The importance of monitoring the operational risk at the level of banking companies

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential operational banking risk losses and to introduce the key operational risk indicators. We present a possible matrix of the operational risk monitoring indicators and the correlations between the main types of the operational banking risks and the measures to prevent and diminish the operational risks. The majority of operational risk events should be prevented with the adequate procedures and for this reason, operational banking risks events need to be identified and monitored. It is very important for a bank to develop loss events tracking and reporting, that represent early warning signals in the banking risks management.operational risk, monitoring indicators, banking risk management

Patent Landscape of Influenza A Virus Prophylactic Vaccines and Related Technologies

Executive Summary: This report focuses on patent landscape analysis of technologies related to prophylactic vaccines targeting pandemic strains of influenza. These technologies include methods of formulating vaccine, methods of producing of viruses or viral subunits, the composition of complete vaccines, and other technologies that have the potential to aid in a global response to this pathogen. The purpose of this patent landscape study was to search, identify, and categorize patent documents that are relevant to the development of vaccines that can efficiently promote the development of protective immunity against pandemic influenza virus strains. The search strategy used keywords which the team felt would be general enough to capture (or “recall”) the majority of patent documents which were directed toward vaccines against influenza A virus. After extensive searching of patent literature databases, approximately 33,500 publications were identified and collapsed to about 3,800 INPADOC families. Relevant documents, almost half of the total, were then identified and sorted into the major categories of vaccine compositions (about 570 families), technologies which support the development of vaccines (about 750 families), and general platform technologies that could be useful but are not specific to the problems presented by pandemic influenza strains (about 560 families). The first two categories, vaccines and supporting technologies, were further divided into particular subcategories to allow an interested reader to rapidly select documents relevant to the particular technology in which he or she is focused. This sorting process increased the precision of the result set. The two major categories (vaccines and supporting technologies) were subjected to a range of analytics in order to extract as much information as possible from the dataset. First, patent landscape maps were generated to assess the accuracy of the sorting procedure and to reveal the relationships between the various technologies that are involved in creating an effective vaccine. Then, filings trends are analyzed for the datasets. The country of origin for the technologies was determined, and the range of distribution to other jurisdictions was assessed. Filings were also analyzed by year, by assignee, and by inventor. Finally, the various patent classification systems were mapped to find which particular classes tend to hold influenza vaccine-related technologies. Besides the keywords developed during the searches and the landscape map generation, the classifications represent an alternate way for further researchers to identify emerging influenza technologies. The analysis included creation of a map of keywords, as shown above, describing the relationship of the various technologies involved in the development of prophylactic influenza A vaccines. The map has regions corresponding to live attenuated virus vaccines, subunit vaccines composed of split viruses or isolated viral polypeptides, and plasmids used in DNA vaccines. Important technologies listed on the map include the use of reverse genetics to create reassortant viruses, the growth of viruses in modified cell lines as opposed to the traditional methods using eggs, the production of recombinant viral antigens in various host cells, and the use of genetically-modified plants to produce virus-like particles. Another major finding was that the number of patent documents related to influenza being published has been steadily increasing in the last decade, as shown in the figure below. Until the mid-1990s, there were only a few influenza patent documents being published each year. The number of publications increased noticeably when TRIPS took effect, resulting in publication of patent applications. However, since 2006 the number of vaccine publications has exploded. In each of 2011 and 2012, about 100 references disclosing influenza vaccine technologies were published. Thus, interest in developing new and more efficacious influenza vaccines has been growing in recent years. This interest is probably being driven by recent influenza outbreaks, such as the H5N1 (bird flu) epidemic that began in the late 1990s and the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic. The origins of the vaccine-related inventions were also analyzed. The team determined the country in which the priority application was filed, which was taken as an indication of the country where the invention was made or where the inventors intended to practice the invention. By far, most of the relevant families originated with patent applications filed in the United States. Other prominent priority countries were the China and United Kingdom, followed by Japan, Russia, and South Korea. France was a significant priority country only for supporting technologies, not for vaccines. Top assignees for these families were mostly large pharmaceutical companies, with the majority of patent families coming from Novartis, followed by GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, U.S. Merck (Merck, Sharpe, & Dohme), Sanofi, and AstraZeneca. Governmental and nonprofit institutes in China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States also are contributing heavily to influenza vaccine research. Lastly, the jurisdictions were inventors have sought protection for their vaccine technologies were determined, and the number of patent families filing in a given country is plotted on the world map shown on page seven. The United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea and China have the highest level of filings, followed by Germany, Brazil, India, Mexico and New Zealand. However, although there are a significant number of filings in Brazil, the remainder of Central and South America has only sparse filings. Of concern, with the exception of South Africa, few other African nations have a significant number of filings. In summary, the goal of this report is to provide a knowledge resource for making informed policy decisions and for creating strategic plans concerning the assembly of efficacious vaccines against a rapidly-spreading, highly virulent influenza strain. The team has defined the current state of the art of technologies involved in the manufacture of influenza vaccines, and the important assignees, inventors, and countries have been identified. This document should reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of the current level of preparedness for responding to an emerging pandemic influenza strain. The effects of H5N1 and H1N1 epidemics have been felt across the globe in the last decade, and future epidemics are very probable in the near future, so preparations are necessary to meet this global health threat

