An Integrated Cybersecurity Risk Management (I-CSRM) Framework for Critical Infrastructure Protection

Risk management plays a vital role in tackling cyber threats within the Cyber-Physical System (CPS) for overall system resilience. It enables identifying critical assets, vulnerabilities, and threats and determining suitable proactive control measures to tackle the risks. However, due to the increased complexity of the CPS, cyber-attacks nowadays are more sophisticated and less predictable, which makes risk management task more challenging. This research aims for an effective Cyber Security Risk Management (CSRM) practice using assets criticality, predication of risk types and evaluating the effectiveness of existing controls. We follow a number of techniques for the proposed unified approach including fuzzy set theory for the asset criticality, machine learning classifiers for the risk predication and Comprehensive Assessment Model (CAM) for evaluating the effectiveness of the existing controls. The proposed approach considers relevant CSRM concepts such as threat actor attack pattern, Tactic, Technique and Procedure (TTP), controls and assets and maps these concepts with the VERIS community dataset (VCDB) features for the purpose of risk predication. Also, the tool serves as an additional component of the proposed framework that enables asset criticality, risk and control effectiveness calculation for a continuous risk assessment. Lastly, the thesis employs a case study to validate the proposed i-CSRM framework and i-CSRMT in terms of applicability. Stakeholder feedback is collected and evaluated using critical criteria such as ease of use, relevance, and usability. The analysis results illustrate the validity and acceptability of both the framework and tool for an effective risk management practice within a real-world environment. The experimental results reveal that using the fuzzy set theory in assessing assets' criticality, supports stakeholder for an effective risk management practice. Furthermore, the results have demonstrated the machine learning classifiers’ have shown exemplary performance in predicting different risk types including denial of service, cyber espionage, and Crimeware. An accurate prediction can help organisations model uncertainty with machine learning classifiers, detect frequent cyber-attacks, affected assets, risk types, and employ the necessary corrective actions for its mitigations. Lastly, to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing controls, the CAM approach is used, and the result shows that some controls such as network intrusion, authentication, and anti-virus show high efficacy in controlling or reducing risks. Evaluating control effectiveness helps organisations to know how effective the controls are in reducing or preventing any form of risk before an attack occurs. Also, organisations can implement new controls earlier. The main advantage of using the CAM approach is that the parameters used are objective, consistent and applicable to CPS

Assets focus risk management framework for critical infrastructure cybersecurity risk management

Critical infrastructure (CI) is vital for the overall economic growth and its reliable and safe operation is essential for a nation's stability and people's safety. Proper operation of the assets is essential for such a system and any threats that could negatively impact the asset could have a severe disruption. Risk management is an important aspect of the protection of CI. There are several frameworks and methodologies for identifying assets, quantifying and analysing vulnerabilities. However, there is a lack of focus on the interdependencies among the assets and cascading effect of the inherent vulnerabilities on the asset. This study attempts to bridge that gap by presenting a novel asset focus risk management approach for the CI. It presents a systematic methodology for identifying and analysing critical assets, their potential vulnerabilities, threats and risks facing CI. This work taking into account cascading vulnerability impacts on assets leading to threats and causing risk. The authors use a running example from a smart grid system to demonstrate the usability of the approach. The result shows that some assets are prioritised and more vulnerable than other assets for the power grid system and it can severely impact on the overall business continuity

Cyber Threat Intelligence for Improving Cybersecurity and Risk Management in Critical Infrastructure

Cyber-attack is one of the significant threats affecting to any organisation specifically to the Critical Infrastructure (CI) organisation. These attacks are nowadays more sophisticated, multi-vectored and less predictable, which make the Cyber Security Risk Management (CSRM) task more challenging. Critical Infrastructure needs a new line of security defence to control these threats and minimise risks. Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) provides evidence-based information about the threats aiming to prevent threats. There are existing works and industry practice that emphasise the necessity of CTI and provides methods for threat intelligence and sharing. However, despite these significant efforts, there is a lack of focus on how CTI information can support the CSRM activities so that the organisation can undertake appropriate controls to mitigate the risk proactively. This paper aims to fill this gap by integrating CTI for improving cybersecurity risks management practice specifically focusing on the critical infrastructure. In particular, the proposed approach contributes beyond state of the art practice by incorporating CTI information for the risk management activities. This helps the organisation to provide adequate and appropriate controls from strategic, tactical and operational perspectives. We have integrated concepts relating to CTI and CSRM so that threat actor's profile, attack detailed can support calculating the risk. We consider smart grid system as a Critical Infrastructure to demonstrate the applicability of the work. The result shows that cyber risks in critical infrastructures can be minimised if CTI information is gathered and used as part of CSRM activities. CTI not only supports understanding of threat for accurate risk estimation but also evaluates the effectiveness of existing controls and recommend necessity controls to improve overall cybersecurity. Also, the result shows that our approach provides early warning about issues that need immediate attention

