Teaching Engineering students to "Think thief"

We report on an educational experiment where information technology students were encouraged to think out of the box about the dark side of information technology. Instead of taking the usual point of view of the engineer we challenged the students to take the point of view of the motivated offender. After teaching the course three years, we report on the exciting ideas our students came up with, and on the lessons we learned in designing and teaching the course. The main conclusions are (a) thinking thief inspires students to design creative projects, (b) working with real subjects creates a powerful learning experience, and (c) students are struggling with methodological issues

Media and the contact hypothesis: an experimental study on the impact of parasocial contact

"Does parasocial contact impact on inter-group bias? Widening the scope of Contact Theory, this study aims at experimentally examine the impact of parasocial out-group presentation on decisions in a two-person prisoner's dilemma game and social cognitive constructions of the social event. Within a minimal group experiment, 80 university students were randomly assigned to anonymous or video-wise personalization conditions. Participants rather took personal advantage of expected contributions to a commonly shared dilemma situation in anonymous settings than if a member of the out-group was personalized (p<.05). As perceptions of group boundaries, out-group homogeneity, and similarity did not systematically differ across the conditions, implications are discussed." (author's abstract)"Hat parasozialer Kontakt Einfluss auf intergruppale Diskriminierung? Im Sinne einer Erweiterung der Kontakthypothese liefert die vorliegende Studie eine experimentelle Prüfung des Einflusses von parasozialer Out-Group Präsentation sowohl auf Verteilungsentscheidungen im Prisoner's Dilemma Game als auch auf sozial kognitive Konstruktionen des sozialen Ereignisses. In einem minimalen Gruppen Experiment wurden 80 UniversitätsstudentInnen zufällig einer von zwei Experimentalbedingungen (anonyme Bedingung vs. Video - personalisierte Bedingung) zugewiesen. TeilnehmerInnen in der anonymen Bedingung haben eher einen Vorteil auf Kosten des Mitspielers/ der Mitspielerin aus erwarteten Zuteilungen geschlagen, als wenn ein Mitglied der Fremdgruppe per Video personalisiert wurde (p<.05). Wahrnehmungen der Gruppengrenzen, Outgroup Homogenität und Ähnlichkeit variierten nicht systematisch zwischen den experimentellen Bedingungen. Implikationen werden diskutiert." (Autorenreferat

Physical location of smart key activators:A building security penetration test

Purpose When security managers choose to deploy a smart lock activation system, the number of units needed and their location needs to be established. This study aims to present the results of a penetration test involving smart locks in the context of building security. The authors investigated how the amount of effort an employee has to invest in complying with a security policy (i.e. walk from the office to the smart key activator) influences vulnerability. In particular, the attractiveness of a no-effort alternative (i.e. someone else walking from your office to the key activators to perform a task on your behalf) was evaluated. The contribution of this study relates to showing how experimental psychology can be used to determine the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of physical building security measures. Design/methodology/approach Twenty-seven different “offenders” visited the offices of 116 employees. Using a script, each offender introduced a problem, provided a solution and asked the employee to hand over their office key. Findings A total of 58.6 per cent of the employees handed over their keys to a stranger; no difference was found between female and male employees. The likelihood of handing over the keys for employees close to a key activator was similar to that of those who were further away. Research limitations/implications The results suggest that installing additional key activators is not conducive to reducing the building’s security vulnerability associated with the handing over of keys to strangers. Originality/value No research seems to have investigated the distribution of smart key activators in the context of a physical penetration test. This research highlights the need to raise awareness of social engineering and of the vulnerabilities introduced via smart locks (and other smart systems). </jats:sec

How Effective is Anti-Phishing Training for Children?:(Distinguished Paper Award)

User training is a commonly used method for preventing victimization from phishing attacks. In this study, we focus on training children, since they are active online but often overlooked in interventions. We present an experiment in which children at Dutch primary schools received an anti-phishing training. The subjects were subsequently tested for their ability to distinguish phishing from non-phishing. A control group was used to control for external effects. Furthermore, the subjects received a re-test after several weeks to measure how well the children retained the training. The training improved the children's overall score by 14%. The improvement was mostly caused by an increased score on the questions where they had to detect phishing. The score on recognizing legitimate emails was not affected by the training. We found that the improved phishing score returned to pre-training levels after four weeks. Conversely, the score of recognition of legitimate emails increased over time. After four weeks, trained pupils scored significantly better in recognizing legitimate emails than their untrained counterparts. Age had a positive effect on the score (i.e., older children scored higher than younger ones); but sex had no significant influence. In conclusion, educating children to improve their ability to detect phishing works in the short term only. However, children go to school regularly, making it easier to educate them than adults. An increased focus on the cybersecurity of children is essential to improve overall cybersecurity in the future

