Continuous touchscreen biometrics: authentication and privacy concerns

In the age of instant communication, smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives, with a significant portion of the population using them for a variety of tasks such as messaging, banking, and even recording sensitive health information. However, the increasing reliance on smartphones has also made them a prime target for cybercriminals, who can use various tactics to gain access to our sensitive data. In light of this, it is crucial that individuals and organisations prioritise the security of their smartphones to protect against the abundance of threats around us. While there are dozens of methods to verify the identity of users before granting them access to a device, many of them lack effectiveness in terms of usability and potential vulnerabilities. In this thesis, we aim to advance the field of touchscreen biometrics which promises to alleviate some of the recurring issues. This area of research deals with the use of touch interactions, such as gestures and finger movements, as a means of identifying or authenticating individuals. First, we provide a detailed explanation of the common procedure for evaluating touch-based authentication systems and examine the potential pitfalls and concerns that can arise during this process. The impact of the pitfalls is evaluated and quantified on a newly collected large-scale dataset. We also discuss the prevalence of these issues in the related literature and provide recommendations for best practices when developing continuous touch-based authentication systems. Then we provide a comprehensive overview of the techniques that are commonly used for modelling touch-based authentication, including the various features, classifiers, and aggregation methods that are employed in this field. We compare the approaches under controlled, fair conditions in order to determine the top-performing techniques. Based on our findings, we introduce methods that outperform the current state-of-the-art. Finally, as a conclusion to our advancements in the development of touchscreen authentication technology, we explore any negative effects our work may cause to an ordinary user of mobile websites and applications. In particular, we look into any threats that can affect the privacy of the user, such as tracking them and revealing their personal information based on their behaviour on smartphones

MPSoC Zoom Debugging: A Deterministic Record-Partial Replay Approach

Accepté à EUC'2014International audienceThis work presents a debugging methodology for MPSoC based on deterministic record-replay. We propose a general model of MPSoC and define a debugging cycle targeting errors by applying temporal and spatial selection criteria. The idea behind spatial and temporal selection is to consider not the entire execution of the whole application but replay a part of the application during a specific execution interval. The proposed mechanisms are connected to GDB and allow for a visual representation of the considered part of the trace. The approach is validated on two execution platforms and two multimedia applications

Deterministic Partial Replay for MPSoC Debugging

This work reports on a debugging methodology for MPSoC based on deterministic record-replay. It defines a general model of MPSoC, identifies the major sources for non determinism and selects a set of adapted algorithms for the record and replay of non deterministic errors. The contribution of this work the definition of a debugging cycle targeting errors by applying temporal and spatial selection criteria. is the proposal of and . The idea behind spatial and temporal selection is to consider not the entire execution of the whole application but replay a part of the application during a specific execution interval. The proposed mechanisms are connected to GDB and allow a visual representation of the considered part of the trace. The approach has been validated on two execution platforms and two multimedia applications.Ce rapport présente une méthodologie de débogage pour les systèmes MPSoC basée sur l'enregistrement et la ré-exécution déterministe de traces d'exécution. Ce travail propose un modèle général des systèmes MPSoC, identifie les principales sources de non-déterminisme et propose l'application d'algorithmes adaptés pour l'enregistrement et la ré-exécution d'erreurs non-déterministes. L'originalité du travail réside dans la définition d'un cycle de débogage permettant de cibler la recherche des erreurs en appliquant des critères de sélection spatiale et temporelle. La sélection spatiale consiste à ne considérer qu'une partie de l'application en exécution. La sélection temporelle permet de ne considérer qu'un intervalle spécifique d'exécution. Les mécanismes sont connectées à l'outil de débogage standard GDB tout en fournissant une représentation visuelle de la portion de trace considérée. L'approche est validée sur deux types de plateformes et avec deux applications multimédia

La stimulation magnétique transcrânienne et la stimulation électrique fonctionnelle : des outils émergents au secours des cliniciens

Travail d'intégration présenté à Dorothy Barthélemy en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maîtrise professionnelle en physiothérapieProblématique : Les accidents vasculaires cérébraux (AVC) et les lésions médullaires (LM) sont une cause d’incapacités fonctionnelles majeures, dont la compréhension et le traitement demeurent limités. Parmi les techniques émergentes pouvant améliorer la récupération fonctionnelle des patients, la stimulation magnétique transcrânienne (TMS) et la stimulation électrique fonctionnelle (FES) semblent prometteuses. Objectifs : Décrire la TMS et la FES. Démontrer leur application clinique potentielle. Méthode : Revue de littérature : PubMed, MEDline et PEDro. Résultats : Lors de l’évaluation neurologique, l’utilisation de la TMS permettrait une mesure objective des déficits et une appréciation du pronostic de récupération motrice. Plusieurs études sont en cours pour démontrer la validité et la fiabilité des techniques de stimulation à choc unique et à double choc. Lors du traitement des lésions touchant la voie corticospinale, la TMS permet de moduler l’excitabilité corticale selon deux modes : répétitif ou associée à une stimulation périphérique. Ces paradigmes, combinés au traitement traditionnel, permettraient d’optimiser la récupération motrice et de diminuer la spasticité. Cependant, les résultats des études sont contradictoires quant à l’efficacité de ces approches. Une atteinte de la voie corticospinale peut induire un pied tombant. La FES, déjà utilisée en clinique, adresse ce déficit et permet une augmentation de la vitesse et une diminution de l’effort de marche. Cependant, l’effet thérapeutique de la FES (durée des effets, signification clinique) n’est pas toujours établi. Conclusion : La TMS et la FES représentent des approches nouvelles et prometteuses en réadaptation neurologique qui nécessitent plus d’études pour démontrer leur efficacité thérapeutique

