Implementation and evaluation of a botnet analysis and detection method in a virtual environment

Botnets are one of the biggest cyber threats. Botnets based on concepts that used for the development of malware or viruses before origin of the Internet in 1990s. Botnet is a form of malware controlled by a Botmaster using Command and Control (C&C). Since emerging of one of the first botnets PrettyPark in 1999, it has been a significant enhancement in last decade for botnet development techniques by hackers. Botnets of current age are with features such as P2P architecture, encrypted traffic, use of different protocols, stealth techniques and spreading through social networking websites such as Facebook and Bebo. With enhancements in botnet development, the objectives of cyber criminals advanced to get financial as well. ZeuS is one of the well known botnets of current with a main target is to get the financial gain. It uses advanced botnet techniques such as encrypted traffic, use of HTTP protocol and stealth techniques to hide itself from the OS. Overall objective of this thesis is application of botnet analysis and detection techniques on ZeuS bot to demonstrate that how these techniques are applicable to other modern botnets such as KoobFace, Torpig, and Kelihos etc. ZeuS code leaked in May 2011 to open the doors for hackers to utilise techniques used by ZeuS to develop new bots and for researchers to learn the internal working of one of the modern botnet of the current age. In this thesis, “ZeuS toolkit with Control Panel (CP)” is used. It contains tools to create a ZeuS bot executable with user defined configuration and ZeuS Control Panel (CP) developed in PHP and MySql, to install on a machine to act as a ZeuS “C&C server”. Ethically, according to “CSSR: British Computer Society Code of Conduct”, ZeuS botnet analysis is performed in a virtual environment with two machines i.e. “Bot victim with HIDS (Host Based Intrusion Detection System)” and “C&C server” that are isolated from host machine running VMware and the Internet. Bot executed to infect “Bot victim” machine with ZeuS bot to convert it into a “zombie” being controlled by “C&C server” machine running ZeuS Control Panel (CP). ZeuS bot analysis performed in three layers i.e. binary, application and communication layer. On binary layer analysis, reverse engineering tools used to reverse engineer the ZeuS executable to explore its internal. ZeuS reversed engineered C++ code by REC was not in a meaningful form. It indicates that ZeuS binary obfuscated using some algorithm. Only basic information i.e. version and header information for ZeuS bot executable could be found using PE Explorer tool. On application layer, during ZeuS bot execution, all activities related to threads/process, file system (.dll files accessed and files created) and registry changes captured using Procmon. Important information captured by Procmon is creation of a copy of bot executable (sdra64.exe) and data file “user.ds” created in windows subfolder “/system32” and in registry “Userinit” key modified by ZeuS to enable the ZeuS execution before Windows GUI appears (execution of Explorer.exe). On communication layer, packets during bot synchronisation with botmaster and bot commands sent by “C&C server” to “Bot victim” captured for to create rules for HIDS for signature based detection on “Bot victim”. These rules implemented and raised alarm as expected successfully. Anomaly based detection requires “learning” or profiling that requires interaction of machine on Internet. Ethically it is not possible in isolated virtual environment. DNS based detection and process to reveal a “rootkit” that modifies MBR (master boot record) of the hard disk, is not applicable for ZeuS analysis. Literature review of this thesis covers all aspects of botnet analysis and detection techniques regardless of that they are not applicable in this project ethically or ZeuS bot does not support them. Objective of providing this information is to give an overview of all analysis and detection techniques that are applicable to the modern botnets of current age

Investigating the Syntactic Features in the Novel My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani

