Solving the e-Portfolio Certificate Problem

ePortfolios are of particular interest as a means of supporting and encouraging life-long learning and continuing personal development. A current problem in this context concerns the inclusion of certification of attainment – the electronic equivalent of paper award certificates. At its heart is an interesting problem of three party trust extended over the lifetime of the student. This paper outlines the key issues, offers a proposed solution, and indicates how work is proceeding on an on-going UK-funded project which will deliver and evaluate a demonstrator to test the effectiveness of this solution

Identifying and overcoming the risk of fraud in the Malaysian electronic land administration

This paper attempts to provide a brief research report in risk management and security areas pertaining to threats due fraud in the Malaysian Electronic land administration system. Analyses of potential threats are provided based on evidences from various past researches and working papers, documentations, and field visits. Based on the findings, the researchers classified and described fraud existence, and suggested means of which such threats can be reduced through appropriate use of technology, policies, and strategies

Information extraction from multimedia web documents: an open-source platform and testbed

The LivingKnowledge project aimed to enhance the current state of the art in search, retrieval and knowledge management on the web by advancing the use of sentiment and opinion analysis within multimedia applications. To achieve this aim, a diverse set of novel and complementary analysis techniques have been integrated into a single, but extensible software platform on which such applications can be built. The platform combines state-of-the-art techniques for extracting facts, opinions and sentiment from multimedia documents, and unlike earlier platforms, it exploits both visual and textual techniques to support multimedia information retrieval. Foreseeing the usefulness of this software in the wider community, the platform has been made generally available as an open-source project. This paper describes the platform design, gives an overview of the analysis algorithms integrated into the system and describes two applications that utilise the system for multimedia information retrieval

An Exploratory Study on Causes of Identity Document Theft in South Africa

This study explores the causes of Identity Document (ID) theft in South Africa, the focus is concentrated to Polokwane Central Business District (CBD), Bendor Park, and Flora Park, and the number of stores situated in the business sectors of these areas. From a quantitative standpoint, 90 respondents were selected in this study. The findings indicate that conceptual understanding of this crime (ID theft) can play a pivotal role in addressing the manifestation of this crime in a large extent as nature and extent can be established, the use of technological means also contribute to ID theft, this is also linked to individuals (victims) ignorance. For recommendations; the use of technology and conventional method in awareness can help in responding to the scale and consequence of ID theft in the Polokwane Policing Area effectively

The effects of security protocols on cybercrime at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) within the educational sector is increasing rapidly. University systems are becoming increasingly dependent on computerized information systems (CIS) in order to carry out their daily routine. Moreover, CIS no longer process staff records and financial data only, as they once did. Nowadays, universities use CIS to assist in automating the overall system. This automation includes the use of multiple databases, data detail periodicity (i.e. gender, race/ethnicity, enrollment, degrees granted, and program major), record identification (e.g. social security number ‘SSN’), linking to other databases (i.e. linking unit record data with external databases such as university and employment data). The increasing demand and exposure to Internet resources and infrastructure by individuals and universities have made IT infrastructure easy targets for cybercriminals who employ sophisticated attacks such as Advanced Persistent Threats, Distributed Denial of Service attacks and Botnets in order to steal confidential data, identities of individuals and money. Hence, in order to stay in business, universities realise that it is imperative to secure vital Information Systems from easily being exploited by emerging and existing forms of cybercrimes. This study was conducted to determine and evaluate the various forms of cybercrimes and their consequences on the university network at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The study was also aimed at proposing means of mitigating cybercrimes and their effects on the university network. Hence, an exploratory research design supported by qualitative research approach was used in this study. Staff of the Institute of Computing, Information and Communication technology (ICICT) were interviewed. The findings of the study present different security measures, and security tools that can be used to effectively mitigate cybercrimes. It was found that social engineering, denial of service attacks, website defacement were among the types of cybercrimes occurring on the university network. It is therefore recommended that behavioural approach in a form of motivation of staff behaviour, salary increases, and cash incentive to reduce cybercrime perpetrated by these staff

Evaluating internal controls in a computerised works environment – a risk to audit professionals and a challenge to accountancy training providers

Information and Computer technology (ICT) has become integral part to any modern accounting information systems. ICT, however, is a high risk discipline due to high level of vulnerabilities and threats.  A key emphasis ofauditing procedures is identifying risks, fraud and errors by making inquiries of and testing Internal controls within the entity in order to place some reliance on internal reports and associated management assertions. Auditors’ responsibility in identifying fraud has now been acknowledged by regulatory standards and the law. It has become critical that auditors are fully aware of the impact of ICT issues on the audit of a client’s financial statements in howICT is used by a client to gather process and report financial information.It is, therefore, recommended that accountancy training institutions kept pace with time and inculcated into their training more skills in ICT relevant to their field to improve on the quality of professionals. This article makes use of extensive review of literature with some empirical knowledge to aid the analysis of the available literature. Keywords: Auditors, internal control, challenges, accounting, information technology, risks, skills, training

Possible tax evasion due to the ineffective and inconsistent implementation of internal controls within the supply-chain management processes

This study investigated and examined the effectiveness and implementation of the existing internal controls designed specifically for exempted micro-enterprises (EMEs) contracting with the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), in order to minimise the risk of possible tax evasion within the supply-chain management (SCM) processes. The research was completed by conducting a document review and face-to-face interviews with SASSA‟s SCM practitioners, risk manager, fraud and corruption manager, internal-control manager and internal auditor in order to identify risks of possible tax evasion within the SCM processes. It was concluded that there is a risk of possible tax evasion within the SCM processes due to the ineffectiveness and inconsistent implementation of internal controls designed for EMEs contracting with SASSA. This risk could be minimised by incorporating possible anti-tax-evasion procedures in the risk-assessment process, and ultimately in SASSA‟s broader fraud and corruption strategies. Such procedures should then help minimise funds being lost to the fiscus due to tax evasion in the SCM processes.TaxationM. Phil. (Accounting Sciences