A Conceptual Framework for Smartphone Security Among Arab Millennials

The rapid growth of smartphone adoption and use in the Middle East has led to some critical post-adoption issues, including ensuring that smartphones are used securely. Moreover, there is a gap in the existing literature on the perceptions and behaviour of individual consumers, especially millennials, in relation to mobile security and dealing with smartphone security threats. Little research on this subject has been carried out in developing countries, particularly in the Middle East, in a cross-national context. Therefore, this research aims to analyse the factors that can affect smartphone security behaviour among millennials in a cross-national context in the Middle East. The model developed in this research is based on a combination of the protection motivation theory (PMT) and the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2), with additional factors specifically related to millennials’ smartphone security behaviour in the Middle East. The initial findings indicate that (1) there is a gap in research on the security behaviour of Arab millennials, despite the existence of serious security threats associated with their use of these technologies; and (2) there is a gap in research on similarities and differences in smartphone security behaviour among consumers in a cross-national context. A questionnaire will be distributed online to consumers who are 18–29 years old in Iraq, Jordan and the UAE. This is the first research to study millennial Arabs’ security behaviour around smartphones and mobile applications in a cross- national context. In addition, the conceptual framework proposed in this research combines the PMT and the UTAUT2, with a further extension via the inclusion of three additional factors: privacy concerns; security threats related to smartphone-specific characteristics; and cybersecurity acculturation. Furthermore, this research bridges the gap in knowledge in terms of addressing the lack of research on millennials smartphone users in the Middle East region as they form the largest segment of the population

Malware detection at runtime for resource-constrained mobile devices: data-driven approach

The number of smart and connected mobile devices is increasing, bringing enormous possibilities to users in various domains and transforming everything that we get in touch with into smart. Thus, we have smart watches, smart phones, smart homes, and finally even smart cities. Increased smartness of mobile devices means that they contain more valuable information about their users, more decision making capabilities, and more control over sometimes even life-critical systems. Although, on one side, all of these are necessary in order to enable mobile devices maintain their main purpose to help and support people, on the other, it opens new vulnerabilities. Namely, with increased number and volume of smart devices, also the interest of attackers to abuse them is rising, making their security one of the main challenges. The main mean that the attackers use in order to abuse mobile devices is malicious software, shortly called malware. One way to protect against malware is by using static analysis, that investigates the nature of software by analyzing its static features. However, this technique detects well only known malware and it is prone to obfuscation, which means that it is relatively easy to create a new malicious sample that would be able to pass the radar. Thus, alone, is not powerful enough to protect the users against increasing malicious attacks. The other way to cope with malware is through dynamic analysis, where the nature of the software is decided based on its behavior during its execution on a device. This is a promising solution, because while the code of the software can be easily changed to appear as new, the same cannot be done with ease with its behavior when being executed. However, in order to achieve high accuracy dynamic analysis usually requires computational resources that are beyond suitable for battery-operated mobile devices. This is further complicated if, in addition to detecting the presence of malware, we also want to understand which type of malware it is, in order to trigger suitable countermeasures. Finally, the decisions on potential infections have to happen early enough, to guarantee minimal exposure to the attacks. Fulfilling these requirements in a mobile, battery-operated environments is a challenging task, for which, to the best of our knowledge, a suitable solution is not yet proposed. In this thesis, we pave the way towards such a solution by proposing a dynamic malware detection system that is able to early detect malware that appears at runtime and that provides useful information to discriminate between diverse types of malware while taking into account limited resources of mobile devices. On a mobile device we monitor a set of the representative features for presence of malware and based on them we trigger an alarm if software infection is observed. When this happens, we analyze a set of previously stored information relevant for malware classification, in order to understand what type of malware is being executed. In order to make the detection efficient and suitable for resource-constrained environments of mobile devices, we minimize the set of observed system parameters to only the most informative ones for both detection and classification. Additionally, since sampling period of monitoring infrastructure is directly connected to the power consumption, we take it into account as an important parameter of the development of the detection system. In order to make detection effective, we use dynamic features related to memory, CPU, system calls and network as they reflect well the behavior of a system. Our experiments show that the monitoring with a sampling period of eight seconds gives a good trade-off between detection accuracy, detection time and consumed power. Using it and by monitoring a set of only seven dynamic features (six related to the behavior of memory and one of CPU), we are able to provide a detection solution that satisfies the initial requirements and to detect malware at runtime with F- measure of 0.85, within 85.52 seconds of its execution, and with consumed average power of 20mW. Apart from observed features containing enough information to discriminate between malicious and benign applications, our results show that they can also be used to discriminate between diverse behavior of malware, reflected in different malware families. Using small number of features we are able to identify the presence of the malicious records from the considered family with precision of up to 99.8%. In addition to the standalone use of the proposed detection solution, we have also used it in a hybrid scenario where the applications were first analyzed by a static method, and it was able to detect correctly all the malware previously undetected by static analysis with false positive rate of 3.81% and average detection time of 44.72s. The method, we have designed, tested and validated, has been applied on a smartphone running on Android Operating System. However, since in the design of this method efficient usage of available computational resources was one of our main criteria, we are confident that the method as such can be applied also on the other battery-operated mobile devices of Internet of Things, in order to provide an effective and efficient system able to counter the ever-increasing and ever-evolving number and a variety of malicious attacks

