A Discussion on Life Systems Security and the Systems Approach

The relationship between information technology and information security historically has been quite reactive. New innovations in information technology have often been accompanied by new security threats that create challenges to its reliability and overall integrity. In this paper, a historical perspective that outlines the evolution in the development of the security function is used as a starting base. Changes in the way security issues are viewed and how this view affects the design and development of secure systems are then postulated. It is proposed that these changes should be incorporated into the security functions of any waterfall development model, and especially during the initial and terminating stages

Secure Tropos: A Security-Oriented Extension of the Tropos methodology

Although security plays an important role in the development of multiagent systems, a careful analysis of software development processes shows that the definition of security requirements is, usually, considered after the design of the system. One of the reasons is the fact that agent oriented software engineering methodologies have not integrated security concerns throughout their developing stages. The integration of security concerns during the whole range of the development stages can help towards the development of more secure multiagent systems. In this paper we introduce extensions to the Tropos methodology to enable it to model security concerns throughout the whole development process. A description of the new concepts and modelling activities is given along with a discussion on how these concepts and modelling activities are integrated to the current stages of Tropos. A real life case study from the health and social care sector is used to illustrate the approach

Transparency in InfoSec Design

Information system capabilities continue to expand. In two particular areas, that of the surveillance records and personal data, a public policy debate is underway. This debate regards the relationship between the rights of the individual to freedom from unwanted observation and the rights of the organization to collect and use data for its own legitimate purposes. This discussion encompasses privacy as well as a broader concern with what life could be like in a surveillance-based society. The fundamental question facing information systems designers is whether or not to use the contemporary approach of striving for secrecy, or to look for some novel way to assure security and privacy without secrecy. Future systems will implement surveillance and data gathering capabilities far beyond those in use today, and thus these systems will pose new challenges to our current thinking about privacy. The phrase from Juvenal, But who will guard the guards themselves? encapsulates the problem presented when any person or small group has been assigned to roles that give decision-making powers or control over wealth. Those who are trusted to protect the common good are faced with the temptation of abusing their positions for personal gain. The challenge that faces the designers of such information systems is to make sure that the resulting systems perform as designed while also meeting security and transparency needs. Balance is needed, even when systems are designed with full transparency in mind. Limits on transparency are needed to assure fairness to all concerned. The interest of the individual’s need for privacy is balanced against the interest of the collective’s need for transparency. While the collective needs to acquire and use information to coordinate and control the overall activities, the individual seeks to control how and to what purpose the information collected about him or her is used

Promoting Older Adults\u27 Health through Policy

The purpose of this capstone project was to develop the content for an online training module entitled Promoting Older Adults’ Health through Policy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Aging and Health Work Group was interested in complementing their workshop, Promoting Older Adults’ Health: Opportunities and Resources for CDC Professionals with an online training module on aging and policy. This project highlights significant pieces of U.S. legislation that promotes older adults’ health and draws attention to emerging policy, systems, and environmental changes on the horizon. An anticipated short-term outcome is a demonstrated sensitivity to population aging in all CDC centers, divisions, programs, and initiatives. Similarly, an anticipated long-term outcome is growth in the number, quality, and scope of collaborative efforts across CDC centers, divisions, programs, and initiatives that focus on older adults’ health. Two perspectives, “Healthy Aging” and “Successful Aging,” provide the foundation for a discussion of legislation and policies oriented towards older adults’ health. Various policy frameworks, i.e., cost-benefit, problem, political, vision, and a futures policy approach frame the discussion of policy development. Significant legislation that promotes older adults’ health, i.e., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act of 1965 provide a historical context for a discussion of emerging policy, systems, and environmental changes that promise even greater advances. The mobility challenge for older adults as a population group in the U.S. provides the thematic thrust of this section of the module. Examples of CDC’s work exploring the link between older adults’ health and mobility, the built environment, and emergency preparedness are highlighted based on several criteria: burden of the problem, preventability, relationship to other CDC initiatives, and usefulness to practitioners are critical considerations. The module also discusses how legislation and policies designed to promote health aging also improve the quality of life for all population groups. Policies focused on healthy aging lay the groundwork for an integration of a “health in all policies” approach (World Health Organization/ WHO, 2006), working in tandem with the “health for all” framework (WHO, 1998) and the “society for all ages” construct (United Nations, 1999)

Energy-efficient homes in Alaska: historical and contemporary perspectives on adaptation and innovation

