An improved negative selection algorithm based on the hybridization of cuckoo search and differential evolution for anomaly detection

The biological immune system (BIS) is characterized by networks of cells, tissues, and organs communicating and working in synchronization. It also has the ability to learn, recognize, and remember, thus providing the solid foundation for the development of Artificial Immune System (AIS). Since the emergence of AIS, it has proved itself as an area of computational intelligence. Real-Valued Negative Selection Algorithm with Variable-Sized Detectors (V-Detectors) is an offspring of AIS and demonstrated its potentials in the field of anomaly detection. The V-Detectors algorithm depends greatly on the random detectors generated in monitoring the status of a system. These randomly generated detectors suffer from not been able to adequately cover the non-self space, which diminishes the detection performance of the V-Detectors algorithm. This research therefore proposed CSDE-V-Detectors which entail the use of the hybridization of Cuckoo Search (CS) and Differential Evolution (DE) in optimizing the random detectors of the V-Detectors. The DE is integrated with CS at the population initialization by distributing the population linearly. This linear distribution gives the population a unique, stable, and progressive distribution process. Thus, each individual detector is characteristically different from the other detectors. CSDE capabilities of global search, and use of L´evy flight facilitates the effectiveness of the detector set in the search space. In comparison with V-Detectors, cuckoo search, differential evolution, support vector machine, artificial neural network, na¨ıve bayes, and k-NN, experimental results demonstrates that CSDE-V-Detectors outperforms other algorithms with an average detection rate of 95:30% on all the datasets. This signifies that CSDE-V-Detectors can efficiently attain highest detection rates and lowest false alarm rates for anomaly detection. Thus, the optimization of the randomly detectors of V-Detectors algorithm with CSDE is proficient and suitable for anomaly detection tasks

The Customer-Centered B2C Literature through the Lens of Activity Theory: A Review and Research Agenda

A multitude of published research studies investigate the B2C phenomenon from the customer point of view. At this point, making sense of such a large number of studies is a difficult task. The aim of this paper is to organize the literature to provide a clear depiction of what we know and what we don\u27t know about it in order to identify specific areas where future research efforts are needed. A review of the B2C literature of the past seven years yielded 115 papers investigating the phenomenon from the user/customer perspective, 74 of these were empirical. This literature is organized according to the Activity Theory framework, allowing for an enhanced understanding of the phenomenon through a social context perspective. Future research directions are identified and discussed

An investigation into trust and security in the mandatory and imposed use of financial ICTs upon older people

