Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Cryptography

This paper considers some recent advances in the field of Cryptography using Artificial Intelligence (AI). It specifically considers the applications of Machine Learning (ML) and Evolutionary Computing (EC) to analyze and encrypt data. A short overview is given on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and the principles of Deep Learning using Deep ANNs. In this context, the paper considers: (i) the implementation of EC and ANNs for generating unique and unclonable ciphers; (ii) ML strategies for detecting the genuine randomness (or otherwise) of finite binary strings for applications in Cryptanalysis. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview on how AI can be applied for encrypting data and undertaking cryptanalysis of such data and other data types in order to assess the cryptographic strength of an encryption algorithm, e.g. to detect patterns of intercepted data streams that are signatures of encrypted data. This includes some of the authors’ prior contributions to the field which is referenced throughout. Applications are presented which include the authentication of high-value documents such as bank notes with a smartphone. This involves using the antenna of a smartphone to read (in the near field) a flexible radio frequency tag that couples to an integrated circuit with a non-programmable coprocessor. The coprocessor retains ultra-strong encrypted information generated using EC that can be decrypted on-line, thereby validating the authenticity of the document through the Internet of Things with a smartphone. The application of optical authentication methods using a smartphone and optical ciphers is also briefly explored

Digital Image Exchange using a No-key(s) Protocol with Phase-only Encryption,

This paper considers an algorithm for transferring a digital image over an open network using a No-key(s) Protocol or Three-Way Pass and phase-only encryption/decryption. After providing a short study on the theoretical background to the method, an algorithm is presented on a step-by-step basis. Cryptanalysis is undertaken for the three intercept and single intercept cases, when it is assumed that the encrypted data is intercepted in its entirety for each pass or for any single pass, respectively. The algorithm focuses on the exchange of a JPEG image although in principle, the approach is independent of the format of the image file that is used. Prototype MATLAB functions are provided for the validation of the approach and for further development by interested readers

A Statistically Significant Test to Evaluate the Order or Disorder for a Binary String of a Finite Length

—This paper addresses a basic problem in regard to the analysis of a finite binary string or bit stream (of compact support), namely, how to tell whether the string is representative of non-random or intelligible information (involving some form of periodicity, for example), whether it is the product of an entirely random process or whether it is something in between thetwo.Thisproblemhasapplicationsthatincludecryptanalysis, quantitative finance, machine learning, artificial intelligence and other forms of signal and image processing involving the general problem of how to distinguishing real noise from information embedded in noise, for example. After providing a short introductiontotheproblem,wefocusontheapplicationofinformation entropy for solving the problem given that this fundamental metric is an intrinsic measure on information in regard to some measurable system. A brief overview on the concept of entropy is given followed by examples of how algorithms can be design to compute the binary entropy of a finite binary string including important variations on a theme such as the BiEntropy. The problem with computing a single metric of this type is that it can berepresentativeofsimilarbinarystringsandlacksrobustnessin terms of its statistically significance. For this reasons, the paper presents a solution to the problem that is based on the KullbackLeibler Divergence (or Relative Entropy) which yields a measure of how one probability distribution is different from another reference probability distribution. By repeatedly computing this metric for different reference (simulated or otherwise) random finite binary strings, it is shown how the distribution of the resultingsignalchangesforintelligibleandrandombinarystrings of a finite extent. This allows a number of standard statistical metricstobecomputedfromwhichthefoundationsforamachine learningsystemcanbedeveloped.Alimitednumberofresultsare present for different natural languages to illustrate the approach, a prototype MATLAB function being provide for interested readers to reproduce the results given as required, investigate different data sets and further develop the method considere

Client-side encryption and key management: enforcing data confidentiality in the cloud.

Master of Science in Computer Science. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.Cloud computing brings flexible, scalable and cost effective services. This is a computing paradigm whose services are driven by the concept of virtualization and multi-tenancy. These concepts bring various attractive benefits to the cloud. Among the benefits is reduction in capital costs, pay-per-use model, enormous storage capacity etc. However, there are overwhelming concerns over data confidentiality on the cloud. These concerns arise from various attacks that are directed towards compromising data confidentiality in virtual machines (VMs). The attacks may include inter-VM and VM sprawls. Moreover, weaknesses or lack of data encryption make such attacks to thrive. Hence, this dissertation presents a novel client-side cryptosystem derived from evolutionary computing concepts. The proposed solution makes use of chaotic random noise to generate a fitness function. The fitness function is used to generate strong symmetric keys. The strength of the encryption key is derived from the chaotic and randomness properties of the input noise. Such properties increase the strength of the key without necessarily increasing its length. However, having the strongest key does not guarantee confidentiality if the key management system is flawed. For example, encryption has little value if key management processes are not vigorously enforced. Hence, one of the challenges of cloud-based encryption is key management. Therefore, this dissertation also makes an attempt to address the prevalent key management problem. It uses a counter propagation neural network (CPNN) to perform key provision and revocation. Neural networks are used to design ciphers. Using both supervised and unsupervised machine learning processes, the solution incorporates a CPNN to learn a crypto key. Using this technique there is no need for users to store or retain a key which could be compromised. Furthermore, in a multi-tenant and distributed environment such as the cloud, data can be shared among multiple cloud users or even systems. Based on Shamir's secret sharing algorithm, this research proposes a secret sharing scheme to ensure a seamless and convenient sharing environment. The proposed solution is implemented on a live openNebula cloud infrastructure to demonstrate and illustrate is practicability

