Analytical attack modeling and security assessment based on the common vulnerability scoring system

The paper analyzes an approach to the analytical attack modeling and security assessment on the base of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) format, considering different modifications that appeared in the new version of the CVSS specification. The common approach to the analytical attack modeling and security assessment was suggested by the authors earlier. The paper outlines disadvantages of previous CVSS version that influenced negatively on the results of the attack modeling and security assessment. Differences between new and previous CVSS versions are analyzed. Modifications of the approach to the analytical attack modeling and security assessment that follow from the CVSS modifications are suggested. Advantages of the modified approach are described. Case study that illustrates enhanced approach is provided

Efficient attack countermeasure selection accounting for recovery and action costs

The losses arising from a system being hit by cyber attacks can be staggeringly high, but defending against such attacks can also be costly. This work proposes an attack countermeasure selection approach based on cost impact analysis that takes into account the impacts of actions by both the attacker and the defender. We consider a networked system providing services whose functionality depends on other components in the network. We model the costs and losses to service availability from compromises and defensive actions to the components, and show that while containment of the attack can be an effective defense, it may be more cost-efficient to allow parts of the attack to continue further whilst focusing on recovering services to a functional state. Based on this insight, we build a countermeasure selection method that chooses the most cost-effective action based on its impact on expected losses and costs over a given time horizon. Our method is evaluated using simulations in synthetic graphs representing network dependencies and vulnerabilities, and performs well in comparison to alternatives

Erratum to: Methods of Electron Microdiffraction and X-Ray Analysis in Structure Study of Nanodisperse Partially Stabilized ZrO2 Powders

Analytical electron microscopy (AEM) has been used to study both structure and morphology of partially yttria-stabilized zirconia dioxide nanopowders (YSZ) obtained by wet-chemical methods (glycine and azeotropic distillation) and ceramics produced from them. Both morphological and structural inhomogeneity of nanopowders obtained by glycine (glc) method has been estimated. Besides the tetragonal ZrO2 phase (results of X-ray analyses) the cubic phase of ZrO2 with different degree of crystallinity has been estimated by Electron Microdiffraction (EMD) methods. In powders obtained by azeotropic distillation (dest) method besides the amorphous phase (identified in X-ray investigations) the high disperse cubic zirconia phase has been identified using high local EMD method. It has been detected the yttrium influence on the degree of crystallinity in nanopowders obtained by azeotropic distillation method without yttria (dest-0YSZ) and with 5 wt % Y2O3 (dest-5YSZ). It has been determined the difference in ceramic morphology produced from these powders. Ceramics mode of nanopowders containing yttria (glc-5YSZ and dest-5YSZ) have a homogeneous surface which consists of different size globules (0.1–0.6 μm) and contains some little pores (∼370 nm). Ceramics mode of nanopowders without yttria have inhomogeneous surface with numerous cracks. Separate parts of the latter ceramics consist of globules, their sizes are of 0.2–0.5 μm.Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART

Formation of Neologisms with English Component ‘Lockdown’ in Modern german

During the pandemic, the German language lexicon was replenished with socially significant keywords, including anglicism ‘Lockdown’. The study of new formations on the basis of socially significant generating bases is important for studying the dynamics of word-formation processes in modern German, which determines the relevance of this work. The analysis of neoplasms with the ‘Lockdown’ component is carried out from the standpoint of the structural and semantic description of lexemes. The material for the analysis was neologisms from German printed online publications, as well as lexemes from the electronic database OWID. It is proved that the dominant nominations with the ‘Lockdown’ component are nouns, this phenomenon reflects the tendency towards substantiation and univerbation in the German language. Some adjectival composites have also been identified. Verbal nominations, represented by two lexemes with a structural feature: lockdownen  and  downlocken  (down locken) are described. It is shown that ‘Lockdown’ anglicism is able to combine with borrowed and native roots and morphemes, forming composites, derivatives and phrases. Examples of the creation of occasional contaminants formed by analogy with the word ‘Lockdown’ are given. It has been established that composites with a metaphorical meaning are designed to express the attitude of a linguistic personality to realities. The differentiation of neologisms-synonyms in semantic and stylistic terms is revealed

Автоматизированное определение активов и оценка их критичности для анализа защищенности информационных систем

Цель исследования заключается в разработке методики автоматизированного выделения активов информационной системы и сравнительной оценки уровня их критичности для последующей оценки защищенности анализируемой целевой инфраструктуры. Под активами в данном случае понимаются все информационно-технологические объекты целевой инфраструктуры. Размеры, разнородность, сложность взаимосвязей, распределенность и динамичность современных информационных систем затрудняют определение целевой инфраструктуры и критичности информационно-технологических активов для ее корректного функционирования. Автоматизированное и адаптивное определение состава информационно-технологических активов и связей между ними на основе выделения статичных и динамичных объектов изначально неопределенной инфраструктуры является достаточно сложной задачей. Ее предлагается решить за счет построения актуальной динамической модели отношений объектов целевой инфраструктуры с использованием разработанной методики, которая реализует подход на основе корреляции событий, происходящих в системе. Разработанная методика основана на статистическом анализе эмпирических данных о событиях в системе. Методика позволяет выделить основные типы объектов инфраструктуры, их характеристики и иерархию, основанную на частоте использования объектов, и, как следствие, отражающую их относительную критичность для функционирования системы. Для этого в работе вводятся показатели, характеризующие принадлежность свойств одному типу, совместное использование свойств, а также показатели динамичности, характеризующие вариативность свойств относительно друг друга. Результирующая модель используется для сравнительной оценки уровня критичности типов объектов системы. В работе описываются используемые входные данные и модели, а также методика определения типов и сравнения критичности активов системы. Приведены эксперименты, показывающие работоспособность методики на примере анализа журналов безопасности операционной системы Windows

