Robust and secure monitoring and attribution of malicious behaviors

Worldwide computer systems continue to execute malicious software that degrades the systemsâ performance and consumes network capacity by generating high volumes of unwanted traffic. Network-based detectors can effectively identify machines participating in the ongoing attacks by monitoring the traffic to and from the systems. But, network detection alone is not enough; it does not improve the operation of the Internet or the health of other machines connected to the network. We must identify malicious code running on infected systems, participating in global attack networks. This dissertation describes a robust and secure approach that identifies malware present on infected systems based on its undesirable use of network. Our approach, using virtualization, attributes malicious traffic to host-level processes responsible for the traffic. The attribution identifies on-host processes, but malware instances often exhibit parasitic behaviors to subvert the execution of benign processes. We then augment the attribution software with a host-level monitor that detects parasitic behaviors occurring at the user- and kernel-level. User-level parasitic attack detection happens via the system-call interface because it is a non-bypassable interface for user-level processes. Due to the unavailability of one such interface inside the kernel for drivers, we create a new driver monitoring interface inside the kernel to detect parasitic attacks occurring through this interface. Our attribution software relies on a guest kernelâ s data to identify on-host processes. To allow secure attribution, we prevent illegal modifications of critical kernel data from kernel-level malware. Together, our contributions produce a unified research outcome --an improved malicious code identification system for user- and kernel-level malware.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Giffin, Jonathon; Committee Member: Ahamad, Mustaque; Committee Member: Blough, Douglas; Committee Member: Lee, Wenke; Committee Member: Traynor, Patric

RASONAPINDA: A CLINICAL EVALUATION IN MANAGEMENT OF AMAVATA (RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS)

Amavata is a very common disorder affecting a much larger population. The disease closely resembles Rheumatoid Arthritis on the basis of clinical manifestations. In the present study, we have considered Rheumatoid Arthritis parallel to Amavata and studied the effect of Rasona Pinda, a traditional Ayurvedic drug. 40 patients of Amavata were selected and randomly divided into two groups A and B. Group A was trial group and Group B was control group. Group A received Rasona Pinda and group B as control group received Indomethacin orally, duration of treatment for both the groups was 45 days with a follow up on every 15th day. The drug was selected as it is described in Chakradatta Amavatadhikara and also owing to its properties. Results were assessed according to a specially prepared grading system for pain, swelling, stiffness, tenderness, general functional capacity, walking time, grip power, pressing power, etc and changes observed in laboratory profile. Significant improvement was seen in symptoms in group A, and on comparing the results in the two groups it was found that the difference was highly significant with improvement in almost all the symptoms in group A. and also, it was found that the drug was free of side effects and showed improvement in the general health of the patient. The study suggests that Rasona Pinda can be a reliable alternative in the management of Amavata.&nbsp

Distributed real-time control via the internet

The objective of this research is to demonstrate experimentally the feasibility of using the Internet for a Distributed Control System (DCS). An algorithm has been designed and implemented to ensure stability of the system in the presence of upper bounded time-varying delays. A single actuator magnetic ball levitation system has been used as a test bed to validate the proposed algorithm. Experiments were performed to obtain the round-trip time delay between the host PC and the client PC under varying network loads and at different times. A digital real-time lead-lag controller was implemented for the magnetic levitation system. Upper bounds for the artificial and experimental round-trip time delay that can be accommodated in the control loop for the maglev system were estimated. The artificial time delay was based on various probabilistic distributions and was generated through MATLAB. To accommodate sporadic surges in time delays that are more than these upper bounds, a timeout algorithm with sensor data prediction was developed. Experiments were performed to validate the satisfactory performance of this algorithm in the presence of the bonded sporadic excessive time delays

Internet of Things and its enhanced data security

The Internet of Things (IoT), an emerging global Internet-based technical architecture facilitating the exchange of information, goods and services in the internet world has an impact on the security and privacy of the involved stakeholders. Measures ensuring the architectures resilience to attacks, data authentication, and access control and client privacy need to be established. This paper includes a survey of IoT and various security issues related to it. Furthermore, out of all security issues, concern over data authentication and transfer is taken into consideration. Here we will discuss the idea for two levels of security in form of two different approaches i.e. Advance Encryption Standards (AES) and the Steganography approach via an image and the simulating of these two logics in the MATLAB

Sulfido-bridged 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) appended trinuclear nickel(II) clusters:Crystallographic and computational analyses

The cluster compounds are still gaining considerable attention due to their peculiar behaviour and M−M bonding or M···M interactions. In this report, two sufido-bridged, 1,2-bis-(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) appended trinuclear Ni(II) clusters having formula [Ni3S2(dppe)3].2BPh4 (Ni3S2-1) and [Ni3S2(dppe)2(4-pyCH2OH)2].2PF6 (Ni3S2-2) are reported. These clusters are synthesized from the same starting reactants the xanthate ligand 4-PyCH2OCS2Na, Ni(II) and dppe employing two different reaction pathways. The obtained compounds have been characterized by microanalyses, FTIR, UV–Vis, 1H, 13C and 31P NMR spectroscopy as well as by single crystal X-ray diffraction technique. The X-ray analyses revealed that in both compounds three Ni(II) centers are coordinated to two sulfido and dppe ligands. In Ni3S2-1 three dppe and two sulfido ligands are stabilising the trinuclar cluster cation while in Ni3S2-2 along with two sulfido and two dppe ligands, two 4-pyCH2OH are also coordinating with one of the Ni(II) center. Both Ni3S2-1 and Ni3S2-2 display different non-covalent interactions along with the Ni···Ni interactions. The nature of these interactions has been addressed with the aid of Hirshfeld surface analysis, density functional theory and quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) analyses. The occurrence of such non-covalent intermolecular interactions is also well supported by the non-covalent interactions reduced density gradient (NCI-RDG) approaches. Also, the Wiberg bond index, Mayer bond order and delocalization indices have been calculated to assess the nature of Ni···Ni interactions.</p