Deterministic Partial Replay for MPSoC Debugging

This work reports on a debugging methodology for MPSoC based on deterministic record-replay. It defines a general model of MPSoC, identifies the major sources for non determinism and selects a set of adapted algorithms for the record and replay of non deterministic errors. The contribution of this work the definition of a debugging cycle targeting errors by applying temporal and spatial selection criteria. is the proposal of and . The idea behind spatial and temporal selection is to consider not the entire execution of the whole application but replay a part of the application during a specific execution interval. The proposed mechanisms are connected to GDB and allow a visual representation of the considered part of the trace. The approach has been validated on two execution platforms and two multimedia applications.Ce rapport présente une méthodologie de débogage pour les systèmes MPSoC basée sur l'enregistrement et la ré-exécution déterministe de traces d'exécution. Ce travail propose un modèle général des systèmes MPSoC, identifie les principales sources de non-déterminisme et propose l'application d'algorithmes adaptés pour l'enregistrement et la ré-exécution d'erreurs non-déterministes. L'originalité du travail réside dans la définition d'un cycle de débogage permettant de cibler la recherche des erreurs en appliquant des critères de sélection spatiale et temporelle. La sélection spatiale consiste à ne considérer qu'une partie de l'application en exécution. La sélection temporelle permet de ne considérer qu'un intervalle spécifique d'exécution. Les mécanismes sont connectées à l'outil de débogage standard GDB tout en fournissant une représentation visuelle de la portion de trace considérée. L'approche est validée sur deux types de plateformes et avec deux applications multimédia

Transcriptional repression by methylation: cooperativity between a CpG cluster in the promoter and remote CpG-rich regions

AbstractCytosine methylation of binding sites for transcription factors is a straightforward mechanism to prevent transcription, while data on an indirect mechanism, by methylation outside of the factor binding sites, are still scarce. We have studied the latter effect using a model promoter construct. For this, a 69 bp G + C rich DNA segment with a cluster of 14 CpG sites was inserted between upstream lexA sites and the TATA box. Transcription was measured in transient transfection assays with lexA-VP16 as an activating factor. When the entire plasmid was methylated at all CpGs before transfection, transcription was blocked (to 3% residual activity), whereas transcription was only mildly inhibited (to 60%) by methylation of a control plasmid that lacked the 69 bp CpG cluster. However, the effect could not simply be attributed to methylation of the CpG cluster: neither a methylated CpG cluster in an otherwise methylation-free reporter gene plasmid, nor the methylated plasmid with an unmethylated CpG cluster, inhibited transcription considerably (69% and 44% remaining activity, respectively). The data presented here suggest that a minimal length of methylated DNA in the promoter is required for repression, and imply that concomitant methylation of CpGs in the promoter region and in remote sequences can cooperatively block transcription, without the need to methylate any binding sites for transcription factors. We also note that the cooperation for a negative effect described here bears an analogy to transcriptional activation, where a promoter often cooperates with a remote enhancer

MPSoC Zoom Debugging: A Deterministic Record-Partial Replay Approach

Accepté à EUC'2014International audienceThis work presents a debugging methodology for MPSoC based on deterministic record-replay. We propose a general model of MPSoC and define a debugging cycle targeting errors by applying temporal and spatial selection criteria. The idea behind spatial and temporal selection is to consider not the entire execution of the whole application but replay a part of the application during a specific execution interval. The proposed mechanisms are connected to GDB and allow for a visual representation of the considered part of the trace. The approach is validated on two execution platforms and two multimedia applications

PILOT: Password and PIN Information Leakage from Obfuscated Typing Videos

This paper studies leakage of user passwords and PINs based on observations of typing feedback on screens or from projectors in the form of masked characters that indicate keystrokes. To this end, we developed an attack called Password and Pin Information Leakage from Obfuscated Typing Videos (PILOT). Our attack extracts inter-keystroke timing information from videos of password masking characters displayed when users type their password on a computer, or their PIN at an ATM. We conducted several experiments in various attack scenarios. Results indicate that, while in some cases leakage is minor, it is quite substantial in others. By leveraging inter-keystroke timings, PILOT recovers 8-character alphanumeric passwords in as little as 19 attempts. When guessing PINs, PILOT significantly improved on both random guessing and the attack strategy adopted in our prior work [4]. In particular, we were able to guess about 3% of the PINs within 10 attempts. This corresponds to a 26-fold improvement compared to random guessing. Our results strongly indicate that secure password masking GUIs must consider the information leakage identified in this paper

Expanding Scottish energy data - heat

This report was commissioned to develop new and improved methodologies for collecting and assessing energy data in Scotland in three areas: • Weather correcting heat demand: developing a method to weather correct non-gas heating demand data • Heat demand across different fuels and sectors in Scotland: producing an annual time series of heat demand across different fuel types in the industrial, commercial and domestic sectors. This is space and water heating; process heating in industrial properties is not included. The fuel types investigated were: coal, manufactured fuels, petroleum products, gas, electricity, bioenergy and waste. • Emissions factors for different heating fuels and sectors: identifying Scottish specific emissions factors for different heating fuels in order to generate heating emission values for Scotland as a whole. The work draws on data from a variety of sources including Home Analytics, Non-Domestic Analytics, the Scottish House Condition Survey