Experiences with Establishment of a Multi-University Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense

The National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in response to an unmet workforce need for cybersecurity program graduates, jointly sponsor a program by which a post-secondary education institution may achieve recognition as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense (CAE IA/CD). The program identifies standards, criteria, and an evaluation process. Many individual institutions have achieved recognition. The University of Maine System, composed of seven universities, is the first multi-university entity to achieve the CAE IA/CD recognition. The purpose of this paper is to share the key challenges, opportunities, and experiences that contributed to this achievement, and offer recommendations

Qubit-Qutrit Separability-Probability Ratios

Paralleling our recent computationally-intensive (quasi-Monte Carlo) work for the case N=4 (quant-ph/0308037), we undertake the task for N=6 of computing to high numerical accuracy, the formulas of Sommers and Zyczkowski (quant-ph/0304041) for the (N^2-1)-dimensional volume and (N^2-2)-dimensional hyperarea of the (separable and nonseparable) N x N density matrices, based on the Bures (minimal monotone) metric -- and also their analogous formulas (quant-ph/0302197) for the (non-monotone) Hilbert-Schmidt metric. With the same seven billion well-distributed (``low-discrepancy'') sample points, we estimate the unknown volumes and hyperareas based on five additional (monotone) metrics of interest, including the Kubo-Mori and Wigner-Yanase. Further, we estimate all of these seven volume and seven hyperarea (unknown) quantities when restricted to the separable density matrices. The ratios of separable volumes (hyperareas) to separable plus nonseparable volumes (hyperareas) yield estimates of the separability probabilities of generically rank-six (rank-five) density matrices. The (rank-six) separability probabilities obtained based on the 35-dimensional volumes appear to be -- independently of the metric (each of the seven inducing Haar measure) employed -- twice as large as those (rank-five ones) based on the 34-dimensional hyperareas. Accepting such a relationship, we fit exact formulas to the estimates of the Bures and Hilbert-Schmidt separable volumes and hyperareas.(An additional estimate -- 33.9982 -- of the ratio of the rank-6 Hilbert-Schmidt separability probability to the rank-4 one is quite clearly close to integral too.) The doubling relationship also appears to hold for the N=4 case for the Hilbert-Schmidt metric, but not the others. We fit exact formulas for the Hilbert-Schmidt separable volumes and hyperareas.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figures, 11 tables, final PRA version, new last paragraph presenting qubit-qutrit probability ratios disaggregated by the two distinct forms of partial transpositio

Hilbert-Schmidt Separability Probabilities and Noninformativity of Priors

The Horodecki family employed the Jaynes maximum-entropy principle, fitting the mean (b_{1}) of the Bell-CHSH observable (B). This model was extended by Rajagopal by incorporating the dispersion (\sigma_{1}^2) of the observable, and by Canosa and Rossignoli, by generalizing the observable (B_{\alpha}). We further extend the Horodecki one-parameter model in both these manners, obtaining a three-parameter (b_{1},\sigma_{1}^2,\alpha) two-qubit model, for which we find a highly interesting/intricate continuum (-\infty < \alpha < \infty) of Hilbert-Schmidt (HS) separability probabilities -- in which, the golden ratio is featured. Our model can be contrasted with the three-parameter (b_{q}, \sigma_{q}^2,q) one of Abe and Rajagopal, which employs a q(Tsallis)-parameter rather than $\alpha$, and has simply q-invariant HS separability probabilities of 1/2. Our results emerge in a study initially focused on embedding certain information metrics over the two-level quantum systems into a q-framework. We find evidence that Srednicki's recently-stated biasedness criterion for noninformative priors yields rankings of priors fully consistent with an information-theoretic test of Clarke, previously applied to quantum systems by Slater.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figure

Learning automata with side-effects

Automata learning has been successfully applied in the verification of hardware and software. The size of the automaton model learned is a bottleneck for scalability, and hence optimizations that enable learning of compact representations are important. This paper exploits monads, both as a mathematical structure and a programming construct, to design and prove correct a wide class of such optimizations. Monads enable the development of a new learning algorithm and correctness proofs, building upon a general framework for automata learning based on category theory. The new algorithm is parametric on a monad, which provides a rich algebraic structure to capture non-determinism and other side-effects. We show that this allows us to uniformly capture existing algorithms, develop new ones, and add optimizations

Differential information in large games with strategic complementarities

We study equilibrium in large games of strategic complementarities (GSC) with differential information. We define an appropriate notion of distributional Bayesian Nash equilibrium and prove its existence. Furthermore, we characterize order-theoretic properties of the equilibrium set, provide monotone comparative statics for ordered perturbations of the space of games, and provide explicit algorithms for computing extremal equilibria. We complement the paper with new results on the existence of Bayesian Nash equilibrium in the sense of Balder and Rustichini (J Econ Theory 62(2):385–393, 1994) or Kim and Yannelis (J Econ Theory 77(2):330–353, 1997) for large GSC and provide an analogous characterization of the equilibrium set as in the case of distributional Bayesian Nash equilibrium. Finally, we apply our results to riot games, beauty contests, and common value auctions. In all cases, standard existence and comparative statics tools in the theory of supermodular games for finite numbers of agents do not apply in general, and new constructions are required

Survey of Supercomputer Cluster Security Issues

Abstract- The authors believe that providing security for supercomputer clusters is different from providing security for stand-alone PCs. The types of programs that supercomputer clusters run and the sort of data available on supercomputer clusters are fundamentally different from the programs and data found on stand-alone PCs. This situation might attract a different type of attacker with different goals and different tactics. This paper discusses the results of a questionnaire sent out to many supercomputer clusters in the United States and relates them to a literature search that was also undertaken. These results suggest approaches that can be taken to further secure supercomputer clusters