CERT strategy to deal with phishing attacks

Every day, internet thieves employ new ways to obtain personal identity people and get access to their personal information. Phishing is a somehow complex method that has recently been considered by internet thieves.The present study aims to explain phishing, and why an organization should deal with it and its challenges of providing. In addition, different kinds of this attack and classification of security approaches for organizational and lay users are addressed in this article. Finally, the CERT strategy is presented to deal with phishing and studying some anti-phishing

Explaining microbial population genomics through phage predation

The remarkable diversity of genes within the pool of prokaryotic genomes belonging to the same species or pan-genome is difficult to reconcile with the widely accepted paradigm which asserts that periodic selection within bacterial populations would regularly purge genomic diversity by clonal replacement. Recent evidence from metagenomics indicates that even within a single sample a large diversity of genomes can be present for a single species. We have found that much of the differential gene content affects regions that are potential phage recognition targets. We therefore propose the operation of Constant-Diversity dynamics in which the diversity of prokaryotic populations is preserved by phage predation. We provide supporting evidence for this model from metagenomics, mathematical analysis and computer simulations. Periodic selection and phage predation dynamics are not mutually exclusive; we compare their predictions to indicate under which ecological circumstances each dynamics could predominate

Digital Architecture as Crime Control

This paper explains how theories of realspace architecture inform the prevention of computer crime. Despite the prevalence of the metaphor, architects in realspace and cyberspace have not talked to one another. There is a dearth of literature about digital architecture and crime altogether, and the realspace architectural literature on crime prevention is often far too soft for many software engineers. This paper will suggest the broad brushstrokes of potential design solutions to cybercrime, and in the course of so doing, will pose severe criticisms of the White House\u27s recent proposals on cybersecurity. The paper begins by introducing four concepts of realspace crime prevention through architecture. Design should: (1) create opportunities for natural surveillance, meaning its visibility and susceptibility to monitoring by residents, neighbors, and bystanders; (2) instill a sense of territoriality so that residents develop proprietary attitudes and outsiders feel deterred from entering a private space; (3) build communities and avoid social isolation; and (4) protect targets of crime. There are digital analogues to each goal. Natural-surveillance principles suggest new virtues of open-source platforms, such as Linux, and territoriality outlines a strong case for moving away from digital anonymity towards psuedonymity. The goal of building communities will similarly expose some new advantages for the original, and now eroding, end-to-end design of the Internet. An understanding of architecture and target prevention will illuminate why firewalls at end points will more effectively guarantee security than will attempts to bundle security into the architecture of the Net. And, in total, these architectural lessons will help us chart an alternative course to the federal government\u27s tepid approach to computer crime. By leaving the bulk of crime prevention to market forces, the government will encourage private barricades to develop - the equivalent of digital gated communities - with terrible consequences for the Net in general and interconnectivity in particular

Vulnerability analysis of three remote voting methods

This article analyses three methods of remote voting in an uncontrolled environment: postal voting, internet voting and hybrid voting. It breaks down the voting process into different stages and compares their vulnerabilities considering criteria that must be respected in any democratic vote: confidentiality, anonymity, transparency, vote unicity and authenticity. Whether for safety or reliability, each vulnerability is quantified by three parameters: size, visibility and difficulty to achieve. The study concludes that the automatisation of treatments combined with the dematerialisation of the objects used during an election tends to substitute visible vulnerabilities of a lesser magnitude by invisible and widespread vulnerabilities.Comment: 15 page