Large-Scale Distributed Internet-based Discovery Mechanism for Dynamic Spectrum Allocation

Scarcity of frequencies and the demand for more bandwidth is likely to increase the need for devices that utilize the available frequencies more efficiently. Radios must be able to dynamically find other users of the frequency bands and adapt so that they are not interfered, even if they use different radio protocols. As transmitters far away may cause as much interference as a transmitter located nearby, this mechanism can not be based on location alone. Central databases can be used for this purpose, but require expensive infrastructure and planning to scale. In this paper, we propose a decentralized protocol and architecture for discovering radio devices over the Internet. The protocol has low resource requirements, making it suitable for implementation on limited platforms. We evaluate the protocol through simulation in network topologies with up to 2.3 million nodes, including topologies generated from population patterns in Norway. The protocol has also been implemented as proof-of-concept in real Wi-Fi routers.Comment: Accepted for publication at IEEE DySPAN 201

Excited states of neutral donor bound excitons in GaN

We investigate the excited states of a neutral donor bound exciton (D0X) in bulk GaN by means of high-resolution, polychromatic photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopy. The optically most prominent donor in our sample is silicon accompanied by only a minor contribution of oxygen—the key for an unambiguous assignment of excited states. Consequently, we can observe a multitude of Si0X-related excitation channels with linewidths down to 200 μeV. Two groups of excitation channels are identified, belonging either to rotational-vibrational or electronic excited states of the hole in the Si0X complex. Such identification is achieved by modeling the excited states based on the equations of motion for a Kratzer potential, taking into account the particularly large anisotropy of effective hole masses in GaN. Furthermore, several ground- and excited states of the exciton-polaritons and the dominant bound exciton are observed in the photoluminescence (PL) and PLE spectra, facilitating an estimate of the associated complex binding energies. Our data clearly show that great care must be taken if only PL spectra of D0X centers in GaN are analyzed. Every PL feature we observe at higher emission energies with regard to the Si0X ground state corresponds to an excited state. Hence, any unambiguous peak identification renders PLE spectra highly valuable, as important spectral features are obscured in common PL spectra. Here, GaN represents a particular case among the wide-bandgap, wurtzite semiconductors, as comparably low localization energies for common D0X centers are usually paired with large emission linewidths and the prominent optical signature of exciton-polaritons, making the sole analysis of PL spectra a challenging task.EC/H2020/749565/EU/Heat Transport and its Effects on the Performance of Nanostructured, Photonic Materials/PhotoHeatEffectDFG, 43659573, SFB 787: Halbleiter - Nanophotonik: Materialien, Modelle, Bauelement

Mycobiota of Potato-Cereal Soft Wraps and the Production Facility

The aim of this study was to investigate the mycobiota of potato-cereal soft wraps and in the processing area. Potato-cereal soft wraps are cooked, cold-stored and mashed potatoes that are kneaded together, usually with wheat flour, to form dough. In order to identify the main spoilage mould of this product, 150 visible mould colonies from mouldy wraps were identified. Five different mould species were isolated; Aspergillus niger, Penicillium brevicompactum, Penicillium commune, Penicllium corylophilum and Pencillium discolor. The dominating spoilage mould was Penicillium commune with 83.9% of the colonies. In order to study the mycobiota of the production area, 271 samples of air and surfaces were collected. In total, 647 mould colonies were isolated from air and surface samples. The mycobiota of air consisted of 27 different species within 9 different genera, and the mycobiota of surfaces consisted of 14 species within 4 different genera. Penicllium species were the dominating genera both in air and on surfaces, and Penicillium commune was the dominating species in the processing environment as well. Penicillium commune was found in the bakery and also in other production rooms. Spores from the flour and from soil on potatoes can disperse in the air as aerosols and may contaminate the wraps after baking when the product is cooled before packaging.publishedVersio

