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Previous, mainly quantitative, research has indicated that information security threats and incidents are having a significant impact on the conduct of electronic business - and office automation in general - both nationally and internationally. However, as revealed by this study's extensive review of the relevant literature, our understanding of the information security situation in Australian organisations has been quite limited. There has been very little detailed research into security threats and incidents and, equally importantly, the strategies the Australian IT industry is using to deal with them.In addressing that deficiency, this study used a qualitative, case-based research methodology involving a variety of Australian organisations. The case based approach, using in-depth interviews, facilitated a thorough examination of the information security risks (threats and incidents) and enabled assessment and analysis of management actions (countermeasures) to mitigate the identified risks.The major findings with regard to this study's research issues are: The case-study organisations are generally highly reliant on IT for the conduct of their business and therefore would be heavily impacted if it was unavailable They face a variety of information security threats with viruses being the most prevalent threat. The hacking threat was not as evident as reported in the literature There are some differences between the Australian information security experience and that reported in the literature for international organisations in particular many of the very large business overseas operate on a much larger scale than those in Australia The organisations do not believe that they are specific targets for security attacks; rather they believe that are 'targets of opportunity' A wide range of countermeasures are employed; generally, the larger the organisation the greater the diversity and complexity of countermeasures. However, the majority do not have a clear link between risks and countermeasures The majority of the organisations do not have a specific security budget.Whilst Australian organisations were generally well prepared and versed on security issues, the findings indicate the need for the application of best practice across the industry as a whole. A degree of cynicism regarding the nature of the hacking threat was evident – with many participants believing that the threat is overstated. Indeed this study uncovered little direct evidence of the organisations involved being subjected to actual hacker attacks.The framework developed for this study and its findings are readily adaptable for use by industry. By following the process specified in the framework, organisations will be better able to identify both likely and unlikely threats and incidents and deploy appropriate countermeasures.

With the rapid development of the internet, copying a digital document is so easy and economically affordable that digital piracy is rampant. As a result, software protection has become a vital issue in current computer industry and a hot research topic. Software watermarking and obfuscation are techniques to protect software from unauthorized access, modification, and tampering. While software watermarking tries to insert a secret message called software watermark into the software program as evidence of ownership, software obfuscation translates software into a semantically- equivalent one that is hard for attackers to analyze. In this thesis, firstly, we present a survey of software watermarking and obfuscation. Then we formalize two impor- tant concepts in software watermarking: extraction and recognition and we use a concrete software watermarking algorithm to illustrate issues in these two concepts. We develop a technique called the homomorphic functions through residue numbers to obfuscate variables and data structures in software programs. Lastly, we explore the complexity issues in software watermarking and obfuscation.

With the rapid development of the internet, copying a digital document is so easy and economically affordable that digital piracy is rampant. As a result, software protection has become a vital issue in current computer industry and a hot research topic. Software watermarking and obfuscation are techniques to protect software from unauthorized access, modification, and tampering. While software watermarking tries to insert a secret message called software watermark into the software program as evidence of ownership, software obfuscation translates software into a semantically- equivalent one that is hard for attackers to analyze. In this thesis, firstly, we present a survey of software watermarking and obfuscation. Then we formalize two impor- tant concepts in software watermarking: extraction and recognition and we use a concrete software watermarking algorithm to illustrate issues in these two concepts. We develop a technique called the homomorphic functions through residue numbers to obfuscate variables and data structures in software programs. Lastly, we explore the complexity issues in software watermarking and obfuscation.