Gene transfer using new complexes between cardiolipin-like dicationic lipids and plasmid DNA to tumor cells

The lipid vesicles of bisamphiphiles cardiolipin-like dicationic lipids (CDL) I-IV were studied for creation of lipoplexes with plasmid DNA of different sizes to obtain stable lipoplexes for gene transfer to gene therapy. Lipoplexes' sizes (300±100 nm) and stablity (> 2 hrs) of CDL were sufficient to be used in gene transfer against monolayer and suspension cell cultures. The CDL total cytotoxicity determined by MTT-test was lower compare to lipofectin as a control. Transfection conditions against tumor cells lines were optimized by lipoplexes of CDL and plasmid DNA. The most efficient transfection for lipoplexes CDL-plasmid DNA was at the lipid-DNA (L/D) ratio equal to 5 (for lipofectin, it was 2). For monolayer cell cultures, lipoplexes CDL-I are comparable in terms of transfection efficacy with lipofectin; in the case of suspension culture, their efficiency was lower by one order of magnitude. It permits a usage of lipoplexes suggested as mediators for gene transfer and delivery to human tumor cells

Detection of RNA Hydrolysis with Binase by Acridine Orange Fluorescence

© 2019, Pleiades Publishing, Inc. Abstract: Fluorescence spectroscopy was used to study the specific hydrolysis of ribosomal RNA by binase in aqueous buffer solutions. Acridine orange was used for RNA staining. When the dye was bound to RNA, its fluorescence intensity increased by two times due to the formation of a stable complex. During RNA hydrolysis by binase for 1–20 min, this complex was cleaved, which was accompanied by a nearly twofold decrease in fluorescence. The degree of polarization of the dye fluorescence during hydrolysis was reduced by a factor of 5.5. The hydrolysis reaction was slower at a pH of 5.0–6.0 than at a pH of 7.0–8.0, but it proceeded almost until the end. Hydrolysis was slowed with an increase in the ionic strength of the buffer and was suppressed by magnesium ions. The studied reaction can be further used as a convenient, selective, fluorometric method for the detection of single-stranded ribosomal RNA and the study of their properties

Detection of RNA Hydrolysis with Binase by Acridine Orange Fluorescence

© 2019, Pleiades Publishing, Inc. Abstract: Fluorescence spectroscopy was used to study the specific hydrolysis of ribosomal RNA by binase in aqueous buffer solutions. Acridine orange was used for RNA staining. When the dye was bound to RNA, its fluorescence intensity increased by two times due to the formation of a stable complex. During RNA hydrolysis by binase for 1–20 min, this complex was cleaved, which was accompanied by a nearly twofold decrease in fluorescence. The degree of polarization of the dye fluorescence during hydrolysis was reduced by a factor of 5.5. The hydrolysis reaction was slower at a pH of 5.0–6.0 than at a pH of 7.0–8.0, but it proceeded almost until the end. Hydrolysis was slowed with an increase in the ionic strength of the buffer and was suppressed by magnesium ions. The studied reaction can be further used as a convenient, selective, fluorometric method for the detection of single-stranded ribosomal RNA and the study of their properties

Federated Learning for Intrusion Detection in the Critical Infrastructures: Vertically Partitioned Data Use Case

One of the challenges in the Internet of Things systems is the security of the critical data, for example, data used for intrusion detection. The paper research construction of an intrusion detection system that ensures the confidentiality of critical data at a given level of intrusion detection accuracy. For this goal, federated learning is used to train an intrusion detection model. Federated learning is a computational model for distributed machine learning that allows different collaborating entities to train one global model without sharing data. This paper considers the case when entities have data that are different in attributes. Authors believe that it is a common situation for the critical systems constructed using Internet of Things (IoT) technology, when industrial objects are monitored by different sets of sensors. To evaluate the applicability of the federated learning for this case, the authors developed an approach and an architecture of the intrusion detection system for vertically partitioned data that consider the principles of federated learning and conducted the series of experiments. To model vertically partitioned data, the authors used the Secure Water Treatment (SWaT) data set that describes the functioning of the water treatment facility. The conducted experiments demonstrate that the accuracy of the intrusion detection model trained using federated learning is compared with the accuracy of the intrusion detection model trained using the centralized machine learning model. However, the computational efficiency of the learning and inference process is currently extremely low. It is explained by the application of homomorphic encryption for input data protection from different data owners or data sources. This defines the necessity to elaborate techniques for generating attributes that could model horizontally partitioned data even for the cases when the collaborating entities share datasets that differ in their attributes

Fluorescent determination of micro-quantities of RNA using Hoechst 33258 and binase

© 2019 Detection of small amounts of RNA in various biological samples is an important applied task. Using fluorescence spectroscopy, the hydrolysis by binase of rRNA and tRNA, stained with Hoechst 33258, in aqueous solutions was investigated. The binding constant of Hoechst with rRNA is 10 6 M −1 . Specific hydrolysis of rRNA and tRNA by binase during 1–2 min at room temperature leads to a multiple decrease in fluorescence of the dye. This rapid hydrolysis goes to large polynucleotide fragments, but not to short oligonucleotides. The binding constant of binase with rRNA is about of 2.5 × 10 6 M −1 , which is several dozen times higher than with oligonucleotides. The susceptibility to binase attack depends on the secondary structure of RNA, determined by non-canonical ribonucleotides. The developed highly sensitive fluorescent method can be used for the rapid selective detection of trace amounts of rRNA or tRNA, as well as for studying the physicochemical properties of these RNAs. Using the proposed method, one can confidently detect RNA from 10 −7 M