Data Access in Multiauthority Cloud Storage: Expressive and Revocable Data Control System

ABSTRACT Cloud computing is rising enormously due to its advantages and the adaptable storage services being provided by it. Because of this, the number of users has reached the top level. The users will share the sensitive data through the cloud. Furthermore, the user can\u27t trust the untrusted cloud server. Subsequently, the data access control has turned out to be extremely challenging in cloud storage framework. In existing work, revocable data access control scheme proposed for multi-authority cloud storage frameworks which supports the access control in light of the authority control. The authorized users who have desirable attributes given by various authorities can access the data. However, it couldn\u27t control the attacks which can happen to the authorized user who is not having desirable attributes. In this work, they propose a new algorithm named Improved Security Data Access Control which beats the issue exists in the existing work. And furthermore, incorporates the efficient attribute revocation strategy for multi-authority cloud storage. Keywords: Access control, multi-authority, attribute revocation, cloud storage

Big Data Security (Volume 3)

After a short description of the key concepts of big data the book explores on the secrecy and security threats posed especially by cloud based data storage. It delivers conceptual frameworks and models along with case studies of recent technology

Cartographies for a navigation through timbral dramaturgies

This commentary accompanies a portfolio of works composed between 2018 and 2021. My research explores a cartographic approach to conceiving timbre and dramaturgy. I see the cartographic approach as an orientation exercise or scheme of thought combining graphics, sketches, notes, drawings, and manuscripts to obtain a project’s overview and to navigate structural relationships in ‘sonic places’. I conceive sonic places as acoustic realities inhabited and travelled by the listener through the pathways proposed in my works. My pieces follow an expansion principle from timbre to dramaturgy using analogical and flexible skills. On one hand, the analogical tactics of this principle involve explorations on large sheets of paper, the use of domestic objects, and the manipulation of instruments by myself to define the behaviour and organization of events. On the other hand, the flexible tools of my expansion principle contain translations between notation and other aspects of my projects such as stage design, visual elements, or movements, stimulating greater freedom to explore relationships between the multiple dimensions of my projects. In the submitted pieces, the imagination of timbre emerges from strategies such as mapping sound landscapes or explorations with graphics where their components are combined, orchestrated, overlapped, and amplified by a system of categories that organise sonic events and textures in terms of hierarchy, geometry, pathway, and density. Furthermore, these categories consider expansions from timbre toward spatial and visual elements and, particularly, addressing a notion of dramaturgy embodied in the idea of ‘acts’ deduced from a text, the observation of a performance space, or from the issue that inspired the project

The Weight of Love

Supplementing theological interpretation with historical, literary, and philosophical perspectives, 'The Weight of Love' analyzes the nature and role of affectivity in medieval Christian devotion through an original interpretation of the writings of the Franciscan theologian Bonaventure. It intervenes in two crucial developments in medieval Christian thought and practice: the renewal of interest in the corpus of Dionysius the Areopagite in thirteenth-century Paris and the proliferation of new forms of affective meditation focused on the passion of Christ in the later Middle Ages. Through the exemplary life and death of Francis of Assisi, Robert Glenn Davis examines how Bonaventure traces a mystical itinerary culminating in the meditant’s full participation in Christ’s crucifixion. For Bonaventure, Davis asserts, this death represents the becoming-body of the soul, the consummation and transformation of desire into the crucified body of Christ

Preventing Code Reuse Attacks On Modern Operating Systems

Modern operating systems are often the target of attacks that exploit vulnerabilities to escalate their privilege level. Recently introduced hardening features prevent attackers from using traditional kernel exploitation methodologies and force them to employ techniques that were originally designed for user space exploitation —such as code reuse— to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges. In this dissertation, we present novel protection mechanisms that render such methodologies ineffective and improve the security of today’s operating systems. Specifically, we present solutions that prevent the leakage and corruption of kernel code pointers without employing entities that execute on super-privileged mode (e.g., hypervisors). The leakage of code pointers is an essential step for the construction of reliable code reuse exploits and their corruption is typically necessary for mounting the attack. More concretely, we present the design and implementation of two systems: kR^X and kSplitStack. kR^X is a system that diversifies the code layout to thwart attackers from constructing code reuse exploits statically. It also prevents the leakage of return addresses through XOR- based encryption or by hiding them among decoys (fake pointers to instructions that trap the kernel when executed). Finally, it couples the above with a self-protection mechanism that prevents attackers from leaking the diversified code layout, either by instrumenting every memory read instruction with range checks on x86-64 systems or by imposing limits through the segmentation unit on x86 systems. Evaluation results show that it imposes small runtime overhead on real-world applications when measured on legacy x86-64 systems (~3.63%) and significantly lower on x86 systems (~1.32%) and newer x86-64 CPUs that provide hardware assistance (~2.32%). kSplitStack, on the other hand, provides stronger protection against leaks of return addresses and guarantees both their secrecy and their integrity by augmenting the isolation mechanism of kR^X on x86-64 systems. This is achieved through a split stack scheme: functions use an unprotected stack for their local variables but switch to a protected one when pushing or poping return addresses. Moreover, kSplitStack protects the secrecy and integrity of control data (e.g., the value of the instruction pointer) in interrupt contexts by redirecting them to protected stacks, thus thwarting attackers from leaking or corrupting code pointers by inducing interrupts or other hardware events. Finally, the evaluation of kSplitStack shows that it imposes a small runtime overhead, comparable to the one of kR^X, both on legacy x86-64 systems (~3.66%) and on newer CPUs with hardware assistance (~2.50%)

