Intruder Alert? How Stock Markets React to Potential IT Security Breaches: The Case of OpenSSL Heartbleed

This exploratory study investigates how potential information technology security breaches affect stock prices. Previous research indicates that stock markets tend to punish firms that experience unsolicited disclosure of information and proprietary data. However, little research exists on the question of whether firms are punished for creating the mere potential for data theft. Based on the information boundary theory, we design our exploratory research model. Subsequently, we utilize a sample of 4,147 stocks of firms headquartered in 43 countries to conduct multiple event studies. We reveal a delayed adverse stock market response to potential IT security breaches as well as a discrimination among firms operating in different industries. Consequently, this work enhances the understanding of the full economic impact of information security measures by shedding light on previously neglected hidden costs

Remedying Security Concerns at an Internet Scale

The state of security across the Internet is poor, and it has been so since the advent of the modern Internet. While the research community has made tremendous progress over the years in learning how to design and build secure computer systems, network protocols, and algorithms, we are far from a world where we can truly trust the security of deployed Internet systems. In reality, we may never reach such a world. Security concerns continue to be identified at scale through-out the software ecosystem, with thousands of vulnerabilities discovered each year. Meanwhile, attacks have become ever more frequent and consequential.As Internet systems will continue to be inevitably affected by newly found security concerns, the research community must develop more effective ways to remedy these issues. To that end, in this dissertation, we conduct extensive empirical measurements to understand how remediation occurs in practice for Internet systems, and explore methods for spurring improved remediation behavior. This dissertation provides a treatment of the complete remediation life cycle, investigating the creation, dissemination, and deployment of remedies. We start by focusing on security patches that address vulnerabilities, and analyze at scale their creation process, characteristics of the resulting fixes, and how these impact vulnerability remediation. We then investigate and systematize how administrators of Internet systems deploy software updates which patch vulnerabilities across the many machines they manage on behalf of organizations. Finally, we conduct the first systematic exploration of Internet-scale outreach efforts to disseminate information about security concerns and their remedies to system administrators, with an aim of driving their remediation decisions. Our results show that such outreach campaigns can effectively galvanize positive reactions.Improving remediation, particularly at scale, is challenging, as the problem space exhibits many dimensions beyond traditional computer technical considerations, including human, social, organizational, economic, and policy facets. To make meaningful progress, this work uses a diversity of empirical methods, from software data mining to user studies to Internet-wide network measurements, to systematically collect and evaluate large-scale datasets. Ultimately, this dissertation establishes broad empirical grounding on security remediation in practice today, as well as new approaches for improved remediation at an Internet scale

Prospectus, April 23, 2014

COBRA RAISES ISSUES AT PARKLAND, Diet Tips for a Healthy Student Lifestyle, Supreme Court Upholds Michigan Ban on Affirmative Action in State Universities, Parkland Fitness Center Helps Beat Winter Blues, Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor: My Best Days are Ones Others Take for Granted, When a Wave and a Smile are Magic, Lovett Receives Award of Excellence, Heartbleed Virus Affects Internet Securityhttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2014/1010/thumbnail.jp

A Target to the Heart of the First Amendment: Government Endorsement of Responsible Disclosure as Unconstitutional

Brian Krebs, a former reporter for the Washington Post who is now known for his blog Krebs on Security, remained relatively unknown for most of his career. But in December 2013, Mr. Krebs found that hackers had exploited a data vulnerability in Target’s electronic-payment system, compromising millions of credit-card numbers that had been used to purchase goods from the second-largest discount retailer in the United States. In the following months, an investigation revealed that the breach affected nearly half of the 110-million credit cards recently used at Target, resulting in one of the largest known digital credit-card heists in history. Even before Target’s data breach personally affected millions of consumers, concern over the security of personal data was endemic. A survey conducted in March 2013 revealed that 82.1% of Americans were at least somewhat worried about a data breach involving banks, government entities, or other organizations, and roughly the same percentage were concerned about identity theft and credit-card fraud. With over 78- million data records containing personal information exposed to breaches in the first ten months of 2014 alone, it is unsurprising that a separate survey found that 77% of consumers agreed that expeditious notification of vulnerabilities involving stolen or lost data was important. Coupled with the potential widespread harm caused by data breaches, discrepancies in data-holders’ approaches to security vulnerabilities have prompted a call for a national response. Generally, two approaches exist for confronting data security issues: full disclosure and responsible disclosure. Proponents of the former argue that stifling communication about data breaches or vulnerabilities, no matter the source, is detrimental, conflicting with both public sentiment and constitutional rights. On the other end of the spectrum, supporters of a responsible disclosure policy suggest that allowing companies to rectify data security issues before public dissemination provides a better solution. In effect, responsible disclosure requires those who discover a data vulnerability to not only notify the affected organization, but also keep knowledge of the data security weakness confidential, regardless of its potential impact on consumers. Although the predominant industry approach, this Article argues that the responsible disclosure approach should not be legislatively or judicially adopted. Not only does a responsible disclosure policy violate the First Amendment as a prior restraint, but it also constitutes poor public policy, ultimately causing a chilling effect that would reduce business accountability. In an effort to avoid both limiting the development of enhanced data security safeguards and restricting the public’s ability to engage in self-help, Congress and the judiciary should allow basic market forces to pave the way for innovation in this continually evolving field

The Secrets We Keep…: Encryption and the Struggle for Software Vulnerability Disclosure Reform

Vulnerabilities within pieces of software can expose otherwise secure data to outside parties. Such vulnerabilities are exploited not just by malicious actors looking to exploit secured data for criminal reasons, but also by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Government agencies have cultivated vulnerabilities as investigative tools and cyber weapons, and at times keep the vulnerabilities they have discovered secret from both the companies that produced the software and the consumers who rely upon it. While the US Government has created a vulnerability disclosure system to help decide when to keep a vulnerability secret, it does not do enough to balance the government’s national security and law enforcement interests with the data security interests of the public. As debates over government access to encrypted data continue, a strong legal framework for deciding when and how government actors can keep vulnerabilities secret must be established

A Machine Learning Approach for Intrusion Detection

Master's thesis in Information- and communication technology (IKT590)Securing networks and their confidentiality from intrusions is crucial, and for this rea-son, Intrusion Detection Systems have to be employed. The main goal of this thesis is to achieve a proper detection performance of a Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS). In this thesis, we have examined the detection efficiency of machine learning algorithms such as Neural Network, Convolutional Neural Network, Random Forestand Long Short-Term Memory. We have constructed our models so that they can detect different types of attacks utilizing the CICIDS2017 dataset. We have worked on identifying 15 various attacks present in CICIDS2017, instead of merely identifying normal-abnormal traffic. We have also discussed the reason why to use precisely this dataset, and why should one classify by attack to enhance the detection. Previous works based on benchmark datasets such as NSL-KDD and KDD99 are discussed. Also, how to address and solve these issues. The thesis also shows how the results are effected using different machine learning algorithms. As the research will demon-strate, the Neural Network, Convulotional Neural Network, Random Forest and Long Short-Term Memory are evaluated by conducting cross validation; the average score across five folds of each model is at 92.30%, 87.73%, 94.42% and 87.94%, respectively. Nevertheless, the confusion metrics was also a crucial measurement to evaluate the models, as we shall see. Keywords: Information security, NIDS, Machine Learning, Neural Network, Convolutional Neural Network, Random Forest, Long Short-Term Memory, CICIDS2017