Care needs to be taken to reduce the number of people who are fearful and mistrustful of using ICT where that usage is forced upon them without choice or alternative. The growing incidence of mandatory and imposed online systems can result in confusion, misuse, fear, and rejection by people with only rudimentary ICT skills. A cohort where a high percentage of such people occur is older people, defined in this study as people over the age of 60 Examples of compulsory ICT interactions include some banks limiting bank statement access through online rather than paper-based options. Other examples include the purchase of theatre or sports events tickets through ticketing systems that require an online transaction to take place. Increasingly, people are living beyond the normal retiring age. As the older cohort increases in size and in overall global population percentage, the problem of forced technology usage affects technology acceptance, technology trust, and technology rejection. People care about ICT systems where reduced trusted acceptance of technology reduces the advantages of digital health care, the perceived security of banking and shopping, and the autonomy of ICT-driven lifestyle choices. This study aims to solve one of the puzzles of ICT-driven change, where older people can show trepidation towards using technology. By understanding the drivers that influence the choices older people make in relation to ICT systems, it may be possible to introduce a much higher level of trusted acceptance in ICT systems. Although many people adopt ICTs into their lives, many older people face difficulty in using technology when it is forced upon them. This study aims to understand the connection between how choice (or lack of choice) can lead to the rejection or resistance towards ICT usage. Older people sometimes opt towards practices that place themselves at risk of financial or informational disadvantage. This study used a qualitative approach to understanding the factors that influenced the trusted acceptance, trepidation, and in some cases rejection of ICT usage by interviewing a sample of older people. Participants were asked to consider a wide range of ICT-usage scenarios and to describe their intentions. The study focussed on circumstances where ICT usage fell under either mandatory, imposed, or voluntary conditions in order to compare user behaviour. Settings included a range of technology-reliant states that examined IT security, volition and choice, aging, trusted acceptance, and technology adoption. Participants were interviewed to discover and sort the conditions (whether singly or in combination) under which the expectation of ICT acceptance was in some way altered, diminished, or prevented. This research found that older people made poor decisions when the choice to use a technology was replaced with a mandatory or strongly imposed pathway. Mandatory ICT usage across the broad area of financial transactions brought about widespread fear and distrust of online technology usage. The results revealed that many older people not only find these innovations daunting and confronting, but they also have difficulty placing their trust in ICT systems and applications that have become mandatory. In normative conditions, increased ICT acceptance and ICT usage is expected. When ICTs are mandatory in their usage, acceptance is replaced with compulsory procedure. This does not mean that mandatory things cannot be accepted, but rather that older people will accept the need to use a technology according to their perception of what is necessary for their daily and routine interactions. This study showed that voluntary ICT usages including choices increase informed decision-making, security of online financial interactions, and trusted reliance upon ICTs. Choice in ICT usage carries greater trust than mandatory, obligated, or heavily imposed ICTs. The study revealed that mandatory ICT systems can create perceptions of fear, mistrust and uncertainty. In situations where a mandatory ICT system becomes the normative method of transaction, a strong risk to the trusted acceptance of a technology is not merely the lack of ICT-based choice, but also the inability to gain reassurance or secondary confirmation through either face to face or telephone-based communication. Trust in not just the usage, but the implied secure usage of mandated and imposed ICTs, is problematic for older people. This study revealed the significance of mandated ICT systems that limit choices for people, because older humans more readily validate and associate their trust in new innovations when they can access various different professional, technical, peer-based, social and popular opinions. The research also showed that older people are fearful and less trusting in mandatory and imposed systems because they have less financial resilience, and less opportunity to bounce back from loss and disadvantage brought about by digital and online interactions. Older people were worried and reluctant to accept technology at first glance because they knew that they had spent more time than others in a pre-internet, pre-digital environment, and their seminal life experiences are correspondingly less technology-related. The results showed that many older people preferred human communication and interaction rather than communicating, buying, paying, and trusting in purely digital, ICT-based experiences. This demonstrated a gap in the trust and security of digital systems, and the need to address those ICTs that impose and mandate instruments and procedures for daily life. Specifically this study looked at what could reduce unsafe and insecure banking practices by understanding the role of choice in the trusted usage of ICT systems. This study is significant because it shows that older people make financial and social, decisions under reactionary, insecure, and under-informed conditions as a result of a gap in terms of trust security and choice. On the one hand older people develop trust towards a new innovation based on accumulated human discussion, information and reputation. On the other hand older people hold the perception that online systems offer reduced choices. This study led to the development of a model for trusted technology choice (TTCM). It differs from traditional acceptance and diffusion thinking, by having outputs as either ICT acceptance or ICT rejection. It diverges from diffusion and technology acceptance models (TAM), because technology acceptance is not regarded as a foregone conclusion. Instead, it places a very high value upon choice and volition, trust, security and human interaction. The TTCM model, together with a framework for identifying volition barriers, provides a different set of criteria for understanding the needs of older people and their meaningful interactions with new innovation and ICTs. The practical applications for using such a model directly impact upon financial and social stability for older people. Where choices are either removed or limited due to ICT usage, older citizens are unfairly disadvantaged. A model that accurately predicts the trusted usage of ICT innovations can have a widespread effect on the implementation of large-scale public and private systems where the trusted acceptance (or rejection) of each system has on flow impact on financial, health, and other critical services that include the growing population of older people

Can mHealth Improve Risk Assessment in Underserved Populations? Acceptability of a Breast Health Questionnaire App in Ethnically Diverse, Older, Low-Income Women.