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Global climate change is largely caused by greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic sources. The building industry is responsible for over 40% of global carbon emissions. Almost half of the energy consumption in buildings is from space heating and cooling. The incorporation of energy efficiency in homes has a large potential to mitigate future climate change impacts while at the same time aiding household members to adapt to the effects of global change. This dissertation explores this potential in Alaska, where in addition to climate change impacts, residents are vulnerable to high oil prices affecting not only their energy security, but also their health, food security, and sense of place. This interdisciplinary dissertation explores the viability of Alaskan energy-efficient homes from social, economic, and environmental perspectives. In the following chapters, I first use a conceptual model of energy security that is adopted from the food security literature to determine that a significant segment of Alaska is in an energy-insecure state. This is predominantly due to expensive fuel, overreliance on fuel imports, inefficient uses of heating fuel, and a legacy of inefficient homes. Next, I provide a historical survey of Alaskan homes from pre-contact dwellings to modern era homes. Some of the pre-contact homes' energy efficiency features have been reintroduced in some modern homes, such as a small square-foot-to-occupant ratio, passive solar design, arctic entrance, round or octagonal building layout, using earth berming, sand dunes, and snow banks as natural insulation, permafrost lined cellars, subterranean building style, thermal mass, and shared stone walls between rooms. Third, I discuss interviews conducted with homeowners of highly energy-efficient homes and other stakeholders in the building-, real estate- and financing industry, which reveal several barriers to the adoption of this building style innovation. The predominant barriers are lack of information and education on this building style by homeowners, designers, and builders; economic disincentive due to a low appraisal value; and a psychological mindset resisting change. Finally, I use a case study of a highly energy-efficient home in Dillingham, Alaska to exemplify the carbon payback point. Using a life cycle assessment approach, I calculated that within 3.3 years the highly energy-efficient house has reached carbon parity when compared to a conventional counterpart house. Collectively, I build on these findings to recommend improvements in education about the benefits of energy efficiency, an overhaul of the appraisal system, and a careful consideration of the psychological aspects of embracing innovations in an effort to facilitate wider adoption of highly energy-efficient homes in Alaska.Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1. Global impacts of climate change -- 1.1.1. Climate change mitigation -- 1.2. Built environment -- 1.2.1. Buildings and energy -- 1.2.2. Buildings and health -- 1.2.3. Buildings and environmental impacts -- 1.3. Alaska : the canary in the coal mine -- 1.3.1. Energy security in Alaska -- 1.3.2. Effects of energy consumption on food security and health -- 1.3.3. Residential housing legacy -- 1.3.4. Adaptation strategies -- 1.4. Research goal and methods -- 1.4.1. Conceptual framework -- 1.5. Chapter outlines -- 1.6. References. Chapter 2: Defining energy security in the rural North: historical and contemporary perspectives from Alaska -- 2.1. Abstract -- 2.2. Introduction -- 2.3. Conceptual background -- 2.4. Energy security definition and framework -- 2.4.1. A framework for energy security -- 2.5. Energy security in the pre-contact North -- 2.5.1. Homes and households -- 2.5.2. Food systems linkages -- 2.5.3. Colonial changes -- 2.6. Contemporary energy security concerns in Alaska -- 2.6.1. Food-energy interactions -- 2.6.2. Household and municipal uses -- 2.6.3. Stability -- 2.7. Discussion -- 2.8. Conclusion -- References. Chapter 3: The evolution of home energy efficiency in Alaska -- 3.1. Abstract -- 3.2. Introduction -- 3.3. Concepts and methods -- 3.4. Historical survey of home design in Alaska -- 3.4.1. Pre-colonial home designs -- 3.4.2. Settlers' influences on architecture -- 3.4.3. Modern era homes -- 3.5. Elements of adaptation strategies -- 3.5.1. Occupancy rates -- 3.5.2. Indoor thermal comfort -- 3.7. Discussion -- 3.8. Conclusion -- 3.9. References. Chapter 4: To build or not to build: highly energy-efficient homes in Alaska -- 4.1. Abstract -- 4.2 Introduction -- 4.3. Background and framework -- 4.4. Methods -- 4.5. Results -- 4.5.1. Adopter group -- 4.5.2. Social networks and knowledge sharing -- 4.5.3. Barriers -- 4.6. Discussion -- 4.6.1. Recommendations -- 4.7. Conclusion -- 4.8. Reference. Chapter 5: Conducting life cycle assessment (LCA) to determine carbon payback: a case study of a highly energy-efficient house in rural Alaska -- 5.1. Abstract -- 5.2. Introduction -- 5.2.1. Case study overview -- 5.3. Materials and methods -- 5.3.1. Case study home -- 5.3.2. Life cycle assessment for buildings -- 5.4. Calculation -- 5.4.1. Details of LCA -- 5.4.2. Parameters and system boundaries -- 5.4.3. Materials -- 5.4.4. Disposal scenario -- 5.5. Results and discussion -- 5.5.1. LCA results -- 5.5.2. Carbon payback -- 5.5.3. Calculation and results -- 5.5.4. Disposal of building materials -- 5.6. Reflection on analysis -- 5.7. Conclusion -- 5.8. References. Chapter 6: Conclusion -- 6.1 Key Findings -- 6.2 Recommendations -- 6.3 References -- Appendices

