74 research outputs found

    Investigating the relevance of effectiveness of cybersecurity measures in the Philippine maritime industry

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    Making the Best of It: Three Essays on Overcoming Challenges in the Public Accounting Profession

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    This dissertation reports on three essays relating to challenges public accountants face in exercising their profession. These essays explore how public accountants sensemake about these challenges and reframe (or not) their vision of the value their occupation provides. The first chapter draws on Alasdair MacIntyre’s virtue ethics framework and narrative interviews with twenty Tunisian auditors to understand how they make sense of ethical challenges in a context where transnational norms for the profession are at odds with the local customs. In this context, auditors adapt their purpose within the profession to serve a telos that is congruent with their moral tradition. The second article leverages a qualitative field study into the blockchain specialty practice of a large accounting firm to study the practices auditors deploy when expanding into the blockchain field. This chapter explores the role of Bourdieu’s master concept of habitus in guiding auditors’ approach to and understanding of the terrain they seek to conquer. Without shared habitus, auditors and blockchainers fail to agree on which types of assurance are needed in the blockchain ecosystem, how assurance should be communicated, and who should be providing it. Ultimately, this study sheds light on how auditors can establish a lasting presence in settings where technological innovation is prevalent. The final chapter draws on 31 semi-structured interviews with public accountants carried out during the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It suggests that accountants can experience a sense of freedom when they are given choices that appeal to their value set, which, in this case, is their desire to make rational choices that maximize their human capital value. Choice itself becomes a technique of governmentality because employers control the array of available choices, or the choice architecture, and the information used to evaluate those choices. Altogether, these three studies dig into settings where practicing the profession is difficult – and shed light on how accountants as a profession and as individuals can overcome these obstacles

    Agent-Based Modelling of O ensive Actors in Cyberspace

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    © Cran eld University 2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner.With the rise of the Information Age, there has also been a growing rate of attacks targeting information. In order to better defend against these attacks being able to understand attackers and simulate their behaviour is of utmost importance. A recent approach of using serious games provides an avenue to explore o ensive cyber attacks in a safe and fun environment. There exists a wide range of cyber attackers, with varying levels of expertise whose motivations are di erent. This project provides a novel contribution in using games to allow people to role play as malicious attackers and then using these games as inputs into the simulation. A board game has been designed that emulates a cyber environment, where players represent o ensive actors, with seven roles - Cyber Mercenary (low and high capability), State-backed (low and high capability), Script Kiddy, Hacktivist and Counter-culture (not motivated by nances or ideology). The facilitator or the Games Master (GM) represents the organisation under attack, and players use the Technique cards to perform attacks on the organisation, all cards are sourced from existing Tools, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs). Along with the game, players also provided responses to a questionnaire, that encapsulated three individual dif ferences: Sneider's self-report, DOSPERT and Barratt's Impulsiveness scale. There was a total of 15 players participating in 13 games, and three key groups of individual di erences players. No correlation was identi ed with the individual Technique card pick rate and role. However, the complexity of the attack patterns (Technique card chains) was modulated by roles, and the players' individual di erences. A proof-of-concept simulation has been made using an Agent-Based Modelling framework that re-plays the actions of a player. One of the aspects of future work is the exploitation of the game data to be used as a learning model to create intelligent standalone agents.PH

    Strategies Used to Mitigate Social Engineering Attacks

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    Cybercriminal activity performed widely through social engineering attacks is estimated to be one of the substantial challenges the world will face over the next 20 years. Cybercriminal activity is important to chief information security officers (CISOs) because these attacks represent the largest transfer of economic wealth in history and pose risks to the incentives for organizational innovation and investment and eventually become more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined. Grounded in the balanced control theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies CISOs use to mitigate social engineering attacks within their organizations. Participants consisted of 6 CISOs across 6 small to medium-sized organizations that handle payment card industry data in the West Coast region of the United States of America. Data were collected from CISOs by semi structured telephone interviews. Data were analyzed through interview transcription, in-depth exploration of phenomena, data coding development, and the identification of links to themes. Three major themes emerged from the data analysis: information technology (IT) risks, security awareness, and IT strategies. A key recommendation is for CISOs to develop security awareness programs and implement technical, formal, and informal controls, to sustain operations and protect their networks from potential social engineering attacks. The implications for positive social change include the potential for (a) the mitigation of social engineering attacks, (b) the protection of both organizational and consumer data, and (c) an increase in consumer confidence resulting in increased economic prosperity