Governing information security within the context of "bring your own device" in small, medium and micro enterprises

Throughout history, information has been core to the communication, processing and storage of most tasks in the organisation, in this case in Small-Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). The implementation of these tasks relies on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT is constantly evolving, and with each developed ICT, it becomes important that organisations adapt to the changing environment. Organisations need to adapt to the changing environment by incorporating innovative ICT that allows employees to perform their tasks with ease anywhere and anytime, whilst reducing the costs affiliated with the ICT. In this modern, performing tasks with ease anywhere and anytime requires that the employee is mobile whilst using the ICT. As a result, a relatively new phenomenon called “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) is currently infiltrating most organisations, where personally-owned mobile devices are used to access organisational information that will be used to conduct the various tasks of the organisation. The use of BYOD in organisations breeds the previously mentioned benefits such as performing organisational tasks anywhere and anytime. However, with the benefits highlighted for BYOD, organisations should be aware that there are risks to the implementation of BYOD. Therefore, the implementation of BYOD deems that organisations should implement BYOD with proper management thereof

Governing information security within the context of "bring your own device" in small, medium and micro enterprises

Throughout history, information has been core to the communication, processing and storage of most tasks in the organisation, in this case in Small-Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). The implementation of these tasks relies on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT is constantly evolving, and with each developed ICT, it becomes important that organisations adapt to the changing environment. Organisations need to adapt to the changing environment by incorporating innovative ICT that allows employees to perform their tasks with ease anywhere and anytime, whilst reducing the costs affiliated with the ICT. In this modern, performing tasks with ease anywhere and anytime requires that the employee is mobile whilst using the ICT. As a result, a relatively new phenomenon called “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) is currently infiltrating most organisations, where personally-owned mobile devices are used to access organisational information that will be used to conduct the various tasks of the organisation. The use of BYOD in organisations breeds the previously mentioned benefits such as performing organisational tasks anywhere and anytime. However, with the benefits highlighted for BYOD, organisations should be aware that there are risks to the implementation of BYOD. Therefore, the implementation of BYOD deems that organisations should implement BYOD with proper management thereof

