Vulnerabilities and responsibilities: dealing with monsters in computer security

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze information security assessment in terms of cultural categories and virtue ethics, in order to explain the cultural origin of certain types of security vulnerabilities, as well as to enable a proactive attitude towards preventing such vulnerabilities.\ud \ud Design/methodology/approach – Vulnerabilities in information security are compared to the concept of “monster” introduced by Martijntje Smits in philosophy of technology. The applicability of different strategies for dealing with monsters to information security is discussed, and the strategies are linked to attitudes in virtue ethics.\ud \ud Findings – It is concluded that the present approach can form the basis for dealing proactively with unknown future vulnerabilities in information security.\ud \ud Research limitations/implications – The research presented here does not define a stepwise approach for implementation of the recommended strategy in practice. This is future work.\ud \ud Practical implications – The results of this paper enable computer experts to rethink their attitude towards security threats, thereby reshaping their practices.\ud \ud Originality/value – This paper provides an alternative anthropological framework for descriptive and normative analysis of information security problems, which does not rely on the objectivity of risk

Postprint Copy of Years of Teaching Dangerously: Interfacing Thomas Cromwell in Canon and Fandom, Michael Drayton, “W.S.,” and Hilary Mantel

When Sir Thomas Bodley founded the Bodleian Library, he sought to keep “baggage books,” “riff-raff books,” and distasteful literature off the shelves. The question of keeping literature in or out of a library or canon is never simply about literature; it is also about class-based criticism and notions of defending culture and taste against unauthorized popular versions. Teaching dangerously opens the early modern classroom, theorizing it as a type of literary fandom that is both personally engaging and socially conscious: this type of teaching does not forget academic rigor; it remembers human impact, by enfolding scholarship and theory. Putting early modern texts into play alongside contemporary literature and social issues moves learning in unscripted, surprising, and dangerous directions. This article models these dangerous practices by interfacing affect theory with the fandom of Thomas Cromwell as he appears in Michael Drayton’s poem The Legend of Thomas Cromwell, the apocryphal “W.S.” drama The Life and Death of Thomas Cromwell, and Hilary Mantel’s novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. This type of ‘magic’ is not so far removed from J.K. Rowling’s wizardry, and teaching dangerously with affect theory empowers classroom fandom that engages and changes the world as we know it

ARE ECUADORIAN MILLENNIALS PREPARED AGAINST A CYBERATTACK?

A cyberattack is an attempt to get unauthorized access, expose, alter, disable, steal or make unauthorized use of information. Over the years, cyberattacks are becoming more frequent, considering that Ecuadorian authorities claimed they had received over 40 million cyberattacks such as denial-of-service (DOS) during a week, in April 2019. The objective of this research work is to assess to what extent Ecuadorians are prepared for a cyberattack focused on Millennials, who attend private universities and maintain a high socioeconomic status, due to they are more likely to be targeted by hackers. This study shows the level of importance that Millennial university students give to their private information. A quantitative study was applied to measure the objective mentioned before and was aimed at 103 university students in Samborondón, Ecuador. The obtained results showed that although the sample population takes some security measures to protect their information, there exist vulnerable aspects that can be used by hackers to obtain unauthorized access. Un ataque cibernético es un intento de obtener acceso no autorizado, exponer, alterar, deshabilitar, robar o hacer un uso no autorizado de información. En los últimos años, los ataques cibernéticos han sido más frecuentes, considerando que las autoridades ecuatorianas afirmaron que habían recibido más de 40 millones de ciberataques, como DOS, en el lapso de una semana, en abril de 2019. El objetivo de este trabajo de investigación es tener un estudio objetivo sobre hasta qué punto los ecuatorianos están preparados para un ciberataque con un enfoque en los millennials que asisten a universidades privadas y tienen un alto nivel socioeconómico debido a que son más propensos a ser atacados por hackers. Este estudio muestra el nivel de importancia que los estudiantes universitarios Millennials otorgan a la seguridad de su información privada. Se aplicó un estudio cuantitativo para medir el objetivo mencionado, aplicada a 103 estudiantes universitarios en Samborondón, Ecuador. El resultado obtenido evidenció que, si bien la población estudiada, toma algunas medidas de seguridad para proteger sus datos, todavía hay grietas, que pueden ser utilizadas por los piratas informáticos para obtener acceso no autorizado

How the other half lives: CRISPR-Cas's influence on bacteriophages

CRISPR-Cas is a genetic adaptive immune system unique to prokaryotic cells used to combat phage and plasmid threats. The host cell adapts by incorporating DNA sequences from invading phages or plasmids into its CRISPR locus as spacers. These spacers are expressed as mobile surveillance RNAs that direct CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins to protect against subsequent attack by the same phages or plasmids. The threat from mobile genetic elements inevitably shapes the CRISPR loci of archaea and bacteria, and simultaneously the CRISPR-Cas immune system drives evolution of these invaders. Here we highlight our recent work, as well as that of others, that seeks to understand phage mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas evasion and conditions for population coexistence of phages with CRISPR-protected prokaryotes.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure

Enabling Technologies of Cyber Crime: Why Lawyers Need to Understand It

This Article discusses the enabling technologies of cyber crime and analyzes their role in the resolution of related legal issues. It demonstrates the translation of traditional legal principles to a novel technological environment in a way that preserves their meaning and policy rationale. It concludes that lawyers who fail to understand the translation will likely pursue a suboptimal litigation strategy, face speculative recovery prospects, and may overlook effective and potentially powerful defenses

Malware Templates for MAlSim

This report describes the methodology of malware templates for MAlSim - Mobile Agent Malware Simulator, a mobile agent framework which aims at simulation of diverse malicious software in computer network of an arbitrary information system. Malware template is a pattern (a 'guide') for implementation of MAlSim agent aiming at simulation of a concrete malware. It indicates the selection and configuration of Java classes (MAlSim agent, one or more behavioural patterns and one or more migration/replication patterns) selected from MAlSim Toolkit.JRC.G.6-Sensors, radar technologies and cybersecurit