Metagovernance and NGOisation in Thailand: An Exploratory Study of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (THPF) and Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs)

The thesis is an exploratory study of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (THPF), an independent autonomous public organisation (APO) and its NGO partners in Thailand. It aims to make an explanatory account on why NGOisation of civil society has unfolded in Thailand. Since it was established in 2001, the THPF has operated by subsidising its partners to promote public health policies and civil society. It has become one of the biggest sources of funding for the NGO sector and has a considerable impact on the trajectory of the sector. The funded NGOs are facilitated in adapting themselves to become reliable partners in order to match the aims of THPF's overall programme. However, the relationship between them does not involve an absolute patronage relationship. In fact, different NGOs have different kinds of relations with the THPF. The different relations also affect the overall character of the THPF. Hence, the relationship is dynamic. To be precise, this thesis argues that the THPF-NGO relations are interdependent, asymmetrical, and consequential. Two major theoretical frameworks are developed and employed to investigate the phenomenon: NGOisation and metagovernance. NGOisation helps examine the influences of the funding on the NGOs. It encourages us to look at the signs and the development of the funded NGOs. Metagovernance helps conceptualise the way the THPF has steered and governed the funded NGO partnership in a way that allows the NGOs to develop their autonomy. The research is navigated by critical realism (CR) which typically encourages the search for mechanisms of metagovernance and NGOisation instead of people's understanding or associations with them. As qualitative research, information is drawn from in-depth interviews with 50 participants from the THPF and the funded NGOs and documents such as minutes of meetings and publications of the relevant organisations. The thesis found that while NGOs have relied on the funding to operate, and perhaps to survive, the THPF has depended totally on the NGOs to implement the projects/programmes. The THPF has been strategically functioning in an 'innovative' way combining different kinds of governance mechanisms to steer the NGOs in the ways they perceive as appropriate. The THPF is also seen to exercise its power through its societal partners signifying a relational aspect of state-society cooperation. As an independent APO, the THPF is equipped with resources and the capacity to steer. As an enabler to promote health and improvements in society, it aims to bring about changes in health and social developments. This thesis argues that the THPF performs metagovernance. The THPF strategically uses interactive governance mechanisms, namely quasi-markets (proactive granting) and quasi-network (partnership). They are the key mechanisms employed by the THPF to metagovern its NGO partners. Consequently, NGOisation of civil society has unfolded. This phenomenon signifies a version of civil society which is focused on institutional advocacy, elite civil society, and upward accountability. NGOised organisations are driven to become more professionalised, institutionalised, bureaucratised, and depoliticised. Organisational reproduction is becoming the essence of the organisation of NGOs rather than the social constituencies they are supposed to represent. The THPF-NGO cooperation thus represents a version of state-society relations in Thailand, where the state has changed from a traditional form of government to a metagovernor exercising its power throughout civil society and a combination of governance mechanisms beyond mere hierarchies. It also reflects how civil society has become more professionalised, institutionalised, bureaucratised, and depoliticised. This paves the way to looking at a relational dimension of the state-society relations and NGOisation

Using Deception to Enhance Security: A Taxonomy, Model, and Novel Uses

As the convergence between our physical and digital worlds continue at a rapid pace, securing our digital information is vital to our prosperity. Most current typical computer systems are unwittingly helpful to attackers through their predictable responses. In everyday security, deception plays a prominent role in our lives and digital security is no different. The use of deception has been a cornerstone technique in many successful computer breaches. Phishing, social engineering, and drive-by-downloads are some prime examples. The work in this dissertation is structured to enhance the security of computer systems by using means of deception and deceit

Keeping an Open Mind: The Transcendence of Boundaries in “Kubla Khan,” “Mont Blanc,” and “Ode to Psyche”

The three poems of interest in this thesis— Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Mont Blanc,” and John Keats’s “Ode to Psyche”—complicate relationships between the poet, his internal world, and his external world. This is accomplished in all three poems through the conjuring up of a physical region, which establishes an awareness of spatial relations between the poet and the space in which he dwells. I explore how the poems’ speakers position themselves and other entities relative to these outside features in ways that enable a more vivid expression of the nonexistence of distinct divisions. Through the exploration of ambiguous boundaries in the relationships that the speaker holds with the external world, we consider the reach of poetry beyond the physical and temporal limitations of the poem’s space and towards new worlds