Trusted Computing grant.

While good user education can hardly secure a system, we believe that poor user education can put it at serious risk. The current problem of online fraud is exasperated by the fact that most users make security decisions, such as whether to install a given piece of software or not, based on a very rudimentary understanding of risk. We describe the design principles behind SecurityCartoon.com, the first cartoon-based approach aimed at improving the understanding of risk among typical Internet users. We argue why an approach like ours is likely to produce better long-term effects than currently practiced educational efforts with the same general goals. This belief is based on the apparent difference between our approach and currently used alternatives. At the heart of these differences are the four guiding principles of our approach: (1) A research driven content selection, according to which we select educational messages based on user studies; (2) accessibility of the material, to reach and maintain a large readership; (3) user immersion in the material, based on repetitions on a theme; and (4) adaptability to a changing threat.

Trust Establishment in Data Sharing: An Incentive Model for Biodiversity Information Systems

Abstract — We describe a long-felt but largely neglected problem in conservation biology, and explain how it can be addressed using incentive mechanisms inspired by techniques in computer security and cryptography. The result is a new type of database suitable for highly distributed contributions of data, in which researchers are incentivised to submit data by the guarantees extended by a conflict resolution mechanism that allows for accurate determinations of data origination

Variable Microsatellite Markers for Genotyping Tree Shrews, Tupaia, and their Potential Use in Genetic Studies of Fragmented Populations

We describe the sequences of six primer pairs for the PCR amplification of nuclear microsatellite markers in the tree shrews, Tupaia glis and T. belangeri. Multilocus genotyping based on non-destructive DNA sampling of live-trapped animals reveals high allelic variability (A) and heterozygosity (H e ) at these loci. Such characteristics make these genetic markers ideal for linkage mapping and comparative genomics, and for studies of pedigree relationships, population structure, and population genetic variability in wild populations. We illustrate another use of these markers in the study of genetic erosion in small recently fragmented natural populations of tree shrews in south Thailand. This method for detecting and monitoring genetic erosion in fragmented populations can be applied to larger taxa of traditional concern to wildlife managers