MWAIS 2018 Event Program Booklet

This is the conference program/schedule/agenda for MWAIS 2018

Cyber warfare: threats and opportunities

Relatório apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para o cumprimento do programa de Pós-Doutoramento em Ciências da InformaçãoCybersecurity has gone through several changes that have presented new challenges in recent years, complicated by the rise of cybercrime and digital warfare. With the introduction of militarizing the space domain, it has become apparent that we must consider multidomain concepts. Thus, the threat landscape has again shifted, and defenders must become knowledgeable about how the cyber domain crosses into maritime, land, air, and space. The traditional thinking of protecting enterprise systems locked away in a building is no longer. Thus, we have the emergence of cyber warfare and cyber as a fifth domain that brings together maritime, land, space, and air. These domains are not just for the military but the civilian sector as well. Understanding the role of cyber and how it can be used to take advantage or secure the remaining domains will give entities the upper hand in strategy. The technological advancements that pave the way to the mass implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet connectivity to everyday devices have led to an explosion in cyberattacks such as breaches resulting in millions of accounts being compromised. (Dawson, Eltayeb, & Omar, 2016). Bad actors such as those focused on criminal activities regarding human trafficking and espionage navigate these domains to circumvent law enforcement agencies globally. We must understand how exploitation, circumvention, and defense needs to occur in a multidomain concept. However, knowing that the cyber domain is a domain that goes through land, maritime, space, and air can be an area that serves as a central point for realizing assured security. Executive Orders (EO), laws, policies, doctrine, and other directives have shaped the landscape of cybersecurity. New EOs have been released that allow a cyber-attack with responsive measures such as one that involves military force. Laws created that impose rights for Personal Identifiable Information (PII) being breached, leaving millions of individuals unprotected. One of these most well-known items is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as it relates to the European Union (EU) and the evolving threats with hyperconnectivity (Martínez, 2019a; Martínez, 2019b). Understanding the role of cybercrime and digital warfare and how they continue to play in shaping the technological landscape is critical. These various actions change the spectrum regarding combating nefarious actors or design errors that leave the system susceptible. As attacks continue to rise from bad actors such as nation-states, terrorists, and other entities, it is essential to understand the threat landscape and select cybersecurity methodologies that can be put in place to provide adequate measures. This document presents the work form a post-doctoral project that provides a perspective of cybersecurity under a information science perspective. This six-month project allows to stress the broadly importance that information and its management (not just within the information security context), and the urgent need to deal with cybersecurity as a societal challenge. The document is organized in four main chapters presenting different but complementary issues, going from high level to a more operational level: National Cybersecurity Education: Bridging Defense to Offense, stressing the importance of societal awareness and education. Emerging Technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, stressing the importance to consider cybersecurity issues as core ones, even to economic and production areas. Nefarious Activities within the Deep Layers of the Internet, stressing the need to be part of digital places where information is traded, shared and, even sometimes, created. The fourth chapter provide a few hints and issues related with software development and test: Software Security Considerations. A final session presents several remarks as Final Thoughts, closing the work pointing out some of the current challenges that we are facing of.N/

Information Technology Use in West African Agriculture – challenges and opportunities: a panel discussion

Many countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are using Information Communications Technology (ICT) to enhance agriculture development and production. To do this efficiently the John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program managed for West Africa by Winrock International has been tasked with providing volunteer assignments to ministries of agriculture. The University of Missouri - Saint Louis (UMSL) has entered a partnership with Winrock International to offer upper-level undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to provide technical assistance to international government entities. In this panel; we discuss findings and opportunities for improvement in Guinea and Senegal as they relate to ICT discovered through the onsite support provided

Towards Crime Prevention Using Big Data Analytics: A Literature Review with an Explorative Case Study

Since the popularization of the big data concept, it has been implemented in various areas. Contemporary literature has proved the potential of using big data in crime prevention. In this research paper, we examine research on big data being used in Crime Prevention while implementing an author-centric to a concept-centric research approach. We also present the foundation for future research by analyzing data derived from the City of Chicago. We identified the neighborhoods in Chicago that are statistically more prone to crimes and used data of the last 10 years to make our observations. We additionally provide further discussion points for future research purpose

The Case for UBUNTU Linux Operating System Performance and Usability for Use in Higher Education in a Virtualized Environment

