Quantitative Information Flow and Applications to Differential Privacy

International audienceSecure information flow is the problem of ensuring that the information made publicly available by a computational system does not leak information that should be kept secret. Since it is practically impossible to avoid leakage entirely, in recent years there has been a growing interest in considering the quantitative aspects of information flow, in order to measure and compare the amount of leakage. Information theory is widely regarded as a natural framework to provide firm foundations to quantitative information flow. In this notes we review the two main information-theoretic approaches that have been investigated: the one based on Shannon entropy, and the one based on Rényi min-entropy. Furthermore, we discuss some applications in the area of privacy. In particular, we consider statistical databases and the recently-proposed notion of differential privacy. Using the information-theoretic view, we discuss the bound that differential privacy induces on leakage, and the trade-off between utility and privac

A 5D Building Information Model (BIM) for Potential Cost-Benefit Housing: A Case of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

The Saudi construction industry is going through a process of acclimatizing to a shifting fiscal environment. Due to recent fluctuations in oil prices, the Saudi construction sector decided to adjust to current trade-market demands and rigorous constitutional regulations because of competitive pressures. This quantitative study assesses and compares existing flat design vs. mid-terrace housing through cost estimation and design criteria that takes family privacy into consideration and meets the needs of Saudi Arabian families (on average consisting of seven members). Five pilot surveys were undertaken to evaluate the property preference type of Saudi families. However, Existing models did not satisfy the medium range family needs and accordingly a 5D (3D + Time + Cost) Building Information Modelling (BIM) is proposed for cost benefiting houses. Research results revealed that mid-terrace housing was the best option, as it reduced land usage and construction costs. While, 5D BIM led to estimate accurate Bill of Quantities (BOQ) and the appraisal of construction cost

Quantitative Analysis of Opacity in Cloud Computing Systems

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Federated cloud systems increase the reliability and reduce the cost of the computational support. The resulting combination of secure private clouds and less secure public clouds, together with the fact that resources need to be located within different clouds, strongly affects the information flow security of the entire system. In this paper, the clouds as well as entities of a federated cloud system are assigned security levels, and a probabilistic flow sensitive security model for a federated cloud system is proposed. Then the notion of opacity --- a notion capturing the security of information flow --- of a cloud computing systems is introduced, and different variants of quantitative analysis of opacity are presented. As a result, one can track the information flow in a cloud system, and analyze the impact of different resource allocation strategies by quantifying the corresponding opacity characteristics

Explaining the Performance of Swedish Mergers & Acquisitions: Follow the Money or the Stock Market?

Title: Explaining the performance of Swedish mergers & acquisitions - Follow the money or the stock market? Seminar date: 2015-06-04 Course: FEKH89, Degree Project in Corporate Finance, Undergraduate Level, 15 ECTS-Credits Authors: Eleonor Andræ, Leonard Bergström, Ebba Friberg, Gustav Krieger Advisor: Rikard Larsson Key words: CAR, Pretax operating cash flow, Mergers, Sweden, Regression analysis Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between the market‟s reaction to a merger and the development of operating perfromance during the subsequent years. Methodology: This is a study conducted with a deductive approach and of quantitative nature. The study uses regression analysis and correlation analysis in order to analyze and compare secondary data collected. Theoretical Framework: The theory of this study is based on previous research in the area of M&A‟s. The reference studies have been focusing on different measurements of post-merger performance. Former studies concentrate primarily on the market of North America and use a different time frame. Empirical Foundations: The empirical foundation of this study is information collected from 50 companies during the years of 2001-2007. CAR, pretax operating cash flow, and 4 different key ratios have been tested on these companies. Conclusion: This thesis finds no statistical evidence that the stock market efficiently predicts and accounts for the development of operating performance following an M&A. However, firm size appears to have an effect on the stock markets reaction to a merger announcement and the revaluation connected