A Comparative Research on Municipal Voluntary Tasks of Three Hungarian and Slovenian Municipalities

The article summarizes the similarities and differences in voluntary task management of municipalities. For this purpose, we carried out empirical research in three Hungarian and three Slovenian municipalities. Our main objective was to discover which economic and social factors influence the scope of voluntary tasks in Hungary and in Slovenia. We separately analysed six sectors of municipal services, with regard to the different size of the municipalities. Likewise, we only covered the major sectors in which voluntary tasks are most likely to appear and therefore can serve as a basis for comparative analysis. The analysis gradually verified the initial hypothesis of our research that voluntary tasks management is more likely to be present in cities with larger economic powers and is remarkably profounder in municipalities of touristic importance

Rootkit detection on embedded IoT devices

IoT systems are subject to cyber attacks, including infecting embedded IoT devices with rootkits. Rootkits are malicious software that typically run with elevated privileges, which makes their detection challenging. In this paper, we address this challenge: we propose a rootkit detection approach for embedded IoT devices that takes advantage of a trusted execution environment (TEE), which is often supported on popular IoT platforms, such as ARM based embedded boards. The TEE provides an isolated environment for our rootkit detection algorithms, and prevents the rootkit from interfering with their execution even if the rootkit has root privileges on the untrusted part of the IoT device. Our rootkit detection algorithms identify modifications made by the rootkit to the code of the operating system kernel, to system programs, and to data influencing the control flow (e.g., hooking system calls), as well as inconsistencies created by the rootkit in certain kernel data structures (e.g., those responsible to handle process related information). We also propose algorithms to detect rootkit components in the persistent storage of the device. Besides describing our approach and algorithms in details, we also report on a prototype implementation and on the evaluation of our design and implementation, which is based on testing our prototype with rootkits that we developed for this purpose

Bypassing Memory Leak in Modern C++ Realm

Deallocation of dynamically allocated memory belongs to the responsibil- ity of programmers in the C and C++ programming languages. However, compilers do not support the work of the programmers with error or warning diagnostics. Thus the result of this behaviour can be memory leak. Programs’ memory consumption may be unreasonably big and even the operating system can be too slow because of the swapping. We present some different scenarios when memory leak occurs. We show the root cause of the scenarios. This paper presents existing tools for detecting or avoiding memory leak. These tools work in different ways. We analyze the smart pointers of C++11 standard, Valgrind that is a run-time heap profiler, Hans Boehm’s garbage collector and the Clang Static Analyzer. We present the pros and cons of the tools. We analyse how difficult it to use these tools, how the efficiency is affected and how these tools can be enhanced for overcome unwanted memory leak. We present our proposals to make the tools more effective

TEE-based protection of cryptographic keys on embedded IoT devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of billions of embedded devices connected to the Internet. Secure remote management of many of these devices requires them to store and use long-term cryptographic keys. In this work we propose to protect cryptographic keys in embedded IoT devices using a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) which is supported on many embedded platforms. Our approach provides similar protection as secure co-processors, but does not actually require an additional secure hardware element

TEE-based protection of cryptographic keys on embedded IoT devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of billions of embedded devices connected to the Internet. Secure remote management of many of these devices requires them to store and use long-term cryptographic keys. In this work we propose to protect cryptographic keys in embedded IoT devices using a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) which is supported on many embedded platforms. Our approach provides similar protection as secure co-processors, but does not actually require an additional secure hardware element

Tanulással összefüggő előagyi rendszerek madarakban = Learning-associated forebrain systems in birds

A kutatóprogram a viselkedés motivációjának idegi alapjait vizsgálja multidiszciplináris megközelítéssel, madár idegrendszeri modell felhasználásával. A vizsgálatból extrapolálható eredmények felhasználhatók az emlős viszonyok leírására és értelmezésére is. A kutatócsoport korábbi nemzetközi tapasztalataira épülő program megvalósításával a következő területeken értünk el eredményeket: (1) A tanulással és motivációval összefüggő agyterületek (thalamus, septum, nucl. accumbens, ventralis tegmentalis area) funkciós morfológiai jellemzése. Ezen belül a jutalmazásban és addikcióban kulcsszerepet játszó nucleus accumbens pontos lokalizációja, szubdiviziói és kapcsolatrendszerének feltárása madarakon, valamint az amygdalo-accumbens pályarendszer elhárító tanulásban játszott szerepének igazolása; (2) Dopaminerg és dopaminoceptív neuronrendszerek szerepe háziszárnyas tanulási és motivációs folyamataiban. Dopamin receptor antagonisták hatása a memória retenciójára. Striato-tegmentalis pályarendszerek és szelektív projekciókkal rendelkező neuronjaik jellemzése. (3) A serkentő neurotranszmitterek és a dopamin striatalis kölcsönhatása, motivációban, döntéshozatalban és tanulásban játszott szerepe. Az aszpartát sajátos magatartásfüggő szerepének kimutatása a striatum és a törzsdúcok neurális hálózatában. (4) Cannabinoid receptorok megoszlása és a tanulási folyamatra gyakorolt hatása. | In the research program we investigated the neural foundations of motivation, using multidisciplinary approach and the avian nervous system as a model. The results extrapolated from the study may be adapted also for the description and interpretation of mammalian systems. Based upon international experience of the group, progress has been made primarily in the following areas: (1) Functional morphological characterisation of learning and behaviour associated brain regions (thalamus, septum, nucl. accumbens, ventral tegmental area). In particular, precise localization of the nucleus accumbens, its subdivisions and connectivity, and evidence for the role of amygdalo-accumbens pathway in avoidance learning. (2) The role of dopaminergic and dopaminoceptive neuronal systems in learning and motivation of domestic chicks. Effect of dopamine receptor antagonists on memory retention. Characterisation of striato-tegmental pathways and neurons with selective projections. (3) Striatal interaction between excitatory transmitter amino acids and dopamine, its role in motivation, decision-making and learning. Verification of specific behaviour-linked effect of the excitatory transmitter aspartate in the neural circuits of striatum and basal ganglia. (4) Tissue distribution of cannabinoid receptors and their effect on the learning process