An adaptive framework for combating advanced persistent threats

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) pose a significant risk to nearly every organization. Due to the sophistication of these attacks, they can bypass existing security systems and largely infiltrate the target network. The prevention and detection of APT are challenging because attackers constantly change and evolve their attacking techniques and methods to stay undetected. As a result, APT often successfully compromises companies, organizations, or public authorities. This paper developed an adaptive security framework that continuously investigates the behavior of users of a network to protect it against threats. The framework constitutes of three main sections namely; Intrusion prevention, Intrusion detection, and Response to intrusions. The design model comprises the front end, middleware, and back end. The front end is implemented using HTML and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) in Netbeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) version 8.0.2. The middleware is implemented using Java Web of NetBeans IDE while the back end is implemented using MySQL server. The results show that the runtime security of the system is adapted according to the behavior patterns exhibited by the user hence, our system can detect zero-day attacks which signature-based intrusion detection systems cannot detect, thus protecting against these attacks. The work is recommended as a countermeasure against emerging persistent attacks

Trend and geo-availability of somatic therapies for treatment resistant depression in the US

Background: Having failed at least two pharmacotherapies, treatment-resistant depression (TRD) constitutes a major burden to healthcare in the US and globally, affecting close to a third of people diagnosed with depression in the US. Several studies have demonstrated the higher economic burden associated with TRD. This study sought to investigate changes in the availability of TRD somatic treatment options (Electroconvulsive therapy [ECT], Ketamine infusion therapy (KIT), and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation [TMS]) in the US between 2014 and 2020 and the geographic variations in availability of TRD treatment options in the US as of 2020. Method: This study is a cross-sectional study of US mental health facilities providing TRD treatment options between 2014 and 2020. We used the 2014 to 2020 National Mental Health Services Survey (N-MHSS) data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA). We estimated service availability per 100,000 US adults, both nationally and regionally, and computed a random-effect logistic regression to calculate the changes in the availability of the services over the study period. Result: Overall, availability of any one of ECT, KIT, or TMS in US mental health facilities declined between 2014 and 2019 (0.23 vs. 0.18 per 100,000 US adults) but increased to 0.24 in 2020. While availability of ECT consistently declined between 2014 and 2020, ketamine and TMS reportedly became available only in 2020. North Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah had the highest availability per 100,000 US adults (0.86, 0.67, and 0.65) while Nevada, Oregon and Georgia had the lowest availability (0.04, 0.06, and 0.06) regionally. Conclusion: The US had less than one mental health facility offering somatic treatment options for TRD per 100,000 US adults as of 2020. Also, the observed increase in the availability of somatic treatment options for TRD across the US between 2014 and 2020 did not reflect the increasing need for more treatment options for the treatment of TRD