Adversarial Machine Learning for the Protection of Legitimate Software

Obfuscation is the transforming a given program into one that is syntactically different but semantically equivalent. This new obfuscated program now has its code and/or data changed so that they are hidden and difficult for attackers to understand. Obfuscation is an important security tool and used to defend against reverse engineering. When applied to a program, different transformations can be observed to exhibit differing degrees of complexity and changes to the program. Recent work has shown, by studying these side effects, one can associate patterns with different transformations. By taking this into account and attempting to profile these unique side effects, it is possible to create a classifier using machine learning which can analyze transformed software and identifies what transformation was used to put it in its current state. This has the effect of weakening the security of obfuscating transformations used to protect legitimate software. In this research, we explore options to increase the robustness of obfuscation against attackers who utilize machine learning, particular those who use it to identify the type of obfuscation being employed. To accomplish this, we segment our research into three stages. For the first stage, we implement a suite of classifiers that are used to xiv identify the obfuscation used in samples. These establish a baseline for determining the effectiveness of our proposed defenses and make use of three varied feature sets. For the second stage, we explore methods to evade detection by the classifiers. To accomplish this, attacks setup using the principles of adversarial machine learning are carried out as evasion attacks. These attacks take an obfuscated program and make subtle changes to various aspects that will cause it to be mislabeled by the classifiers. The changes made to the programs affect features looked at by our classifiers, focusing mainly on the number and distribution of opcodes within the program. A constraint of these changes is that the program remains semantically unchanged. In addition, we explore a means of algorithmic dead code insertion in to achieve comparable results against a broader range of classifiers. In the third stage, we combine our attack strategies and evaluate the effect of our changes on the strength of obfuscating transformations. We also propose a framework to implement and automate these and other measures. We the following contributions: 1. An evaluation of the effectiveness of supervised learning models at labeling obfuscated transformations. We create these models using three unique feature sets: Code Images, Opcode N-grams, and Gadgets. 2. Demonstration of two approaches to algorithmic dummy code insertion designed to improve the stealth of obfuscating transformations against machine learning: Adversarial Obfuscation and Opcode Expansion 3. A unified version of our two defenses capable of achieving effectiveness against a broad range of classifiers, while also demonstrating its impact on obfuscation metrics

Building Indian Country’s Future through Food, Agriculture,Infrastructure, and Economic Development in the 2018 FarmBill

With the potential of approximately $1 trillion in spending over 10 years in rural America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs authorized by the Farm Bill have the ability to build and support thriving economies in rural America. Nowhere is this potential greater, or needed, than in rural Tribal communities. This paper will examine why the unique circumstances of Tribal governments, individual Native American food producers, and Tribal citizens necessitate changes in several USDA programs to serve Indian Country. Further, it will review several policy changes in various titles of the next Farm Bill reauthorization that will help empower Tribal governments and individual Native food producers to utilize the full breadth of opportunities the Farm Bill offers and allow USDA to invest in Indian Country. This includes the ability to develop and expand Tribal infrastructure, utilities, broadband, water systems, and community buildings like hospitals and fire stations; provide the means for Native agriculture businesses to thrive; and continue to address and improve the health of American Indians and Alaska Natives supporting he already great work happening in Natives communities surrounding food and agriculture. Finally, this paper will discuss how improving the Farm Bill programs for Indian Country will help bolster our work to achieve the truest form of sovereignty: feeding ourselves in our own foods systems with our own foods

The development of convective instability during SESAME, 1979

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, 1983.Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science.Bibliography: p. 307-310.by Frank Parker Colby.Ph.D

Geophysical response to simulated methane migration in groundwater based on a controlled injection experiment in a sandy unconfined aquifer

