linac4 fixed display showing the beam’s electrical current along the Linac. The first bar indicates the beam current coming out of the Linac4 source; the last bar indicates the beam current knocking on the PS Booster door. The change in the height of the bars indicates the transmission efficiency. The aim is to minimise the beam losses between the beam current measurement points in order to increase the overall transmission efficiency. (Image: CERN)

The symbolic key to resume LHC operations will be handed over from the ACE (Accelerator Coordination and Engineering) group in the Engineering department to the Operations group on Friday, 16 February, kicking off the 2024 “particle season”.

As winter bids farewell, the recommissioning of the accelerator complex gathers pace, with the scientific community eagerly awaiting particle beams in their experiments. Following the year-end technical stop (YETS), Linac4 is the first machine to resume beam operation, followed by the downstream machines: the PS Booster, PS, SPS and LHC.

Beam entered Linac4 on 5 February, two days ahead of schedule – extra time welcomed by the Linac team. During the YETS, work was done on the chain of accelerating cavities, requiring a re-phasing – a challenging and often time-consuming task. To do so, the acceleration of the particle beam is optimised as the beam goes down the Linac: the voltage waves in the cavities are timed correctly as the beam passes by, ensuring optimum acceleration in each of the cavities and bringing the energy to 160 MeV at the end of the Linac.

This week, the beam was then sent to the PS Booster. The operations team has one week to prepare for the first beam to be injected into the PS on 21 February. The PS will then have to prepare the first beam for the SPS beam commissioning, scheduled to start on 1 March. The first particle beams will reach the LHC on 11 March, initially with one to a few bunches at most.

Before injecting particle beams, the hardware recommissioning coordinators of each machine and the many equipment experts have the task of meticulously recommissioning and validating all the subsystems. They run the machine “as if” particle beams were being accelerated, but without particles. They go through checklists, validating and ticking off thousands of tests, to give the green light for beam commissioning.

The expectations for 2024 are high. Firstly, in the LHC, the focus is on luminosity production with proton–proton collisions, aiming at an unprecedented accumulation of luminosity of up to 90 fb-1. This, together with the accumulation of luminosity forecast for the 2025 run, should provide a sizeable analysis data set to keep physicists busy during Long Shutdown 3. The 2024 LHC run will conclude with lead–lead collisions; the first lead ions will be injected into the LHC on 6 October. The 2024 run is scheduled to end on 28 October.

The injector chain has an ambitious year ahead as well: the injectors have a busy fixed-target programme and will provide beams to all the experimental facilities. The first fixed-target physics will start in the PS East Area on 22 March, followed by the PS n_TOF facility on 25 March. Physics in ISOLDE, downstream of the PS Booster, will start on 8 April, followed by the SPS North Area on 10 April. The antimatter factory is set to start delivering antiprotons to its experiments on 22 April. The AWAKE facility, behind the SPS, will run for ten weeks in total (in blocks of two or three weeks) until the middle of September, when the dismantling of the no-longer-used CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) target facility will start, to allow for a future extension of the AWAKE facility. The SPS HiRadMat facility will see four 1-week runs.

Beyond this busy physics programme, many machine development studies and tests are planned in all the machines. One of these tests will take place between mid-March and early June to configure the Linac3 source to produce magnesium ions, which will be accelerated in Linac3, injected into LEIR, and possibly even into the PS. This test will help assess the feasibility and performance of magnesium beams in the accelerator complex, for potential future applications in the LHC and the SPS North Area.

The resumption of operation of the accelerator complex heralds a new year of physics, surely leading to important physics results. As the countdown to 11 March continues, the operations and expert teams are working diligently to prepare the machines and the beams for another successful physics run.

anschaef Thu, 02/15/2024 - 10:11 Byline Rende Steerenberg Publication Date Thu, 02/15/2024 - 10:08

Accelerator Report: The accelerator complex gears up for action after the yearly winter maintenance break

Cern News - Thu, 15/02/2024 - 11:11
Accelerator Report: The accelerator complex gears up for action after the yearly winter maintenance break

The symbolic key to resume LHC operations will be handed over from the ACE (Accelerator Coordination and Engineering) group in the Engineering department to the Operations group on Friday, 16 February, kicking off the 2024 “particle season”.

As winter bids farewell, the recommissioning of the accelerator complex gathers pace, with the scientific community eagerly awaiting particle beams in their experiments. Following the year-end technical stop (YETS), Linac4 is the first machine to resume beam operation, followed by the downstream machines: the PS Booster, PS, SPS and LHC.

Beam entered Linac4 on 5 February, two days ahead of schedule – extra time welcomed by the Linac team. During the YETS, work was done on the chain of accelerating cavities, requiring a re-phasing – a challenging and often time-consuming task. To do so, the acceleration of the particle beam is optimised as the beam goes down the Linac: the voltage waves in the cavities are timed correctly as the beam passes by, ensuring optimum acceleration in each of the cavities and bringing the energy to 160 MeV at the end of the Linac.