Implementating employment equity in the Department of Home Affairs, Transport and Education, Eastern Cape Province

This research was undertaken to investigate the challenges faced by employees at the Home Affairs Department, the transport Department and the Department of Education at King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape Province. A quantitative approach was used in this research. The sample consisted of 100 respondents of whom 98 returned completed questionnaires. The answers of the respondents were the data of this study and these were analyzed and interpreted in respect of the hypotheses of the research. The research involved the collection of detailed career, personal and structural perceptions of 98 employees. The data was used to establish the disparity among employees, from lower management to top management. It was found that even though there was a problem of discrimination in the olden days there has been a change in the sense that employment equity, affirmative action and diversity management have been introduced since 1994

Flow and retreat of the Late Quaternary Pine Island-Thwaites palaeo-ice stream, West Antarctica

Multibeam swath bathymetry and sub-bottom profiler data are used to establish constraints on the flow and retreat history of a major palaeo-ice stream that carried the combined discharge from the parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet now occupied by the Pine Island and Thwaites glacier basins. Sets of highly elongated bedforms show that, at the last glacial maximum, the route of the Pine Island-Thwaites palaeo-ice stream arced north-northeast following a prominent cross-shelf trough. In this area, the grounding line advanced to within similar to 68 km of, and probably reached, the shelf edge. Minimum ice thickness is estimated at 715 m on the outer shelf, and we estimate a minimum ice discharge of similar to 108 km(3) yr(-1) assuming velocities similar to today's Pine Island glacier (similar to 2.5 km yr(-1)). Additional bed forms observed in a trough northwest of Pine Island Bay likely formed via diachronous ice flows across the outer shelf and demonstrate switching ice stream behavior. The "style" of ice retreat is also evident in five grounding zone wedges, which suggest episodic deglaciation characterized by halts in grounding line migration up-trough. Stillstands occurred in association with changes in ice bed gradient, and phases of inferred rapid retreat correlate to higher bed slopes, supporting theoretical studies that show bed geometry as a control on ice margin recession. However, estimates that individual wedges could have formed within several centuries still imply a relatively rapid overall retreat. Our findings show that the ice stream channeled a substantial fraction of West Antarctica's discharge in the past, just as the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers do today

Size, shape and spatial arrangement of mega-scale glacial lineations from a large and diverse dataset

Mega-scale glacial lineations (MSGLs) are a characteristic landform on ice stream beds. Solving the puzzle of their formation is key to understanding how ice interacts with its bed and how this, in turn, influences the dynamics of ice streams. However, a comprehensive and detailed characterization of this landform's size, shape and spatial arrangement, which might serve to test and refine formational theories, is largely lacking. This paper presents a detailed morphometric analysis and comparison of 4043 MSGLs from eight palaeo-ice stream settings: three offshore (Norway and Antarctica), four onshore (Canada), and one from under a modern ice stream in West Antarctica. The length of MSGLs is lower than previously suggested (mode 1000–2000 m; median 2892 m), and they initiate and terminate at various locations on an ice stream bed. Their spatial arrangement reveals a pattern that is characterized by an exceptional parallel conformity (80% of all mapped MSGLs have an azimuth within 5° from the mean values), and a fairly constant lateral spacing (mode 200–300 m; median 330 m), which we interpret as an indication that MSGLs are a spatially self-organized phenomenon. Results show that size, shape and spatial arrangement of MSGLs are consistent both within and also generally between different ice stream beds. We suggest this results from a common mechanism of formation, which is largely insensitive to local factors. Although the elongation of MSGLs (mode 6–8; median 12.2) is typically higher than features described as drumlins, these values and those of their width (mode 100–200 m; median 268 m) overlap, which suggests the two landforms are part of a morphological continuum and may share a similar origin. We compare their morphometry with explicit predictions made by the groove-ploughing and rilling instability theories of MSGL formation. Although the latter was most compatible, neither is fully supported by observation

The business of sport : towards a viable commercial model for the management of professional football in Africa

