Federated Robust Embedded Systems: Concepts and Challenges

The development within the area of embedded systems (ESs) is moving rapidly, not least due to falling costs of computation and communication equipment. It is believed that increased communication opportunities will lead to the future ESs no longer being parts of isolated products, but rather parts of larger communities or federations of ESs, within which information is exchanged for the benefit of all participants. This vision is asserted by a number of interrelated research topics, such as the internet of things, cyber-physical systems, systems of systems, and multi-agent systems. In this work, the focus is primarily on ESs, with their specific real-time and safety requirements. While the vision of interconnected ESs is quite promising, it also brings great challenges to the development of future systems in an efficient, safe, and reliable way. In this work, a pre-study has been carried out in order to gain a better understanding about common concepts and challenges that naturally arise in federations of ESs. The work was organized around a series of workshops, with contributions from both academic participants and industrial partners with a strong experience in ES development. During the workshops, a portfolio of possible ES federation scenarios was collected, and a number of application examples were discussed more thoroughly on different abstraction levels, starting from screening the nature of interactions on the federation level and proceeding down to the implementation details within each ES. These discussions led to a better understanding of what can be expected in the future federated ESs. In this report, the discussed applications are summarized, together with their characteristics, challenges, and necessary solution elements, providing a ground for the future research within the area of communicating ESs

Design of Dependable Systems on Android

In this thesis we analyze the concepts of dependability and dependable systems. We investigate methods of designing and implementing dependable systems, in general, and on the Android operating system. A literature review was carried out with two main goals. Firstly, to gain and be able to spread knowledge of dependability according to both its qualitative and quantitative definitions. Secondly, to prove our theory that there is a lack of information regarding dependable systems on Android, establishing a need for this thesis. We then attempt to apply our newly acquired knowledge in a case study, where we design and implement a dependable system, in the form of a security camera application, on Android. This gives further insight into the challenges of designing dependable systems, and through our experience we learn how to overcome these challenges. While the scope was too large to fully cover every aspect of dependability, we gained valuable knowledge that is presented in this thesis

Identifying Failures in Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are well-known communication tools. People, especially young people, cannot go even one step without them. Technological advancements provide better features, but at the same time, such systems still face security risks. Protective layers do exist, but some systems are automated and engineered, while others rely on humans. This work begins with examining some critical points related to the weakest link in the security chain: the human factor. Errors are given in the view of the Swiss Cheese Model by emphasizing the role of latent conditions in “holes”. We found that the Swiss Cheese Model has some limitations. In order to enhance it, we have used the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis risk matrix methodology. Thus, we represent its application on mobile devices to demonstrate that it can give us more accurate results by identifying the most critical points where manufacturers should focus on. This work is based on qualitative data, and it provides the basis for quantitative research. In the end, we suggest that in order to obtain more accurate findings, the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis can be further extended

Testes padronizados para configurações de segurança definidas pelo usuário para dispositivos Android