Tracking RFID

RFID-Radio Frequency Identification-is a powerful enabling technology with a wide range of potential applications. Its proponents initially overhyped its capabilities and business case: RFID deployment is proceeding along a much slower and less predictable trajectory than was initially thought. Nonetheless, in the end it is plausible that we will find ourselves moving in the direction of a world with pervasive RFID: a world in which objects\u27 wireless self-identification will become much more nearly routine, and networked devices will routinely collect and process the resulting information. RFID-equipped goods and documents present privacy threats: they may reveal information about themselves, and hence about the people carrying them, wirelessly to people whom the subjects might not have chosen to inform. That information leakage follows individuals, and reveals how they move through space. Not only does the profile that RFID technology helps construct contain information about where the subject is and has been, but RFID signifiers travel with the subject in the physical world, conveying information to devices that otherwise would not recognize it and that can take actions based on that information. RFID implementations, thus, can present three related privacy threats, which this article categorizes as surveillance, profiling, and action. RFID privacy consequences will differ in different implementations. It would be a mistake to conclude that an RFID implementation will pose no meaningful privacy threat because a tag does not directly store personally identifiable information, instead containing only a pointer to information contained in a separate database. Aside from any privacy threats presented by the database proprietor, privacy threats from third parties will depend on the extent to which those third parties can buy, barter, or otherwise gain database access. Where a tag neither points to nor carries personal identifying information, the extent of the privacy threat will depend in part on the degree to which data collectors will be able to link tag numbers with personally identifying information. Yet as profiling accelerates in the modem world, aided by the automatic, networked collection of information, information compiled by one data collector will increasingly be available to others as well; linking persistent identifiers to personally identifying information may turn out to be easy. Nor are sophisticated access controls and other cryptographic protections a complete answer to RFID privacy threats. The cost of those protections will make them impractical for many applications, though, and even with more sophisticated technology, security problems will remain. This article suggests appropriate government and regulatory responses to two important categories of RFID implementation. It concludes with a way of looking at, and an agenda for further research on, wireless identification technology more generally

Risks and potentials of graphical and gesture-based authentication for touchscreen mobile devices