The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2019.05.019. © 2019. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Geophysical methods have the capacity to detect and characterize gas-phase dynamics in groundwater. Suitable methods can be deployed at surface or within boreholes depending on the required depth of investigation, spatial/temporal resolution, and geologic conditions. While the application of geophysical methods to monitor immiscible phase contaminants in the subsurface has been extensively documented, the effects of hydraulic properties and flow system conditions on the nature of the geophysical responses used to elucidate multi-phase fluid flow remains underdeveloped. A series of numerical 2-dimensional multi-phase flow and geophysical model simulations based on a controlled methane release experiment in the Borden unconfined sand aquifer was carried out to assess the influence of porous media hydraulic properties and flow system conditions on geophysical signatures associated with transient gas-phase saturation and gas migration behaviour. Specifically, the utility of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to monitor gas-phase plume dynamics in shallow groundwater flow systems is examined. ERT and GPR responses to gas-phase distribution and migration during a 72-day methane gas injection and subsequent recovery period was calculated using a numerical multi-phase flow model (CFbio) simulating four distinct parameterizations of the sandy aquifer system. Geophysical models showed that ERT was effective at imaging the central position of the plume but was less effective at detecting thinner lateral migration pathways extending beyond the primary high gas saturation bulb. Conversely, GPR was able to detect thin gas pools emanating from the primary gas bulb and small-scale vertical preferential pathways arising from capillary boundaries with contrasting saturations; however, gradational boundaries proved to be more difficult to resolve using GPR. This study demonstrates that ERT and GPR can be very useful tools in combination for longer-term monitoring of stray gas leakage from decommissioned hydrocarbon wells in shallow granular media freshwater aquifers, especially given the likelihood of strong lateral migration.This research was made possible through an NSERC Strategic Partnerships Grant Project (SPG-P) awarded to Drs. John Cherry and Beth Parker along with their project collaborators Drs. Aaron Cahill, Bernhard Mayer, Ulrich Mayer and Cathryn Ryan

Monitoring the evolution and migration of a methane gas plume in an unconfined sandy aquifer using time-lapse GPR and ERT

The definitive publication is available at Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2017.08.011 © 2017. This version, has not been modified, and is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Fugitive methane (CH4) leakage associated with conventional and unconventional petroleum development (e.g., shale gas) may pose significant risks to shallow groundwater. While the potential threat of stray (CH4) gas in aquifers has been acknowledged, few studies have examined the nature of its migration and fate in a shallow groundwater flow system. This study examines the geophysical responses observed from surface during a 72 day field-scale simulated CH4 leak in an unconfined sandy aquifer at Canadian Forces Base Borden, Canada, to better understand the transient behaviour of fugitive CH4 gas in the subsurface. Time-lapse ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) were used to monitor the distribution and migration of the gas-phase and assess any impacts to groundwater hydrochemistry. Geophysical measurements captured the transient formation of a CH4 gas plume emanating from the injector, which was accompanied by an increase in total dissolved gas pressure (PTDG). Subsequent reductions in PTDG were accompanied by reduced bulk resistivity around the injector along with an increase in the GPR reflectivity along horizontal bedding reflectors farther downgradient. Repeat temporal GPR reflection profiling identified three events with major peaks in reflectivity, interpreted to represent episodic lateral CH4 gas release events into the aquifer. Here, a gradual increase in PTDG near the injector caused a sudden lateral breakthrough of gas in the direction of groundwater flow, causing free-phase CH4 to migrate much farther than anticipated based on groundwater advection. CH4 accumulated along subtle permeability boundaries demarcated by grain-scale bedding within the aquifer characteristic of numerous Borden-aquifer multi-phase flow experiments. Diminishing reflectivity over a period of days to weeks suggests buoyancy-driven migration to the vadose zone and/or CH4 dissolution into groundwater. Lateral and vertical CH4 migration was primarily governed by subtle, yet measurable heterogeneity and anisotropy in the aquifer.NSERC Strategic Partnerships Grant Project (SPG-P)NSERC Banting Fellowshi

Campylobacter jejuni Demonstrates Conserved Proteomic and Transcriptomic Responses When Co-cultured With Human INT 407 and Caco-2 Epithelial Cells

