Zero day exploits and national readiness for cyber-warfare

A zero day vulnerability is an unknown exploit that divulges security flaws in software before such a flaw is publicly reported or announced. But how should a nation react to a zero day? This question is a concern for most national governments, and one that requires a systematic approach for its resolution. The securities of critical infrastructure of nations and states have been severally violated by cybercriminals. Nation-state espionage and the possible disruption and circumvention of the security of critical networks has been on the increase. Most of these violations are possible through detectable operational bypasses, which are rather ignored by security administrators. One common instance of a detectable operational bypass is the non-application of periodic security updates and upgrades from software and hardware vendors. Every software is not necessarily in its final state, and the application of periodic updates allow for the patching of vulnerable systems, making them to be secure enough to withstand an exploit. To have control over the security of critical national assets, a nation must be “cyber-ready” through the proper management of vulnerabilities and the deployment of the rightful technology in the cyberspace for hunting, detecting and preventing cyber-attacks and espionage. To this effect, this paper discusses the implications of zero day exploits and highlights the dangers posed by this cankerworm for an unprepared nation. The paper also adopts the defence-in-depth strategy for national readiness and a foolproof system that enforces the security of critical national infrastructure at all levels.Keywords: exploits, zero day, vulnerability, cyberspace, cyber-warfar

Las instituciones horizontales de gestión colectiva del riego. El fracaso del Sindicato General de Riegos del Turia (1850-1883)

The Spanish collective institutions for irrigation management have become a reiterated reference in the study of common pool resources. However, the success of Spanish irrigators in the local management of water contrasts with an important failure in the management of this common pool resource at the basin scale. During the second half of the ninetieth century, the water users’ associations of the large huertas (market gardens) of eastern Spain seek for the constitution of higher institutions to coordinate water management at the basin or sub-basin level. The aim of this institutional ambition, unsuccessful in this period, was to reduce the number and intensity of conflicts and to achieve a major level of water rights enforcement. This paper describes the case of the Sindicato General de Riegos del Turia, whose short experience (1850-1883) was conditioned by the firm opposition of water users’ from the upper and middle Turia, reluctant to join the institutional project. The design of the institution, previous to the model defined by the Water Law of 1866, was based in the transposition, to the basin level, of the successful principles used at the local management of irrigation. The paper focuses on the analysis of the principles of institutional design followed in the creation of the Sindicato, and explores the importance of the up-scaling processes in the development of nested institutions.Las instituciones españolas de gestión colectiva del riego han sido una referencia reiterada en el estudio de los recursos comunales. Sin embargo, el éxito en la gestión local del riego contrasta con un relativo fracaso en la articulación de instituciones superiores, singularmente a escala de cuenca. Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, las comunidades de regantes de las grandes huertas del litoral Mediterráneo ensayaron la creación de instituciones horizontales, con objeto de coordinar la gestión del agua a escala de cuenca o de subcuenca. El objeto de estas iniciativas institucionales, que alcanzaron un éxito muy limitado en este periodo, fue reducir la conflictividad hidráulica intercomunitaria y garantizar la posición de privilegio histórico alcanzado por los grandes regadíos litorales. La presente comunicación describe en el caso del fallido Sindicato General de Riegos del Turia, cuya breve trayectoria (1850-1883) estuvo marcada por la resistencia de los usuarios de la cuenca media y alta del Turia a participar activamente en la institución. El diseño de la institución, previo a la elaboración del modelo de sindicatos centrales definido por la Ley de Aguas de 1866, se fundamentó en la transposición a escala de cuenca o subcuenca de los principios de gestión empleados localmente. Este artículo efectúa un análisis de los principios de diseño institucional seguidos en la creación del Sindicato y explora la importancia del cambio de escala como un factor fundamental en la articulación de instituciones anidadas

La confederación fallida. Administración y usuarios en la cuenca del Turia (1928-1936)

Between 1928 and 1936 the projects of river regulation in the Turia basin caused important conflicts. A private company, REVA, obtained a legal concession to build several reservoirs and hydropower stations. The traditional users rejected this initiative and promoted the creation of a basin authority, the Confederación Hidrográfica del Turia, in order to stop the private action, and to control the management of the river regulation. This article describes the different stages of this conflict, analyzing the position of all the involved agents, in order to improve our knowledge on a key period for the implementation of the Spanish basin authorities.Entre 1928 y 1936 la cuenca del Turia fue escenario de importantes conflictos asociados a los proyectos de regulación fluvial. Una empresa privada, REVA, obtuvo una concesión estatal para construir los embalses y saltos hidroeléctricos. Los usuarios se opusieron a la concesión y promovieron la constitución de una Confederación Hidrográfica del Turia, con el fin de paralizar la acción privada y controlar la gestión de la regulación de la cuenca. El presente artículo describe las distintas etapas de este conflicto, analizando la posición de los diferentes agentes implicados, con objeto mejorar el conocimiento de un periodo clave en la articulación de los organismos de cuenca españoles

Human Behavioural Risk Factors of Urinary Schistosomiasis in Cross River State, Nigeria

Urinary schistosomiasis is one of the most prevalent waterborne diseases and water contact behaviours have led to alarming rates of prevalence in endemic communities. Previous studies of schistosomiasis focused on discriminating the schistosomiasis infected and non-infected persons using parasitological approach. However, studies that examine the effects of human behavioural risk factors on prevalence have not been adequately carried out. This study examined the prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis and human behavioural risk facotors of the disease in order to understand the epidemiological situation in Cross River State. Seven endemic communities were purposively selected for the study. A set of 800 copies of the questionnaire designed for the study were distributed to respondents in endemic communities. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the most important behavioural risk factors that influenced prevalence of schistosomiasis among endemic communities at P 0.05. The prevalence of Urinary schistosomiasis in endemic communities was 74.7%. However, the prevalence of shistosomiasis varies widely among the endemic communities. A large proportion of  81.0per cent cases were reported in Okwel-Obudu. Utukwang I had a percentage prevalence of 78.0. Assiga and Utukwang 11 reported 76.5per cent and 75.0per cent prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis respectively. Prevalence of schistosomiasis was 74.5per cent in Adim and Abini recorded 71.0per cent infections. Ijiman had a prevalence of 67.0 per cent cases of urinary schistosomiasis. Farming in swampy areas exerted the most influence on prevalence of schistosomiasis in endemic communities (Odd ratio: 1.58, p<0.05). Therefore, farming in swampy areas serves to highlight the behavioural factor of Human Ecology of Disease responsible for the prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis in endemic communities. Socio-economic empowerment and health education are needed to reduce the prevalence of the disease. Keywords: Schistosomiasis, Prevalence, Perception, Endemic communitie

Aspectos médicos, psicológicos y sociales del cáncer infantil

Sin resume

System Hardening Architecture for Safer Access to Critical Business Data

This paper affirms that the total cost of cybercrime to society is significant, and the threat is growing faster than the potential victims can deal with. One of the factors fueling this rapid growth is the confining of the security of a system to a specific security function. The paper therefore, presents a system hardening architecture to guide system administrators towards implementing multi-layers of in-depth protective mechanisms around stored data. System hardening is a defence strategy, where several different security measures are applied at various layers, all of which must be defeated before a module can be compromised. The protective mechanisms in this architecture are applied to the host, application, operating system, user, and the physical layers. This architecture is proposed on the premise that organisations implementing system hardening security approaches experience safer access to data, as well as decrease in the number of security breaches.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v34i4.1