The Silhouette - January 9, 2014

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FOOD TRENDS for the NEW YEAR

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The

Silhouette McMASTER UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014 VOL. 84 NO. 17

REVIEW COMMUNITY’S SEASON FIVE STARTS STRONG

Mac student murder investigation continues Fourth-year mechanical engineering student Tyler Johnson was shot dead on Saturday, Nov. 30 in a parking lot near Hess Village following an altercation. Police are still trying to track down suspects from restaurant surveillance footage.

Prof remembers slain Eng student Tyler Johnson Jemma Wolfe Executive Editor It’s been six weeks since 30-year-old McMaster student Tyler Johnson was shot and killed near Hess Village. And yet despite the elapsed time, the big questions of responsibility and motive remain largely unknown. The fourth-year mechanical engineer’s bright future was stolen from him in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013. At approximately 3 a.m., Johnson was involved in an incident between two groups of men outside of Vida La Pita restaurant near the corner of King Street West and Caroline Street, one block east of Hamilton’s popular bar district, Hess Village. Hamilton police sergeant Paul Hamilton said that the conflict occurring between the two groups “quickly escalated when one man produced a handgun and shot the victim.” Johnson’s body was found in the nearby Tim Hortons parking lot and was pronounced dead at Hamilton General Hospital. Initially, emergency responders thought Johnson had been stabbed and began trying to treat him for stab wounds before realizing that he had been fatally shot in the chest. One arrest was made in the weeks following Johnson’s death. Brandon Barreira, a 19-year-old Hamiltonian was arrested in Cambridge on Dec. 11 with a first-degree murder charge. He has since made brief procedural court appearances via video remand to set later appearance dates. His next appearance is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 9. Police are still seeking several suspects and persons of interests following the release of surveillance videos

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IS STARBUCKS BAD NEWS FOR MCMASTER?

last month. The videos, taken from Tim Hortons and Vida La Pita surveillance footage and posted on the Hamilton Police YouTube channel, are an appeal to the public to identify six different men who were possibly involved in or were witness to Johnson’s shooting. Despite posting the videos, police have yet to make any further arrests. Anyone with further information is asked to contact the Hamilton homicide unit at 905-546-4123 or to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Johnson was the second homicide in a two-month period for that particular parking lot on King Street West. On Sept. 15, 2013, David Pereira, 18, was stabbed

“Tyler was committed to developing himself, bettering himself and bettering the world” Joel Hilchey, Sessional Instructor

to death at 2:30 a.m. Raleigh Stubbs, 49, was charged with his murder. Since Johnson’s violent passing, accounts of his good nature and determination to become an engineer have been shared with the media. Sessional instructor Joel Hilchey taught Johnson last term in the fourth-year class Engineering & Social Responsibility. In a class where “the goal is to reinforce that being a good engineer involves being a good person as well,” Johnson seems to have embodied that manifesto. “The week before he died, he talked to me after class [to] challenge one of his grades on an assignment,” Hilchey shared. “The class in general did pretty poorly on the assignment although Tyler did very well. I was crowded with a group of people after class as I often am but … he

waited patiently and I looked at his paper and said, ‘you should go challenge this – I think it was graded too harshly’ and he said, ‘thanks a lot, I really appreciate it,’ and took off after that.” Hilchey said that what struck him most about Johnson was that, “In a conversation about challenging a grade where lots of students are regularly hostile, he really wasn’t. He was nothing but respectful.” A regular attendee of the class, Hilchey said that Johnson “did good work on his assignments and I can tell he was putting a lot of thought into them.” Johnson had also recently been accepted to complete his masters at McMaster next fall. One particular class assignment to create a TED talk sharing one’s wisdom with the world resulted in a video that Johnson posted on YouTube on Nov. 10. Titled “Decisions we make and the impact they can have on society.” The video has been shared and discussed frequently since his death and has accumulated nearly 4000 views. “It may be poetic, or maybe it’s just a coincidence that Tyler talked about the long term impact of our decisions,” Hilchey said, echoing the opinion of many viewers after watching three-and-ahalf minute piece. “One of my educational goals is to help students think about more than just the strict ‘mathematical’ definition of engineering,” Hilchey continued. “I want people to be good people and from what I can tell, Tyler was committed to that. He was committed to developing himself, bettering himself and bettering the world.” Grief counseling continues to be offered to students at the Student Wellness Centre in McMaster University Student Centre room B101. Appointments can be made at the Centre or by calling 905-5259140 x27700. @jemma_wolfe

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Student files not secure Rachel Faber Assistant News Editor Internet risks pose a problem to many web users, but university students and faculty are particularly vulnerable, having essential academic files saved to their computers. With numerous potential cyber threats out there, university students could be an at-risk group for nasty malware or viruses says University Technology Services. A fairly recent concern is Cryptolocker, malicious software that can enter your computer and encrypt your important documents or pictures. The software will then make you pay to get your pictures and documents back. “Once you pay, you set up all your colleagues as targets,” says Richard Godsmark of UTS. This could affect your contacts directly because Cryptolocker criminals assume they are easy targets. The payment issue presents itself in two ways, either in a phishing email or an illegitimate website. Godsmark suggests that if an email or a website looks suspicious, to use caution when giving out personal or credit card information. Godsmark believes that even when an internet criminal is caught, like the recent arrest of a malware author in Russia, another is bound to emerge. “It will never be perfect, the bad guys will be able to convince you to install software if people are unaware,” said Godsmark. Recently, Yahoo! in Europe experienced a waterhole attack where their ads were compromised and began installing malware into users computers. “The vast majority of compromises will occur because of no anti-virus or firewall protection,” said Godsmark. There are tools available to Internet criminals that allow them to hide viruses so your anti-virus will not be able to detect them. Viruses can disguise themselves as Adobe Reader or a Java Update very easily. Anti-virus alone is not enough, it is important to also install a system firewall, run regular updates, and turn on web reputation. Viruses are more common on Microsoft operating systems, because of their large market share. However, with the increasing popularity of Apple and Android, new viruses are likely to ‘pop up’ on these operating systems, in Godsmarks opinion. “We shouldn’t work under the basis that there is something magical working for us.” Godsmark believes that the most important thing is a general awareness about these problems. There are a number of ways to recognize if a message is not safe, such as the presence of grammatical errors or abnormal logos. With a combination of protection techniques and general awareness, viruses and malware can be prevented. @rachfaber

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