Vigencia de las estrategias de negociación y su aplicación para la convivencia: la mediación como aprendizaje para la convivencia escolar

Tesis de maestría¿Por qué nos resulta tan difícil convivir, si somos seres sociales?, las naciones se enfrenta, las parejas se rompen, los vecinos no se hablan, la agresividad se dispara; y también la sociabilidad, como la capacidad de relacionarse con los demás. Tenemos que vivir en comunidad, pero, a diferencia de los animales grupales, esa sociedad no es un mero agregado regido por el instinto, sino la realización larga, y con frecuencia dramática, de un proyecto de vida inteligente, inventado y tenazmente perseguido por la humanidad. Llamamos cultura a la realización de tan complejo proyecto, y encargamos a la educación la transmisión de esa sabiduría aprendida.INTRODUCCIÓN CAPÍTULO I. LA MEDIACIÓN Y LA CONVIVENCIA COMO HERRAMIENTAS PARA UNA CULTURA DE PAZ CAPÍTULO II. EL SER HUMANO EN SU PAPEL DE MEDIADOR CAPÍTULO III. BASES LEGALES PARA ABORDAR CONFLICTO Y CONVIVENCIA EN EL ÁMBITO ESCOLAR. CAPÍTULO IV. CONTEXTO Y POSIBILIDADES DE LA MEDIACIÓN. RESULTADOS DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN. CONCLUSIONESMaestríaMagister en Ciencia Polític

Términos de la indagación preliminar en la ley 734 de febrero 5 de 2002 vs impunidad

Con el presente trabajo se pretende analizar las consecuencias jurídicas que se generan por el término de la indagación preliminar a la luz de la Ley 734 de 2002, teniendo en cuenta que esta es de carácter eventual y previa a la etapa de investigación, pues solo tiene lugar cuando no se cuenta con suficientes elementos de juicio y por lo tanto, existe duda sobre la procedencia de la investigación disciplinaria, por consiguiente dicha indagación tiende a verificar y establecer con cierta aproximación la ocurrencia de la conducta si ella es constitutiva de falta disciplinaria y la individualización y la identidad de su auto

Challenges to diagnose metaplastic carcinoma of the breast through cytologic methods: an eight-case series

Because metaplastic carcinoma of the breast encompasses a great variety of histopathology, diagnostic challenges abound, especially within the realm of cytology. The authors compiled and studied an eight-case series comprised of metaplastic breast carcinomas and lesions initially suspicious cytologically for metaplastic carcinoma in order to assess the degree of cytologic-histologic correlation and to identify recurring problematic themes surrounding the cytology-based diagnosis of this neoplasm. The cytologic and histologic slides from eight cases suspicious for metaplastic breast carcinoma diagnosed by fine needle aspiration (FNA) were collected and analyzed through a seven-year retrospective search of case files at our institution. Based on cytologic characteristics, the cases were separated into three groups. Group 1 consisted of three cases presenting with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and squamoid components on FNA. Group 2 was composed of two cases that featured a monophasic, malignant ductal cell population on cytology, while the cytologic specimens for the third group of cases presented with a mesenchymal component with or without a malignant glandular constituent. Cytologic-histologic correlation was present in two of three cases demonstrating a mesenchymal component, and there was 100% sensitivity in the cytologic detection of those mesenchymal elements. However, in only one of three cases was there an accurate cytologic diagnosis of metaplastic carcinoma when squamoid changes were present on FNA. Both cases demonstrating only malignant glandular elements on cytologic specimens revealed an additional component of malignant squamous differentiation upon the examination of mastectomy-derived tissue. These results indicate that squamous-like changes identified on FNA should be interpreted with caution and that sampling error remains a problematic recurrence in cytology. Regardless, there appears to be promise concerning the accurate cytologic diagnosis of metaplastic carcinoma when the lesion is characterized by a mesenchymal component. A study implementing a larger case number is essential in determining the significance of these findings