The protection of assets is an important part of daily life. Currently this is done using a combination of passive security cameras and security officers actively patrolling the premises. However, security officers, being human, are subject to a number of limitations both physical and mental. A security robot would not suffer from these limitations, however currently there are a number of challenges to implementing such a robot. These challenges include navigation in a complex real-world environment, fast and accurate threat detection and threat tracking. Overcoming these challenges is the focus of my research. To that end a small security robot, the CuWITH or Curious WITH,has been developed and is presented in this thesis. The CuWITH utilises a programmable navigation system, curiosity-based threat detection and curiosity-driven threat tracking curiosity to protect a real office environment. In this thesis we will first discuss the CuWITH's system design in detail, with a particular focus on the components and the architectural strategies employed. We then move to a more detailed examination of the mathematical underpinnings of the CuWITHs curiosity based threat detection and curiosity driven threat tracking. The details of the CuWITH's navigation will also be explained. We will then present a number of experiments which demonstrate the effectiveness of the CuWITH. We show that the programmable navigation of the CuWITH, although simple, allows for easy modification of the patrol path without risk to the stability of the system. We will then present the results of both offline and online testing of the CuWITH's curiosity based threat detection. The reaction time and accuracy of the CuWITHs curiosity driven threat tracking will also be illustrated. As a final test the CuWITH is instructed to execute a patrol in a real office environment, with threatening and non-threatening persons present. The results of this test demonstrate all major systems of the CuWITH working together very well and successfully executing the patrol even when moved to a different environment.

With the rapid development of the internet, copying a digital document is so easy and economically affordable that digital piracy is rampant. As a result, software protection has become a vital issue in current computer industry and a hot research topic. Software watermarking and obfuscation are techniques to protect software from unauthorized access, modification, and tampering. While software watermarking tries to insert a secret message called software watermark into the software program as evidence of ownership, software obfuscation translates software into a semantically- equivalent one that is hard for attackers to analyze. In this thesis, firstly, we present a survey of software watermarking and obfuscation. Then we formalize two impor- tant concepts in software watermarking: extraction and recognition and we use a concrete software watermarking algorithm to illustrate issues in these two concepts. We develop a technique called the homomorphic functions through residue numbers to obfuscate variables and data structures in software programs. Lastly, we explore the complexity issues in software watermarking and obfuscation.

The protection of assets is an important part of daily life. Currently this is done using a combination of passive security cameras and security officers actively patrolling the premises. However, security officers, being human, are subject to a number of limitations both physical and mental. A security robot would not suffer from these limitations, however currently there are a number of challenges to implementing such a robot. These challenges include navigation in a complex real-world environment, fast and accurate threat detection and threat tracking. Overcoming these challenges is the focus of my research. To that end a small security robot, the CuWITH or Curious WITH,has been developed and is presented in this thesis. The CuWITH utilises a programmable navigation system, curiosity-based threat detection and curiosity-driven threat tracking curiosity to protect a real office environment. In this thesis we will first discuss the CuWITH's system design in detail, with a particular focus on the components and the architectural strategies employed. We then move to a more detailed examination of the mathematical underpinnings of the CuWITHs curiosity based threat detection and curiosity driven threat tracking. The details of the CuWITH's navigation will also be explained. We will then present a number of experiments which demonstrate the effectiveness of the CuWITH. We show that the programmable navigation of the CuWITH, although simple, allows for easy modification of the patrol path without risk to the stability of the system. We will then present the results of both offline and online testing of the CuWITH's curiosity based threat detection. The reaction time and accuracy of the CuWITHs curiosity driven threat tracking will also be illustrated. As a final test the CuWITH is instructed to execute a patrol in a real office environment, with threatening and non-threatening persons present. The results of this test demonstrate all major systems of the CuWITH working together very well and successfully executing the patrol even when moved to a different environment.

With the rapid development of the internet, copying a digital document is so easy and economically affordable that digital piracy is rampant. As a result, software protection has become a vital issue in current computer industry and a hot research topic. Software watermarking and obfuscation are techniques to protect software from unauthorized access, modification, and tampering. While software watermarking tries to insert a secret message called software watermark into the software program as evidence of ownership, software obfuscation translates software into a semantically- equivalent one that is hard for attackers to analyze. In this thesis, firstly, we present a survey of software watermarking and obfuscation. Then we formalize two impor- tant concepts in software watermarking: extraction and recognition and we use a concrete software watermarking algorithm to illustrate issues in these two concepts. We develop a technique called the homomorphic functions through residue numbers to obfuscate variables and data structures in software programs. Lastly, we explore the complexity issues in software watermarking and obfuscation.

Thesis (M. S. - Renewable Natural Resources)--University of Arizona, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-50).

Thesis (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.