Thermodynamics of layered Heisenberg magnets with arbitrary spin

We present a spin-rotation-invariant Green-function theory of long- and short-range order in the ferro- and antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with arbitrary spin quantum number S on a stacked square lattice. The thermodynamic quantities (Curie temperature T_C, N\'eel temperature T_N, specific heat C_V, intralayer and interlayer correlation lengths) are calculated, where the effects of the interlayer coupling and the S dependence are explored. In addition, exact diagonalizations on finite two-dimensional (2D) lattices with S>=1 are performed, and a very good agreement between the results of both approaches is found. For the quasi-2D and isotropic 3D magnets, our theory agrees well with available quantum Monte Carlo and high-temperature series-expansion data. Comparing the quasi-2D S=1/2 magnets, we obtain the inequalities T_N>T_C and, for small enough interlayer couplings, T_N<T_C. The results for C_V and the intralayer correlation length are compared to experiments on the quasi-2D antiferromagnets Zn_2VO(PO_4)_2 with S=1/2 and La_2NiO_4 with S=1, respectively.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Physical Review

Modus operandi onderzoek naar door informatie en communicatie technologie (ICT) gefaciliteerde criminaliteit

Dit onderzoek beschrijft de invloed van ICT op de 'traditionele' misdrijven door te onderzoeken hoe delicten als inbraak, overvallen en fraude doordrongen zijn van ICT. In totaal zijn 136 woninginbraken, 140 commerciële inbraken, 259 bedreigingen en 274 fraudeza-ken onderzocht. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat gebruik is gemaakt van ICT bij 16% van de bedreigin-gen. Het gaat hier om een breed scala van conflicten en problemen zowel privé als zakelijk, waarin de aangevers worden bedreigd en waarbij dat deels gebeurt via internet, dit wil zeggen via chat-rooms en internetsites, of via email en soms via de telefoon (SMS). 41% van de fraudezaken is digitaal, bij 5% van de fraudezaken vond een digitale inbraak plaats. Onder de digitale fraudes gaat het hoofdzakelijk om twee typen zaken, ten eerste ‘marktplaats fraude’ dat wil zeggen dat op internet goederen zijn gekocht die niet zijn geleverd, en ten tweede bankfraude, waarbij geld van de rekening van de aangever is gehaald. In deze gevallen kan de verdachte door middel van de inbraak informatie vinden die hem vervolgens helpt geld van de rekening van het slachtoffer te halen. Onder woninginbraken was in 3% van de zaken sprake van inzet van digitale middelen, vooral na afloop van het delict. Hier gaat het om zaken waarbij de verdachte tijdens de inbraak persoonsge-gevens en pasjes steelt en hiermee vervolgens geld van de bankrekening van het slachtoffer wordt gehaald. Bij commerciële inbraken kwam het gebruik van ICT niet voor. Wel was opvallend dat juist bij commerciële inbraken digitale opsporingsmiddelen, zoals camerabeelden, vaak helpen om een verdachte aan te houden

Thermodynamics of Heisenberg ferromagnets with arbitrary spin in a magnetic field

The thermodynamic properties (magnetization, magnetic susceptibility, transverse and longitudinal correlation lengths, specific heat) of one- and two-dimensional ferromagnets with arbitrary spin S in a magnetic field are investigated by a second-order Green-function theory. In addition, quantum Monte Carlo simulations for S= 1/2 and S=1 are performed using the stochastic series expansion method. A good agreement between the results of both approaches is found. The field dependence of the position of the maximum in the temperature dependence of the susceptibility fits well to a power law at low fields and to a linear increase at high fields. The maximum height decreases according to a power law in the whole field region. The longitudinal correlation length may show an anomalous temperature dependence: a minimum followed by a maximum with increasing temperature. Considering the specific heat in one dimension and at low magnetic fields, two maxima in its temperature dependence for both the S= 1/2 and S = 1 ferromagnets are found. For S>1 only one maximum occurs, as in the two-dimensional ferromagnets. Relating the theory to experiments on the S= 1/2 quasi-one-dimensional copper salt TMCuC [(CH_3)_4NCuCl_3], a fit to the magnetization as a function of the magnetic field yields the value of the exchange energy which is used to make predictions for the occurrence of two maxima in the temperature dependence of the specific heat.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.