Modeling and analysis of influence power for information security decisions

Users of computing systems and devices frequently make decisions related to information security, e. g., when choosing a password, deciding whether to log into an unfamiliar wireless network. Employers or other stakeholders may have a preference for certain outcomes, without being able to or having a desire to enforce a particular decision. In such situations, systems may build in design nudges to influence the decision making, e. g., by highlighting the employer’s preferred solution. In this paper we model influencing information security to identify which approaches to influencing are most effective and how they can be optimized. To do so, we extend traditional multi-criteria decision analysis models with modifiable criteria, to represent the available approaches an influencer has for influencing the choice of the decision maker. The notion of influence power is introduced to characterize the extent to which an influencer can influence decision makers. We illustrate our approach using data from a controlled experiment on techniques to influence which public wireless network users select. This allows us to calculate influence power and identify which design nudges exercise the most influence over user decisions

Computable Rationality, NUTS, and the Nuclear Leviathan

This paper explores how the Leviathan that projects power through nuclear arms exercises a unique nuclearized sovereignty. In the case of nuclear superpowers, this sovereignty extends to wielding the power to destroy human civilization as we know it across the globe. Nuclearized sovereignty depends on a hybrid form of power encompassing human decision-makers in a hierarchical chain of command, and all of the technical and computerized functions necessary to maintain command and control at every moment of the sovereign's existence: this sovereign power cannot sleep. This article analyzes how the form of rationality that informs this hybrid exercise of power historically developed to be computable. By definition, computable rationality must be able to function without any intelligible grasp of the context or the comprehensive significance of decision-making outcomes. Thus, maintaining nuclearized sovereignty necessarily must be able to execute momentous life and death decisions without the type of sentience we usually associate with ethical individual and collective decisions

Modeling Data-Plane Power Consumption of Future Internet Architectures

With current efforts to design Future Internet Architectures (FIAs), the evaluation and comparison of different proposals is an interesting research challenge. Previously, metrics such as bandwidth or latency have commonly been used to compare FIAs to IP networks. We suggest the use of power consumption as a metric to compare FIAs. While low power consumption is an important goal in its own right (as lower energy use translates to smaller environmental impact as well as lower operating costs), power consumption can also serve as a proxy for other metrics such as bandwidth and processor load. Lacking power consumption statistics about either commodity FIA routers or widely deployed FIA testbeds, we propose models for power consumption of FIA routers. Based on our models, we simulate scenarios for measuring power consumption of content delivery in different FIAs. Specifically, we address two questions: 1) which of the proposed FIA candidates achieves the lowest energy footprint; and 2) which set of design choices yields a power-efficient network architecture? Although the lack of real-world data makes numerous assumptions necessary for our analysis, we explore the uncertainty of our calculations through sensitivity analysis of input parameters

Modeling Terrorist Radicalization

Recent high-profile terrorism arrests and litigation in New York, Colorado, and Detroit have brought public attention to the question of how the government should respond to the possibility of domestic-origin terrorism linked to al Qaeda. This symposium essay identifies and discussing one emerging approach in the United States and Europe which attends to the process of terrorist “radicalization.” States on both sides of the Atlantic are investing increasingly in developing an epistemology of terrorist violence. The results have implications for how policing resources are allocated, whether privacy rights are respected, and how religious liberty may be exercised. This essay traces the development of state discourses on “radicalization” in the United States and the United Kingdom. It argues that understanding this new “radicalization” discourse entails attention to interactions between nations and between the federal government and states as well as to the political economy of counter-terrorism

Heavy context dependence---decisions of underground soldiers

An attempt is made to simulate the disclosure of underground soldiers in terms of theory of networks. The coupling mechanism between the network nodes is the possibility that a disclosed soldier is going to disclose also his acquaintances. We calculate the fraction of disclosed soldiers as dependent on the fraction of those who, once disclosed, reveal also their colleagues. The simulation is immersed in the historical context of the Polish Home Army under the communist rule in 1946-49.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, for the European Conference on Modelling and Simulation (ECMS 2015

Analysis of Economic Motives in the Individual Choice of Educational Paths

The authors consider the economic motivations when individuals choose an educational path. This line of research is relevant from both, the point of view of science — research of economic behavior of an individual, and the point of view of practice — allows to increase efficiency of investments in a human capital. The authors have developed the economic and mathematical model of choice of optimum educational paths by individuals. The model is realized in the software and approved on real data on more than 5,5 thousand students. For the analysis of the importance of rational economic expectations when an educational path has to be chosen, the paths chosen by students is compared and the educational paths optimum from the point of view of economic rationality are calculated. The analysis of the results has showed that mainly, the choice of educational paths happens according to the economic motivations. On the considered selection, 66 % of prospective students have chosen an optimum path from the point of view of economic preferences. The most significant factor providing development of optimum educational paths is an expectation of higher income upon completion of education — 22 % of all educational paths, and a possibility of cost-cutting of educating or state-subsidized education — 12 %. In our opinion, one of the most important practical results of the research of optimum educational path is the need to consider expectations of students and prospective student when developing a state policy of investment in human capital