Psychosocial Risks: can their effects on the Security of Information Systems really be ignored?

A psychosocial risk at the workplace is a well-researched subject from a managerial and organizational point of view. However, the relation of psychosocial risks to Information Security has not been formally studied to the extent required by the gravity of the topic. An attempt is made to highlight the nature of psychosocial risks and provide examples of their effects on Information Security. The foundation is thus set for methodologies of assessment and mitigation and suggestions are made on future research directions.Institute for Corporate Citizenshi

Cybersecurity Economics - Induced Risks, Latent Costs and Possible Controls

Financial decisions indirectly affect and are affected by the effort towards Information Security. The 'Economics of Cybersecurity' should thus constitute a significant part of the Information Security Posture Assessment process and should be directly addressed in this context. As the complexity and interdependency of Information Systems augments and new technologies lead to the de-materialization of Information Systems assets, it becomes progressively evident that the conflicting interests and incentives of the various stakeholders of an Information System affect its overall Information Security Posture, perhaps even more significantly than technical or policy limitations do. This paper examines economic considerations from an Information Systems Security/Cybersecurity viewpoint and proposes new directions that may both help reduce the problem from a collective point of view, as well as lead to the creation of methodologies to ultimately integrate economics, along with technical and non-technical issues, into an Organisation's Information Security Posture Assessment process.Institute for Corporate Citizenshi

Agents, security and ethics: a framework for analysis

The domain of information security research is no longer exclusively of a technological nature as it has become permeated with aspects of human behaviour. Similarly the broad field of ethics is no longer only a human issue, as is reflected by the establishment of computing ethics as a separate research area. Advances in the past decade have led to the emergence of among others, new technologies, frameworks and methodologies in the field of computing. Examples include the Internet, global connectivity and agent technology - in particular intelligent agents. The attribute intelligentbrings with it a concomitant human characteristic that is assigned to an inanimate technological object. It is even plausible to think of communities of intelligent agents, inhabiting cyberspace, interacting with other agents, human users and hosts, and in this way developing a social life. This raises issues concerning information security as well as the ethical and social behaviour of intelligent agents. In this paper we thus briefly discuss agent computing and its impact on the environment in which it exists. In particular we focus on some relevant security and ethical issues associated with agent computing. The purpose of the paper is to present a framework within which the security and ethical behaviour of agents can be evaluated and analysed.Institute for Corporate Citizenshi

Fate of Salmonella Typhimurium in laboratory-scale drinking water biofilms

Investigations were carried out to evaluate and quantify colonization of laboratory-scale drinking water biofilms by a chromosomally green fluorescent protein (gfp)-tagged strain of Salmonella Typhimurium. Gfp encodes the green fluorescent protein and thus allows in situ detection of undisturbed cells and is ideally suited for monitoring Salmonella in biofilms. The fate and persistence of non-typhoidal Salmonella in simulated drinking water biofilms was investigated. The ability of Salmonella to form biofilms in monoculture and the fate and persistence of Salmonella in a mixed aquatic biofilm was examined. In monoculture S. Typhimurium formed loosely structured biofilms. Salmonella colonized established multi-species drinking water biofilms within 24 hours, forming micro-colonies within the biofilm. S. Typhimurium was also released at high levels from the drinking water-associated biofilm into the water passing through the system. This indicated that Salmonella could enter into, survive and grow within, and be released from a drinking water biofilm. The ability of Salmonella to survive and persist in a drinking water biofilm, and be released at high levels into the flow for recolonization elsewhere, indicates the potential for a persistent health risk to consumers once a network becomes contaminated with this bacterium.This research was supported by a grant from the Water Research Commission of South Africa (WRC K5/1276) to VSB and SNV, and National Research Foundation (NRF) grant 2046811 to VSB. LMS was supported by a scholarship from the NRF of South Africa.http://www.iwaponline.com/jwh/default.htmhb201

Global extent and drivers of mammal population declines in protected areas under illegal hunting pressure