This week, the beam was then sent to the PS Booster. The operations team has one week to prepare for the first beam to be injected into the PS on 21 February. The PS will then have to prepare the first beam for the SPS beam commissioning, scheduled to start on 1 March. The first particle beams will reach the LHC on 11 March, initially with one to a few bunches at most.

Before injecting particle beams, the hardware recommissioning coordinators of each machine and the many equipment experts have the task of meticulously recommissioning and validating all the subsystems. They run the machine “as if” particle beams were being accelerated, but without particles. They go through checklists, validating and ticking off thousands of tests, to give the green light for beam commissioning.

The expectations for 2024 are high. Firstly, in the LHC, the focus is on luminosity production with proton–proton collisions, aiming at an unprecedented accumulation of luminosity of up to 90 fb-1. This, together with the accumulation of luminosity forecast for the 2025 run, should provide a sizeable analysis data set to keep physicists busy during Long Shutdown 3. The 2024 LHC run will conclude with lead–lead collisions; the first lead ions will be injected into the LHC on 6 October. The 2024 run is scheduled to end on 28 October.

The injector chain has an ambitious year ahead as well: the injectors have a busy fixed-target programme and will provide beams to all the experimental facilities. The first fixed-target physics will start in the PS East Area on 22 March, followed by the PS n_TOF facility on 25 March. Physics in ISOLDE, downstream of the PS Booster, will start on 8 April, followed by the SPS North Area on 10 April. The antimatter factory is set to start delivering antiprotons to its experiments on 22 April. The AWAKE facility, behind the SPS, will run for ten weeks in total (in blocks of two or three weeks) until the middle of September, when the dismantling of the no-longer-used CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) target facility will start, to allow for a future extension of the AWAKE facility. The SPS HiRadMat facility will see four 1-week runs.

Beyond this busy physics programme, many machine development studies and tests are planned in all the machines. One of these tests will take place between mid-March and early June to configure the Linac3 source to produce magnesium ions, which will be accelerated in Linac3, injected into LEIR, and possibly even into the PS. This test will help assess the feasibility and performance of magnesium beams in the accelerator complex, for potential future applications in the LHC and the SPS North Area.

The resumption of operation of the accelerator complex heralds a new year of physics, surely leading to important physics results. As the countdown to 11 March continues, the operations and expert teams are working diligently to prepare the machines and the beams for another successful physics run.

anschaef Thu, 02/15/2024 - 10:11 Byline Rende Steerenberg Publication Date Thu, 02/15/2024 - 10:08

Happy hundredth Herwig!

Cern News - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 13:11
Happy hundredth Herwig! Learn from a lifetime of physics, come to the 1 March event.

Join in a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” on Friday 1 March, as CERN celebrates the 100th birthday of Herwig Schopper, CERN Director-General from 1981 to 1988.

Herwig has made landmark contributions to nuclear and particle physics and to related technologies. In his early career, he played a key role in shaping today’s physics research landscape in Germany, establishing laboratories and institutions before going on to leadership roles at DESY and CERN.

After retirement, not content to rest on his laurels, Herwig embarked on a new career: as a science diplomat. In this capacity, he played a leading role in the establishment of the SESAME laboratory in Jordan, a synchrotron light facility for the Middle East and neighbouring regions.

Over his remarkable career, Herwig has rubbed shoulders with the giants of the field, counting many as friends. Few have had the opportunity to witness the evolution of particle physics from such a privileged vantage point.

Now is your chance to hear this history first hand. On Friday 1 March from 2 p.m. in the Main Auditorium, current and former CERN directors, eminent scientists and Herwig himself will speak, before participants are invited to raise a glass at a drinks reception. Full details are available here.

Register now to join the celebration of Herwig’s life and achievements to date.

(Video: CERN)

katebrad Wed, 02/14/2024 - 12:11 Publication Date Thu, 02/15/2024 - 09:30

Happy hundredth Herwig!

Cern News - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 13:11
Happy hundredth Herwig! Learn from a lifetime of physics, come to the 1 March event.

Join in a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” on Friday 1 March, as CERN celebrates the 100th birthday of Herwig Schopper, CERN Director-General from 1981 to 1988.

Herwig has made landmark contributions to nuclear and particle physics and to related technologies. In his early career, he played a key role in shaping today’s physics research landscape in Germany, establishing laboratories and institutions before going on to leadership roles at DESY and CERN.

After retirement, not content to rest on his laurels, Herwig embarked on a new career: as a science diplomat. In this capacity, he played a leading role in the establishment of the SESAME laboratory in Jordan, a synchrotron light facility for the Middle East and neighbouring regions.

Over his remarkable career, Herwig has rubbed shoulders with the giants of the field, counting many as friends. Few have had the opportunity to witness the evolution of particle physics from such a privileged vantage point.

