Creating Network Attack Priority Lists by Analyzing Email Traffic Using Predefined Profiles

Networks can be vast and complicated entities consisting of both servers and workstations that contain information sought by attackers. Searching for specific data in a large network can be a time consuming process. Vast amounts of data either passes through or is stored by various servers on the network. However, intermediate work products are often kept solely on workstations. Potential high value targets can be passively identified by comparing user email traffic against predefined profiles. This method provides a potentially smaller footprint on target systems, less human interaction, and increased efficiency of attackers. Collecting user email traffic and comparing each word in an email to a predefined profile, or a list of key words of interest to the attacker, can provide a prioritized list of systems containing the most relevant information. This research uses two experiments. The functionality experiment uses randomly generated emails and profiles, demonstrating MAPS (Merritt\u27s Adaptive Profiling System)ability to accurately identify matches. The utility experiment uses an email corpus and meaningful profiles, further demonstrating MAPS ability to accurately identify matches with non-random input. A meaningful profile is a list of words bearing a semantic relationship to a topic of interest to the attacker. Results for the functionality experiment show MAPS can parse randomly generated emails and identify matches with an accuracy of 99 percent or above. The utility experiment using an email corpus with meaningful profiles, shows slightly lower accuracies of 95 percent or above. Based upon the match results, network attack priority lists are generated. A network attack priority list is an ordered list of systems, where the potentially highest value systems exhibit the greatest fit to the profile. An attacker then uses the list when searching for target information on the network to prioritize the systems most likely to contain useful data

How the Home Office does history: empire, time and the making of Britain's mass deportation regime

Since the Immigration Act of 1971, Britain’s Home Secretary has had executive administrative powers to detain and deport non-citizens from the United Kingdom. These powers are the statutory foundation of Britain’s contemporary mass deportation regime. This thesis maps the connected histories through which this regime has emerged. It examines how deportation, criminalisation, and citizenship functioned in British colonial governance, and explores how colonial forms of deportation informed Home Office policies in the long twentieth century: both before, during, and after decolonisation. The thesis argues that it is useful to understand the Home Office as 'doing history.' In other words, the Home Office can be understood as an agent that imagines and acts upon normative views as to how history should progress, how change should be managed, how events should be remembered, and how the past should be recorded and consulted. The Home Office does history in two overlapping ways. First, it entrenches the patriality clause at the heart of the 1971 Immigration Act not only in its immigration control work but also in wider approaches to managing, measuring and pacing change over time. Secondly, the Home Office does history through an expanding labyrinth of documentation regimes that embed racist burdens of proof, notions of criminality, and legal categories – forged during empire – into present-day systems of criminalisation and migration control. The thesis contextualises the administrative violence meted out by the contemporary Home Office’s so-called broken system with archival research into the making of bureaucratic power, social facts about race, and legal privilege in a range of colonial mobility regimes. Through these explorations, this thesis offers a new lens with which to view histories of deportation, foregrounding how historical narratives, archival processes and the everyday politics of time get folded into the banal routines of administrative state power

Study and development of a remote biometric authentication protocol

This paper reports the phases of study and implementation of a remote biometric authentication protocol developed during my internship at the I.i.t. of the C.n.r. in Pisa. Starting from the study of authentication history we had a look from the first system used since the 60ies to the latest technology; this helped us understand how we could realize a demonstration working protocol that could achieve a web remote authentication granting good reliability: to do this we choosed to modify the SSL handshake with biometric tests and we decided to use smart-cards a secure vault for the sensible biometric data involved. In the first chapter you will find a brief definition of authentication and an introduction on how we can achieve it, with a particular focus on new biometric techniques. In the second chapter there\u27s the history of authentication from the very first password system to actual ones: new token and smart card technolgies are longer stressed in order to introduce the reader to the last chapter. In the third chapter you will find the project framework, the development of our implementation choiches and the source code of the demo project

Near real time fraud detection with Apache Spark

Project that aims to put in practice the Big Data program Spark in a Bank fraud detection in real time scenario.Proyecto que pretende poner en prática el programa de Big Data Spark en el escenario bancario de detección de fraude en tiempo real.Projecte que preten possar en pràtica el programa de Big Data Spark a l' escenari bancari de detecció de fraud en temps real

