Data Center Site Redundancy

Commonly, disaster contingency calls for separation of location for redundant locations to maintain the needed redundancy. This document addresses issues for the data center redundancy, including limits to the distribution, distance and location that may impact on the efficiency or energy

Agent Based Modeling for Low-cost Counter UAS Protocol in Prisons

Technological advances have led to the prevalence of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) which has proven to be a security concern for fixed facilities to include prisons, airports, and forward operating bases. This study explores if agent-based simulation modeling can serve as a useful tool for developing counter unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) parameters for a fixed facility. The relationship between threat speed and a hypothetical C-UAS is explored in an AnyLogic model designed to represent a prison and general sUAS smuggling threats that prisons have experienced in recent years. The data suggests there is a critical threat sUAS speed in which C-UAS failures occur at a much higher frequency and that the relationship is non-linear

Optimizing Cybersecurity Budgets with AttackSimulation

Modern organizations need effective ways to assess cybersecurity risk. Successful cyber attacks can result in data breaches, which may inflict significant loss of money, time, and public trust. Small businesses and non-profit organizations have limited resources to invest in cybersecurity controls and often do not have the in-house expertise to assess their risk. Cyber threat actors also vary in sophistication, motivation, and effectiveness. This paper builds on the previous work of Lerums et al., who presented an AnyLogic model for simulating aspects of a cyber attack and the efficacy of controls in a generic enterprise network. This paper argues that their model is an effective quantitative means of measuring the probability of success of a threat actor and implements two primary changes to increase the model\u27s accuracy. First, the authors modified the model\u27s inputs, allowing users to select threat actors based on the organization\u27s specific threat model. Threat actor effectiveness is evaluated based on publicly available breach data (in addition to security control efficacy), resulting in further refined attack success probabilities. Second, all three elements - threat effectiveness, control efficacy, and model variance - are computed and evaluated at each node to increase the estimation fidelity in place of pooled variance calculations. Visualization graphs, multiple simulation runs (up to 1 million), attack path customization, and code efficiency changes are also implemented. The result is a simulation tool that provides valuable insight to decision-makers and practitioners about where to most efficiently invest resources in their computing environment to increase cybersecurity posture. AttackSimulation and its source code are freely available on GitHub

A Multi-Criteria Methodology for Measuring the Resilience of Transportation Assets and Prioritizing Security Investments

Transportation project prioritization uses performance measures that are related to the transportation asset, its operations, and its environment. However, in the state of practice, evaluation does not consider directly the likelihood of natural or man-made threats, the infrastructure resilience, or the consequences of the infrastructure damage in the event that the threat occurs. Thus, during the prioritization of investments, assets of low security do not receive the due attention they deserve. In defining security as the lack of risk of damage from threats due to inherent structure or functional resilience, this paper is based on the premise that the inclusion of security considerations in prioritization introduces a much needed element of robustness in investment prioritization However, the inclusion of investment security impacts leads to an increase in the number of performance measures for the investment evaluation. This paper presents a methodology to quantify the overall security level for an asset in terms of the environmental threats it faces, its resilience or vulnerability to damage, and the consequences of the infrastructure damage. The overall framework consists of the traditional steps in risk management, and this paper\u27s specific contribution is in the part of the framework that measures the risk. This paper applies the methodology to a given set of assets by measuring the risk (security) of each asset and prioritizing security investments across multiple assets using multiple criteria analysis

The Current State of Counter Unmanned Aerial System Policy in the U.S.

Threats from drones are becoming an increasing security concern throughout the U.S. and worldwide. No current standards exist for the manufacture and operation of counter unmanned aerial system technology, making it difficult to determine effective systems and components for specific uses. Current policy within the U.S. makes unmanned aerial system (UAS) interdiction illegal for all but a few Federal entities currently. This document is a summary of counter unmanned aerial systems policy within the U.S

The Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer (AMPR) - Initial Results from the Integrated Precipitation Hydrology Experiment (IPHEx)

No abstract availabl

Dnmt3a regulates emotional behavior and spine plasticity in the nucleus accumbens.

Despite abundant expression of DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) in brain, the regulation and behavioral role of DNA methylation remain poorly understood. We found that Dnmt3a expression was regulated in mouse nucleus accumbens (NAc) by chronic cocaine use and chronic social defeat stress. Moreover, NAc-specific manipulations that block DNA methylation potentiated cocaine reward and exerted antidepressant-like effects, whereas NAc-specific Dnmt3a overexpression attenuated cocaine reward and was pro-depressant. On a cellular level, we found that chronic cocaine use selectively increased thin dendritic spines on NAc neurons and that DNA methylation was both necessary and sufficient to mediate these effects. These data establish the importance of Dnmt3a in the NAc in regulating cellular and behavioral plasticity to emotional stimuli

Histone arginine methylation in cocaine action in the nucleus accumbens

Repeated cocaine exposure regulates transcriptional regulation within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), and epigenetic mechanisms - such as histone acetylation and methylation on Lys residues - have been linked to these lasting actions of cocaine. In contrast to Lys methylation, the role of histone Arg (R) methylation remains underexplored in addiction models. Here we show that protein-R-methyltransferase-6 (PRMT6) and its associated histone mark, asymmetric dimethylation of R2 on histone H3 (H3R2me2a), are decreased in the NAc of mice and rats after repeated cocaine exposure, including self-administration, and in the NAc of cocaine-addicted humans. Such PRMT6 down-regulation occurs selectively in NAc medium spiny neurons (MSNs) expressing dopamine D2 receptors (D2-MSNs), with opposite regulation occurring in D1-MSNs, and serves to protect against cocaine-induced addictive-like behavioral abnormalities. Using ChIP-seq, we identified Src kinase signaling inhibitor 1 (Srcin1; also referred to as p140Cap) as a key gene target for reduced H3R2me2a binding, and found that consequent Srcin1 induction in the NAc decreases Src signaling, cocaine reward, and the motiv ation to self-administer cocaine. Taken together, these findings suggest that suppression of Src signaling in NAc D2-MSNs, via PRMT6 and H3R2me2a down-regulation, functions as a homeostatic brake to restrain cocaine action, and provide novel candidates for the development of treatments for cocaine addiction. Keywords: histone arginine (R) methylation; drug addiction; medium spiny neurons; ChIP-seq; Sr