Understanding Malicious Attacks Against Infrastructures - Overview on the Assessment and Management of Threats and Attacks to Industrial Control Systems

This report describes approaches to the assessment and management of malicious threats and attacks relating to critical infrastructures in general, and electric power infrastructures in particular. Securing infrastructures implies taking into account both the natural and man-made (intentional) events. While protecting against the natural disruptive events is a feasible (yet not trivial) task, benefiting by well-established practices, dealing with intentional attacks comes up across many difficulties, especially due to the unpredictability of such events. The report outlines the state-of-the-art in dealing with threats and malicious attacks, considering both physical and cyber actions. Several approaches taken at national and international levels towards securing the critical infrastructures are also provided.JRC.G.6-Sensors, radar technologies and cybersecurit

ICT aspects of power systems and their security

This report provides a deep description of four complex Attack Scenarios that have as final goal to produce damage to the Electric Power Transmission System. The details about protocols used, vulnerabilities, devices etc. have been for obvious reasons hidden, and the ones presented have to be understood as mere (even if realistic) simplified versions of possible power systems.JRC.DG.G.6-Security technology assessmen

Economic indicators used for EU projects, in other criteria of aggregation than national / regional

Economical and social indicators are created and published for national and regional dimensions. Nowadays, both local and territorial indicators are really able to define more adequate the stage of social and economical development and to illustrate the impact of European programs and projects in fields like: long lasting development, entrepreneurial development, scientific research development and strategies, education and learning resources, IT resources, dissemination of European culture etc. If in the first part, there is only quantitative information, offered by our National Institute of Statistics (NIS), in the following few examples of some useful economical and social indicators provide a dynamic vision in defining objectives, methods and implementation Thus the need for a quantitative framework of local and territorial indicators demands for an original statistical methodology.gross domestic product, indicators in macro, mezo and micro economics, weight of selected, factors, representative methodology

Economic indicators used for EU projects, in other criteria of aggregation than national / regional

Economical and social indicators are created and published for national and regional dimensions. Nowadays, both local and territorial indicators are really able to define more adequate the stage of social and economical development and to illustrate the impact of European programs and projects in fields like: long lasting development, entrepreneurial development, scientific research development and strategies, education and learning resources, IT resources, dissemination of European culture etc. If in the first part, there is only quantitative information, offered by our National Institute of Statistics (NIS), in the following few examples of some useful economical and social indicators provide a dynamic vision in defining objectives, methods and implementation Thus the need for a quantitative framework of local and territorial indicators demands for an original statistical methodology

Economic indicators used for EU projects, in other criteria of aggregation than national / regional

Economical and social indicators are created and published for national and regional dimensions. Nowadays, both local and territorial indicators are really able to define more adequate the stage of social and economical development and to illustrate the impact of European programs and projects in fields like: long lasting development, entrepreneurial development, scientific research development and strategies, education and learning resources, IT resources, dissemination of European culture etc. If in the first part, there is only quantitative information, offered by our National Institute of Statistics (NIS), in the following few examples of some useful economical and social indicators provide a dynamic vision in defining objectives, methods and implementation Thus the need for a quantitative framework of local and territorial indicators demands for an original statistical methodology

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania

Designing an effective information security policy for exceptional situations in an organization: An experimental study

An increasing number of researchers are recognizing the importance of the role played by employees in maintaining the effectiveness of an information security policy. Currently, little research exists to validate the relationship between the actions (behaviors) taken by employees in response to exceptional situations (antecedents) regarding an organization’s information security policy, the impact (consequences) those actions have on an organization, and the motives that prompt those actions. When these exceptional situations occur, employees may feel compelled to engage in behaviors that violate the terms of an information security policy because strict compliance with the policy could cause the organization to lose revenue, reputability or some other business advantage. To address this issue, this research study investigated how to design an effective information security policy for exceptional situations in an organization. In order to achieve this goal, this study explored how an information security policy should be designed with the critical components of clarity, comprehensiveness, ease of use and flexibility, in addition to including provisions for the work contingencies of employees. The aim of this proposed study was to demonstrate how the application principles of the prima-facie, utilitarian and universalizability design theories can aid in designing an information security policy that includes these essential elements. The research study explored the effectiveness of the policy\u27s design and the effect it had on employee compliance with the policy in exceptional situations. A survey questionnaire was administered to a control group and an experimental group consisting of full-time and part-time employees who worked in various departments of a single organization. The survey employed a five-point Likert-type scale. The data gathered from the questionnaire was analyzed. Inferential statistics used the general linear model (GLM), including the t-test, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), regression analysis, and factor analysis with the latest SPSS version computer statistical analysis program. This study built to develop a model for designing an effective information security policy for exceptional situations in an organization. Based on the analysis of fit the model for designing an effective information security policy for exceptional situations in an organization was determine to be a success model. This study should provide many opportunities for future research, as well as providing information security practitioners and academics a solid roadmap for designing effective information security policies within an organization to apply during exceptional situations

An approach to computer-based knowledge representation for the business environment using empirical modelling

The motivation for the thesis arises from the difficulties experienced by business people who are non-programmers with the inflexibilities of conventional packages and tools for model-making. After a review of current business software an argument is made for the need for a new computing paradigm that would offer more support for the way that people actually experience their business activities. The Empirical Mod- elling (EM) approach is introduced as a broad theoretical and practical paradigm for computing that can be viewed as a far-reaching generali- sation of the spreadsheet concept. The concepts and principles of EM emphasise the experiential pro- cesses underlying familiar abstractions and by which we come to iden- tify reliable components in everyday life and, in particular, business activities. The emphasis on experience and on interaction leads to the new claim that EM environments offer a framework for combining propositional, experiential and tacit knowledge in a way that is more accessible and supportive of cognitive processes than conventional computer-based modelling. It is proposed that such environments offer an alternative kind of knowledge representation. Turning to the imple- mentation and development of systems, the difficulties inherent in con- ventional methods are discussed and then the practical aspects of EM, and its potential for system building, are outlined. Finally, a more detailed study is made of Decision Support Systems and the ways in which the EM focus on experience, and knowledge through interaction, can contribute to the representation of qualitative aspects of business activities and their use in a more human-centred, but computer-supported, process of decision making. Illustrations of the practical application of EM methods to the requirements of a deci- sion support environment are given by means of extracts from a num- ber of existing EM models

Identity in eHealth - from the reality of physical identification to digital identification.

Mestrado em Informática MédicaMaster Programme in Medical Informatic