    The Counter-testimony of the Maker

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    The chapter begins with the question of critique, mainly how and why does one critique but more importantly why does no one critique effectively anymore. Such is a sentiment echoed by Bruno Latour in the paper Why has Critique Run out of Steam? He states: “It does not seem to me that we have been as quick, in academia, to prepare ourselves for new threats, new dangers, new tasks, new targets. Are we not like those mechanical toys that endlessly make the same gesture when everything else has changed around them?”(Latour, 2004:225). According to Latour, the absence of principles is to blame. As he puts it, critique has battered through all claims to a ground and the lack of a sure ground argument has backfired. The result is that there isn’t even a sure ground for criticism. Without a ground, it’s hard to differentiate a rigorous critical claim from a conspiracy theory. That’s why conspiracy theory books are best sellers. Latour mourns the death of critique. In its remnants lies a whole industry denying the Apollo program. My claim is that the absence of principles transforms critique into an issue around the strength of evidence and the credibility of the testimony. Effective critique is synonymous with a counter-testimony of a reliable witness. A witness is someone who is present at the time of an event, often a crime, and is able to testify before the law. They are able to give direct evidence in relation to the events. However, they often rely on foggy memories and blurred vision. It is not too difficult for the defence or prosecution to put the reliability or credibility of the witness in doubt. Here is where the role of making comes into play. More often than not, in the post-critical age, a testimony, or counter-testimony, is not simply uttered but is rather constructed. Latour is the first to admit that a critique has to be made. As such the eyewitness is no longer a person but a photograph, a video or other forms of surveillance. Juries are more decisive when they are presented with the facts, the evidence, more often submitted as objects as opposed to a fuzzy testimony of a witness. Critique, or counter-testimony, is a material process enabled by infrastructure. Is a practice-based question of physics, chemistry and the material forms of agency. Given all this this chapter explores further the role of critical making as counter-testimony. From aesthetic practices of forensics, counter-forensics to the role of labs in media archaeology and investigative practices, I will tell the story of makers that present their objects as a counter-narrative to pressing socio-political issues. More importantly, however, I will address the issue of how critical making practices can establish credibility in a world of fakes and loss of belief

    The effects of security protocols on cybercrime at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

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    Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) within the educational sector is increasing rapidly. University systems are becoming increasingly dependent on computerized information systems (CIS) in order to carry out their daily routine. Moreover, CIS no longer process staff records and financial data only, as they once did. Nowadays, universities use CIS to assist in automating the overall system. This automation includes the use of multiple databases, data detail periodicity (i.e. gender, race/ethnicity, enrollment, degrees granted, and program major), record identification (e.g. social security number ‘SSN’), linking to other databases (i.e. linking unit record data with external databases such as university and employment data). The increasing demand and exposure to Internet resources and infrastructure by individuals and universities have made IT infrastructure easy targets for cybercriminals who employ sophisticated attacks such as Advanced Persistent Threats, Distributed Denial of Service attacks and Botnets in order to steal confidential data, identities of individuals and money. Hence, in order to stay in business, universities realise that it is imperative to secure vital Information Systems from easily being exploited by emerging and existing forms of cybercrimes. This study was conducted to determine and evaluate the various forms of cybercrimes and their consequences on the university network at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The study was also aimed at proposing means of mitigating cybercrimes and their effects on the university network. Hence, an exploratory research design supported by qualitative research approach was used in this study. Staff of the Institute of Computing, Information and Communication technology (ICICT) were interviewed. The findings of the study present different security measures, and security tools that can be used to effectively mitigate cybercrimes. It was found that social engineering, denial of service attacks, website defacement were among the types of cybercrimes occurring on the university network. It is therefore recommended that behavioural approach in a form of motivation of staff behaviour, salary increases, and cash incentive to reduce cybercrime perpetrated by these staff

    An Insider\u27s Guide to Notre Dame Law School

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    From the Introduction On behalf of the Notre Dame Law School student body, we are thrilled to be among the first to welcome you to the NDLS Community! We know that this is an exciting time for you and—if you are anything like we were just a couple of years ago—you probably have plenty of questions about law school and Notre Dame, whether it’s about academics, professors, student life, or just where to get a good dinner. That’s why we’ve prepared the Guide. This is called an Insider’s Guide because it has been written by students. Over the past year, we’ve updated and revised old sections, compiled and created new ones, and edited and reedited the whole book in hopes of making your transition to Notre Dame easier. This isn’t a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know to get through law school or thrive in South Bend, but it is a great place to start. Whether you’re trying to figure out where to live next year, the best way to get to and around town, what law students do on the weekend, or which daycare is best for your kids, the Guide is a terrific resource. Please note that some information may have changed since the date of publication, so be sure to confirm pertinent information. We all treasure our experiences here at NDLS. The professors, the students, and the staff of the Law School are unique — their warmth, friendship, and true support have made studying law at Notre Dame a pleasure. We hope that our enthusiasm will be apparent throughout the Guide. We have appreciated reflecting on our experiences here and enjoyed putting the Guide together for you. Although we know that you will receive a variety of additional information from the Law School and the University, we hope that this look at NDLS from the perspective of your soon-to-be colleagues will be valuable as you prepare to start here in August