Background: Use of mobile health (mHealth) tools has expanded rapidly but little research has been done on its acceptability by low-income, diverse, older patient populations. Objective: To assess the attitudes of a diverse group of underserved women on the acceptability and usability of mHealth tools in a clinical setting using a breast health questionnaire application (app) at a public hospital mammography clinic. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a breast-imaging center of an urban safety net institution from July-August 2012. Interviews included pre- and post-questions. Women completed the Athena breast health questionnaire app on an iPad and were asked about their experience and ways to improve the tool. Results: Fifteen women age 45-75 years from diverse ethnic and educational backgrounds were interviewed. The majority of women, 11 of 15, preferred the Athena app over a paper version and all the women thought the app was easy to use. Two Spanish-speaking Latinas preferred paper; and two women, with limited mobile phone use, did not have a preference. Many women indicated that it would be necessary to have staff available for instruction and assistance if the app were to be implemented. Conclusions: mHealth tools are an acceptable, if not preferred, method of collecting health information for diverse, older, low-income women. Further studies are required to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of data collection using mHealth tools in underserved populations. mHealth tools should be explored as a novel way to engage diverse populations to improve clinical care and bridge gaps in health disparities

Roles and student identities in online large course forums: implications for practice.

The use of large online discussion forums within online and distance learning continues to grow. Recent innovations in online learning the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and concomitant growth in the use of online media for the delivery of courses in traditional campus based universities provides both opportunity and challenge for online tutors and learners alike. The recognition of the role that online tutor and student identity plays in the field of retention and progression of distance learners is also well documented in the field of distance learning. Focusing on a course forum linked to a single level 2 undergraduate module and open to over a thousand students, this ideographic case study, set in a large distance learning university, uses qualitative methodology to examine the extent to which participation in a large forum can be considered within community of practice frameworks (COP) and contributes to feelings of efficacy, student identity and motivation. The paper draws on current theory pertaining to online communities and examines this in relation to the extent to which the forum adds to feelings of academic and social integration. The study concludes that although the large forum environment facilitates a certain degree of academic integration and identity there is evidence that it also presents a number of barriers producing negative effects on student motivation and online identity

A brief report on older people's experience of cybercrime victimization in Mumbai, India

As internet penetration increases in Lower and Middle Income Countries (LMIC), more older people are now conducting financial transactions online and using social media to stay in touch with family and friends. We discuss concerns that existing financial regulations and controls in India may afford older people insufficient protection from cybercrime, using qualitative interviews from our recent study exploring older people’s experiences of cybercrime in Mumbai

Multiple Sources for Security: Seeking Online Safety Information and their Influence on Coping Self-efficacy and Protection Behavior Habits

Internet users face threats of increasing complexity and severity. To protect themselves they rely on sources for online safety information. These sources may either build up, or undermine, the coping self-efficacy and motivation needed to protect oneself. A survey of 800 subjects asked about which sources they relied on for information about online safety: media, work, school, friends and family, and specialized web sites. Individuals who said they had no comprehensive source for information reported the lowest levels of both coping self-efficacy (b= -0.609, p\u3c 0.001) and protection habit strength (b= -0.900, p\u3c 0.001). On the other hand, those who had an affiliation of school, work and specialized web sites had a positive relationship with both coping self-efficacy (b= 0.517, p\u3c 0.05) and protection habit strength (b= 0.692, p\u3c 0.05). Results suggest that some information affiliation networks are correlated with higher coping self-efficacy and stronger protection habits

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given

Student Misconceptions about Cybersecurity Concepts: Analysis of Think-Aloud Interviews

We conducted an observational study to document student misconceptions about cybersecurity using thematic analysis of 25 think-aloud interviews. By understanding patterns in student misconceptions, we provide a basis for developing rigorous evidence-based recommendations for improving teaching and assessment methods in cybersecurity and inform future research. This study is the first to explore student cognition and reasoning about cybersecurity. We interviewed students from three diverse institutions. During these interviews, students grappled with security scenarios designed to probe their understanding of cybersecurity, especially adversarial thinking. We analyzed student statements using a structured qualitative method, novice-led paired thematic analysis, to document patterns in student misconceptions and problematic reasoning that transcend institutions, scenarios, or demographics. Themes generated from this analysis describe a taxonomy of misconceptions but not their causes or remedies. Four themes emerged: overgeneralizations, conflated concepts, biases, and incorrect assumptions. Together, these themes reveal that students generally failed to grasp the complexity and subtlety of possible vulnerabilities, threats, risks, and mitigations, suggesting a need for instructional methods that engage students in reasoning about complex scenarios with an adversarial mindset. These findings can guide teachers’ attention during instruction and inform the development of cybersecurity assessment tools that enable cross-institutional assessments that measure the effectiveness of pedagogies