Characterizing Phishing Threats with Natural Language Processing

Spear phishing is a widespread concern in the modern network security landscape, but there are few metrics that measure the extent to which reconnaissance is performed on phishing targets. Spear phishing emails closely match the expectations of the recipient, based on details of their experiences and interests, making them a popular propagation vector for harmful malware. In this work we use Natural Language Processing techniques to investigate a specific real-world phishing campaign and quantify attributes that indicate a targeted spear phishing attack. Our phishing campaign data sample comprises 596 emails - all containing a web bug and a Curriculum Vitae (CV) PDF attachment - sent to our institution by a foreign IP space. The campaign was found to exclusively target specific demographics within our institution. Performing a semantic similarity analysis between the senders' CV attachments and the recipients' LinkedIn profiles, we conclude with high statistical certainty (p $< 10^{-4}$) that the attachments contain targeted rather than randomly selected material. Latent Semantic Analysis further demonstrates that individuals who were a primary focus of the campaign received CVs that are highly topically clustered. These findings differentiate this campaign from one that leverages random spam.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication by the IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security in September 2015 at Florence, Italy. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Estimating the Number of Stable Configurations for the Generalized Thomson Problem

Given a natural number N, one may ask what configuration of N points on the two-sphere minimizes the discrete generalized Coulomb energy. If one applies a gradient-based numerical optimization to this problem, one encounters many configurations that are stable but not globally minimal. This led the authors of this manuscript to the question, how many stable configurations are there? In this manuscript we report methods for identifying and counting observed stable configurations, and estimating the actual number of stable configurations. These estimates indicate that for N approaching two hundred, there are at least tens of thousands of stable configurations.Comment: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10955-015-1245-

Nursing sensitive outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic literature review

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Background Although rheumatology nursing has been shown to be effective in managing patients with rheumatoid arthritis, patient outcomes sensitive to nursing interventions (nursing sensitive outcomes) have not been systematically studied. Objectives The objective of this study was to identify and delineate relevant patient outcomes measured in studies that reported nursing interventions in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Design A systematic search was conducted from 1990 to 2016. Inclusion criteria were (i) patients with rheumatoid arthritis, (ii) adult population age ≥16 years, (iii) nurse as part of the care team or intervention delivery, (iv) primary research only, (v) English language, and (vi) quantitative studies with nursing sensitive outcomes. Data sources Medline, CINAHL, Ovid nursing, Cochrane library and PsycINFO databases were searched for relevant studies. Review methods Using the predetermined inclusion/exclusion criteria, nine reviewers working in pairs assessed the eligibility of the identified studies based on titles and abstracts. Papers meeting the inclusion criteria were retrieved and full texts were further assessed. Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tools were used to assess the quality of the included studies. Data on nursing sensitive outcomes were extracted independently by two reviewers. The Outcome Measures in Rheumatology comprehensive conceptual framework for health was used to contextualise and present findings. Results Of the 820 articles retrieved, 7 randomised controlled trials and 3 observational studies met the inclusion criteria. Seventeen nursing sensitive outcomes were identified (disease activity, clinical effects, pain, early morning stiffness duration, fatigue, patient safety issues, function, knowledge, patient satisfaction, confidence in care received, mental health status, self-efficacy, patient attitude/perception of ability to control arthritis, quality of life, health utility, health care resources, death). These fitted into 10 health intervention domains in keeping with the pre-specified conceptual framework for health: disease status, effectiveness, safety, function, knowledge, satisfaction, psychological status, quality of life, cost, death. A total of 59 measurement instruments were identified comprising patient reported outcome measures (n = 31), and biologic measures and reports (n = 28). Conclusions This review is notable in that it is the first to have identified, and reported, a set of multidimensional outcome measures that are sensitive to nursing interventions in rheumatology specifically. Further research is required to determine a core set of outcomes to be used in all rheumatology nursing intervention studies

Does Nudging Intentions Translate into Action? Why Nudging Pledges to Charities Does Not Result in Increased Donations

Recent evidence suggests that nudges, i.e. alterations in the decisional context, can have large effects on decisions and can improve individual and public welfare. This paper presents the results of a controlled experiment that was designed to evaluate not only the effectiveness of a default manipulation on decision making in a charity giving context, but also whether yielding or opposing a nudge affects attitudes, and whether nudging intentions (pledges) translate into behaviour (donations). The results show that while making pledges the default increased pledges, it did not increase donations because the nudge affected only participants who were close to indifference between pledging and not pledging and were thus unlikely to actually do the effort of translating their pledges into donations. Participants who were nudged to pledge pledged more often than participants who were nudged to keep, but they were less likely to maintain their participation in the experiment, and those who kept participating were less likely to pledge again. This, along with high attrition among nudged pledgers explains why nudging pledges did not result in higher actual donations. We interpret our findings in terms of a selection effect of nudges, and discuss practical implications of our experiment in terms of the applicability of default-based nudges as a tool for policy interventions