Forensically-Sound Analysis of Security Risks of using Local Password Managers

Password managers have been developed to address the human challenges associated with password security, i.e., to solve usability issues in a secure way. They offer, e.g., features to create strong passwords, to manage the increasing number of passwords a typical user has, and to auto-fill passwords, sparing users the hassle of not only remembering but also typing them. Previous studies have focused mainly on the security analysis of cloud-based and browser-based password managers; security of local password managers remains mostly under-explored. This paper takes a forensic approach and reports on a case study of three popular local password managers: KeePass (v2.28), Password Safe (v3.35.1) and RoboForm (v7.9.12). Results revealed that either the master password or the content of the password database could be found unencrypted in Temp folders, Page files or Recycle bin, even after the applications had been closed. Therefore, an attacker or malware with temporary access to the computer on which the password managers were running may be able to steal sensitive information, even though these password managers are meant to keep the databases encrypted and protected at all times

Lamartine, romantic poet ..

Typewritten sheets in cover. Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University Bibliography: p. 38-41

What Happens When Insurers Make the Insurance Laws? State Legislative Agendas and the Occupational Makeup of Government

Do the occupational backgrounds of politicians affect the government’s agenda? Businesses have long thought so. The first occupational data on state legislators were collected by the Insurance Information Institute, an interest group representing major insurance companies. In this paper, we test one potential motive for these kinds of efforts: the idea that the occupational makeup of governments affects the agendas they pursue, an argument that has been largely neglected in research on politicians’ occupational backgrounds. We focus here on the insurance industry. Using original data, we find that state legislatures with more former insurers consider fewer bills regulating insurance (negative agenda control), that former insurers play a disproportionate role in drafting the insurance bills that are introduced (positive agenda control), and that the bills former insurers introduce tend to be more favorable to the industry than those that their colleagues introduce (positive agenda control). The occupational makeup of legislatures may indeed affect their agendas, as industry groups have long suspected

Copy and Paste Lawmaking: Legislative Professionalism and Policy Reinvention in the States

Research on policy reinvention tends to focus on whether policies become more or less comprehensive over time while neglecting to explain copying policy language verbatim. We argue that the extent to which lawmakers reinvent policy depends on the resources available to them. Lawmakers serving in more professional state legislatures have greater capacity to reinvent policies. In contrast, lawmakers serving in less professional settings are more likely to copy policy language. As evidence, we gather bill texts of 12 policies that diffused across the 50 states between 1982 and 2014. Using cosine similarity scores to measure language copying, we find that less professional legislatures copy more text from previous adopters, and that the likeliest culprit is a lack of funding for staff assistance. The findings have implications for states’ ability to amend policies to suit their own citizens’ needs

Food Availability and Cost Patterns in Mississippi Retail Stores Participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Research has suggested that availability of healthful food varies according to rurality/urbanicity, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation, and sociodemographic variables. We investigated differences in variety and cost of fruits and vegetables in convenience stores, grocery stores, and supermarkets across Mississippi. We collected data using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey–Corner Store. Among stores surveyed (n = 453), fruit and vegetable variety was greater in nonmetro versus metro areas for convenience and grocery stores but not supermarkets. Elucidation of food availability in retail establishments serving SNAP Education (SNAP-Ed) clients is valuable for planning outreach efforts; smaller retailers may be important partners in rural settings

The language of mathematics : a functional definition and the development of an instrument of measure teacher perceived self-efficacy

Mathematics is permeated with language; it appears in the form of new words and some old words with new meanings. There are new symbols to be able to read and consume; much information is presented in tabular or graphic form, and finally the language in a mathematics class has its own semantics, syntax and traditions of argumentation and expression. It is this language, used in the mathematics classroom, which students must absorb and develop fluency with--all while learning the mathematics expressed by this language. Traditionally, the language of mathematics has been overlooked in the classroom, as if students could learn it by just being exposed, rather than having explicit instruction. Numerous professional organizations have called for a focus on language in mathematics education, yet it appears that this important topic is overlooked in the classroom. This research project concentrated on developing a working definition of the language of mathematics and then, speculating that the reason teachers avoid teaching the language of mathematics, it developed the Language of Mathematics Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (LoMTES), a measurement instrument to measure teacher perceived self-efficacy regarding the teaching of the language of mathematics. Bandura's socio-cognitive theory was the guiding force in developing this instrument. Bandura indicates that self-efficacy is predictive--that teachers with high perceived self-efficacy on a topic are generally capable of teaching it, while teachers with low perceived self-efficacy on a topic tend to skip over the topic or teach it in a minimal way. Self-efficacy, however, is a changeable construct; thus, this instrument could be used to identify teachers with low perceived self-efficacy regarding the teaching of the language of mathematics, which would enable the mathematics education community to explore possible interventions designed to improve student learning by improving teacher perceived self-efficacy

When Reds are Redder and Blues are Bluer: Party Competition, Party Polarization, and the Changing Demand for Lobbying in the American States

Interest system density influences internal dynamics within interest organizations, how they lobby, and policy conditions. But how do political conditions influence interest system density? How does politics create demand for interest representation? We examine these questions by assessing how legislative party competition and ideological distance between parties in state legislatures affect the number of lobby groups. After stating our theoretical expectations, we examine 1997 and 2007 data on legislative competition and party polarization to assess their influence on system density. We find mixed results: Whereas politics slightly influenced the structuring of nonprofit interest communities, they seem to have not affected the structuring of for-profit interest communities or interest communities as a whole

The Distance of the Gamma-ray Binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856

The recently discovered gamma-ray binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856 has a proposed optical/near-infrared (OIR) counterpart 2MASS 10185560-5856459. We present Stromgren photometry of this star to investigate its photometric variability and measure the reddening and distance to the system. We find that the gamma-ray binary has E(B-V) = 1.34 +/- 0.04 and d = 5.4^+4.6_-2.1 kpc. While E(B-V) is consistent with X-ray observations of the neutral hydrogen column density, the distance is somewhat closer than some previous authors have suggested.Comment: Accepted to PAS

The Construction of Interest Communities: Distinguishing Bottom-Up and Top-Down Models

No Abstract

Federal Policy Activity and the Mobilization of State Lobbying Organizations

The mobilization of organized interests is affected not only by social and economic “supply” factors but also by government-related “demand” factors as well. We add to a growing literature noting the impact of government activity on the mobilization of interests by examining how federal policy activity stimulates subsequent lobbying activity at the state level. Empirically, we do this by introducing the federal hearings data used by Leech et al. (2005) into the model of state lobbying registrations used by Gray et al. (2005). We find that Congressional hearings in a particular issue-area have significant effects on the mobilization of state interest organizations in that same area. The effects appear to be stronger in those issue-areas with greater federal involvement and in those states with more professionalized legislatures. Our paper adds to a large literature on how policies can create their own politics, and to a growing literature on the coevolution of groups and the state. We emphasize the intergovernmental aspects of these dynamics herefederal level activities affect the mobilization of interest groups not only at the federal level, but in the states as well