Trusted emergency management

The ability for emergency first responders to access sensitive information for which they have not been pre-vetted can save lives and property. We describe a trusted emergency management solution for ensuring that sensitive information is protected from unauthorized access, while allowing for extraordinary access to be authorized under the duress of an emergency. Our solution comprises an emergency access control policy, an operational model and a scalable system security architecture. The operational model involves endusers who are on call as first responders, providers of critical information, and a coordinating authority. Extraordinary access to information is allowed to occur only during emergencies, and only in a confined emergency partition, which is unavailable before the emergency and can be completely purged after the emergency. As all information remains within its assigned partition, after the emergency the system can meaningfully enforce its pre-emergency access control policy. A major component of the architecture is the end-user device, and we describe mechanisms on the device for secure storage of data, and for management of emergency state, to indicate feasibility.Grant numbers: CNS-0430566 and CNS-0430598.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

USING BLOCKCHAIN TO BUILD DECENTRALIZED ACCESS CONTROL IN A PEER-TO-PEER E-LEARNING PLATFORM

In the context of E-learning platforms, the amount of research focusing on access control is proliferating. However, research related to the decentralized access control in this field is scarce. To improve such area of research, an innovative model of decentralized access control used to protect the collaborative peer-to-peer E-learning platform has been proposed. In this model, the integrity, authenticity, non-repudiation and traceability of E-learning resources are ensured by using Blockchain platform. Also, RESTful web service and Go/Java programming language will be used as tools to implement this model. A key metric is measured to evaluate the proposed model: average response time. To increase the accuracy, some experiments (144) have been carried out. The same experiment is conducted in two comparatively different network environment: Local Area Network (LAN) and Cloud Web Service (such as Amazon Web Service). LAN running environment represents the optimal condition while Cloud environment stands for the actual condition in the real world. When the number of clients in my proposed E-learning platform is relatively small (consisting of one to thirty concurrent clients interacting with E-learning resources), the average response time in the LAN environment is much faster (nearly 1.5 times) than that in Cloud environment. Nevertheless, when the number of clients is on a large scale, the difference of average response time between this two environment becomes insignificant. Besides, adding servers in both environments can increase the horizontal scalability. Furthermore, adding servers in Cloud environment can boost the system performance dramatically. However, extending the delay could have an impact on the system performance but negligible

Computerized patient records--role-based information security in a federated environment

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-125).by Thomas Y. Lee.M.S

Context-Based Access for Infrequent Requests in Tanzania\u27s Health Care System

Access control is an important aspect of any information system. It is a way of ensuring that users can only access what they are authorised to and no more. This can be achieved by granting users access to resources based on pre-defined organisational and legislative rules. Although access control has been extensively studied, and as a result, a wide range of access control models, mechanisms and systems have been proposed, specific access control requirements for healthcare systems that needs to support the continuity of care in an accountable manner have not been addressed. This results in a gap between what is required by the application domain and what is actually practised, and thus access control solutions implemented for the domain become too restrictive. The continuity of care is defined as the delivery of seamless health care services to patients through integration, coordination and sharing of information between providers. This thesis, therefore, designs a context-based access control model that allows healthcare professionals to bypass access rules in an accountable manner in case of an infrequent access request involving an emergency situation. This research uses the Tanzania\u27s healthcare system as a case study domain

Assured information sharing for ad-hoc collaboration

Collaborative information sharing tends to be highly dynamic and often ad hoc among organizations. The dynamic natures and sharing patterns in ad-hoc collaboration impose a need for a comprehensive and flexible approach to reflecting and coping with the unique access control requirements associated with the environment. This dissertation outlines a Role-based Access Management for Ad-hoc Resource Shar- ing framework (RAMARS) to enable secure and selective information sharing in the het- erogeneous ad-hoc collaborative environment. Our framework incorporates a role-based approach to addressing originator control, delegation and dissemination control. A special trust-aware feature is incorporated to deal with dynamic user and trust management, and a novel resource modeling scheme is proposed to support fine-grained selective sharing of composite data. As a policy-driven approach, we formally specify the necessary pol- icy components in our framework and develop access control policies using standardized eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML). The feasibility of our approach is evaluated in two emerging collaborative information sharing infrastructures: peer-to- peer networking (P2P) and Grid computing. As a potential application domain, RAMARS framework is further extended and adopted in secure healthcare services, with a unified patient-centric access control scheme being proposed to enable selective and authorized sharing of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), accommodating various privacy protection requirements at different levels of granularity

Exploring Spanish-English translation through conceptual metaphor components: A case study based on The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes and its translators