An investigation into trust and security in the mandatory and imposed use of financial ICTs upon older people

Care needs to be taken to reduce the number of people who are fearful and mistrustful of using ICT where that usage is forced upon them without choice or alternative. The growing incidence of mandatory and imposed online systems can result in confusion, misuse, fear, and rejection by people with only rudimentary ICT skills. A cohort where a high percentage of such people occur is older people, defined in this study as people over the age of 60 Examples of compulsory ICT interactions include some banks limiting bank statement access through online rather than paper-based options. Other examples include the purchase of theatre or sports events tickets through ticketing systems that require an online transaction to take place. Increasingly, people are living beyond the normal retiring age. As the older cohort increases in size and in overall global population percentage, the problem of forced technology usage affects technology acceptance, technology trust, and technology rejection. People care about ICT systems where reduced trusted acceptance of technology reduces the advantages of digital health care, the perceived security of banking and shopping, and the autonomy of ICT-driven lifestyle choices. This study aims to solve one of the puzzles of ICT-driven change, where older people can show trepidation towards using technology. By understanding the drivers that influence the choices older people make in relation to ICT systems, it may be possible to introduce a much higher level of trusted acceptance in ICT systems. Although many people adopt ICTs into their lives, many older people face difficulty in using technology when it is forced upon them. This study aims to understand the connection between how choice (or lack of choice) can lead to the rejection or resistance towards ICT usage. Older people sometimes opt towards practices that place themselves at risk of financial or informational disadvantage. This study used a qualitative approach to understanding the factors that influenced the trusted acceptance, trepidation, and in some cases rejection of ICT usage by interviewing a sample of older people. Participants were asked to consider a wide range of ICT-usage scenarios and to describe their intentions. The study focussed on circumstances where ICT usage fell under either mandatory, imposed, or voluntary conditions in order to compare user behaviour. Settings included a range of technology-reliant states that examined IT security, volition and choice, aging, trusted acceptance, and technology adoption. Participants were interviewed to discover and sort the conditions (whether singly or in combination) under which the expectation of ICT acceptance was in some way altered, diminished, or prevented. This research found that older people made poor decisions when the choice to use a technology was replaced with a mandatory or strongly imposed pathway. Mandatory ICT usage across the broad area of financial transactions brought about widespread fear and distrust of online technology usage. The results revealed that many older people not only find these innovations daunting and confronting, but they also have difficulty placing their trust in ICT systems and applications that have become mandatory. In normative conditions, increased ICT acceptance and ICT usage is expected. When ICTs are mandatory in their usage, acceptance is replaced with compulsory procedure. This does not mean that mandatory things cannot be accepted, but rather that older people will accept the need to use a technology according to their perception of what is necessary for their daily and routine interactions. This study showed that voluntary ICT usages including choices increase informed decision-making, security of online financial interactions, and trusted reliance upon ICTs. Choice in ICT usage carries greater trust than mandatory, obligated, or heavily imposed ICTs. The study revealed that mandatory ICT systems can create perceptions of fear, mistrust and uncertainty. In situations where a mandatory ICT system becomes the normative method of transaction, a strong risk to the trusted acceptance of a technology is not merely the lack of ICT-based choice, but also the inability to gain reassurance or secondary confirmation through either face to face or telephone-based communication. Trust in not just the usage, but the implied secure usage of mandated and imposed ICTs, is problematic for older people. This study revealed the significance of mandated ICT systems that limit choices for people, because older humans more readily validate and associate their trust in new innovations when they can access various different professional, technical, peer-based, social and popular opinions. The research also showed that older people are fearful and less trusting in mandatory and imposed systems because they have less financial resilience, and less opportunity to bounce back from loss and disadvantage brought about by digital and online interactions. Older people were worried and reluctant to accept technology at first glance because they knew that they had spent more time than others in a pre-internet, pre-digital environment, and their seminal life experiences are correspondingly less technology-related. The results showed that many older people preferred human communication and interaction rather than communicating, buying, paying, and trusting in purely digital, ICT-based experiences. This demonstrated a gap in the trust and security of digital systems, and the need to address those ICTs that impose and mandate instruments and procedures for daily life. Specifically this study looked at what could reduce unsafe and insecure banking practices by understanding the role of choice in the trusted usage of ICT systems. This study is significant because it shows that older people make financial and social, decisions under reactionary, insecure, and under-informed conditions as a result of a gap in terms of trust security and choice. On the one hand older people develop trust towards a new innovation based on accumulated human discussion, information and reputation. On the other hand older people hold the perception that online systems offer reduced choices. This study led to the development of a model for trusted technology choice (TTCM). It differs from traditional acceptance and diffusion thinking, by having outputs as either ICT acceptance or ICT rejection. It diverges from diffusion and technology acceptance models (TAM), because technology acceptance is not regarded as a foregone conclusion. Instead, it places a very high value upon choice and volition, trust, security and human interaction. The TTCM model, together with a framework for identifying volition barriers, provides a different set of criteria for understanding the needs of older people and their meaningful interactions with new innovation and ICTs. The practical applications for using such a model directly impact upon financial and social stability for older people. Where choices are either removed or limited due to ICT usage, older citizens are unfairly disadvantaged. A model that accurately predicts the trusted usage of ICT innovations can have a widespread effect on the implementation of large-scale public and private systems where the trusted acceptance (or rejection) of each system has on flow impact on financial, health, and other critical services that include the growing population of older people

