Design of a simple reliable voter for modular redundancy implementations

This article deals with modeling and design of a new fault-tolerant voter circuit. Majority voted redundancy is increasingly implemented in fault-tolerant design today. A voter is used in these implementations to determine a possibly correct result through the majority vote. The reliability of the voter circuit should be much higher than that of the other circuit elements; otherwise it will wipe out the gains of the redundancy scheme. Since almost all the circuit elements are fabricated with the same technology, the voter circuit itself needs to be fault-tolerant. In this paper, we present a novel fault-tolerant voter circuit design with a simple structure, so that it can easily be used for N-modular redundancy implementations as well as for systems with more than a single bit output.Tento článek se zabývá modelováním a návrhem hlasovacího obvodu - voliče - systémů odolných poruchám. Hlasovací obvod je i dnes stále používaným modulem při konstrukci systémů odolných poruchám. Volič se v těchto implementacích používá pro zjištění správného výsledku na základě hlasovací funkce. Spolehlivost hlasovacího obvodu by měla být mnohem vyšší než ostatních prvků obvodu, protože v opačném případě znemožní využití efektu redundance. Protože téměř všechny obvodové prvky jsou vyráběny stejnou technologií, musí být hlasovací obvod vysoce odolný proti chybám. V tomto článku představíme novou metodu návrhu jednoduchého hlasovacího obvodu odolného poruchám, který lze snadno použít jak pro realizaci N-cestné redundance, tak i pro systémy s více než jedním výstupem

Defending Against the Advanced Persistent Threat: Detection of Disguised Executable Files

Abstract Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) is one of the most serious types of cyber attacks, which is a new and more complex version of multi-step attack. Within the APT life cycle, the most common technique used to get the point of entry is spear-phishing emails which may contain disguised executable files. This paper presents the disguised executable file detection (DeFD) module, which aims at detecting disguised exe files transferred over the connections. The detection is based on a comparison between the MIME type of the transferred file and the file name extension. This module was experimentally evaluated and the results show successful detection of disguised executable files

Digital two-parametric processing of the output data from radiation detectors

In this paper, we present the results of digital processing of pulses produced by several types of detectors. We introduce a new high quality discrimination method, and the output from this new method is compared with those from classic methods. Also, a new function to determine separation quality of various discrimination methods is defined in this paper. Our results show how the quality of the particle type identification depends on the sampling rate as well as the method of sampled data processing

Digital Spectrometric System for Characterization of Mixed Neutron – Gamma Field in the Experimental Reactor LR-0

LR-0 reactor is an experimental reactor in NRI Rez, Czech Republic. So far an analog apparatus was used for measurements of the space-energy distribution of the neutron gamma mixed field inside the reactor vessel. Recently we measured in LR-0 with fully digital apparatus using Agilent digitizer and compared our results with older established results from analog apparatus and also with MCNP calculations

Digital Spectrometric System for Characterization of Mixed Neutron – Gamma Field in the Experimental Reactor LR-0

LR-0 reactor is an experimental reactor in NRI Rez, Czech Republic. So far an analog apparatus was used for measurements of the space-energy distribution of the neutron gamma mixed field inside the reactor vessel. Recently we measured in LR-0 with fully digital apparatus using Agilent digitizer and compared our results with older established results from analog apparatus and also with MCNP calculations

BotDet: A System for Real Time Botnet Command and Control Traffic Detection

Over the past decade, the digitization of services transformed the healthcare sector leading to a sharp rise in cybersecurity threats. Poor cybersecurity in the healthcare sector, coupled with high value of patient records attracted the attention of hackers. Sophisticated advanced persistent threats and malware have significantly contributed to increasing risks to the health sector. Many recent attacks are attributed to the spread of malicious software, e.g., ransomware or bot malware. Machines infected with bot malware can be used as tools for remote attack or even cryptomining. This paper presents a novel approach, called BotDet, for botnet Command and Control (C&C) traffic detection to defend against malware attacks in critical ultrastructure systems. There are two stages in the development of the proposed sytsem: (i) we have developed four detection modules to detect different possible techniques used in botnet C&C communications; (ii) we have designed a correlation framework to reduce the rate of false alarms raised by individual detection modules. Evaluation results show that BotDet balances the true positive rate and the false positive rate with 82.3% and 13.6% respectively. Furthermore, it proves BotDet capability of real time detection

Perspective liquid scintillators for spectrometry of neutron and gamma radiation

This paper presents some results of the development of two new scintillation detectors usable for the detection and spectrometry of neutron and photon components of the mixed field. It is a series of liquid organic scintillators containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. Elements of individual scintillator designs are arranged in various chemical bonds defining physical and chemical properties of the scintillators. These scintillators have advantageous useful properties. They are non-hygroscopic, not poisonous and are not sensitive to contact with the outside atmosphere and can be stored in conventional laboratory containers

Security Threats to Critical Infrastructure: The Human Factor

In the 21st century, globalisation made corporate boundaries invisible and difficult to manage. This new macroeconomic transformation caused by globalisation introduced new challenges for critical infrastructure management. By replacing manual tasks with automated decision making and sophisticated technology, no doubt we feel much more secure than half a century ago. As the technological advancement takes root, so does the maturity of security threats. It is common that today’s critical infrastructures are operated by non-computer experts, e.g., nurses in healthcare, soldiers in military or firefighters in emergency services. In such challenging applications, protecting against insider attacks is often neither feasible nor economically possible, but these threats can be managed using suitable risk management strategies. Security technologies, e.g., firewalls, help protect data assets and computer systems against unauthorised entry. However, one area which is often largely ignored is the human factor of system security. Through social engineering techniques, malicious attackers are able to breach organisational security via people interactions. This paper presents a security awareness training framework, which can be used to train operators of critical infrastructure, on various social engineering security threats such as spear phishing, baiting, pretexting, amongst others

Perspective liquid scintillators for spectrometry of neutron and gamma radiation

This paper presents some results of the development of two new scintillation detectors usable for the detection and spectrometry of neutron and photon components of the mixed field. It is a series of liquid organic scintillators containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. Elements of individual scintillator designs are arranged in various chemical bonds defining physical and chemical properties of the scintillators. These scintillators have advantageous useful properties. They are non-hygroscopic, not poisonous and are not sensitive to contact with the outside atmosphere and can be stored in conventional laboratory containers