Regulatory Property: The New IP

For almost thirty years, a new form of intellectual property has grown up quietly beneath the surface of societal observation. It is a set of government-granted rights that have the quintessential characteristic of intellectual property and other forms of property—that is, the right to exclude others from the territory. If Regulatory Property should be understood as a unified system, one must have some theoretical grounding for its existence. Without a coherent construct, there is no way to intelligently shape its development and test its success. Thus, Section III of the paper sets out a general theoretical framework for the type of regulatory property that has emerged. This Section also explores a series of benchmarks to use in establishing Regulatory Property, describing the logic for these benchmarks, and tests the current forms of Regulatory Property against these measures. The benchmarks include: (1) minimizing overlap with other forms of intellectual property; (2) ensuring that the system is capable of stimulating results, and that those results are desirable; and (3) ensuring that there is a metric for measuring outcomes in relationship to goals. With these and other perspectives, society has an opportunity to think critically and cohesively about the new form of intellectual property that has developed incrementally over the last several decades. The Regulatory Property that has emerged so far falls within the life science industry. That is understandable. The FDA’s all encompassing approval scheme and regulatory system has provided a perfect vehicle for the creation and dissemination of Regulatory Property. The lessons, however, are widely applicable to other innovative industries. As newcomers in industries such as transportation (think Uber and Lyft), hospitality (think Airbnb and Villas), 11 and domestic and construction services (think TaskRabbit) press the boundaries of creativity up against regulatory networks, government actors may be tempted to create forms of Regulatory Property related to these innovations, in the hopes of incentivizing innovative entrants as well as placating existing industry players. For example, local, state, or federal authorities might try to attract an industry, such as solar energy innovation, devising benefits for new entrants balanced against protections for existing energy industries. Such is the story of the creation of Regulatory Property for the life science industry, and it is one that easily could be replicated. It is also a story with echoes in the international arena. Various aspects of these rights have tentacles that now reach into the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and most recently, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.12 Thus, after thirty years, it is more than time to think comprehensively about this new form of intellectual property rights, a regime that lies entwined throughout our syste

Chinese "Sea-Turtles" and Importing a Culture of Innovation: Trends in Chinese Human Capital Migration in the 21st Century

This thesis explores efforts in China to create an indigenous culture of innovation aimed at freeing China’s economy from dependence on foreign sources of capital and technology while propelling China to the top tier of global industrial powers. Beginning with the historical, cultural and political traditions that led to the establishment of China as an imitator rather than creative inventor in areas of science and technology, the study moves to research recent policy efforts in China to stimulate indigenous innovation through educational reforms and various forms of financial and immigration incentives. The human resource engineering effort to encourage Chinese students (“sea turtles”) to study in the West and then return home to engage in entrepreneurial activity is one element of the Chinese government’s “Long Term Plan” to stimulate innovative capacity, creative research and development, and economic growth. Using current literature on innovation, this study draws on a framework illustrating the ways that the innovation process helps a product move from a creative idea to market-based reality, and analyzes patent filings and research citations to illustrate a shift in ownership of intellectual property in China from foreigners, to “sea turtle” Returnees, to locals. This study concludes with a large body of original survey data on Chinese students in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and in Shanghai, examining different motives for leaving and staying in China, as well as reactions to new government incentives to entice people back. What emerges is a surprising twist on the idea of “the brain drain.” More than sixty percent of China’s wealthiest individuals—themselves sea turtles—are in the process of emigrating from China to Canada, the US, and other countries. In an examination of some high-profile entrepreneurs this study points to a lack of confidence in genuine government reform and a deep concern with corruption on many levels as reasons why, despite the best laid plans, successful sea turtles are using their international connections to exit their country of birth.honors thesis 2013, winner of Distinguished Thesis award in International Comparative Studie

