Malware Binary Image Classification Using Convolutional Neural Networks

The persistent shortage of cybersecurity professionals combined with enterprise networks tasked with processing more data than ever before has led many cybersecurity experts to consider automating some of the most common and time-consuming security tasks using machine learning. One of these cybersecurity tasks where machine learning may prove advantageous is malware analysis and classification. To evade traditional detection techniques, malware developers are creating more complex malware. This is achieved through more advanced methods of code obfuscation and conducting more sophisticated attacks. This can make the manual process of analyzing malware an infinitely more complex task. Furthermore, the proliferation of malicious files and new malware signatures increases year by year. As of March 2020, the total number of new malware detections worldwide amounted to 677.66 million programs. In 2020, there was a 35.4% increase in new malware variants over the previous year. This paper examines the viability of classifying malware binaries represented as fixed-size grayscale using convolutional neural networks. Several Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures are evaluated on multiple performance metrics to analyze their effectiveness at solving this classification problem

An Injury Severity Prediction-Driven Accident Prevention System

Traffic accidents are inevitable events that occur unexpectedly and unintentionally. Therefore, analyzing traffic data is essential to prevent fatal accidents. Traffic data analysis provided insights into significant factors and driver behavioral patterns causing accidents. Combining these patterns and the prediction model into an accident prevention system can assist in reducing and preventing traffic accidents. This study applied various machine learning models, including neural network, ordinal regression, decision tree, support vector machines, and logistic regression to have a robust prediction model in injury severity. The trained model provides timely and accurate predictions on accident occurrence and injury severity using real-world traffic accident datasets. We proposed an informative negative data generator using feature weights derived from multinomial logit regression to balance the non-fatal accident data. Our aim is to resolve the bias that happens in the favor of the majority class as well as performance improvement. We evaluated the overall and class-level performance of the machine learning models based on accuracy and mean squared error scores. Three hidden layered neural networks outperformed the other models with 0.254 ± 0.038 and 0.173 ± 0.016 MSE scores for two different datasets. A neural network, which provides more accurate and reliable results, should be integrated into the accident prevention system

Ensemble Learning using Error Correcting Output Codes: New Classification Error Bounds

New bounds on classification error rates for the error-correcting output code (ECOC) approach in machine learning are presented. These bounds have exponential decay complexity with respect to codeword length and theoretically validate the effectiveness of the ECOC approach. Bounds are derived for two different models: the first under the assumption that all base classifiers are independent and the second under the assumption that all base classifiers are mutually correlated up to first-order. Moreover, we perform ECOC classification on six datasets and compare their error rates with our bounds to experimentally validate our work and show the effect of correlation on classification accuracy

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

An effective vortex detection approach for velocity vector field

Detection of vortices, which are rotating flow features, is an important task to identify, analyze, and understand flow dynamics in a fluid. For example, it can be used to accurately tag nonrigid salient rotation features from large amount of wind vectors captured by orbiting satellites for hurricane research. In this paper, we describe in detail a general vortex detection algorithm motivated by Hough transform and flow vector tree structures. The vortex detection algorithm allows one to find the exact vortex center efficiently if it is in the vector field. A special case of the algorithm has been successfully applied to cyclone annotation and tracking using QuikSCAT satellite wind measurements

Preserving privacy for moving objects data mining

The prevalence of mobile devices with geopositioning capability has resulted in the rapid growth in the amount of moving object trajectories. These data have been collected and analyzed for both commercial (e.g., recommendation system) and security (e.g. surveillance and monitoring system) purposes. One needs to ensure the privacy of these raw trajectory data and the derived knowledge by not disclosing or releasing them to adversary. In this paper, we propose a practical implementation of a (ε; δ)-differentially private mechanism for moving objects data mining; in particular, we apply it to the frequent location pattern mining algorithm. Experimental results on the real-world GeoLife dataset are used to compare the performance of the (ε; δ)-differential privacy mechanism with the standard ε-differential privacy mechanism

Mining multivariate spatiotemporal patterns from heterogeneous mobility data

Mobility data mining in the form of trajectory data mining has been extensively investigated in recent years. Predictive modeling and pattern discovery approaches have been proposed to predict movements and locations, and to extract useful trajectory and location patterns. Nowadays, mobility data consist of not only trajectory data. Mobility data from smart phones include measurements such as call duration/time, call type, digital media consumption, calendar information, apps usage, social interactions, and mobile browsing. These heterogeneous multivariate data allow one to discover interesting and more complex behavioral patterns and rules in terms of space and time. In this paper, we investigate spatiotemporal rule mining on heterogeneous multivariate mobility data. We propose a systematic approach consisting of three main steps: data fusion, frequent temporal multivariate-location extraction, and rule generation. In particular, we explore the task of extracting multivariate spatiotemporal patterns corresponding to the "where", "when", and "who" queries (and their combinations) related to phone call variables collected from smart phone users. Experimental results on the data from Nokia Mobile Data Challenge is used to show the feasibility and usefulness of our proposed approach

On the detection of concept change in time-varying data streams by testing exchangeability

A martingale framework for concept change detection based on testing data exchangeability was recently proposed (Ho, 2005). In this paper, we describe the proposed changedetection test based on the Doob’s Maximal Inequality and show that it is an approximation of the sequential probability ratio test (SPRT). The relationship between the threshold value used in the proposed test and its size and power is deduced from the approximation. The mean delay time before a change is detected is estimated using the average sample number of a SPRT. The performance of the test using various threshold values is examined on five different data stream scenarios simulated using two synthetic data sets. Finally, experimental results show that the test is effective in detecting changes in time-varying data streams simulated using three benchmark data sets.