Sport plays a big part in the lives and psyche of not only South Africans and the world's citizens, but also those of the corporate world. As the era of professional sports grows and gains a foothold in more and more sporting codes, so the amount of money that is being spent is growing as well. Humphreys and Ruseski (2009) recognise the challenges confronting economists in both defining and measuring the size and scope of the sport industry. According to Chalip (2006) the development of the recreation and sport management field requires two complementary streams: one that tests the relevance and application of theories derived from other disciplines, such as finance and economics, and one that is grounded in sport phenomena. Linking economic and financial theory to the context of the sport industry, and specifically professional football, to try and understand this most popular and universal of activities from a business perspective in Africa, is the basis for this study. Professional football clubs as an element of the South African sport industry depend largely on four main sources of revenue: sponsorships, gate revenue, television and broadcasting rights, and merchandising. The challenges these professional football clubs face include rising ticket prices; corporate sponsorship facing economic and regulatory concerns; broadcasters facing a great challenge in integrating social media into their offerings; and rising player costs and talent development with long lags before they pay off. As a result professional football clubs are increasingly finding it difficult to balance the needs of stakeholders and be commercially viable at the same time. It is this new reality reflected by the challenges mentioned above, that has caused many organised professional football clubs to look beyond the traditional financing concepts and strategies that have been used and to supplement them with innovative approaches. It is postulated in this research that professional football clubs in Africa are required to seek out scarce resources from a wide range of possible revenue sources and to use their knowledge of sport and financing skills to ensure that the scarce revenue sources are allocated in such a way as to yield optimum satisfaction for their fans and commercial profits for their club owners. Further, failure to do so by these professional football clubs in Africa has resulted in these clubs not being commercially viable and lagging behind Europe in so far as the commercialisation of professional football is concerned. The reality that South African and most African professional football clubs are not financially viable and thus do not yield healthy returns on investment for their owners, resulted in formulating two research questions to guide this study: 1. Why are African professional football clubs not commercially viable? 2. Can commercially relevant, practical, measurable and consistent variables from successful European professional football clubs be transferred to develop a viable business model for the effective management of professional football in Africa? This study followed a mixed-method design. The data collection also involved gathering both quantitative numeric information (three-year financial records of leagues and clubs in Europe and Africa) as well as qualitative text information (semi-structured interviews and professional football expert research document analysis). The procedure for both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis was conducted rigorously. The study began with a detailed financial analysis of leagues and clubs in Europe and Africa in order to generalise results to a population and then focuses, in the second phase, on detailed qualitative, semi-structured interviews to collect detailed views from professional football experts. Why is the African professional football business model not commercially viable? From the collective results obtained it became clear that the answer to this important study question is both complex and multi-layered. Triangulation protocol was used determine reliability and consistency of the results.Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2017.Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure SciencesDPhilUnrestricte

Growth and retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet from the last glacial maximum to the present in the eastern Ross Sea, Antarctica

Marine geological evidence supports rapid retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the eastern Ross Sea before the last glacial maximum. As the only accessible marine record of a major drainage outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), this central and eastern Ross Sea dataset provides a unique opportunity to test the hypothesis of WAIS instability, assess its regulating role in eustasy, and explore the geological record of paleo-ice stream behavior. As the last vast marine-based ice sheet on the planet, the WAIS is seen as a key source of potentially rapid sea level rise. The collapse and disintegration of the WAIS would raise sea level by 5--6 m, a major threat to the world's coastal cities. Marine geological data were collected along the axis of large bathymetric troughs during a 1999 cruise of the R/V Nathanial B. Palmer. Thick till sheets, extensive lineations, and multiple grounding zone wedges imaged on seismic profiles and multibeam bathymetric records, indicate that troughs in the Ross Sea were occupied by paleo-ice streams during the last glacial maximum. Ice stream boundaries in the eastern Ross Sea are characterized by laterally accreting sedimentary strata indicating lateral migration of ice streams. The abrupt transition from lineated to non-lineated morphologies reflects sharp ice stream margins. Sediment cores recovered glacial-marine deposits overlying till, a facies succession that indicates an abrupt transition from subglacial to open marine deposition. High concentrations of ice rafted debris in the glacial-marine units and iceberg furrows suggest mass wasting of the ice sheet and iceberg calving from the grounding line during retreat. Corrected radiocarbon ages of samples taken above the contact between subglacial (till) and glacial-marine sediments range from 23.4 to 26.0 ka. B.P., indicating pre-LGM ice sheet withdrawal in the eastern Ross Sea. This was long before the ice sheet retreated from the western Ross Sea and is inconsistent with previous models for ice sheet retreat in the region

Chaos-based Encryption Keys and Neural Key-store for Cloud-hosted Data Confidentiality

Cloud computing brings flexible and cost-effective services. However, security concerns plague the cloud. Data confidentiality is one of the security concerns inhibiting the adoption of cloud computing. This concern stems from various cyberattacks directed towards gaining unauthorised access to cloud-bound or cloud-hosted data. This paper proposes a clientend encryption and key management system to curb cyberattacks that target compromising data confidentiality on the cloud