Sulfido-bridged 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) appended trinuclear nickel(II) clusters:Crystallographic and computational analyses

The cluster compounds are still gaining considerable attention due to their peculiar behaviour and M−M bonding or M···M interactions. In this report, two sufido-bridged, 1,2-bis-(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) appended trinuclear Ni(II) clusters having formula [Ni3S2(dppe)3].2BPh4 (Ni3S2-1) and [Ni3S2(dppe)2(4-pyCH2OH)2].2PF6 (Ni3S2-2) are reported. These clusters are synthesized from the same starting reactants the xanthate ligand 4-PyCH2OCS2Na, Ni(II) and dppe employing two different reaction pathways. The obtained compounds have been characterized by microanalyses, FTIR, UV–Vis, 1H, 13C and 31P NMR spectroscopy as well as by single crystal X-ray diffraction technique. The X-ray analyses revealed that in both compounds three Ni(II) centers are coordinated to two sulfido and dppe ligands. In Ni3S2-1 three dppe and two sulfido ligands are stabilising the trinuclar cluster cation while in Ni3S2-2 along with two sulfido and two dppe ligands, two 4-pyCH2OH are also coordinating with one of the Ni(II) center. Both Ni3S2-1 and Ni3S2-2 display different non-covalent interactions along with the Ni···Ni interactions. The nature of these interactions has been addressed with the aid of Hirshfeld surface analysis, density functional theory and quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) analyses. The occurrence of such non-covalent intermolecular interactions is also well supported by the non-covalent interactions reduced density gradient (NCI-RDG) approaches. Also, the Wiberg bond index, Mayer bond order and delocalization indices have been calculated to assess the nature of Ni···Ni interactions.</p

The journey of F1000Research since inception: through bibliometric analysis [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Background: Bibliometric analysis is an approach adopted by researchers to understand the various analytics such as year-wise publications, their citations, most impactful authors and their contributions, identification of emerging keywords, multiple themes (niche, motor, basic, and emerging or declining) etc. F1000Research is one of the Q1 category journals that publishes articles in various domains, but a detailed journal analysis is yet to be done. Methods: This study is an effort to extract the F1000Research journey information through bibliometric analysis using VOS-viewer and Biblioshiny (R-studio) interface. The F1000Research journal started its journey in 2012; since then, 5767 articles have been published until the end of 2022. Most of the published articles are from medical science, covering Biochemistry, Genetics & Molecular Biology, Immunology & Pharmacology, Toxicology & Pharmaceutics. To understand the research journey, various analyses such as publication & citation trends, leading authors, institutions, countries, most frequent keywords, bibliographic coupling between authors, countries and documents, emerging research themes, and trending keywords were performed. Results: The United States is the biggest contributor, and COVID-19 is the most commonly occurred keyword. Conclusions: The present study may help future researchers to understand the emerging medical science domain. It will also help the editors and journal to focus more on developing or emerging areas and to understand their importance towards society. Future researchers can contribute their quality research studies, focusing on emerging themes. These authors’ research can guide future researchers to develop their research area around the most impacted articles. They can collaborate with them to bring that emerging theme forward

New di-n-butyltin(iv)-bis-(1-alkoxy-isoquinoline-4-nitrile thiolate):crystallographic and computational studies

The reaction between di-n-butyltin(iv) chloride with the dinegative dithiolate ligand 2-(cyanobenzo)nitrile-dithiolate in two different alcoholic media viz. methyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol fortuitously yielded di-n-butyltin(iv)-bis-(1-methoxy-isoquinoline-4-nitrile thiolate) (Sn-Me) and di-n-butyltin(iv)-bis-(1-ethoxy-isoquinoline-4-nitrile thiolate) (Sn-Et). Similarly the reaction of di-n-butyltin(iv) chloride with 2-methoxy phenyl acetonitrile dithiolate yielded di-n-butyltin(iv)-2-methoxy phenyl acetonitrile dithiolate (2-MeCN-Sn). These compounds have been characterized by micro analyses, IR, UV-vis, 1H, 13C and 119Sn NMR spectroscopy as well as by single crystal X-ray diffraction technique in case of Sn-Et, Sn-Me. The X-ray analyses revealed that in both Sn-Me and Sn-Et, the Sn(iv) center adopts a skew trapezoidal bipyramidal geometry with Sn at the centre and two sulfur and two ring nitrogen atoms of 1-alkoxy-isoquinoline-4-nitrile thiolates are at the corners of a trapezoid with two n-butyl groups adopting axial positions resembling the cis-trans pathway. Both Sn-Me and Sn-Et display varied types of non-covalent interactions. The nature of these interactions has been addressed with the aid of Hirshfeld surface analysis, density functional theory and quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) analyses.</p