Secure portable execution and storage environments: A capability to improve security for remote working

Remote working is a practice that provides economic benefits to both the employing organisation and the individual. However, evidence suggests that organisations implementing remote working have limited appreciation of the security risks, particularly those impacting upon the confidentiality and integrity of information and also on the integrity and availability of the remote worker’s computing environment. Other research suggests that an organisation that does appreciate these risks may veto remote working, resulting in a loss of economic benefits. With the implementation of high speed broadband, remote working is forecast to grow and therefore it is appropriate that improved approaches to managing security risks are researched. This research explores the use of secure portable execution and storage environments (secure PESEs) to improve information security for the remote work categories of telework, and mobile and deployed working. This thesis with publication makes an original contribution to improving remote work information security through the development of a body of knowledge (consisting of design models and design instantiations) and the assertion of a nascent design theory. The research was conducted using design science research (DSR), a paradigm where the research philosophies are grounded in design and construction. Following an assessment of both the remote work information security issues and threats, and preparation of a set of functional requirements, a secure PESE concept was defined. The concept is represented by a set of attributes that encompass the security properties of preserving the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the computing environment and data. A computing environment that conforms to the concept is considered to be a secure PESE, the implementation of which consists of a highly portable device utilising secure storage and an up-loadable (on to a PC) secure execution environment. The secure storage and execution environment combine to address the information security risks in the remote work location. A research gap was identified as no existing ‘secure PESE like’ device fully conformed to the concept, enabling a research problem and objectives to be defined. Novel secure storage and execution environments were developed and used to construct a secure PESE suitable for commercial remote work and a high assurance secure PESE suitable for security critical remote work. The commercial secure PESE was trialled with an existing telework team looking to improve security and the high assurance secure PESE was trialled within an organisation that had previously vetoed remote working due to the sensitivity of the data it processed. An evaluation of the research findings found that the objectives had been satisfied. Using DSR evaluation frameworks it was determined that the body of knowledge had improved an area of study with sufficient evidence generated to assert a nascent design theory for secure PESEs. The thesis highlights the limitations of the research while opportunities for future work are also identified. This thesis presents ten published papers coupled with additional doctoral research (that was not published) which postulates the research argument that ‘secure PESEs can be used to manage information security risks within the remote work environment’

BUSINESS INTELLIGENT AGENTS FOR ENTERPRISE APPLICATION

Fierce competition in a market increasingly crowded and frequent changes in consumer requirements are the main forces that will cause companies to change their current organization and management. One solution is to move to open architectures and virtual type, which requires addressing business methods and technologies using distributed multi-agent systems. Intelligent agents are one of the most important areas of artificial intelligence that deals with the development of hardware and software systems able to reason, learn to recognize natural language, speak, make decisions, to recognize objects in the working environment etc. Thus in this paper, we presented some aspects of smart business, intelligent agents, intelligent systems, intelligent systems models, and I especially emphasized their role in managing business processes, which have become highly complex systems that are in a permanent change to meet the requirements of timely decision making. The purpose of this paper is to prove that there is no business without using the integration Business Process Management, Web Services and intelligent agents.business intelligence, intelligent agents, intelligent systems, management, enterprise, web services

Business Strategy in E-bussiness environment

E-business is heralding what is being called “the new economy.” To help managers negotiate this new business landscape, this article review the business and technologies requirements of modern extended organizations and discuss how adaptive business objects and controlled interoperability are the key enabling technologies to the challenge of integrated value chains. We know unlike previous decades where enterprises prized independence, the next decade will be one of business alliances and competing, end-to-end value chains. Enterprise value chains comprised of powerful business alliance partners will exceedingly compete as single entities for customers. Such extended corporations reach out not only with business relationships; they must integrate their value business processes and information systems to realize their business goal

The Effects Of Mobile Computing on Teleworking

This paper examines Mobile Computing Technology with a particular focus on the effect Mobile Computing is having on teleworking. Mobile computing as it is defined for this paper is described. The enablers of this technology as well as the inhibitors to this technology are discussed. Future possible trends in the area of mobile computing are also explored. Teleworking is reviewed in terms of the advantages and disadvantages it offers to the organization. Also outlined is the use Information Technology (IT) in teleworking. This examination of teleworking leads the paper into the next step up from teleworking i.e. The virtual organization. The issues around this type of structure are outlined including, Strategic Change Issues, Virtual teams, Integration of Virtual teams, Trust Issues and Cultural Issues. The paper then examines the implications involved in managing a virtual organization. Having explored the issues and possible complications surrounding a virtual organization it is important to highlight any strategic advantage that a move to this type of organizational set up would give and organization

CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY IN BANGLADESH: A FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL &ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Cloud computing is currently one the most hyped IT innovations that promises potential opportunities for business and social innovation as well as modernizing ICT. For developing countries like Bangladesh, this technology aims to provide the clients a cost effective and convenient means to manage the huge amount of IT resources and thus offer strong possibility of accelerating social and economic development, even in this time of limited resources. As the information technology industry goes through a major shift, founded on the Internet as a platform, new opportunities for Bangladesh are open to employ technology at a lower cost and with much greater ease and success than in the past. The Main purpose of our strategy is to help organizations of public and private sector in Bangladesh to adopt cloud computing technology opportunities and prevent its obstacles through our proposed framework. In this article, we tried to assess different aspects and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of these strategies for Bangladeshi organizations and enterprises. In addition some recommendations are provided for Bangladeshi organizations and enterprises to help them to adopt cloud computing technology