While a few years ago, mobile phones were mainly used for making phone calls and texting short messages, the functionality of mobile devices has massively grown. We are surfing the web, sending emails and we are checking our bank accounts on the go. As a consequence, these internet-enabled devices store a lot of potentially sensitive data and require enhanced protection. We argue that authentication often represents the only countermeasure to protect mobile devices from unwanted access. Knowledge-based concepts (e.g., PIN) are the most used authentication schemes on mobile devices. They serve as the main protection barrier for many users and represent the fallback solution whenever alternative mechanisms fail (e.g., fingerprint recognition). This thesis focuses on the risks and potentials of gesture-based authentication concepts that particularly exploit the touch feature of mobile devices. The contribution of our work is threefold. Firstly, the problem space of mobile authentication is explored. Secondly, the design space is systematically evaluated utilizing interactive prototypes. Finally, we provide generalized insights into the impact of specific design factors and present recommendations for the design and the evaluation of graphical gesture-based authentication mechanisms. The problem space exploration is based on four research projects that reveal important real-world issues of gesture-based authentication on mobile devices. The first part focuses on authentication behavior in the wild and shows that the mobile context makes great demands on the usability of authentication concepts. The second part explores usability features of established concepts and indicates that gesture-based approaches have several benefits in the mobile context. The third part focuses on observability and presents a prediction model for the vulnerability of a given grid-based gesture. Finally, the fourth part investigates the predictability of user-selected gesture-based secrets. The design space exploration is based on a design-oriented research approach and presents several practical solutions to existing real-world problems. The novel authentication mechanisms are implemented into working prototypes and evaluated in the lab and the field. In the first part, we discuss smudge attacks and present alternative authentication concepts that are significantly more secure against such attacks. The second part focuses on observation attacks. We illustrate how relative touch gestures can support eyes-free authentication and how they can be utilized to make traditional PIN-entry secure against observation attacks. The third part addresses the problem of predictable gesture choice and presents two concepts which nudge users to select a more diverse set of gestures. Finally, the results of the basic research and the design-oriented applied research are combined to discuss the interconnection of design space and problem space. We contribute by outlining crucial requirements for mobile authentication mechanisms and present empirically proven objectives for future designs. In addition, we illustrate a systematic goal-oriented development process and provide recommendations for the evaluation of authentication on mobile devices.Während Mobiltelefone vor einigen Jahren noch fast ausschließlich zum Telefonieren und zum SMS schreiben genutzt wurden, sind die Anwendungsmöglichkeiten von Mobilgeräten in den letzten Jahren erheblich gewachsen. Wir surfen unterwegs im Netz, senden E-Mails und überprüfen Bankkonten. In der Folge speichern moderne internetfähigen Mobilgeräte eine Vielfalt potenziell sensibler Daten und erfordern einen erhöhten Schutz. In diesem Zusammenhang stellen Authentifizierungsmethoden häufig die einzige Möglichkeit dar, um Mobilgeräte vor ungewolltem Zugriff zu schützen. Wissensbasierte Konzepte (bspw. PIN) sind die meistgenutzten Authentifizierungssysteme auf Mobilgeräten. Sie stellen für viele Nutzer den einzigen Schutzmechanismus dar und dienen als Ersatzlösung, wenn alternative Systeme (bspw. Fingerabdruckerkennung) versagen. Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit den Risiken und Potenzialen gestenbasierter Konzepte, welche insbesondere die Touch-Funktion moderner Mobilgeräte ausschöpfen. Der wissenschaftliche Beitrag dieser Arbeit ist vielschichtig. Zum einen wird der Problemraum mobiler Authentifizierung erforscht. Zum anderen wird der Gestaltungsraum anhand interaktiver Prototypen systematisch evaluiert. Schließlich stellen wir generelle Einsichten bezüglich des Einflusses bestimmter Gestaltungsaspekte dar und geben Empfehlungen für die Gestaltung und Bewertung grafischer gestenbasierter Authentifizierungsmechanismen. Die Untersuchung des Problemraums basiert auf vier Forschungsprojekten, welche praktische Probleme gestenbasierter Authentifizierung offenbaren. Der erste Teil befasst sich mit dem Authentifizierungsverhalten im Alltag und zeigt, dass der mobile Kontext hohe Ansprüche an die Benutzerfreundlichkeit eines Authentifizierungssystems stellt. Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit der Benutzerfreundlichkeit etablierter Methoden und deutet darauf hin, dass gestenbasierte Konzepte vor allem im mobilen Bereich besondere Vorzüge bieten. Im dritten Teil untersuchen wir die Beobachtbarkeit gestenbasierter Eingabe und präsentieren ein Vorhersagemodell, welches die Angreifbarkeit einer gegebenen rasterbasierten Geste abschätzt. Schließlich beschäftigen wir uns mit der Erratbarkeit nutzerselektierter Gesten. Die Untersuchung des Gestaltungsraums basiert auf einem gestaltungsorientierten Forschungsansatz, welcher zu mehreren praxisgerechte Lösungen führt. Die neuartigen Authentifizierungskonzepte werden als interaktive Prototypen umgesetzt und in Labor- und Feldversuchen evaluiert. Im ersten Teil diskutieren wir Fettfingerattacken ("smudge attacks") und präsentieren alternative Authentifizierungskonzepte, welche effektiv vor diesen Angriffen schützen. Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit Angriffen durch Beobachtung und verdeutlicht wie relative Gesten dazu genutzt werden können, um blickfreie Authentifizierung zu gewährleisten oder um PIN-Eingaben vor Beobachtung zu schützen. Der dritte Teil beschäftigt sich mit dem Problem der vorhersehbaren Gestenwahl und präsentiert zwei Konzepte, welche Nutzer dazu bringen verschiedenartige Gesten zu wählen. Die Ergebnisse der Grundlagenforschung und der gestaltungsorientierten angewandten Forschung werden schließlich verknüpft, um die Verzahnung von Gestaltungsraum und Problemraum zu diskutieren. Wir präsentieren wichtige Anforderungen für mobile Authentifizierungsmechanismen und erläutern empirisch nachgewiesene Zielvorgaben für zukünftige Konzepte. Zusätzlich zeigen wir einen zielgerichteten Entwicklungsprozess auf, welcher bei der Entwicklung neuartiger Konzepte helfen wird und geben Empfehlungen für die Evaluation mobiler Authentifizierungsmethoden

