An Analytical Study of It Security Governance and its Adoption on Australian Organisations

Contemporary organisations are at infancy stages of adopting IT governance processes in Australia. Organisations who have adopted these processes underestimate the security processes within the governance framework. If the security processes are designed, they are often flawed with operational level implementation. This study investigates IT security governance broadly and in Australian organisations specifically. The objective of this study is to bring the local organisations in alignment with international standards and frameworks in terms of integration of information security, IT audits, risks and control measures. A survey of selected organisations is completed and results are presented in this paper identifying the maturity level of IT security governance in Australian organisations against the well known Capability Maturity Model® (CMM.

Development, Delivery and Dynamics of a Digital Forensics Subject

Digital forensics is a newly developed subject offered at Charles Sturt University (CSU). This subject serves as one of the core subjects for Master of Information Systems Security (Digital Forensics stream) course. The subject covers the legislative, regulatory, and technical aspects of digital forensics. The modules provide students detailed knowledge on digital forensics legislations, digital crime, forensics processes and procedures, data acquisition and validation, e-discovery tools, e-evidence collection and preservation, investigating operating systems and file systems, network forensics, email and web forensics, presenting reports and testimony as an expert witness. This paper summarises the process of subject development, delivery, assessments, teaching critique, and provides results from online subject evaluation survey. The dynamics and reflection on subject delivery is particularly important to determine if the subject has met its objectives. Results from the subject critique and student evaluation survey are presented and a reflection on how to improve the subject is provided

Status and future directions of anti-metastatic cancer nanomedicines for the inhibition of cathepsin L

Angiogenesis, tissue invasion and metastasis in the tumour microenvironment are all critical hallmarks of cancer. Upregulation of cathepsin L plays an important role in angiogenesis and metastasis through its ability to degrade the extracellular matrix, facilitating tissue remodeling and tumour cell invasion. Thus, cathepsin L is a potential therapeutic target for anticancer nanomedicine, with its inhibition emerging as an innovative and potentially promising therapeutic intervention for the development of anti-invasion and anti-metastatic enzyme therapies. Nanotechnology-based platforms have been extensively tested in the anti-cancer nanomedicine field with effective anti-tumour efficacy. These nanodrugs can suppress tumour cell proliferation, thereby reducing tumour growth. Recently, nanomedicinal approaches have also emerged as effective anti-metastatic strategies, including the use of graphene oxide and gold nanoparticles. With a focus on recent advances in developing nanotechnology to inhibit cathepsin L, this review provides an in-depth examination of this stimulating field in the context of tumour microenvironments. Innovative anti-metastatic agents may lead to new options for the treatment of cancers

Source code embedded (SCEM) security framework

Security in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) has become imperative due to the variety of threats posed during and after system design. In this paper we have studied the security in system design in general and software development in particular, and have proposed strategies for integration of security in the SDLC. The paper highlights the needs of embedding security right from the earlier processes in the SDLC because patches and controls after the software delivery are more expensive to fix. We propose Source Code EMbedded (SCEM) security framework to improve the design of security policies and standards for the software development process to ensure the security and reliability in government departments such as taxation, auditing, national security, social security, and immigration. It is also envisaged that the implementation of SCEM security framework will ensure commercial and public trust in the software development process within Australia and worldwide, saving enormous redevelopment costs

An empirical study of challenges in managing the security in cloud computing

Cloud computing is being heralded as an important trend in information technology throughout the world. Benefits for business and IT include reducing costs and increasing productivity. The downside is that many organizations are moving swiftly to the cloud without making sure that the information they put in the cloud is secure. The purpose of this paper is to learn from IT and IT security practitioners in the Indian Continent the current state of cloud computing security in their organizations and the most significant changes anticipated by respondents as computing resources migrate from on-premise to the cloud. As organizations grapple with how to create a secure cloud computing environment, we believe the findings from this study can provide guidance on how to address business and technology risks exacerbated by cloud computing. Specifically, in this paper cloud computing users evaluate security technologies and control practices they believe are best deployed either onpremise or in the cloud. Survey results are presented where we have asked cloud-computing users to rate the types of sensitive or confidential information too risky to be moved to the cloud. Alongside this paper also discusses the need of having SSL in the cloud to provide definitive way of securing the cloud

Phytochemical Analysis, Total Phenolic Content, Antioxidant and Antidiabetic Activity of Sansevieria cylindrica Leaves Extract

Background: Genus “Sansevieria” has been traditionally used for the treatment of various ailments in African countries since a long time. In particular, Sansevieria trifasciata is used for the treatment of inflammatory conditions and sold as a crude drug in the market to treat victims of snakebite in South Africa and tropical America. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the presence of phytochemicals, total phenolic content, antioxidant as well as antidiabetic activity of ethanol extract and fractions of Sansevieria cylindrica leaves. Methods and findings: Phytochemical analysis of hexane, chloroform, methanol and aqueous fractions Sansevieria cylindrica leaves confirmed the presence of steroids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, and phenolic acids. Methanol fraction was found to show maximum phenolic content. Ethanol extract and its methanol fraction showed significant antioxidant and antidiabetic activity. They inhibited 80.5% and 83.6% respectively DPPH free radical at 100 μg/ml concentration. In addition, methanol fraction exhibited 57.9% inhibition of glucose-6- phosphatase enzyme at 100 μM concentration. Conclusion: Our study confirmed the traditional uses of Sansevieria cylindrica plants for the treatment of various diseases

An alternative to Kim and Warde's mixed randomized response model

When open or direct surveys are about sensitive matters (e.g. gambling habits, addiction to drug and others intoxicants, alcoholism, proneness to tax invasion, induced abortions, drunken driving, history of past involvement in crimes, and homosexuality), non-response bias and response bias become serious problems because people oftentimes do not wish to give correct information. To reduce non-response and response bias, various alternative approaches have been proposed, for example a randomized response survey technique, or a mixed randomized response model using simple random sampling with a replacement sampling scheme that improves the privacy of respondents, proposed by authors Kim and Warde. In this paper we have suggested an alternative to Kim and Warde's mixed randomized response model to estimate the proportion of qualitative sensitive variable under the conditions presented in both the cases of completely truthful reporting and less than completely truthful reporting by the respondents. Properties of the proposed randomized response model have been studied along with recommendations. We have also extended the proposed model to stratified random sampling. Numerical illustrations and graphs are also given in support of the present study

A Proficient Two-Stage Stratified Randomized Response Strategy

A stratified randomized response model based on R. Singh, Singh, Mangat, and Tracy (1995) improved two-stage randomized response strategy is proposed. It has an optimal allocation and large gain in precision. Conditions are obtained under which the proposed model is more efficient than R. Singh et al. (1995) and H. P. Singh and Tarray (2015) models. Numerical illustrations are also given in support of the present study