Optimal discrimination between transient and permanent faults

An important practical problem in fault diagnosis is discriminating between permanent faults and transient faults. In many computer systems, the majority of errors are due to transient faults. Many heuristic methods have been used for discriminating between transient and permanent faults; however, we have found no previous work stating this decision problem in clear probabilistic terms. We present an optimal procedure for discriminating between transient and permanent faults, based on applying Bayesian inference to the observed events (correct and erroneous results). We describe how the assessed probability that a module is permanently faulty must vary with observed symptoms. We describe and demonstrate our proposed method on a simple application problem, building the appropriate equations and showing numerical examples. The method can be implemented as a run-time diagnosis algorithm at little computational cost; it can also be used to evaluate any heuristic diagnostic procedure by compariso

Big Data in Critical Infrastructures Security Monitoring: Challenges and Opportunities

Critical Infrastructures (CIs), such as smart power grids, transport systems, and financial infrastructures, are more and more vulnerable to cyber threats, due to the adoption of commodity computing facilities. Despite the use of several monitoring tools, recent attacks have proven that current defensive mechanisms for CIs are not effective enough against most advanced threats. In this paper we explore the idea of a framework leveraging multiple data sources to improve protection capabilities of CIs. Challenges and opportunities are discussed along three main research directions: i) use of distinct and heterogeneous data sources, ii) monitoring with adaptive granularity, and iii) attack modeling and runtime combination of multiple data analysis techniques.Comment: EDCC-2014, BIG4CIP-201

Factors affecting the spread of "Bois Noir" disease in north Italy vineyards

To define control strategies for “Bois Noir” disease (BN) it is necessary to know factors favouring its spreading by the vector Hyalesthes obsoletus Signoret. During 2003-2006 a research was carried out in 18 vineyards of a grape-growing area of North Italy to assess the influence of insecticides, applied on grapevine canopies, and environment surrounding the vineyards on disease spreading. The vector population density was higher outside than in the centre of the vineyards. Insecticides applied to grapevine canopies did not significantly influence the vector population level in the centre of the vineyards. The majority of vineyards showed randomized distribution of symptomatic grapevines. Seven vineyards had an aggregate distribution due to an edge effect from a border side with nettle. The incidence of border sides not contiguous to other grapevine rows on vineyard surface was positively related to higher levels of BN. The incidence of border sides with nettle on vineyard surface was positively correlated to disease incidence in the vineyards with aggregate distribution of symptomatic grapevines. All the data support the importance of surrounding vegetation as source of inoculum of BN phytoplasma. Molecular analyses on ribosomal and tuf genes show that 16 out of the 18 vineyards were affected only by BN: in 13 only tuf-type I was identified, in 2 only tuf-type II, in 1 both tuf-types, and in 2 it was not possible to identify the tuf-type of phytoplasmas detected. In the weeds tested only tuftype II phytoplasmas were identified while H. obsoletus was carrying both phytoplasma tuf-types.

The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area

This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management

Analysis of italian BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants identifies a private spectrum in the population from the Bergamo Province in northern Italy

Germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes cause high breast cancer risk. Recurrent or founder PVs have been described worldwide including some in the Bergamo province in Northern Italy. The aim of this study was to compare the BRCA1/2 PV spectra of the Bergamo and of the general Italian populations. We retrospectively identified at five Italian centers 1019 BRCA1/2 PVs carrier individuals affected with breast cancer and representative of the heterogeneous national population. Each individual was assigned to the Bergamo or non-Bergamo cohort based on self-reported birthplace. Our data indicate that the Bergamo BRCA1/2 PV spectrum shows less heterogeneity with fewer different variants and an average higher frequency compared to that of the rest of Italy. Consistently, four PVs explained about 60% of all carriers. The majority of the Bergamo PVs originated locally with only two PVs clearly imported. The Bergamo BRCA1/2 PV spectrum appears to be private. Hence, the Bergamo population would be ideal to study the disease risk associated with local PVs in breast cancer and other disease-causing genes. Finally, our data suggest that the Bergamo population is a genetic isolate and further analyses are warranted to prove this notion

Resilient architecture (preliminary version)

The main objectives of WP2 are to define a resilient architecture and to develop a range of middleware solutions (i.e. algorithms, protocols, services) for resilience to be applied in the design of highly available, reliable and trustworthy networking solutions. This is the first deliverable within this work package, a preliminary version of the resilient architecture. The deliverable builds on previous results from WP1, the definition of a set of applications and use cases, and provides a perspective of the middleware services that are considered fundamental to address the dependability requirements of those applications. Then it also describes the architectural organisation of these services, according to a number of factors like their purpose, their function within the communication stack or their criticality/specificity for resilience. WP2 proposes an architecture that differentiates between two classes of services, a class including timeliness and trustworthiness oracles, and a class of so called complex services. The resulting architecture is referred to as a "hybrid architecture". The hybrid architecture is motivated and discussed in this document. The services considered within each of the service classes of the hybrid architecture are described. This sets the background for the work to be carried on in the scope of tasks 2.2 and 2.3 of the work package. Finally, the deliverable also considers high-level interfacing aspects, by providing a discussion about the possibility of using existing Service Availability Forum standard interfaces within HIDENETS, in particular discussing possibly necessary extensions to those interfaces in order to accommodate specific HIDENETS services suited for ad-hoc domain