The study entitled “Investigating the Syntactic Features in the Novel My Feudal Lord” aims at describing syntactic devices used in the novel “My Feudal Lord”. This study was conducted using a textual analysis method. This research is based on a mixed research method as it involves qualitative collection of data and then the data is analyzed quantitatively to find out the dominant feature among all syntactic features. For this purpose, the researcher has used the software SPSS to perform descriptive statistics tests on syntactic features. The theoretical framework for this research is I.R. Galperin’s book “Stylistics”. Part five “Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices” (Galperin, 1977) of this book is taken as a model for this research. For this purpose, the researcher has selected nine samples of 10 pages each from the pdf file of the book “My Feudal Lord” available on the internet. The novel “My Feudal Lord” used eight types of syntactic features i.e. inversion, parallelism, aposiopesis, ellipsis, repetition, asyndeton, polysyndeton, and rhetorical question. These features performed some major functions in the novel. The syntactical devices most frequently used by the writers of the novel “My Feudal Lord” is a parallelism with a mean value of 29.33 and inversion (13.22) and the least frequently used devices are asyndeton (0.78) and aposiopesis (0.33). By using parallelism, the novelist draws the reader’s attention to focus on the content of the novel.  Keywords: Stylistics, Syntax, Mixed Research&nbsp

A Comparative Study of the Use of Language in the Selected Poems of William Wordsworth and M. Athar Tahir

This research paper aims to make a comparative stylistic analysis of the selected poems of William Wordsworth and Pakistani Poet M. Athar Tahir. The researcher has made a stylistic analysis to acknowledge the use of style on the four levels lexical, grammatical, figure of speech, cohesion, and context suggested by Leech and Short (2007) in their book ‘Style in Fiction’. The study's main concern is to analyze and compare the style adopted by the two diverse poets who share a common love for nature. Keywords: Style, Stylistic and Stylistic Analysi

High Involvement Management and Employees Performance Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to augment the existing literature on the relationship between high involvement management and Employee job performance with the mediating effect of job satisfaction in the banking sector. Based on the available literature a conceptual framework was designed to study the relationship. The conceptual framework is composed on independent variable high involvement management practices, dependent variable employee performance and the mediating variable job satisfaction. Adopted questionnaires of (Takeuchi et al., 2007, (Judge, 2006) and (Hochwarter, 2006) for measuring High Involvement Management, Job Satisfaction and Individual Employee Job Performance respectively were used to collect the data. Overall the response rate was 71.3%. Correlation analysis, simple linear regression and step wise regression were used to test out the hypotheses. Results obtained were consistent with the previous research studies conducted i.e. there was a strong association of high involvement management with employees performance and similarly job satisfaction was having significant relationship with employee performance. Similarly from the regression analysis the effect of independent variable was found significant on mediator as well as dependent variable. Moreover full mediation was predicted from stepwise regression. The study has investigated the relationship as well as the level of employees performance, job satisfaction and high involvement management practices was calculated which shows the current performance of the organization, hence this research study can be used as a guide, for the management of the banking sector, to utilize its findings in order to stress the problems of employees and increase their productivity. Key words : performance management, job satisfaction, High involvement managemen

Executive remuneration, corporate governance and corporate performance: Evidence from China

This study investigates the impact of corporate performance and corporate governance on executive remuneration in a Chinese market setting. Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation approach for a sample of 860 non-financial firms listed on Chinese Stock Exchanges over the 15 years period of 2004–2018, the study found a positive and significant association between corporate profitability and executive pay. The study further reports that ownership concentration is positively related to executive pay revealing an entrenchment effect i.e., collusion between large shareholders and top management. Consistent with managerial power and agency theory CEO duality exhibits a positive relationship with executive remuneration, while board size and board independence also reveal a positive association with executive pay, indicating board ineffectiveness in reducing managerial entrenchment. Interestingly, non-state-owned enterprises report a negative relationship of board size with executive remuneration which means non-state-owned enterprises with larger board size tend to reduce executive pay because they may have better control and monitoring. Following the managerial power propositions, CEO duality weakens the performance sensitivity of executive pay, but contrary to agency theory the impact of board independence on this sensitivity is in contrast and weakens the relationship of managerial pay and performance, making the independent director’s role ambiguous

Mass transfer efficiency of a tall and low plate free area liquid pulsed sieve-plate extraction column

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge Chakwal group of industries for funding the project. Ms. Madiha, Ms. Zona, Mr. Sohaib, Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Mudassar, and Mr. Salahuddin also deserve our acknowledgements for their assistance in different ways.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

