Deliver security awareness training, then repeat:{deliver; measure efficacy}

Organisational information security policy contents are disseminated by awareness and training drives. Its success is usually judged based on immediate post-training self-reports which are usually subject to social desirability bias. Such self-reports are generally positive, but they cannot act as a proxy for actual subsequent behaviours.This study aims to formulate and test a more comprehensive way of measuring the efficacy of these awareness and training drives, called ASTUTE. We commenced by delivering security training. We then assessed security awareness (post-training), and followed up by measuring actual behaviours. When we measured actual behaviours after a single delivery of security awareness training, the conversion from intention to behaviour was half of the desired 100%. We then proceeded to deliver the training again, another two times.The repeated training significantly reduced the gap between self-reported intention and actual secure behaviours

Exporting and innovation performance: an analysis of the small, micro and medium enterprise growth index (SME Growth Index) in South Africa

Thesis (M. Economic Science)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic & Business Sciences,After the fall of apartheid in 1994, the newly elected African National Congress (ANC) embarked on a journey to redress past injustices left behind by the previous regime. In order to tackle the economic, social and spatial disparities left behind by the previous administration, the ANC highlighted key areas within the South African economy that could be utilised to lessen the gap between members of the South African population. One of the key areas highlighted was that of the importance of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs), and the need for these firms to be engaged within the export market. This paper unpacks the inherent characteristics that may differ between exporting, and non-exporting SMMEs in the South African economy. Consequently, this paper also shows that there is a definite positive association between exporting behaviours and innovation behaviours within the SMME sector. This paper utilises the SME Growth Index as its primary dataset. This dataset allows the paper to investigate the primary characteristics of South African SMME firms that are exporting versus those that are not. Furthermore, as the literature highlights, there is an important link between exporting and innovation behaviours. This dataset thus further allows the paper to illustrate that this link does hold within South Africa, and that there is a positive association between these behaviours. The utilisation of logistic regressions allows this paper to show the strength of the link between innovation and exporting practices in South African SMMEs, but at no point is a mention of causality made, due to the inherent endogeneity and sample selection bias that is present in this study. The paper concludes by showing that there is indeed a difference between South African exporting firms, and their non-exporting counterparts, thus illustrating that a “one-size-fits-all” policy plan to enhance exporting culture amongst SMMEs is not acceptable. Furthermore, the paper does establish a positive association between innovation and exporting behaviours amongst South African SMMEs, something which had not yet been done in the existing literature

Is the responsibilization of the cyber security risk reasonable and judicious?

Cyber criminals appear to be plying their trade without much hindrance. Home computer users are particularly vulnerable to attack by an increasingly sophisticated and globally dispersed hacker group. The smartphone era has exacerbated the situation, offering hackers even more attack surfaces to exploit. It might not be entirely coincidental that cyber crime has mushroomed in parallel with governments pursuing a neoliberalist agenda. This agenda has a strong drive towards individualizing risk i.e. advising citizens how to take care of themselves, and then leaving them to face the consequences if they choose not to follow the advice. In effect, citizens are “responsibilized .” Whereas responsibilization is effective for some risks, the responsibilization of cyber security is, we believe, contributing to the global success of cyber attacks. There is, consequently, a case to be made for governments taking a more active role than the mere provision of advice, which is the case in many countries. We conclude with a concrete proposal for a risk regulation regime that would more effectively mitigate and ameliorate cyber risk

A crowdsourcing, smart city model for a developing country

With the growing number of people living in cities, the challenges faced by government to maintain service delivery to an acceptable standard are immense. ‘Smart cities’ is a new and innovative approach that allows the city to use current infrastructure and resources more efficiently. Not many smart city projects have been implemented in developing countries, where challenges that will affect the success of the project are very different from developed countries. These challenges include low literacy rates, high unemployment rates, high poverty levels and the limited availability of technology, all of which will impact on the implementation and success of a smart city. The purpose of the study was to investigate what variables need to be present in order to implement a smart city project making use of crowdsourcing in a developing country. The study found that there are three variables that will must be present to implement a smart city project in a developing country. These include the city management, the trust of the citizens in the smart city initiative, and the crowdsourcing system. The recommendation of this paper then is then that these variables must be considered by city management in order to successfully implement smart city projects in South Africa

Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence

Ishi represents a form of sentimental folk reductionism. But he can be a teaching tool for the California Indian Genocide, John Sutter also. His mill was where gold was discovered – setting off a frenzied settlement in which Indians were legally enslaved and slaughtered, finally ending a decade after the Emancipation Proclamation. They had already experienced wholesale devastation under Spanish and Mexican colonization. The mission system itself was inhumane and genocidal. It codified enslavement and trafficking of Indians as economically useful and morally purposeful. Mexican administration paid lip service to Indian emancipation but exploited them ruthlessly as peons. The California genocide typifies an expanded understanding of genocide and how it operates in a developmental paradigm. We then turn to a related model of the indigenous experience. Using developmental genocide in a gangland “democracy” and Andrew Woolford’s ontologies of destruction, a 500-year wholesale assault, we champion genocide as generic while including specific modes mediated by economic or civil destruction and challenging the unmediated model – direct mass killing – as the archetypical form. Allied with this, a model mediated by civil war also helps explain genocide in the Americas, including California. Genocide of native peoples operates through a cultural and moral reductionism that allows them to be manipulated (and destroyed) as objects

Plasma measurements with the retarding potential analyser on OGO 6

Plasma measurements with retarding potential analyzer on OGO

Evaluating the Usability of a Multilingual Passphrase Policy

The literature shows that users struggle to generate secure passwords. This has led to systems administrators implementing password expiry policies that burden and frustrate users. This study explores the security and usability of a multilingual passphrase policy, as multilingualism has the potential to enhance security. A total of 224 participants were invited to participate in an experiment to generate and recall short passwords and multilingual passphrases. The findings of this study show that, although a multilingual passphrase policy made passphrase generation slightly more difficult, its use motivated users to generate unique memorable passphrases. Arguably, repeated use of passphrases promotes memorability and cognitive fluency. Furthermore, the multilingual passphrases in this study proved to be stronger than those reported in the literature

A feedback loop model to facilitate communication between citizens and local government in Buffalo City

An increasing number of people move to cities in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families. This movement makes it difficult for the local government to understand citizens’ needs fully, particularly pertaining to public safety matters. Thus, in the city of East London where this issue is prevalent, a smart city project was introduced to help alleviate these concerns. During the first phase of the Public Safety Smart City (PSSC) project, it was identified that there is a need for a feedback loop to facilitate the effective communication of public safety issues between citizens and local government. Part of the problem is that local government is reacting to these public safety issues rather than being proactive. The study followed an interpretivism paradigm and the research methodology employed is the qualitative approach in order to gain a deeper understanding of the issues involved. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven East London citizens and four managers from the Department of Public Safety from the Buffalo City Municipality in order to gain further insights. It was ascertained that the lack of feedback concerning public safety issues between citizens and local government leads to citizens’ dissatisfaction. Based on the De Fleur model of communication, the paper concludes that the introduction of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled feedback loop between citizens and local government can help to reduce these concerns

So You Need a Water Well? A Consumer\u27s Guide to Homeowners\u27 Drinking Water

Le magazine d'information Savoir(s) de l'Université de Strasbourg du mois de mai 2014 portait sur la propriété intellectuelle et la production / circulation de la connaissance. Il est disponible en ligne (pdf