Password-Based Authentication and The Experiences of End Users

Passwords are used majorly for end-user authentication in information and communication technology (ICT) systems due to its perceived ease of use. The use for end-user authentication extends through mobile, computers and network-based products and services. But with the attendant issues relating to password hacks, leakages, and theft largely due to weak, reuse and poor password habits of end-users, the call for passwordless authentication as alternative intensifies. All the same, there are missing knowledge of whether these password-based experiences are associated with societal economic status, educational qualification of citizens, their age and gender, technological advancements, and depth of penetration. In line with the above, understanding the experience of end-users in developing economy to ascertain their password-based experience has become of interest to the researchers. This paper aims at measuring the experience of staff and students in University communities within southeastern Nigeria on password-based authentication systems. These communities have population whose age brackets are majorly within the ages of 16 and 60 years; have people with requisite educational qualifications ranging from Diploma to Doctorate degrees and constitutes good number of ICT tools consumers. The survey had 291 respondents, and collected data about age, educational qualifications, and gender from these respondents. It also collected information about their password experience in social media network, online shopping, electronic health care services, and internet banking. Our analysis using SPSS and report by means of descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, and Chi-Square tests showed that account compromise in the geographical area is not common with the respondents reporting good experience with passwords usage.Comment: 31 pages, 15 tables, 2 figure

A survey on Students' Academic Performance in Smart Campuses

Communication in Physical Sciences, 2022, 8(2) : 222 - 241 Authors: Ezugwu* Assumpta, Nweke Onyinye,  Aneke Stephen Received: 04 February 2022/Accepted 19 May 2022 The concept and issue of a smart campus have received broad discussions and are now open knowledge. It typically comprises a network of people, devices (mobile and non-mobile), and 'things' (with connecting abilities) which are powered by the Internet of Things (IoT). A smart campus was designed to enhance education through the utilization of modern state-of-the-art machines that employ the use of recent technologies to bring about effective learning and management of the educational sector. This work aimed at surveying existing works to determine students’ academic performances in a smart campus.  A survey was carried out on publications on smart campus from 2000 to 2021, then on academic performance. It was discovered that infrastructure and resource management attracted more publications while governance attracted the least. It was equally discovered that most academic performance predictions centered on cumulative grade point(average) (CGP(A)) as the parametric determinant

E-Commerce and electronic taxation in Nigeria

This study is centred on whether to tax e-commerce business segment or not. Key attributes of e-commerce business model that has tax implications include - disintermediation, increase magnitude of cross-border transactions, digitization of information which makes it difficult to identify source and destination of transactions, difficulties in carrying out audit trails and verifying parties to transactions, and tax collection concerns with cross-border digital transactions. In resolving the e-commerce tax conundrum, secondary data was the major source of information for this study and was obtained through archival documents, electronic books and journal publications, online research publications by authoritative research firms and textbooks on law and taxation studies. E-commerce poses a lot of questions to tax administrators and governments on how to protect their revenue base. At one extreme, there is the view that e-commerce should in some sense be allowed to take place in a tax-free environment. At the other extreme, there had been speculation on the introduction of new taxes specifically designed to tax e-commerce, e.g. the business income tax (BIT). Neither of these views proved acceptable to governments. The first would lead to governments being unable to meet the legitimate demands of their citizens for public services. It would also induce tax distortions in trade patterns. The second approach could hinder the development of e-commerce and lead to the technology becoming tax-driven. This paper proposes the adoption of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) model taxation convention for the taxation of e-commerce, creation of tax intermediation body, which is relevant for the digital world, utilize Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as a responsible authority for collection, calculation and payment of electronic tax (e-tax). This proposal is aimed at developing a simple, uniform and fair system, which will reduce the burden imposed on retailers and preserves sovereignty of the countries in case of cross-border e-commerce transactions.Keywords: Taxation, e-commerce, disintermediation, OECD. Model. convention

Foot Anthropometric Measurement of Primary School Children With and Without Flatfoot: A Comparative Study

Objective: The study determined the prevalence of flatfoot and also compared the foot anthropometric variables of both flatfooted and non-flatfooted primary school Children. Subject and Method: The study utilized a descriptive cross-sectional research design and involved 1071(526 males and 545 females) public school pupils above six years. Foot anthropometry variables were obtained using measuring tape (foot length, ball girth, foot instep and heel circumference) and vernier caliper (forefoot width, mid-foot width and heel width). Flatfoot was diagnosed using Staheli Plantar Index, where values >1.15 indicates flatfoot. The prevalence of flatfoot was obtained using Chi-Square analysis, ANOVA was used to compare body anthropometry (weight, height and body mass index) with side of flatfoot (unilateral, bilateral and no flatfoot), while independent t-test was used to compare the foot anthropometric variables of children with flatfoot and those without flatfoot. Result: The prevalence of flatfoot was 14.75%. 64.3% of males and 71.6% of females have unilateral flatfoot while 30% of males and 41% of females have bilateral flatfoot. There was a significant association between higher prevalence of flatfoot and age with 6 and 7 year old group showing the highest prevalence. There was a significant difference in foot length, forefoot width, heel width and heel Circumference on the right foot and significant difference in foot length and heel Circumference on the left foot between flatfoot and non-flatfoot children. Conclusion: Footwear manufacturers should consider anthropometric data of different foot types while manufacturing foot wears so as to minimizing foot pain, injuries and deformities

Password-based authentication and the experiences of end users

Passwords are used majorly for end-user authentication in information and communication technology (ICT) systems due to its perceived ease of use. The use for end-user authentication extends through mobile, computers and network-based products and services. But with the attendant issues relating to password hacks, leakages, and theft largely due to weak, reuse and poor password habits of end-users, the call for passwordless authentication as alternative intensifies. All the same, there are missing knowledge of whether these password-based experiences are associated with societal economic status, educational qualification of citizens, their age and gender, technological advancements, and depth of penetration. In line with the above, understanding the experience of end-users in developing economy to ascertain their password-based experience has become of interest to the researchers. This paper aims at measuring the experience of staff and students in University communities within southeastern Nigeria on password-based authentication systems. These communities have population whose age brackets are majorly within the ages of 16 and 60 years; have people with requisite educational qualifications ranging from Diploma to Doctorate degrees and constitutes good number of ICT tools consumers. The survey had 291 respondents, and collected data about age, educational qualifications, and gender from these respondents. It also collected information about their password experience in social media network, online shopping, electronic health care services, and internet banking. Our analysis using SPSS and report by means of descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, and Chi-Square tests showed that account compromise in the geographical area is not common with the respondents reporting good experience with passwords usage. Furthermore, this experience is not in any way related to their age (under 60), and educational qualification. Our experiment did not measure the entropy of end-users' passwords, their password hygiene culture and so cannot relate this experience with the strengths of their passwords nor that of their password hygiene culture. The outcome and recommendations of this research will help inform policy and research direction towards password hygiene culture, management, and the potentials or otherwise of passwordless authentication systems in developing economies