Digital Health Care in Taiwan

This open access book introduces the National Health Insurance (NHI) system of Taiwan with a particular emphasis on its application of digital technology to improve healthcare access and quality. The authors explicate how Taiwan integrates its strong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry with 5G to construct an information system that facilitates medical information exchange, collects data for planning and research, refines medical claims review procedures and even assists in fighting COVID-19. Taiwan's NHI, launched in 1995, is a single-payer system funded primarily through payroll-based premiums. It covers all citizens and foreign residents with the same comprehensive benefits without the long waiting times seen in other single-payer systems. Though premium rate adjustment and various reforms were carried out in 2010, the NHI finds itself at a crossroads over its financial stability. With the advancement of technologies and an aging population, it faces challenges of expanding coverage to newly developed treatments and diagnosis methods and applying the latest innovations to deliver telemedicine and more patient-centered services. The NHI, like the national health systems of other countries, also needs to address the privacy concerns of the personal health data it collects and the issues regarding opening this data for research or commercial use. In this book, the 12 chapters cover the history, characteristics, current status, innovations and future reform plans of the NHI in the digital era. Topics explored include: Income Strategy Payment Structure Pursuing Health Equity Infrastructure of the Medical Information System Innovative Applications of the Medical Information Applications of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Digital Health Care in Taiwan is essential reading for academic researchers and students in healthcare administration, health policy, health systems research, and health services delivery, as well as policymakers and public officials in relevant government departments. It also would appeal to academics, practitioners, and other professionals in public health, health sciences, social welfare, and health and biotechnology law

The impact of childhood sexual abuse of attachment as defined by the Adult Attachment interview

Background - Research suggests that individuals with complex mental health problems may experience problems expressing compassion to themselves and others. Difficult life experiences can lead to fears of compassion, which block such feelings and their expression. Expression of compassion can arise from self to others, others to self and self to self. Compassion is usually measured using self-report questionnaires. It has been suggested that interview based methods may be helpful for individuals with complex mental health problems who are fearful of compassion. Aims - The current study aimed to further develop a narrative based measure of compassion by explicitly exploring memories of compassion. All interviews were transcribed, anonymised and coded. Scores derived from the ‘Narrative Compassion Scale ‘NCS’ were compared with self-report measures of compassion, childhood trauma as well as attachment anxiety and avoidance. Design - A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used with a within subjects condition and two between subjects groups. Methods – A total of 27 participants gave their voluntary and informed consent to enter the study: 13 were diagnosed with Schizophrenia and 14 with Complex Trauma. All participants participated in an interview exploring their understanding of compassion as well as their memories of compassion linked to expressing compassion to others, from others to self and from self to self. Self-report measures of compassion, childhood trauma and attachment anxiety and avoidance were also completed. Results – Participants scored highest on compassion flowing from the self to others and lowest on compassion flowing from self to self, with compassion flowing from others to self situated in-between. There were no associations between the NCS and self-ratings of compassion, as well as between the NCS and levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance. There were also no associations between the NCS and self-ratings regarding fears of compassion, except for greater fears of compassion from others being significantly correlated with lower levels of compassionate understanding. Greater trauma was linked to higher levels of narrative coded compassion and a general trend indicated greater trauma was associated with lower self-reported compassion. Implications - Findings will help provide further insights into psychological processes that can be addressed within psychotherapy and facilitate exploration of compassion in complex mental health problems

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationFood encapsulates the entire circuit of production that connects field to fork. The biological necessity of food is always already enmeshed within complex relations of capital. Access to a safe, nutritious, and socially acceptable food supply co-conditions how food is grown, processed, exchanged and transported, and ultimately consumed. Discursively, food security signifies relations of sustenance via flows of comestible capital, subjectivating populations through regimes of governmentality, vulnerability, and visibility that exploit the biopolitical insertion of bodies into the late capitalist economic machine. As an issue of environmental justice, food security reveals the disparate impacts of foodways, regimes, and practices on marginalized groups, and the limitations of late capitalism in accounting for environmental degradation. This dissertation theorizes food security by tracing its articulation in farm/food policy, living wage activism, and anti-hunger advocacy discourses. My first chapter frames, via Marxian political economy, Foucauldian biopolitics, and articulation theory, the relations of sustenance by which this project is driven. In my second chapter, I take up the Marxian concept of social metabolism to consider the ways the farm bill arranges the circuit of comestible exchange. Analysis of Congressional deliberations reveals how, in an entrenched agriculture/nutrition war of position, food security is articulated as risk, valorizing the fertility of agribusiness and re-employing the wasted poor. Chapter III explores the subjectivation of the working poor; tipped restaurant workers living wage activism functionally antagonizes the hegemony of employment-based notions of food security. In Chapter IV, the Food Stamp Challenge is taken up in terms of a bio/politics of visibility, and considers how food operates as an element in class relations. My fifth and final chapter brings themes across all of the chapters into sharper focus. It directly addresses my research questions about food security and (bio)political economy, explicates the rhetorical dimensions of food security across policy, activism, and advocacy contexts, and concludes with implications for critical praxis