Design of a Teleworking Service Using Parlay Framework Federation

Faculty of Engineering and Built Enviroment School of Electrical and Information Engineering 0314356t [email protected] teleworking service allows people to work effectively together from home or other approved locations away from the regular work site, on an established work schedule. This is made possible via the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Presently, there are isolated applications that can assist teleworkers, such as e-mail and video conferencing, which were developed for use over the Internet. But the Internet is a best-effort network with no guarantee of Quality of service (QoS), low security and no standard billing system. The design of this teleworking service involves the integration of many existing services like e-mail, messaging, video conferencing, shared whiteboard and database access. Other requirements are for service providers interworking for service and resource usage, security, and QoS specification. Hence, we explore the emerging open service concept to create this integrated teleworking service that can be made available for subscription by corporate bodies and individuals. Service federation is the interaction between teleworkers across service provider domains. It is achieved via the interworking of providers’ services, and is an essential aspect of teleworking. We have realised a service federation in a secure and seamless manner in the OSA / Parlay environment via the use of the OSA / Parlay framework. We looked at the use of a framework federation for the actual implementation of service federation. This framework federation is an interworking of frameworks based on an agreed-upon federation contract between them. New framework interfaces were introduced to facilitate this proposed solution, as the OSA / Parlay specifications do not yet support this approach. Service composition is the creation of a new service instance by composing one or more other services. We implemented this via the use of framework and trader federation. The trader federation was used to locate services or users in different ASP domains. A high level design of the teleworking service was done with federation explored for actual implementation. The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) trading service was used to prove the concept. The RM-ODP methodology is followed in this teleworking service design. The OSA / Parlay terminal capability, generic call control, multiparty and location and Service Capability Features (SCF) were used for implementing in the CORBA Distributed Processing Environment (DPE)

Modified Stage-Gate: A Conceptual Model of Virtual Product Development Process

In today’s dynamic marketplace, manufacturing companies are under strong pressure to introduce new products for long-term survival with their competitors. Nevertheless, every company cannot cope up progressively or immediately with the market requirements due to knowledge dynamics being experienced in the competitive milieu. Increased competition and reduced product life cycles put force upon companies to develop new products faster. In response to these pressing needs, there should be some new approach compatible in flexible circumstances. This paper presents a solution based on the popular Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with virtual team approach. Virtual teams can provide a platform to advance the knowledge-base in a company and thus to reduce time-to-market. This article introduces conceptual product development architecture under a virtual team umbrella. The paper describes all the major aspects of new product development (NPD), NPD process and its relationship with virtual teams, Stage-Gate system finally presents a modified Stage-Gate system to cope up with the changing needs. It also provides the guidelines for the successful implementation of virtual teams in new product development

Entwurf und Modellierung einer universellen Telearbeitsumgebung auf Basis einer serviceorientierten Architektur

Teleworking is the key to a more flexible design of working time and places of work. To reach the flexibility for working anywhere and anytime a virtual working environment is needed which is reached from any place having a browser and internet access, at home, on the road or in the office. The goal of our activities is to develop a set of technologies fitting in the web architecture in order to bring teleworking applications to their full potential. Our new concept is to combine different web services in a new integrated man-machine environment that enables access to all necessary services. So it will be easier for the teleworker to handle the different applications and techniques. The teleworking portal provides them access to various resources: office applications, multimedia objects and documents, communication tools such as email and conferences, collaboration and group work systems or educational software and training tools. In order to promote interoperability and extensibility among these applications, as well as to allow them to be combined to perform more complex operations, a standard reference architecture for such services is needed. Consequently our approach is based on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the web service technology.Telearbeit ist der Schlüssel zu einer flexibleren Arbeitsplatz- und Arbeitszeitgestaltung und eröffnet vielfältige Möglichkeiten und ökonomische Potentiale. Nach zahlreichen Kontroversen über die Vor- und Nachteile haben vor allem die Entwicklung kostengünstiger Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken, aber auch der Handlungsdruck einer zunehmend globalisierten Wirtschaft das Thema Telearbeit in den letzten Jahren neu belebt. Im Rahmen vorangegangener Projekte wurden vielfältige Forschungen zum Thema Telearbeit durchgeführt. Bei der bisherigen Umsetzung von Telearbeit in der Praxis ergaben sich vor allem Probleme im Umgang mit den verschiedenen Arbeitsumgebungen im Büro und am Telearbeitsplatz und dem Abgleich der Arbeitsstände und -ergebnisse. Ziel der Arbeit ist die prototypische Entwicklung einer webbasierten, flexiblen und modular aufgebauten Arbeitsumgebung, die eine effektive Anpassung an die Arbeitsweise des jeweiligen Telearbeiters und Unternehmens ermöglicht. Dabei wurde neben der Definition und Anforderungsanalyse von Telearbeit ein Architekturmodell für eine integrierte Arbeitsumgebung entworfen. Durch die umgesetzte Bausteinarchitektur wird eine flexible Anpassung der Umgebung an die Bedürfnisse der Telearbeiter und der Unternehmen erreicht. Weiterhin werden im Rahmen der Arbeit existierende Ansätze zur Unterstützung von Telearbeit analysiert und klassifiziert, um die eigene Arbeit abzugrenzen. Zur praktischen Umsetzung des Konzeptes wurden vorhandene internetbasierte Protokolle auf ihre Nutzbarkeit für Telearbeitsumgebungen untersucht. Als sehr gut geeignete und innovative Technologien erwiesen sich die Web Services. Deshalb werden die Basisprotokolle und grundlegenden Technologien für Web-Service-Lösungen im Rahmen der Arbeit spezifiziert und auf ihre Nutzbarkeit im Telearbeitskontext untersucht. Abschließend erfolgte eine prototypische Umsetzung der vorgeschlagenen Lösung und eine Validierung in verschiedenen Anwendungsszenarien, um die Praxistauglichkeit des Konzeptes nachweisen zu können