Major foodborne bacterial pathogens, such as Campylobacter jejuni, have devised complex strategies to establish and foster intestinal infections. For more than two decades, researchers have used immortalized cell lines derived from human intestinal tissue to dissect C. jejuni-host cell interactions. Known from these studies is that C. jejuni virulence is multifactorial, requiring a coordinated response to produce virulence factors that facilitate host cell interactions. This study was initiated to identify C. jejuni proteins that contribute to adaptation to the host cell environment and cellular invasion. We demonstrated that C. jejuni responds to INT 407 and Caco-2 cells in a similar fashion at the cellular and molecular levels. Active protein synthesis was found to be required for C. jejuni to maximally invade these host cells. Proteomic and transcriptomic approaches were then used to define the protein and gene expression profiles of C. jejuni co-cultured with cells. By focusing on those genes showing increased expression by C. jejuni when co-cultured with epithelial cells, we discovered that C. jejuni quickly adapts to co-culture with epithelial cells by synthesizing gene products that enable it to acquire specific amino acids for growth, scavenge for inorganic molecules including iron, resist reactive oxygen/nitrogen species, and promote host cell interactions. Based on these findings, we selected a subset of the genes involved in chemotaxis and the regulation of flagellar assembly and generated C. jejuni deletion mutants for phenotypic analysis. Binding and internalization assays revealed significant differences in the interaction of C. jejuni chemotaxis and flagellar regulatory mutants. The identification of genes involved in C. jejuni adaptation to culture with host cells provides new insights into the infection process

Allegory and animals in Olive Schreiner’s Undine : A Queer Little Child (1929)

Written and abandoned in the 1870s, and published posthumously in 1929, Undine: A Queer Little Child has remained on the margins of Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) studies, repeatedly dismissed as a juvenile and poor antecedent to The Story of An African Farm (1883), or deemed valuable primarily for its autobiographical content. This article redresses these schematic readings by analysing how Schreiner draws on allegorical forms in order to explore aspects of her burgeoning radicalism. Focusing on one of the main allegorical thrusts of the novel, provided by the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic animal characters that descend from mythical, fairytale, and Ancient Greek philosophical origins, it investigates how the protagonist’s metaphorically significant associations with animals relate to freethinking, feminist, and anti-imperialist ideas introduced by the novel. Undine thus undermines dominant nineteenth-century models of the “primitive” human or animal as less evolutionarily developed and without political platform, which can be seen to be a liberating move when the novel is read in dialogue with Jacques Derrida’s lectures on animals, and with other recent work in postcolonial ecocriticism

1960

Recent Developments Affecting Golf Course Design (page 1) From the Editor (3) Five Year Results (3) Turf Management Club News (4) Quotes from 1960 Seniors (5) Poa annua - - Friend or Foe (6) The Horticulture Show (7) Cartoons (8) Message from the Winter School President of 1960 (10) The Most Outstanding Turf Senior for 1959 (10) The Value of the Proper Use of Lime (11) Summer Placement (12) A Greenhouse on the Golf Course (13) More Opportunities in the Future for the Aggressive Superintendent at Country Clubs (14) Soil, Sawdust and Turfgrass (15) Picture - Senior Stockbridge Turf majors (16) Picture - Freshman Stockbridge Turf majors (17) Susceptibility of Merion Bluegrass to Stripe Smut (18) Bents in the South (19) Picture - Honorary Members of Turf Management Club (20) Picture - Graduates of Winter School for Turf mangers- 1960 (21) Weather - We are Going to Have Weather, Whether or Not - What Should we Expect by O. Tennebaum & R. E. Lautzenheiser (A-1) The Nature of Winter Injury to Plants by Dr. Johnson Parker (A-1) Turf Problems: You Name it and We\u27ve Had It in \u2759 by Alexander Radko ad T.T. Taylor (A-3) Topdressing Experiences with Greens at Century by James Fulwider (A-5) Poa annua - Fairway Rennovation at winged Foot by Sherwood A. Moore (A-6) Winter Problems at Ekwanaok by Paul O\u27Leary (A-8) Progress Through Drainage by Kayem Ovian (A-10) Winter Injury on Home Lawns by Orlando Capizzi (A-12) The Status of Pre-emergence Chemicals for the Control of Crabgrass by Dr. E. Engel (A-12) Turf Nurseries - Establishment, Maintenance & Utilization by Robert Grant (A-14) Soil Compaction by Dr. R. B. Alderfer (A-16) Water Management Practices on Turf Areas by Dr. J.R. Watson (A-18) Getting to Know Your Members by Owen Griffith (A-23) New Trends in Clubhouse Landscaping by Alfred Boicourt (A-26) General Lawn Management (Alternate Session) Conserving Soil for a good Lawn by Dr. William G. Colby (A-27) Fertilizting and Liming by Dr. Joseph Steckel (A-28) Grasses and Grass Mixtures for New England Lawns by Dr. Robert Schery (A-29) The Care and Maintenance of Establishment Lawns by Dr. John R. Davi