    The Bee Lab kit: activities engaging motivated lay users in the use of open technologies for citizen science activities

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    The PhD work aligns technological opportunities with self-selecting motivated participants, investigating their desire to monitor wildlife within their custody. It used an ethnographic and user- centred design approach with amateur beekeepers. The work built reciprocal interest in data which users could gather from self-assembled monitoring tools. This PhD explores the relationship between Open Design and Citizen Science, testing it ‘in-the-wild’ through the Bee Lab kit. The development of the kit and territory research was carried out in close collaboration with a local beekeeping community based in the South East of England. The work engaged with the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), a Citizen Science stakeholder and technology provider Technology Will Save Us (TWSU), informing the project at each stage. The PhD territory was highlighted in scoping design workshops with the public (Phillips. R, Baurley. S, Silve. S) and developed into: cultural probes deployed nationally investigating beekeepers’ ‘making’ activities (Phillips. R, Baurley. S, Silve. S 2013b), ethnographic studies identifying beekeepers’ product creations and re-appropriations for beekeeping praxis, participatory design workshops establishing lay users’ ‘technologically enabled conversations with bees’ (Phillips. R, Ford. Y, Sadler. K, Silve. S, Baurley. S 2013), technology kit assembly workshops testing kit design and competence of lay users (Phillips, Blum et al. 2014), and mental models of creating instructional content (Phillips, Robert., Lockton, Dan., Baurley, Sharon & Silve, Sarah 2013). The Bee Lab Kit: activities engaging motivated lay users in the use of open technologies for CS activities Page 2 of 265 The creation of a repeatable Open Design / Citizen Science model based upon the live ïżŒtesting from the Bee Lab project appendix (O) ïżŒOpen Design Standards (paper pending publication) appendix (K) The project worked with Citizen Science Vendors, Sussex Wildlife Trust and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, ascertaining the framing of Open Design/Citizen Science projects through a design toolkit. The design toolkit invention and testing was carried out with conservation organisations (Phillips, R & Baurley, S 2014) and technology kit deployment ‘in-the-wild’ with end users (Phillips, R., Blum, J., Brown, M. & Baurley, S 2014). Finally, the work identified the motivations of the individual stakeholders within the project

    An Insider\u27s Guide to Notre Dame Law School

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    From the Introduction: On behalf of the Notre Dame Law School student body, we are thrilled to be among the first to welcome you to the NDLS Community! We know that this is an exciting time for you and – if you are anything like we were just a couple of years ago – you probably have plenty of questions about law school and Notre Dame whether it’s about academics, professors, student life, or just where to get a good dinner. That’s why we’ve prepared the Guide! This is called an Insider’s Guide because it has been written by students. Over the past year, we’ve updated and revised old sections, compiled and created new ones, and edited and re-edited the whole book in hopes of making your transition to Notre Dame easier. This isn’t a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know to get through law school or survive in South Bend, but it is a great place to start. Whether you’re trying to figure out where to live next year, the best way to get to and around town, what law students do on the weekend, or which daycare is best for your kids, the Guide is a terrific resource. Please note that some information may have changed since the date of publication, so be sure to confirm pertinent information. We all treasure our experiences here at NDLS. The professors, the students, and the staff of the Law School are unique – their warmth, friendship, and true support have made studying law at Notre Dame fun! We hope that our enthusiasm will be apparent throughout the Guide. We have appreciated reflecting on our experiences here and enjoyed putting the Guide together for you. Although we know that you will receive a variety of additional information from the Law School and the University, we hope that this look at NDLS from the perspective of your soon-to-be colleagues will be valuable as you prepare to start here in August

    James Legge and the Confucian Classics: Brilliant Scot in the Turmoil of Colonial Hong Kong

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    A biographical work on James Legge, concentrating on his life in Hong Kong during its most turbulent period 1842-1873
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