Orientadores: Eliane Martins, Marco VieiraTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: A ampla disseminação de dispositivos móveis, como smartphones e tablets, e a sua vasta capacidade de uso, que vai desde tirar fotos ao acesso a contas bancárias, torna-os um alvo atraente para os atacantes. Isso, juntamente com o fato de que os usuários frequentemente armazenam informações pessoais em tais dispositivos, e que muitas organizações atualmente implementam a política "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD), que permite aos funcionários usarem seus dispositivos pessoais para acessarem a infraestrutura de informação corporativa e aplicações, tornando a avaliação da segurança de dispositivos móveis uma questão fundamental. Este trabalho apresenta uma abordagem de testes padronizados para avaliar as configurações de segurança definidas pelos usuários, considerando o risco, que cada configuração possui, de prejudicar o dono do dispositivo. Esta abordagem fornece informações valiosas para aqueles que precisam avaliar, comparar ou controlar as configurações de segurança em dispositivos móveis. Na prática, para cada configuração definida pelo usuário, uma intensidade de risco é calculada com base na análise da percepção de um conjunto de especialistas de segurança. A intensidade do risco das diferentes configurações são agregadas para avaliar a segurança geral, com base na análise das configurações de um determinado dispositivo. Em suma, as principais contribuições deste trabalho são: 1) uma ferramenta que permite avaliar a segurança de dispositivos Android com base nas configurações definidas pelo usuário; 2) uma análise das configurações de segurança definidas pelo usuário de dispositivos Android, a fim de entender os problemas mais comuns relacionados às configurações de segurança; 3) uma abordagem de análise de risco para qualificar / quantificar a segurança de dispositivos móveis tomando como base as configurações de segurança definidas pelo usuário; e 4) a definição de testes padronizados benchmark de configuração de segurança para dispositivos móveis, usando o Android como estudo de caso. A plataforma Android é amplamente usada e representativa com relação ao estado da arte em computação móvel. Os resultados, com base na análise de dados coletados de 561 dispositivos, mostram que os usuários do sistema Android negligenciam importantes recomendações de segurança ao configurarem seus dispositivos e que o processo de benchmarking é realmente uma boa maneira de identificar a configuração mais segura definida pelo usuárioAbstract: The wide spreading of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and their always-advancing capabilities, ranging from taking photos to accessing banking accounts, makes them an attractive target for attackers. This, together with the fact that users frequently store critical personal information in such devices and that many organizations currently implement a "bring your own device" (BYOD) policy that allows employees to use their personal devices to access the enterprise information infrastructure and applications, makes the assessment of the security of mobile devices a key issue. This work presents an approach to benchmark the user-defined security configurations of mobile devices considering the risk that each configuration has to harm or cause any type of loss to the device owner. This approach provides valuable information for those who need to evaluate, assess, compare or control the security configurations of mobile devices. In practice, for each user-defined configuration, an intensity of severity is calculated based on the analysis of the perception of a set of security experts. The intensity of severity of the different configurations are aggregated to assess overall security, based on the analysis of the concrete settings of a given device. In short, the main contributions of this work are: 1) a tool that allows assessing the security of Android devices based on the user-defined configurations; 2) a security analysis of the user-defined security configurations of Android devices in order to understand the common misconfiguration problems; 3) a risk analysis approach to qualify/quantify the security of mobile devices concerning the user-defined security configurations; and 4) a security configuration benchmark for mobile devices, using Android as case study. The Android platform is widely use and representative with respect to the state-of-the-art in mobile computing. The results presented, based on the analysis of data collected from 561 devices, show that Android users neglect important security recommendations while configuring their devices and that benchmarking is indeed a practical way to assess and compare the security of mobile devices with regard to user-defined configurations. In fact, the results can be used by both manufacturers and users to enhance the security level of their devicesDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computação0495/15-8CAPESBE

A Comparative Analysis of Factor Effecting the Buying Judgement of Smart Phone

Smart phone has various utilizations to various clients as per their necessities. With sensational rise in the usage of smart phone the individuals are considering different factors while purchasing a smart phone. This paper has put endeavor to reveal the fundamental factors which effect clients in picking up of the smart phone. A sample of 512 responses was taken through questionnaire. An organized questionnaire was planned with five point Likert scale was utilized to meeting respondent’s .Factor analysis and descriptive statistical tools were applied to extricate the basic variables influence cell phone acquiring choice. The result shows that the most important factors are physical attributes, apps and sounds while the less importance is given to other factors such as convenience, price which can also vary by age, service and gender. The future scope of this paper lies in the fact that whether age, occupation, gender makes any difference in purchasing decision of smart phone

DEVELOPING MOBILE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (MLMS) BASED ON ANDROID FOR CURRICULUM LITERACY

This research on instructional innovation aims to develop an application of Mobile Learning Management System (mLMS) based on Android Honeycomb as a medium for college students to increase their master of the basic professional course, with broader access and richer content packaged in multimedia. The problem under research is “How does the development of a model mobile Learning Management System (mLMS) based on Android Honeycomb as students’ learning medium improve the quality of the teaching learning and accessibility of basic professional courses, especially for the Curriculum and Instruction course in Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia? The research adopted the development model of Thiaragajan, Sem­mel, Semmel, consisting of “define, design, and develop.” The subjects were students taking the professional basic course of Curriculum and Instruction in the Department of Accounting Education A and Department of German Education B. The instruments used were online questionnaires and tests.The findings show: (1) The development of mobile Learning Management System (mLMS) based on Android Honeycomb was carried out through the stages of needs analysis of the model, development of conceptual framework, and development of software requirement; (2) The model of mobile Learning Management System (mLMS) based on Android Honeycomb consists of three stages, namely pre-learning activities, learning, and post learning; (3) The use of mobile Learning Management System (mLMS) based on Android Honeycomb was able to increase the learning outcomes in the course of Curriculum and Instruction in UPI. The increase can be seen in the post-test scores that were greater than the pre-test scores; and (4) Students’ responses and perceptions of the use of the application of mobile Learning Management System (mLMS) based on Android Honeycomb in the course of Curriculum and Instruction in general were good and positive