Always on, always on-screen : blockbuster event cinema and the mediation of post-2005 digital cultures and experience : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

This research explores the extent to which novel formal practices displayed in the contemporary effects-driven blockbuster can be shown to reflect wider developments in contemporary digital capitalism. It argues that the recent blockbuster features recurrent visual and thematic elements uniquely tied to our current techno-cultural context, and that these elements can be read as a mediation of changing social behaviours in the world beyond the movie screen. The research marks an intervention into two distinct and established bodies of literature: a large body of work on blockbuster cinema and an equally significant body of work on digital capitalism. Despite the significance and urgency of this argument, neither branch of scholarship has fully probed into the blockbuster's mediation of, and sporadic attempts to redress, the cultural and behavioural impacts of what Mark Deuze (2012) calls "a life lived in media." Taking a broadly allegorical approach, as outlined by Fredric Jameson in The Political Unconscious (1981), and employing close textual reading as its primary method of analysis, the research draws out the recent blockbuster's expression of "collective thinking and collective fantasies" unique to the cultural dominant of digitality. Each of the three substantive chapters explores a specific formal quality of the films in question, and locates a correlating cultural development: shifting conceptions of what constitutes public or private information; digitality's displacement of traditional temporalities; the diminishment of basic physiological needs such as sleep, food and procreation in a world increasingly experienced through the online avatar. Through analysis of over two dozen films, spanning from 1996 to 2019, this research tracks what Scott McQuire terms a "passage of negotiation," from early suspicion and fear over digital technology to its comprehensive cultural assimilation, "[having] entered the dominant social habitus to such an extent that it can ground new forms of abstract knowledge and social practice" (2008, x). This work contends that in the changing form of the Hollywood blockbuster, a mode of cultural production rarely analysed against the critical horizon of contemporary informational capitalism, can be charted digitality's recent reconfiguration of nearly all aspects of personal and political life in advanced capitalist nations

Regulating Mass Surveillance as Privacy Pollution: Learning from Environmental Impact Statements

Encroachments on privacy through mass surveillance greatly resemble the pollution crisis in that they can be understood as imposing an externality on the surveilled. This Article argues that this resemblance also suggests a solution: requiring those conducting mass surveillance in and through public spaces to disclose their plans publicly via an updated form of environmental impact statement, thus requiring an impact analysis and triggering a more informed public conversation about privacy. The Article first explains how mass surveillance is polluting public privacy and surveys the limited and inadequate doctrinal tools available to respond to mass surveillance technologies. Then, it provides a quick summary of the Privacy Impact Notices ( PINs ) proposal to make a case in principle for the utility and validity of PINs. Next, the Article explains how environmental law responded to a similar set problems (taking the form of physical harms to the environment) with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 ( NEPA ), requiring Environmental Impact Statement ( EIS ) requirements for environmentally sensitive projects. Given the limitations of the current federal privacy impact analysis requirement, the Article offers an initial sketch of what a PIN proposal would cover and its application to classic public spaces, as well as virtual spaces such as Facebook and Twitter. The Article also proposes that PINs apply to private and public data collection -including the NSA\u27s surveillance of communications. By recasting privacy harms as a form of pollution and invoking a familiar (if not entirely uncontroversial) domestic regulatory solution either directly or by analogy, the PINs proposal seeks to present a domesticated form of regulation with the potential to ignite a regulatory dynamic by collecting information about the privacy costs of previously unregulated activities that should, in the end, lead to significant results without running afoul of potential U.S. constitutional limits that may constrain data retention and use policies. Finally, the Article addresses three counterarguments focusing on the First Amendment right to data collection, the inadequacy of EISs, and the supposed worthlessness of notice-based regimes