Illegal hunting is a persistent problem in many protected areas, but an overview of the extent of this problem and its impact on wildlife is lacking. We reviewed 40 years (1980–2020) of global research to examine the spatial distribution of research and socio-ecological factors influencing population decline within protected areas under illegal hunting pressure. From 81 papers reporting 988 species/site combinations, 294 mammal species were reported to have been illegally hunted from 155 protected areas across 48 countries. Research in illegal hunting has increased substantially during the review period and showed biases towards strictly protected areas and the African continent. Population declines were most frequent in countries with a low human development index, particularly in strict protected areas and for species with a body mass over 100 kg. Our results provide evidence that illegal hunting is most likely to cause declines of large-bodied species in protected areas of resource-poor countries regardless of protected area conservation status. Given the growing pressures of illegal hunting, increased investments in people’s development and additional conservation efforts such as improving anti-poaching strategies and conservation resources in terms of improving funding and personnel directed at this problem are a growing priority

A low level of extragalactic background light as revealed by big gamma-rays from blazars

The diffuse extragalactic background light consists of the sum of the starlight emitted by galaxies through the history of the Universe, and it could also have an important contribution from the 'first stars', which may have formed before galaxy formation began. Direct measurements are difficult and not yet conclusive, owing to the large uncertainties caused by the bright foreground emission associated with zodiacal light1. An alternative approach2, 3, 4, 5 is to study the absorption features imprinted on the -ray spectra of distant extragalactic objects by interactions of those photons with the background light photons6. Here we report the discovery of -ray emission from the blazars7 H 2356 - 309 and 1ES 1101 - 232, at redshifts z = 0.165 and z = 0.186, respectively. Their unexpectedly hard spectra provide an upper limit on the background light at optical/near-infrared wavelengths that appears to be very close to the lower limit given by the integrated light of resolved galaxies8. The background flux at these wavelengths accordingly seems to be strongly dominated by the direct starlight from galaxies, thus excluding a large contribution from other sources—in particular from the first stars formed9. This result also indicates that intergalactic space is more transparent to -rays than previously thought

Training future generations to deliver evidence-based conservation and ecosystem management

1. To be effective, the next generation of conservation practitioners and managers need to be critical thinkers with a deep understanding of how to make evidence-based decisions and of the value of evidence synthesis. 2. If, as educators, we do not make these priorities a core part of what we teach, we are failing to prepare our students to make an effective contribution to conservation practice. 3. To help overcome this problem we have created open access online teaching materials in multiple languages that are stored in Applied Ecology Resources. So far, 117 educators from 23 countries have acknowledged the importance of this and are already teaching or about to teach skills in appraising or using evidence in conservation decision-making. This includes 145 undergraduate, postgraduate or professional development courses. 4. We call for wider teaching of the tools and skills that facilitate evidence-based conservation and also suggest that providing online teaching materials in multiple languages could be beneficial for improving global understanding of other subject areas.Peer reviewe

Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology

notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations

Construction and evaluation of a gfp-tagged Salmonella Typhimurium strain for environmental applications

Salmonella enterica ser. Typhimurium was isolated from freshwater sediments and chromosomally labelled with a stable variant of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). The pUT mini-Tn5 Km transposon was used to introduce the gfp gene onto the chromosome of the S. Typhimurium strain by tri-parental mating. Southern Blot hybridisation confirmed that the gene had integrated into the chromosome. The gfp gene was stably maintained and the labelled strain was not growth-rate impaired. The incorporation of the gfp gene did not convey any significant loss of phenotype which would affect the survival and behaviour of the tagged strains. The tagged S. Typhimurium strain was used to spike an established drinking water biofilm and was able to colonise and persist within the biofilm. The tagged strain was also successfully used to study the survival of S. Typhimurium in natural sediments under different temperatures. These tagged strains can therefore be used to study the fate and survival of different Salmonella strains in water environments