A composable approach to design of newer techniques for large-scale denial-of-service attack attribution

Since its early days, the Internet has witnessed not only a phenomenal growth, but also a large number of security attacks, and in recent years, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks have emerged as one of the top threats. The stateless and destination-oriented Internet routing combined with the ability to harness a large number of compromised machines and the relative ease and low costs of launching such attacks has made this a hard problem to address. Additionally, the myriad requirements of scalability, incremental deployment, adequate user privacy protections, and appropriate economic incentives has further complicated the design of DDoS defense mechanisms. While the many research proposals to date have focussed differently on prevention, mitigation, or traceback of DDoS attacks, the lack of a comprehensive approach satisfying the different design criteria for successful attack attribution is indeed disturbing. Our first contribution here has been the design of a composable data model that has helped us represent the various dimensions of the attack attribution problem, particularly the performance attributes of accuracy, effectiveness, speed and overhead, as orthogonal and mutually independent design considerations. We have then designed custom optimizations along each of these dimensions, and have further integrated them into a single composite model, to provide strong performance guarantees. Thus, the proposed model has given us a single framework that can not only address the individual shortcomings of the various known attack attribution techniques, but also provide a more wholesome counter-measure against DDoS attacks. Our second contribution here has been a concrete implementation based on the proposed composable data model, having adopted a graph-theoretic approach to identify and subsequently stitch together individual edge fragments in the Internet graph to reveal the true routing path of any network data packet. The proposed approach has been analyzed through theoretical and experimental evaluation across multiple metrics, including scalability, incremental deployment, speed and efficiency of the distributed algorithm, and finally the total overhead associated with its deployment. We have thereby shown that it is realistically feasible to provide strong performance and scalability guarantees for Internet-wide attack attribution. Our third contribution here has further advanced the state of the art by directly identifying individual path fragments in the Internet graph, having adopted a distributed divide-and-conquer approach employing simple recurrence relations as individual building blocks. A detailed analysis of the proposed approach on real-life Internet topologies with respect to network storage and traffic overhead, has provided a more realistic characterization. Thus, not only does the proposed approach lend well for simplified operations at scale but can also provide robust network-wide performance and security guarantees for Internet-wide attack attribution. Our final contribution here has introduced the notion of anonymity in the overall attack attribution process to significantly broaden its scope. The highly invasive nature of wide-spread data gathering for network traceback continues to violate one of the key principles of Internet use today - the ability to stay anonymous and operate freely without retribution. In this regard, we have successfully reconciled these mutually divergent requirements to make it not only economically feasible and politically viable but also socially acceptable. This work opens up several directions for future research - analysis of existing attack attribution techniques to identify further scope for improvements, incorporation of newer attributes into the design framework of the composable data model abstraction, and finally design of newer attack attribution techniques that comprehensively integrate the various attack prevention, mitigation and traceback techniques in an efficient manner

Traceability -- A Literature Review

In light of recent food safety crises and international trade concerns associated with food or animal associated diseases, traceability has once again become important in the minds of public policymakers, business decision makers, consumers and special interest groups. This study reviews studies on traceability, government regulation and consumer behaviour, provide case studies of current traceability systems and a rough breakdown of various costs and benefits of traceability. This report aims to identify gaps that may currently exist in the literature on traceability in the domestic beef supply chain, as well as provide possible directions for future research into said issue. Three main conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, there is a lack of a common definition of traceability. Hence identifying similarities and differences across studies becomes difficult if not impossible. To this end, this study adopts CFIA’s definition of traceability. This definition has been adopted by numerous other agencies including the EU’s official definition of traceability however it may or may not be acceptable from the perspective of major Canadian beef and cattle trade partners. Second, the studies reviewed in this report address one or more of five key objectives; the impact of changing consumer behaviour on market participants, suppliers incentive to adopt or participate in traceability, impact of regulatory changes, supplier response to crisis and technical description of traceability systems. Drawing from the insights from the consumer studies, it seems as if consumers do not value traceability per se, traceability is a means for consumers to receive validation of another production or process attribute that they are interested in. Moreover, supply chain improvement, food safety control and accessing foreign market segments are strong incentives for primary producers and processors to participate in programs with traceability features. However the objectives addressed by the studies reviewed in this paper are not necessarily the objectives that are of most immediate relevance to decision makers about appropriate traceability standards to recommend, require, subsidize etc. In many cases the research objectives of previous work have been extremely narrow creating a body of literature that is incomplete in certain key areas. Third, case studies of existing traceability systems in Australia, the UK, Scotland, Brazil and Uruguay indicate that the pattern of development varies widely across sectors and regions. In summary, a traceability system by itself cannot provide value-added for all participants in the industry; it is merely a protocol for documenting and sharing information. Value is added to participants in the marketing chain through traceability in the form of reduced transactions costs in the case of a food safety incident and through the ability to shift liability. To ensure consumer benefit and have premiums returned to primary producers the type of information that consumers value is an important issue for future research. A successful program that peaks consumer interest and can enhance their eating experience can generate economic benefits to all sectors in the beef industry. International market access will increasingly require traceability in the marketing system in order to satisfy trade restrictions in the case of animal diseases and country of origin labelling, to name only a few examples. Designing appropriate traceability protocols industry wide is therefore becoming very important.traceability, institutions, Canada, consumer behaviour, producer behaviour, supply chain, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Production Economics, D020, D100, D200, Q100,