Now is your chance to hear this history first hand. On Friday 1 March from 2 p.m. in the Main Auditorium, current and former CERN directors, eminent scientists and Herwig himself will speak, before participants are invited to raise a glass at a drinks reception. Full details are available here.

Register now to join the celebration of Herwig’s life and achievements to date.

(Video: CERN)

katebrad Wed, 02/14/2024 - 12:11 Publication Date Thu, 02/15/2024 - 09:30

A recipe for speed

Nature Physics - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 14 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02414-2

A recipe for speed

Noble sandwich

Nature Physics - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 14 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02415-1

Noble sandwich

Techno-optimism needs a reality check

Nature Physics - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 14 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02390-7

Techno-optimism needs a reality check

A toast to technicians

Nature Physics - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 14 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02422-2

Despite the essential support they provide to successful research projects, the contributions of laboratory technicians often remain undervalued. We take a moment to appreciate their efforts.

We can see clearly now

Nature Physics - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 14 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02394-3

Adaptive optics allows scientists to correct for distortions of an image caused by the scattering of light. Anita Chandran illuminates the nature of the technique.

Through the slopes of a light-induced phase transition

Nature Physics - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 14 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02401-7

The integration of theory and experiment makes possible tracking the slow evolution of a photodoped Mott insulator to a distinct non-equilibrium metallic phase under the influence of electron-lattice coupling.

Observation of Josephson harmonics in tunnel junctions

Nature Physics - Wed, 14/02/2024 - 00:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 14 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02400-8

The standard current–phase relation in tunnel Josephson junctions involves a single sinusoidal term, but real junctions are more complicated. The effects of higher Josephson harmonics have now been identified in superconducting qubit devices.

Computer Security: Bull**** Bingo

Cern News - Tue, 13/02/2024 - 15:50
Computer Security: Bull**** Bingo

There are many mantras and claims floating around about cybersecurity. Some of them leave no room for doubt, like “defence in depth”, which suggests deploying protective means at every level of the hardware and software stack, or “KISS ─ keep it simple, stupid” to avoid over-complication and too many deviations from the “standard” cybersecurity system. Other, more unfortunate statements also hold true. For example, “convenient, cheap, secure ─ pick two” makes “secure” always the least attractive option, as it brings no immediate benefits. However, some other mantras and claims are simply not true. Plain wrong. Or, excuse my language, “bull****”.

Indeed, computer security is never straightforward. Often, there is no single solution, but a series of complementary solutions is needed, like how our xorlab ActiveGuard solution works together with the Microsoft SPAM filter. Often a holistic solution cannot be found, for example when the quick fix of having two-factor authentication (2FA) for the new CERN SSO was deployed, which meant that the old SSO was left to die, and the non-holistic solutions we are looking at for how to deploy 2FA to LXPLUS and Windows Terminal Servers in the future. Generally, computer security requires the aforementioned “defence in depth”: individually, multiple protective layers, each with a defined (implementation) scope, a limited coverage and holes are insufficient. But together, they provide adequate overall protection to the Organization that is pragmatic, balanced and efficient. Combined, they keep the cybersecurity risks and threats to the Organization under control.

So, while we acknowledge that there is no single solution to “cybersecurity”, there are many wrong solutions. Wrong statements. Wrong mantras. Bull****. In order to give you an idea of what we mean, let’s play “Bull**** Bingo”. Below are 25 statements we have heard in the past about cybersecurity, best security practices and cybersecurity implementation, some even from esteemed colleagues. Can you spot where they went wrong?  

 

A

B

C

D

E

1

There is no malware for Apple devices

Software from the Google Play Store is harmless

Security is everyone’s responsibility

SSH on port 2222/tcp is more secure

SPAM and malware filtering is 100% effective

2

2FA is a big step forward for account protection

Emails from “@cern.ch” are legitimate

I'm personally not a target as I'm not interesting to attackers

Back-ups cannot be altered

I have nothing to hide

3

I would never fall for phishing

Only the link behind a text/QR code reveals its truth

CERN’s technical network is secure

A password written on a post-it is a good idea

QR codes always link to legit sites

4

A (free) VPN service protects me

Password protection on my laptop protects its data

My browser’s password manager is secure

CERN is not interesting to attackers

CERN’s anti-malware software is free for you to download

5

Using “https” means the website is secure

CERN’s outer perimeter firewall keeps all threats away

Cloud services cannot be hacked

Encryption is easy; key management is complicated

WiFi is always secure

 

The first three people to send the five true statements to Computer.Security@cern.ch will win a bottle of Coca-Cola, as well as a “Hawaiian” pizza from CERN’s Restaurant 2.

Want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Read our monthly reports (https://cern.ch/security/reports/en/monthly_reports.shtml). For more information, questions or advice, check out our website (https://cern.ch/Computer.Security) or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

ndinmore Tue, 02/13/2024 - 14:50 Byline Computer Security team Publication Date Tue, 02/13/2024 - 14:46

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phone: +30 2810 394300 - email: chair@physics.uoc.gr