Performance evaluation of different CRL distribution schemes embedded in WMN authentication

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising technology to provide low cost and scalable solutions for high speed Internet access and additional services. In hybrid WMNs, where mesh clients also act as relaying agents and form a mesh client network, it is important to provide users with an efficient anonymous and accountable authentication scheme. Accountability is required for the malicious users that are to be identified and revoked from the network access and related services. Promising revocation schemes are based on Certification Revocation Lists (CRLs). Since in hybrid WMNs mesh clients also authenticate other clients, distribution of these CRLs is an important task. In this paper, we propose and examine the performance of different distribution schemes of CRLs and analyze authentication performance in two scenarios: in one scenario all mesh routers and mesh clients obtain CRLs and in the second one, CRLs are held only by the mesh routers and mesh clients acting as relaying agents require CRL checking to be performed from the router in authenticating another client

The U.S. Response to Human Trafficking: An Unbalanced Approach

The United States' anti-trafficking efforts formally began with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. Since then, the U.S. Government has poured billions of dollars into prevention efforts overseas and prosecution and protection efforts at home. In many ways it provides a model to other countries that are trying to address human trafficking. This report is focused on the United States' efforts to protect trafficked persons found in the United States. Under the TVPA, protections, services and benefits are only offered to trafficked persons who are witnesses assisting law enforcement. This system presents its own challenges in accessing benefits and services, particularly due to law enforcement's anipulation of the system. This is not a case of unforeseen implementation struggles that can be fixed. Instead, at issue is the entire conceptual framework of trafficking as a law enforcement issue and only a law enforcement issue. The results of six years of this approach are becoming startlingly clear -- few trafficked persons coming forward to work with law enforcement. Those who are discovered by law enforcement but refuse or are unable to recount their experiences are not offered any protections and are instead deported. This is an acute problem in particular for trafficked children. The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (Women's Commission) believes that this is an unbalanced approach and that the consequences are grave. While prosecuting traffickers is a just and necessary goal, it should not be accomplished at the expense of the trafficked person. Both objectives can be achieved successfully by adopting a rights-based approach, which entails providing protections to all trafficked persons. It is increasingly acknowledged and recognized even among law enforcement officials that a trafficked person who receives assistance is more likely, willing and able to work with law enforcement. Another issue throwing trafficking protections off balance is the United States' policy which focuses government trafficking efforts on eradicating prostitution, which it conflates with sex trafficking. Efforts at addressing contributing factors to trafficking are laudable but should not be pursued to the exclusion of other efforts. There is a need for immigration and labor reform that would yield dramatic results in protections for trafficked and exploited persons in the informal economy

A Decentralised Digital Identity Architecture

Current architectures to validate, certify, and manage identity are based on centralised, top-down approaches that rely on trusted authorities and third-party operators. We approach the problem of digital identity starting from a human rights perspective, with a primary focus on identity systems in the developed world. We assert that individual persons must be allowed to manage their personal information in a multitude of different ways in different contexts and that to do so, each individual must be able to create multiple unrelated identities. Therefore, we first define a set of fundamental constraints that digital identity systems must satisfy to preserve and promote privacy as required for individual autonomy. With these constraints in mind, we then propose a decentralised, standards-based approach, using a combination of distributed ledger technology and thoughtful regulation, to facilitate many-to-many relationships among providers of key services. Our proposal for digital identity differs from others in its approach to trust in that we do not seek to bind credentials to each other or to a mutually trusted authority to achieve strong non-transferability. Because the system does not implicitly encourage its users to maintain a single aggregated identity that can potentially be constrained or reconstructed against their interests, individuals and organisations are free to embrace the system and share in its benefits.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, 3 table

THE VALUE OF QUALITY CERTIFICATION FOR INFANT FOODS: RESULTS FROM A MARKET EXPERIMENT IN MALI

This paper uses an experimental-economics technique to measure the potential impact of introducing quality certification to the market for infant foods in Mali, where malnutrition is widespread. We find that certification could substantially lower food costs, generating net economic benefits on the order of US$20 per infant, per year.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Anonymous reputation based reservations in e-commerce (AMNESIC)

Online reservation systems have grown over the last recent years to facilitate the purchase of goods and services. Generally, reservation systems require that customers provide some personal data to make a reservation effective. With this data, service providers can check the consumer history and decide if the user is trustable enough to get the reserve. Although the reputation of a user is a good metric to implement the access control of the system, providing personal and sensitive data to the system presents high privacy risks, since the interests of a user are totally known and tracked by an external entity. In this paper we design an anonymous reservation protocol that uses reputations to profile the users and control their access to the offered services, but at the same time it preserves their privacy not only from the seller but the service provider

What are the impacts of implementing ISOs on the competitiveness of manufacturing industry in China?