Identity preservation & traceability: the state of the art - from a grain perspective (status of agricultural quality systems / traceability / certification systems)

A descriptive paper on the state of identity preservation and traceability (IPT) as it relates domestically and internationally to food safety and economics. While not exhaustive, it is illustrative of trends. Identity preservation and traceability (IPT) are not new concepts; however, the growth of public and business interest and concerns regarding them has grown tremendously during the past decade due to many events, which has resulted in these concepts joining together within a single concept (with the same title). This paper, while attempting to be thorough, will highlight the major systems of IPT from a US business perspective. Before and during the research of this study many companies and organizations have been created, bought out, or simply gone out of business. Government and non-government organizations have changed regulations and how they have adapted to current world events. Thus the state of IPT will be a sampling of the major players that are in existence during the research. Several of the examples of IPT programs will be of situations that affect the US grain industry, however, other examples will be provided.;Scope of this work; to provide an introduction to, and summary of, identity preservation and traceability (IPT) systems and programs presently available, develop a conceptual model of IPT at the farmer level, and interpretation of the overall art.;The purpose of this research is to provide a sampling of government, industry, and company approaches towards identity preservation and traceability (IPT) systems from the 1990s to early 2007. From this the audience should gain a better understanding of the complexity of IPT systems, rules that it functions under, how IPT is shaped and modified; primary, support, and ancillary components, and the diverse reasons why IPT is critical for food safety and the market.;The format of this work starts with IPT history followed by the theory, design, and general components of IPT, examples of IPT programs and standards, examples of auditing and laboratory firms, chapters that discuss domestic/foreign policy and advisory groups, software providers, process facilitators, food recalls/insurance, cost-benefit spreadsheet that focuses on farm level IP for comparison, farmer IP questionnaire, interpretation, conclusion, and appendixes, related products guide, glossary, directory of resources, and works cited

Disease Associated Mutations and Functional Variants that Significantly Disrupt RNA Structure

Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have revealed a great deal of trait and diseaseassociated Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) that fall in noncoding or intergenic regions of the human genome. This is congruent with the current understanding that many of these regions are actively transcribed, and that many transcripts and transcript regions that do not code for protein have important roles in the cell. In carrying out many transcripts’ functions, RNA structure plays a critical role. We hypothesized that a subset of noncoding disease associated SNPs significantly change RNA structure. We developed a program called SNPfold to identify SNPs that cause significant RNA structural rearrangement and utilized it on a set of 514 disease-associated SNPs in 350 unique noncoding regions of the human transcriptome. We identified six disease-states (Hyperferritinemia Cataract Syndrome, β- Thalassemia, Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia, Retinoblastoma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and Hypertension) where multiple SNPs significantly alter RNA structural ensembles. We then conducted Selective 2’ OH Acylation and Primer Extension (SHAPE) in order to confirm predicted structure change caused by SNPs associated with Hyperferritinemia Catraract Syndrome (U22G and A56U in the FTL 5’ UTR). Both mutations are shown to disrupt the formation of an Iron Response Element stemloop that is critical to translational regulation of the mRNA. We identified compensatory mutations that were able to restore these mutant structures to that of wildtype FTL 5’ UTR. We then identified from human haplotype data several regions where SNP pairs inherited together conserve structure. Lastly, we explored the functional effect of common SNPs associated with change in RNA expression level by calculating the enrichment of their overlap with experimentally derived binding sites for 14 different RNA-binding proteins. Consistent with a subset of these SNPs altering structure in functionally important sites of mRNA transcripts, we identified several proteins where SNPs are enriched for proximal overlap. These results in their entirety indicate that both rare disease-associated and common SNPs that significantly change RNA structure are present in human populations, and that such a functional effect may account for a subset of phenotypic differences and complex disease propensities among individuals.Doctor of Philosoph

Recent Advances in Indoor Localization Systems and Technologies

Despite the enormous technical progress seen in the past few years, the maturity of indoor localization technologies has not yet reached the level of GNSS solutions. The 23 selected papers in this book present the recent advances and new developments in indoor localization systems and technologies, propose novel or improved methods with increased performance, provide insight into various aspects of quality control, and also introduce some unorthodox positioning methods

Process Mining Workshops

This open access book constitutes revised selected papers from the International Workshops held at the Third International Conference on Process Mining, ICPM 2021, which took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, during October 31–November 4, 2021. The conference focuses on the area of process mining research and practice, including theory, algorithmic challenges, and applications. The co-located workshops provided a forum for novel research ideas. The 28 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They stem from the following workshops: 2nd International Workshop on Event Data and Behavioral Analytics (EDBA) 2nd International Workshop on Leveraging Machine Learning in Process Mining (ML4PM) 2nd International Workshop on Streaming Analytics for Process Mining (SA4PM) 6th International Workshop on Process Querying, Manipulation, and Intelligence (PQMI) 4th International Workshop on Process-Oriented Data Science for Healthcare (PODS4H) 2nd International Workshop on Trust, Privacy, and Security in Process Analytics (TPSA) One survey paper on the results of the XES 2.0 Workshop is included