The use of Linux based Operating Systems (OS) in the classroom is increasing, but there is little research to address usability differences between Windows and Linux based OSs. Moreover, studies related to the ability for students to navigate effectively between Ubuntu 14.04 Long Term Support (LTS) and Windows 8 OSs are scant. This research aims to bridge the gap between modern Linux and Windows Oss, as the former represents a viable alternative to eliminate licensing costs for educational institutions. Preliminary findings, based on the analysis of the System Usability Scale results from a sample of 14 students, demonstrated that Ubuntu users did not require technical support to use the system, while the majority found little inconsistency in the system and regarded it as well integrated

Embodied cognitive ecosophy: the relationship of mind, body, meaning and ecology

The concept of embodied cognition has had a major impact in a number of disciplines. The extent of its consequences on general knowledge and epistemology are still being explored. Embodied cognition in human geography has its own traditions and discourses but these have become somewhat isolated in the discipline itself. This paper argues that findings in other disciplines are of value in reconceptualising embodied cognition in human geography and this is explored by reconsidering the concept of ecosophy. Criticisms of ecosophy as a theory are considered and recent work in embodied cognition is applied to consider how such criticisms might be addressed. An updated conceptualisation is proposed, the embodied cognitive ecosophy, and three characteristics arising from this criticism and synthesis are presented with a view to inform future discussions of ecosophy and emotional geography

GREAT3 results I: systematic errors in shear estimation and the impact of real galaxy morphology

We present first results from the third GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing (GREAT3) challenge, the third in a sequence of challenges for testing methods of inferring weak gravitational lensing shear distortions from simulated galaxy images. GREAT3 was divided into experiments to test three specific questions, and included simulated space- and ground-based data with constant or cosmologically-varying shear fields. The simplest (control) experiment included parametric galaxies with a realistic distribution of signal-to-noise, size, and ellipticity, and a complex point spread function (PSF). The other experiments tested the additional impact of realistic galaxy morphology, multiple exposure imaging, and the uncertainty about a spatially-varying PSF; the last two questions will be explored in Paper II. The 24 participating teams competed to estimate lensing shears to within systematic error tolerances for upcoming Stage-IV dark energy surveys, making 1525 submissions overall. GREAT3 saw considerable variety and innovation in the types of methods applied. Several teams now meet or exceed the targets in many of the tests conducted (to within the statistical errors). We conclude that the presence of realistic galaxy morphology in simulations changes shear calibration biases by $\sim 1$ per cent for a wide range of methods. Other effects such as truncation biases due to finite galaxy postage stamps, and the impact of galaxy type as measured by the S\'{e}rsic index, are quantified for the first time. Our results generalize previous studies regarding sensitivities to galaxy size and signal-to-noise, and to PSF properties such as seeing and defocus. Almost all methods' results support the simple model in which additive shear biases depend linearly on PSF ellipticity.Comment: 32 pages + 15 pages of technical appendices; 28 figures; submitted to MNRAS; latest version has minor updates in presentation of 4 figures, no changes in content or conclusion

'To live and die [for] Dixie': Irish civilians and the Confederate States of America

Around 20,000 Irishmen served in the Confederate army in the Civil War. As a result, they left behind, in various Southern towns and cities, large numbers of friends, family, and community leaders. As with native-born Confederates, Irish civilian support was crucial to Irish participation in the Confederate military effort. Also, Irish civilians served in various supporting roles: in factories and hospitals, on railroads and diplomatic missions, and as boosters for the cause. They also, however, suffered in bombardments, sieges, and the blockade. Usually poorer than their native neighbours, they could not afford to become 'refugees' and move away from the centres of conflict. This essay, based on research from manuscript collections, contemporary newspapers, British Consular records, and Federal military records, will examine the role of Irish civilians in the Confederacy, and assess the role this activity had on their integration into Southern communities. It will also look at Irish civilians in the defeat of the Confederacy, particularly when they came under Union occupation. Initial research shows that Irish civilians were not as upset as other whites in the South about Union victory. They welcomed a return to normalcy, and often 'collaborated' with Union authorities. Also, Irish desertion rates in the Confederate army were particularly high, and I will attempt to gauge whether Irish civilians played a role in this. All of the research in this paper will thus be put in the context of the Drew Gilpin Faust/Gary Gallagher debate on the influence of the Confederate homefront on military performance. By studying the Irish civilian experience one can assess how strong the Confederate national experiment was. Was it a nation without a nationalism