Helping forensic analysts to attribute cyber-attacks: an argumentation-based reasoner

Discovering who performed a cyber-attack or from where it originated is essential in order to determine an appropriate response and future risk mitigation measures. In this work, we propose a novel argumentation-based reasoner for analyzing and attributing cyber-attacks that combines both technical and social evidence. Our reasoner helps the digital forensics analyst during the analysis of the forensic evidence by providing to the analyst the possible culprits of the attack, new derived evidence, hints about missing evidence, and insights about other paths of investigation. The proposed reasoner is flexible, deals with conflicting and incomplete evidence, and was tested on real cyber-attacks cases

CRAFTING THE MIND OF PROSOCS AGENTS

PROSOCS agents are software agents that are built according to the KGP model of agency. KGP is used as a model for the mind of the agent, so that the agent can act autonomously using a collection of logic theories, providing the mind's reasoning functionalities. The behavior of the agent is controlled by a cycle theory that specifies the agent's preferred patterns of operation. The implementation of the mind's generic functionality in PROSOCS is worked out in such a way so it can be instantiated by the platform for different agents across applications. In this context, the development of a concrete example illustrates how an agent developer might program the generic functionality of the mind for a simple application. 20 2-4 105 131 Cited By :1

Neutral Radius Value Determination by Numerical Simulation Method at Ring Upsetting Test

Ring upsetting represents a basic operation for bulk forming process and has particular significance since it is used for contact friction determination. At ring upsetting by flat dies, metal flow depends upon tribological conditions present at contact surface. Thereby, two variants of metal flow are possible: a) two-way flow from neutral radius that is present at lower friction coefficient values, followed by ring’s inner radius reduction and ring’s outer radius increase. In such circumstances, neutral radius is found between inner and outer radius. b) one-way flow that occurs at higher friction coefficient values, where neutral radius is lower than ring’s inner radius. This paper is presenting the results of determination of relation between neutral radius value and friction coefficient. Such relation is determined by numerical simulation, by using Simufact.Forming software. Experimental verification of neutral radius position is conducted by metallographic analysis, for two friction coefficient values. Friction coefficient values are determined by ring upsetting by using dies, where in one case of ring upsetting, contact surfaces were ion implanted with nitroge

Reasoning techniques for analysis and refinement of policies for service management

The work described in this technical report falls under the general problem of developing methods that would allow us to engineer software systems that are reliable and would offer a certain acceptable level of quality in their operation. This report shows how the analysis and refinement of policies for Quality of Service can be carried out within logic by exploiting forms of abductive and argumentative reasoning. In particular, it provides two main contributions. The first is an extension of earlier work on the use of abductive reasoning for automatic policy refinement by exploiting the use of integrity constraints within abduction and its integration with constraint solving. This has allowed us to enhance this refinement process in various ways, e.g. supporting parameter values derivation to quantify abstract refinement to specific policies ready to be put in operation, and calculating utility values to determine optimal refined policies. The second contribution is a new approach for modelling and formulating Quality of Service policies, and more general policies for software requirements, as preference policies within logical frameworks of argumentation. This is shown to be a flexible and declarative approach to the analysis of such policies through high-level semantic queries of argumentation, demonstrated here for the particular case of network firewall policies where the logical framework of argumentation allows us to detect anomalies in the firewalls and facilitates the process of their resolution. To our knowledge this is the first time that the link between argumentation and the specification and analysis of requirement policies has been studied

Policy support for autonomous swarms of drones

In recent years drones have become more widely used in military and non-military applications. Automation of these drones will become more important as their use increases. Individual drones acting autonomously will be able to achieve some tasks, but swarms of autonomous drones working together will be able to achieve much more complex tasks and be able to better adapt to changing environments. In this paper we describe an example scenario involving a swarm of drones from a military coalition and civil/humanitarian organisations that are working collaboratively to monitor areas at risk of flooding. We provide a definition of a swarm and how they can operate by exchanging messages. We define a flexible set of policies that are applicable to our scenario that can be easily extended to other scenarios or policy paradigms. These policies ensure that the swarms of drones behave as expected (e.g., for safety and security). Finally we discuss the challenges and limitations around policies for autonomous swarms and how new research, such as generative policies, can aid in solving these limitations

Answers that Have Integrity

[EN] Answers to queries in possibly inconsistent databases may not have integrity. We formalize ‘has integrity’ on the basis of a definition of ‘causes’. A cause of an answer is a minimal excerpt of the database that explains why the answer has been given. An answer has integrity if one of its causes does not overlap with any cause of integrity violation.Supported by FEDER and the Spanish grants TIN2009-14460-C03, TIN2010-17139.Decker, H. (2011). Answers that Have Integrity. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 6834:54-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23441-5S5472683

Learning Rules from User Behaviour

Accepted versio