Implementing chain of custody requirements in database audit records for forensic purposes

During forensic database investigations, audit records become a crucial evidential element; particularly, when certain events can be attributed to insider activity. However, traditional reactive forensic methods may not be suitable, urging the adoption of proactive approaches that can be used to ensure accountability through audit records whilst satisfying Chain of Custody (CoC) requirements for forensic purposes. In this paper, role segregation, evidence provenance, event timeliness and causality are considered as CoC requirements in order to implement a forensically ready architecture for the proactive generation, collection and preservation of database audit records that can be used as digital evidence for the investigation of insider activity. Our proposal implements triggers and stored procedures as forensic routines in order to build a vector-clockbased timeline for explaining causality in transactional events recorded in audit tables. We expect to encourage further work in the field of proactive digital forensics and forensic readiness; in particular, for justifying admissibility of audit records under CoC restrictions

Management: A bibliography for NASA managers

This bibliography lists 706 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in 1984. Entries, which include abstracts, are arranged in the following categories: human factors and personnel issues; management theory and techniques; industrial management and manufacturing; robotics and expert systems; computers and information management; research and development; economics, costs, and markets; logistics and operations management; reliability and quality control; and legality, legislation, and policy. Subject, personal author, corporate source, contract number, report number, and accession number indexes are included

Design and Implementation of a Multi-Purpose Object-Orientated Spatio-Temporal (MPooST) Data Model for Cadastral and Land Information Systems (C/LIS)

The application of the object-oriented methodology in geospatial information management has significantly increased during the last 10 years and tends to gradually replace the status quo relational technology. In general, object orientation offers a flexible and adaptable modelling framework to satisfy the most demanding complex data structuring requirements. The objective of this thesis is to determine how a modern Land Information System used for cadastral purposes can benefit from an object-oriented methodology. To this aim, a Multi-Purpose, Object-Oriented Spatio-Temporal (abbreviated as MPOOST) data model has been developed. In brief, the MPOOST data model embodies spatial data and their temporal reference in the form of objects which contain their attributes as well as their behaviour. The design of the MPOOST data model has been specified in such a way that it enables other data models to exploit its functionality, therefore enabling the multi-purpose aspect. At first, the requirements of Land Information Systems are being examined. Next, the functionality that is offered by the object-oriented methodology is being analysed in detail. Even if the bibliography is quite rich in relevant research, however there seems to be no starting point regarding the application of OO in LIS. Hence, a whole chapter of this thesis has been dedicated in an extended bibliographic research. Finally, the OO methodology is applied for the design and implementation of the MPOOST data model. The outcome of the design and the implementation is the first version of the MPOOST data model written using the Java object-oriented programming language. In this way, it is proven that: the relational technology has significant drawbacks which prohibit it from being applied in conceptually demanding information systems; and that object-orientation can fully satisfy the most complex data structuring requirements posed in modern geographic information systems

A Systematic Performance Study of Object Database Management Systems

Many previous performance benchmarks for Object Database Management Systems (ODBMSs) have typically used arbitrary sets of tests based on what their designers felt were the characteristics of Engineering applications. Increasingly, however, ODBMSs are being used in non-engineering domains, such as Financial Trading, Clinical Healthcare, Telecommunications Network Management, etc. Part of the reason for this is that the technology has matured over the past few years and has become a less risky choice for organisations looking for better w'ays to manage complex data. However, the development of suitable application- or industry-specific benchmarks, based on actual performance studies, has not paralleled this growth. The research reported here approaches performance evaluation of ODBMSs pragmatically. It uses a combination of case studies and benchmark experiments to investigate the performance characteristics of ODBMSs for particular applications, following the successful use of this approach by Youssef [Youss93] for studying the performance of On- Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) applications for Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSs). Six case studies at five organisations show’ that organisations consider a wide range of factors when undertaking their own performance studies or benchmarks. Furthermore, none of the studied organisations considered using any public benchmarks. Six current and derived benchmarks also highlight statistically significant performance differences between three major commercial products: Objectivity/DB, ObjectStore and UniSQL. These benchmarks indicate the suitability of the products tested for particular application domains. The research could not find any evidence at this time to support the concept of a generic or canonical performance workload for ODBMSs. This is demonstrated by the case studies and supported by the benchmark experiments. However, the research shows that performance benchmarks serve a very useful role in ODBMS evaluations and can help identify architectural and quality problems with products that would not otherwise be observed until significant application or system development was already in progress

Quality function deployment opportunities in product model supported design

This thesis describes the development of a QFD information model established in an environment where design information is shared between software applications. The main objectives of the research are to establish a QFD information structure within a Product Data Model and to demonstrate how this enables an intelligent, knowledgebased analysis of QFD information contained in a Product Model. The generic structure of the QFD information has been defined and implemented in prototype software and its value is demonstrated through experimentation in two case studies. Successful implementation of the case studies proved that the QFD information structure is able to capture QFD information as persistent objects residing in a Product Model. It also demonstrates that an intelligent knowledge-based QFD expert can be implemented alongside the QFD information model to accomplish useful, consistent, reasoned analysis of QFD information. The research has achieved its aim to provide a new contribution in the product design domain, and to the effectiveness of Concurrent Engineering activities, through better use of Quality Function Deployment

Third Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Space Applications, part 1

The application of artificial intelligence to spacecraft and aerospace systems is discussed. Expert systems, robotics, space station automation, fault diagnostics, parallel processing, knowledge representation, scheduling, man-machine interfaces and neural nets are among the topics discussed

Canonical queries as a query answering device (Information Science)

Issued as Annual reports [nos. 1-2], and Final report, Project no. G-36-60