EFFECTIVE INTENSITY OF EXERCISE FOR IMPROVING THE MODIFIABLE RISK FACTORS OF CVD IN OVERWEIGHT ADULT MALES

The leading cause of death is CVD worldwide. Physical activity has been labeled as the single most important modifiable risk factor that alters majority of the other risk factors. However, the existing literature about the effective intensity of exercise to influence other modifiable risk factors is obscure and contradictory. Therefore, this study is aimed to find out the effective exercise intensity beneficial enough to influence the other modifiable risk factors. Methodology:After ethical approval and written informed consent 20 male overweight and apparently healthy participants, (age = 31 ± 6.1 years) were recruited. Participants attended the lab for 4 days one week apart. On day 1, height, weight,  blood pressure,  heart rate,  waist and hip circumference, and body composition was measured using Tinnita body analyzer was measured. Based on submaximal exercise testing the intensity for 50%, 60% and 70% of the predicted maximum heart rates were calculated. On subsequent visits, blood samples for fasting sugar, fasting lipid and insulin were taken. The participants performed exercise test on the treadmill as per calculated intensity for 30mins. Exercise induced thermogenesis and substrate metabolism was calculated using breath by breath analyzer. Post exercise blood sampling for lipid, blood sugar and insulin were taken immediately after intervention. Results: A dose response relationship of exercise with majority of the parameters was found. Exercise intensity of 60% and above were found to be significantly influencing the other modifiable risk factors including cholesterol (0.04 & <0.001), HDL (0.03), Triglyceride (0.023 & <0.01), insulin (0.12 & 0.05) and blood sugar level (0.02 & 0.001). Conclusion: Exercise intensity need to be in the influential range for affecting the other modifiable risk factors. If well planned even a single bout of exercise can be proved beneficial and add towards prevention of CVDs

Management of penetrating brain injury

Penetrating brain injury (PBI), though less prevalent than closed head trauma, carries a worse prognosis. The publication of Guidelines for the Management of Penetrating Brain Injury in 2001, attempted to standardize the management of PBI. This paper provides a precise and updated account of the medical and surgical management of these unique injuries which still present a significant challenge to practicing neurosurgeons worldwide. The management algorithms presented in this document are based on Guidelines for the Management of Penetrating Brain Injury and the recommendations are from literature published after 2001. Optimum management of PBI requires adequate comprehension of mechanism and pathophysiology of injury. Based on current evidence, we recommend computed tomography scanning as the neuroradiologic modality of choice for PBI Patients. Cerebral angiography is recommended in Patients with PBI, where there is a high suspicion of vascular injury. It is still debatable whether craniectomy or craniotomy is the best approach in PBI Patients. The recent trend is toward a less aggressive debridement of deep-seated bone and missile fragments and a more aggressive antibiotic prophylaxis in an effort to improve outcomes. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks are common in PBI Patients and surgical correction is recommended for those which do not close spontaneously or are refractory to CSF diversion through a ventricular or lumbar drain. The risk of post-traumatic epilepsy after PBI is high, and therefore, the use of prophylactic anticonvulsants is recommended. Advanced age, suicide attempts, associated coagulopathy, Glasgow coma scale score of 3 with bilaterally fixed and dilated pupils, and high initial intracranial pressure have been correlated with worse outcomes in PBI Patients

Advances in the synthesis and application of anti-fouling membranes using two-dimensional nanomaterials

This article provides a comprehensive review of the recent progress in the application of advanced two-dimensional nanomaterials (2DNMs) in membranes fabrication and application for water purification. The membranes fouling, its types, and anti-fouling mechanisms of different 2DNMs containing membrane systems are also discussed. The developments in membrane synthesis and modification using 2DNMs, especially graphene and graphene family materials, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), MXenes, and others are critically reviewed. Further, the application potential of next-generation 2DNMs-based membranes in water/wastewater treatment systems is surveyed. Finally, the current problems and future opportunities of applying 2DNMs for anti-fouling membranes are also debated