Process Mining Workshops

This open access book constitutes revised selected papers from the International Workshops held at the Third International Conference on Process Mining, ICPM 2021, which took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, during October 31–November 4, 2021. The conference focuses on the area of process mining research and practice, including theory, algorithmic challenges, and applications. The co-located workshops provided a forum for novel research ideas. The 28 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They stem from the following workshops: 2nd International Workshop on Event Data and Behavioral Analytics (EDBA) 2nd International Workshop on Leveraging Machine Learning in Process Mining (ML4PM) 2nd International Workshop on Streaming Analytics for Process Mining (SA4PM) 6th International Workshop on Process Querying, Manipulation, and Intelligence (PQMI) 4th International Workshop on Process-Oriented Data Science for Healthcare (PODS4H) 2nd International Workshop on Trust, Privacy, and Security in Process Analytics (TPSA) One survey paper on the results of the XES 2.0 Workshop is included

Emerging infectious diseases

Emerging Infectious Diseases is providing access to these abstracts on behalf of the ICEID 2012 program committee (www.iceid.org), which performed peer review. Emerging Infectious Diseases has not edited or proofread these materials and is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions. All information is subject to change. Comments and corrections should be brought to the attention of the authors.Influenza preparedness: lessons learned -- Policy implications and infectious diseases -- Improving preparedness for infectious diseases -- New or rapid diagnostics -- Foodborne and waterborne infections -- Effective and sustainable surveillance platforms -- Healthcare-associated infections -- Molecular epidemiology -- Antimicrobial resistance -- Tropical infections and parasitic diseases -- H1N1 influenza -- Risk Assessment -- Laboratory Support -- Zoonotic and Animal Diseases -- Viral Hepatitis -- E1. Zoonotic and animal diseases -- E2. Vaccine issues -- E3. H1N1 influenza -- E4. Novel surveillance systems -- E5. Antimicrobial resistance -- E6. Late-breakers I -- Antimicrobial resistance -- Influenza preparedness: lessons learned -- Zoonotic and animal diseases -- Improving preparedness for infectious diseases -- Laboratory support -- Early warning systems -- H1N1 influenza -- Policy implications and infectious diseases -- Modeling -- Molecular epidemiology -- Novel surveillance systems -- Tropical infections and parasitic diseases -- Strengthening public health systems -- Immigrant and refugee health -- Foodborne and waterborne infections -- Healthcare-associated infections -- Foodborne and waterborne infections -- New or rapid diagnostics -- Improving global health equity for infectious diseases -- Vulnerable populations -- Novel agents of public health importance -- Influenza preparedness: lessons learned -- Molecular epidemiology -- Zoonotic and animal diseases -- Vaccine-preventable diseases -- Outbreak investigation: lab and epi response -- H1N1 influenza -- laboratory support -- effective and sustainable surveillance platforms -- new vaccines -- vector-borne diseases and climate change -- travelers' health -- J1. Vectorborne diseases and climate change -- J2. Policy implications and infectious diseases -- J3. Influenza preparedness: lessons learned -- J4. Effective and sustainable surveillance platforms -- J5. Outbreak investigation: lab and epi response I -- J6. Late-breakers II -- Strengthening public health systems -- Bacterial/viral coinfections -- H1N1 influenza -- Novel agents of public health importance -- Foodborne and waterborne infections -- New challenges for old vaccines -- Vectorborne diseases and climate change -- Novel surveillance systems -- Geographic information systems (GIS) -- Improving global health equity for infectious diseases -- Vaccine preventable diseases -- Vulnerable populations -- Laboratory support -- Prevention challenges for respiratory diseases -- Zoonotic and animal diseases -- Outbreak investigation: lab and epi response -- Vectorborne diseases and climate change -- Outbreak investigation: lab and epi response -- Laboratory proficiency testing/quality assurance -- Effective and sustainable surveillance platforms -- Sexually transmitted diseases -- H1N1 influenza -- Surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases -- Foodborne and waterborne infections -- Role of health communication -- Emerging opportunistic infections -- Host and microbial genetics -- Respiratory infections in special populations -- Zoonotic and animal diseases -- Laboratory support -- Antimicrobial resistance -- Vulnerable populations -- Global vaccine initiatives -- Tuberculosis -- Prevention challenges for respiratory diseases -- Infectious causes of chronic diseases -- O1. Outbreak investigation: lab and epi response II -- O2. Prevention challenges for respiratory diseases -- O3. Populations at high risk for infectious diseases -- O4. Foodborne and waterborne infections -- O5. Laboratory support: surveillance and monitoring infections -- O6. Late-breakers IIIAbstracts published in advance of the conference