It bends but would it break?:topological analysis of BGP infrastructures in Europe

The Internet is often thought to be a model of resilience, due to a decentralised, organically-grown architecture. This paper puts this perception into perspective through the results of a security analysis of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing infrastructure. BGP is a fundamental Internet protocol and its intrinsic fragilities have been highlighted extensively in the literature. A seldom studied aspect is how robust the BGP infrastructure actually is as a result of nearly three decades of perpetual growth. Although global black-outs seem unlikely, local security events raise growing concerns on the robustness of the backbone. In order to better protect this critical infrastructure, it is crucial to understand its topology in the context of the weaknesses of BGP and to identify possible security scenarios. Firstly, we establish a comprehensive threat model that classifies main attack vectors, including but non limited to BGP vulnerabilities. We then construct maps of the European BGP backbone based on publicly available routing data. We analyse the topology of the backbone and establish several disruption scenarios that highlight the possible consequences of different types of attacks, for different attack capabilities. We also discuss existing mitigation and recovery strategies, and we propose improvements to enhance the robustness and resilience of the backbone. To our knowledge, this study is the first to combine a comprehensive threat analysis of BGP infrastructures withadvanced network topology considerations. We find that the BGP infrastructure is at higher risk than already understood, due to topologies that remain vulnerable to certain targeted attacks as a result of organic deployment over the years. Significant parts of the system are still uncharted territory, which warrants further investigation in this direction

Strategic Management of Open Innovation: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

Open innovation has become well established as a new imperative for organizing innovation. In line with the increased use in industry, it has also attracted a lot of attention in academia. However, understanding the full benefits and possible limits of open innovation still remains a challenge. We draw on strategic management theory to describe some of these benefits and limits. More specifically, we develop a dynamic capabilities framework as a way to better understand the strategic management of open innovation, which can then help to better explain both success and failure in open innovation. With this background, as guest editors we introduce select papers published in this Special Section of California Management Review that were originally presented at the fifth annual World Open Innovation Conference, held in San Francisco, California, in December of 2018

FHIRChain: Applying Blockchain to Securely and Scalably Share Clinical Data

Secure and scalable data sharing is essential for collaborative clinical decision making. Conventional clinical data efforts are often siloed, however, which creates barriers to efficient information exchange and impedes effective treatment decision made for patients. This paper provides four contributions to the study of applying blockchain technology to clinical data sharing in the context of technical requirements defined in the "Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap" from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). First, we analyze the ONC requirements and their implications for blockchain-based systems. Second, we present FHIRChain, which is a blockchain-based architecture designed to meet ONC requirements by encapsulating the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard for shared clinical data. Third, we demonstrate a FHIRChain-based decentralized app using digital health identities to authenticate participants in a case study of collaborative decision making for remote cancer care. Fourth, we highlight key lessons learned from our case study

Every account counts for sustainable development: lessons from the African CoP to implement ocean accounts in the Western Indian Ocean region

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) is critical in supporting the social and economic development of the nations it borders. To safeguard the various opportunities it provides, it is essential to adopt sustainable ocean development models that balance ocean wealth and ocean health. Such models depend on evidence-based and adaptative ocean governance underpinned by holistic social, environmental and economic indicators. The ocean accounts framework provides a standard accounting structure to integrate social, economic and environmental information in alignment with relevant international statistical standards such as the System of National Accounts and the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. Applying such a framework produces integrated indicators against which changes can be assessed and measured. These indicators also inform decision-making and support the prioritisation of areas requiring further attention by highlighting data deficiencies, ocean governance gaps and under-explored research areas. The framework encompasses and links several systems of accounting that can be used based on specific priorities. However, three initiation points have been identified that can be further expanded and concatenated into other accounts encompassed by the framework. This publication provides practical guidelines to start implementing national, regional or local ocean accounts, following the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting. It is further complemented by amendments proposed by the African Community of Practice based on lessons learned during the implementation of ocean accounts pilots across the WIO region. Compiling ocean accounts is an adaptative and iterative process and should be constantly ameliorated and adjusted to local contexts and priorities. However, efforts should be made to maintain coherence with the framework and international standards

Security Analysis of an Operations Support System

Operations support systems (OSS) are used by Communications service providers (CSP) to configure and monitor their network infrastructure in order to fulfill, assure and bill services. With the industry moving towards cloud-based deployments, CSPs are apprehensive about their internal OSS applications being deployed on external infrastructure. Today's OSS systems are complex and have a large attack surface. Moreover, a literature review of OSS systems security does not reveal much information about the security analysis of OSS systems. Hence, a security analysis of OSS systems is needed. In this thesis, we study a common architecture of an OSS system for provisioning and activation (P&A) of telecommunications networks. We create a threat model of the P&A system. We create data flow diagrams to analyse the entry and exit points of the application and list different threats using the STRIDE methodology. We also describe various vulnerabilities based on the common architecture that OSS vendors must address. We describe mitigation for the threats and vulnerabilities found and mention dos and don'ts for OSS developers and deployment personnel. We also present the results of a survey we conducted to find out the current perception of security in the OSS industry. Finally, we conclude by stressing the importance of a layered security approach and recommend that the threat model and mitigation must be validated periodically. We also observe that it is challenging to create a common threat model for OSS systems because of the lack of an open architecture and the closed nature of OSS software

Overcoming water scarcity and quality constraints:

CONTENTS: Brief 1. Overview / Ruth S. Meinzen-Dick and Mark W. Rosegrant Brief 2. Water for Food Production / Mark W. Rosegrant and Ximing Cai Brief 3. Domestic Water Supply, Hygiene, and Sanitation / Hans van Damme Brief 4. Emerging Water Quality Problems in Developing Countries / Wim van der Hoeck - -Brief 5. Water and Rural Livelihoods / Linden Vincent Brief 6. Water and the Environment / Elro Bos and Ger Bergkamp Brief 7. Dams and Water Storage / Jeremy Bird and Pamela Wallace Brief 8. Groundwater: Potential and Constraints / Marcus Moench Brief 9. Water Harvesting and Watershed Management / John Kerr and Ganesh Pangare Brief 10. Water Pricing: Potential and Problems / R. Maria Saleth Brief 11. Markets for Tradable Water Rights / Karin E. Kemper Brief 12. Recognizing Water Rights / Franz and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann Brief 12. Integrated Management of Water in River Basins / Mark Svendsen Brief 13.Water, Conflict, and Cooperation / Aaron T. WolfWater quality management., Water rights., Water-supply,

Horizontal Fusion: Enabling Net-Centric Operations and Warfare

the ability to access real-time information at the right time to make the right decisions