Critical Infrastructure Automated Immuno-Response System (CIAIRS)

Critical Infrastructures play a central role in the world around us and are the backbone of everyday life. Their service provision has become more widespread, to the point where it is now practically ubiquitous in many societies. Critical Infrastructure assets contribute to the economy and society as a whole. Their impact on the security, economy and health sector are extremely vital. Critical Infrastructures now possess levels of automation that require the integration of, often, mutually incompatible technologies. Their increasing complexity has led to the creation of direct and indirect interdependent connections amongst the infrastructure groupings. In addition, the data generated is vast as the intricate level of interdependency between infrastructures has grown. Since Critical Infrastructures are the backbone of everyday life, their protection from cyber-threats is an increasingly pressing issue for governments and private industries. Any failures, caused by cyber-attacks, have the ability to spread through interconnected systems and are a challenge to detect; especially as the Internet is now heavily reliant on Critical Infrastructures. This has led to different security threats facing interconnected security systems. Understanding the complexity of Critical Infrastructure interdependencies, how to take advantage of it in order to minimize the cascading problem, enables the prediction of potential problems before they happen. Therefore, this work firstly discusses the interdependency challenges facing Critical Infrastructures; and how it can be used to create a support network against cyber-attacks. In much, the same way as the human immune system is able to respond to intrusion. Next, the development of a distributed support system is presented. The system employs behaviour analysis techniques to support interconnected infrastructures and distribute security advice throughout a distributed system of systems. The approach put forward is tested through a statistical analysis methodology, in order to investigate the cascading failure effect whilst taking into account the independent variables. Moreover, our proposed system is able to detect cyber-attacks and share the knowledge with interconnected partners to create an immune system network. The development of the ‘Critical Infrastructure Auto-Immune Response System’ (CIAIRS) is presented with a detailed discussion on the main segments that comprise the framework and illustrates the functioning of the system. A semi-structured interview helped to demonstrate our approach by using a realistic simulation to construct data and evaluate the system output

Ensuring Urban Water Security in Water-Scarce Regions of the United States

On December 11-13, 2013, The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, along with partner ReNUWit, convened experts from different parts of the country to discuss the implications of chronic and episodic water scarcity on our nation's water infrastructure -- with the goal of moving beyond the "case-by-case" conversation to one about how cities can transform their infrastructure and management strategies. The resulting report identifies key principles of water security and explores components of good strategy and innovative water supply options while building the case for transformation

Security-Informed Safety: Supporting Stakeholders with Codes of Practice

Codes of practice provide principles and guidance on how organizations can incorporate security considerations into their safety engineering lifecycle and become more security minded