This case study applies a multidisciplinary approach to explore real discourse^{1} in translation from a linguistic and literary perspective. The selected approach involves comparing the two translations of La muerte de Artemio Cruz, by Carlos Fuentes, published in English under the title The Death of Artemio Cruz. The criterion of linguistic deviation between the two translated texts is combined in this study with the literary use of metaphors in Fuentes’s novel in order to focus on the study of metaphors of deep significance both in the original and in the translation solutions proposed, and thereby explore what they say about translation and translators. Cognitive models are applied to the analysis of the fragments identified, in order to explore the role played by different metaphor components, as defined by Zoltán Kövecses; the aim is to determine the ways in which such components underpin and can help identify translation solutions based on language and translation features that convey culture-specific elements, and also to determine the extent to which they reveal the translator’s presence. Applying conceptual metaphor theory allows us to see in a more concrete way abstract elements conveyed through translation. Image schemas, in particular, which are dynamic spatial patterns such as path and container that give basic structure to our experiences and knowledge, provide a “more concrete” tool which allows us to visualize aspects transferred between languages and cultures that reveal the translator’s presence in the text. This multidisciplinary approach, although not systematic in a strict sense (because it does not set out to identify all metaphors and the corresponding components present in the selected text and translations), proves helpful in proposing translation procedures that go beyond the very general solutions proposed previously based on translating metaphors from the source language into the “same” or “different” metaphors or mappings in the target language. This new approach, with its focus on more concrete and basic structures, can provide the basis for a more objective methodology in the field of metaphor translation

Towards an implementation of information flow security using semantic web technologies

Controlling the flow of sensitive data has been widely acknowledged as a critical aspect for securing web information systems. A common limitation of previous approaches for the implementation of the information flow control is their proposal of new scripting languages. This makes them infeasible to be applied to existing systems written in traditional programming languages as these systems need to be redeveloped in the proposed scripting language. This paper proposes a methodology that offers a common interlinqua through the use of Semantic Web technologies for securing web information systems independently of their programming language. © 2012 IEEE

Mid-term Review of the UNDP Integrated Mine Action Programme (IMAP)

The break-up of Yugoslavia led to the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, which resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, massive displacement, and widespread landmine contamination. There was no clear victor in the conflict, and the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP) established a loose confederal structure, with a weak central government (the State), two Entities (the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska or RS) and, within the Federation, ten cantons (each with its own constitution). Because of the danger of renewed conflict, NATO fielded an Implementation Force (IFOR) to enforce the military provisions of the GFAP, while the broader international community established the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) and appointed a High Representative who had the authority impose legal decrees, annul legislation that was inconsistent with GFAP or other international obligations, and exclude individuals from public office. Renewed conflict has been avoided, but the GFAP arrangements have not yet led to a properly functioning state. In addition to its political problems, post-conflict reconstruction and development have been hampered by extensive contamination by landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Bosnia is probably the most mine contaminated country in Europe, and certainly one of the most contaminated in the world. The mine action effort has received extensive international support since early 1996. However, rivalries among donors hindered coordination in the initial years, and donor confidence was rocked by corruption allegations in 1999-2000. Since then however, Bosnian authorities have enacted legislation (2002), established a unified planning and coordination structure for the programme, completed a Landmine Impact Survey (LIS), and formulated a coherent strategy. This consolidation of the programme\u27s institutional make-up has allowed national officials responsible for mine action to rebuild donor confidence and improve programme performance. Indeed, national mine action officials have introduced a number of innovations, at least one of which warrants replication in other mine-affected countries. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has actively supported Bosnia\u27s mine action efforts since 1996. Originally, it managed the mine action centre (MAC) responsible for compiling and maintaining the database of minefield records and for coordinating the national programme. These responsibilities were transferred to national authorities – both State and Entity – in 1998, at which point UNDP initiated its multidonor financed Integrated Mine Action Programme (IMAP), now in its third phase as a nationally executed project. In spite of some rocky periods, IMAP has been successful in supporting the emergence of national capacities for planning and coordinating the mine action programme. The numbers of technical advisors have fallen from over 40 in 1998 to one part time ‘strategic advisor\u27 today. Financial contributions from Bosnia\u27s governments have increased steadily, and an agreement is in place for the State government to cover all operating costs of the MAC by 2008. While not the principal conduit for financing demining operations, IMAP has provided a useful channel for some donors to contribute to demining. In addition, IMAP has provided modest but useful support to the demining capacities of the armed forces. In the opinion of the Evaluation Team, IMAP has been an effective instrument for supporting the development of national capacities

An embedded adaptive optics real time controller

The design and realisation of a low cost, high speed control system for adaptive optics (AO) is presented. This control system is built around a field programmable gate array (FPGA). FPGA devices represent a fundamentally different approach to implementing control systems than conventional central processing units. The performance of the FPGA control system is demonstrated in a specifically constructed laboratory AO experiment where closed loop AO correction is shown. An alternative application of the control system is demonstrated in the field of optical tweezing, where it is used to study the motion dynamics of particles trapped within laser foci