Based on the proposed ‘PIE’ analytical framework, this paper argues that the preparation, implementation and evaluation of international standards (ISOs) affect the competitiveness of (foreign-financed) export-oriented manufacturing industry in southern and southeastern China, both in the short- and long-term. During the period of preparation, the decision to adopt ISOs is mainly driven by market demand and/or by the decisions of established competitors. Negative effects due to the diversion of scarce resources and institutional resistance to change during the period of transitional implementation are offset by the overall enhancement of the firm's productivity in the long run. ‘Tailoring for the external audit’ and ‘second-best’ practices are two strategies commonly employed by Chinese firms to lower the transaction costs involved in ISO audits

Inventory of data collecting and publishing institutions(= Deliverable 2.1 of the OrganicDataNetwork project: Report on data collectors)

Despite the continuous growth of the organic market in Europe, in most countries only very basic statistics about this sector exist. Individual country governments collect data which are published nationally and by EUROSTAT (the statistical office of the European Union), on the number of certified organic holdings, organic and in-conversion land areas and livestock numbers. Important market statistics, however, such as the amount of production, consumption, retail sales, international trade and prices at the farm or consumer level are lacking in most European countries. To understand the availability of data on the organic market and to assist in improving data quality and availability, it is first necessary to be aware of the organisations that currently collect, analyse and/or disseminate such data across Europe and the methods that they use. To assess the current status of organic market data collection in the EU and its neighbours, an online survey was developed and nearly 600 organisations within the EU27, EFTA, the rest of Europe and the Mediterranean were invited to participate. The useable response rate was 28% once very incomplete responses had been removed from the sample. Based on this survey it is difficult to state definitively that no data collection/analysis/publication occur within certain countries or within certain areas of the market. The survey may not have detected any, but there may still be some carried out that have not been detected by the survey. The survey has been used to produce an inventory table, summarising the data collection effort in each country to inform further work in the project. The data were analysed for the entire sample and were split into responses from EU27+EFTA, other European and non-European countries to provide an overview of the data collection effort in each of these country groups. A comparison of EU15 and newer member states was also carried out and Mediterranean countries (MOAN) were considered separately. The relatively low response rate made comparisons difficult and means that only general observations can be made. The data types that are most commonly collected are production data, especially land area, followed by production volume; whereas production value is much less commonly collected. However, production area data are not the main focus of the survey or of the OrganicDataNetwork project. Price data and retail sales data are the next most commonly collected market data. Export data are more commonly collected in non-European countries than in the EU, perhaps reflecting a higher importance to their economies. The product categories most often represented in EU27+EFTA market data collection are meat, milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables. Across the other groups of countries (e.g. other European, non-European) the pattern of data collection of individual product categories varies with regards to the most popular products. Data on non-food products are rarely collected. Data collection methods vary with the type of data collected, but surveys are a commonly used method across data types. Censuses are often used to collect production volume data and other types of data such as international trade data (they are not used to collect data in non-European countries). Expert estimates are occasionally used across most of the country categories. For retail data and consumer price data, consumer/household panels or retail panels (scanner data) are likely to be used, whereas catering sales data are collected by surveys. Import and export data are generally collected using surveys and sometimes censuses but some reliance is also placed on expert estimates. The data analysis carried out in the different countries (across all of the categories) tends to be compilation or basic analysis (such as averages, and ranges). Other methods mentioned include time-evolution, comparison to averages or totals, and sense-checking with other data (particularly for export data). The responses to the question about data publication suggest generally low publication rates (especially for data other than production data); with less than 50% of the sample in each disaggregated group of countries giving a positive answer. Of all the data types that were asked about, production data are most likely to be freely available, but not all production data that are collected are also published. Data are usually published annually; price, retail or export data are occasionally published more frequently. Conclusions The purpose of this survey was to produce an inventory and an overview of collectors of organic market data in Europe and its neighbouring countries. The results have delivered a good picture of the situation in Europe and have shown that the recent claims, coming from various sources,regarding a lack of organic market data were definitely justified. Overall it can be concluded that the market data collection effort remains very varied across Europe and that not all data that are collected are also published. This is problematic, as without good quality, accurate and timely information it is difficult for stakeholders to make decisions about the risks and benefits of investment. There is also a need to understand the reasons why there is currently not more organic market data collection undertaken as well as to understand the barriers to good quality data collection and dissemination. This is the basis for further work on harmonisation of data collection approaches and for improvement in data quality, which is planned as part of the OrganicDataNetwork project