Public-key cryptography is a subject that is very important to everyone who wants confidentiality and privacy in networks. It is important to understand how public-key cryptography systems work and what flaws they have. In the first part of this report we describe some of the most common encryption schemes and key agreements. We carefully investigate their flaws, if they are broken and what threats have dire consequences. We find that the biggest issue is authentication and we present current solutions to the problem. The current solutions are flawed because they rely too much on trusting different entities. It is only required that one trusted entity becomes malicious for the entire authentication system to be compromised. Because of this we propose an alternative system in the second part, Namecoin. A risk analysis in form of an attack tree is performed on the Namecoin system, where we describe how the attacks are executed and what you can do to prevent them. We present different threats against the system and we describe how dire the consequences are and the probability of their execution. Since Namecoin is an implementation of the block chain algorithm we have also explained how the block chain works in detail. We present why we think that Namecoin is a system that should replace the currently used certificate authority system. The certificate authority system is flawed because it is centralized and dependant on that no authority makes any mistakes. The Namecoin system does not become compromised unless more than 50 % of the hashrate in the system is used with malicious intent. We have concluded that the biggest threats against Namecoin have such a low probability that they can be neglected.

The South African property process is cumbersome, tedious, and complex mainly since it is a manual paper-based system that involves numerous activities of many disparate firms and organisations in the private sector as well as business processes of regulatory agencies, public sectors departments and other institutions. Although much effort had been made by private organisations to automate pockets of the process, the integration efforts are still founded in paper documents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the conveyancing end-to-end process in South Africa in order to develop a conceptual framework that could be used to eliminate paper and dematerialise the land registration process. The study was guided by the following research question: How can the end-to-end property transfer process be integrated among the different role players to dematerialise property transfers? Seated in the interpretative paradigm, an exploratory study was undertaken. The study followed a multidisciplinary approach which incorporated aspects of records management, supply chain management, land administration management, information technology and payment systems. Nineteen in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with major organisations and societies (i.e. stakeholders) involved in property exchanges in South Africa. These included the South African Reserve Bank, The South African Deeds Registry, National Treasury, The Law Society of South Africa, The Surveyor General and various vendors which operate within the property sphere. These interviews were analysed using content analysis, and documentary evidence were used to triangulate the data collected. The study revealed that private organisations and banks are more ready to embrace dematerialisation than governmental institutions. The main findings of the study were that a need existed for the integration of information and data from the onset of the property application, dematerialisation in addition to digitisation should be incorporated into e-DRS, there is a need for a centralised information sharing capability, same-day, irrevocable payments must be implemented and biometric information can be used to validate parties involved in each transaction. The findings were used to develop a framework for a dematerialised electronic deeds registration in South Africa, which were further generalised for use in other industries. It is recommended that key supply chain partners are integrated into a land administration system that is hosted by the deeds office. This study is of value to all organisations involved in the property land management administration processes, both in a private and governmental capacity, as well as indigenous tribunals. Recommendations for future studies were made. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Information Science / PhD / Unrestricted

On-time delivery of supplies to industry is essential because delays can disrupt production schedules. The aim of the proposed application is to predict transit times for outbound logistics thereby allowing suppliers to plan for timely mitigation of risks during shipment planning. The predictive model consists of a classifier that is trained for each specific source-destination pair using historical shipment, weather, and social media data. The model estimates the transit times for future shipments using Support Vector Machine (SVM). These estimates were validated using four case study routes of varying distances in the United States. A predictive model is trained for each route. The results show that the contribution of each input feature to the predictive ability of the model varies for each route. The mean average error (MAE) values of the model vary for each route due to the availability of testing and training historical shipment data as well as the availability of weather and social media data. In addition, it was found that the inclusion of the historical traffic data provided by INRIX™ improves the accuracy of the model. Sample INRIX™ data was available for one of the routes. One of the main limitations of the proposed approach is the availability of historical shipment data and the quality of social media data. However, if the data is available, the proposed methodology can be applied to any supplier with high volume shipments in order to develop a predictive model for outbound transit time delays over any land route.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / On-time delivery of supplies to industry is essential because delays can disrupt production schedules. The aim of the proposed application is to predict transit times for outbound logistics thereby allowing suppliers to plan for timely mitigation of risks during shipment planning. The predictive model consists of a classifier that is trained for each specific source-destination pair using historical shipment, weather, and social media data. The model estimates the transit times for future shipments using Support Vector Machine (SVM). These estimates were validated using four case study routes of varying distances in the United States. A predictive model is trained for each route. The results show that the contribution of each input feature to the predictive ability of the model varies for each route. The mean average error (MAE) values of the model vary for each route due to the availability of testing and training historical shipment data as well as the availability of weather and social media data. In addition, it was found that the inclusion of the historical traffic data provided by INRIXTM improves the accuracy of the model. Sample INRIXTM data was available for one of the routes. One of the main limitations of the proposed approach is the availability of historical shipment data and the quality of social media data. However, if the data is available, the proposed methodology can be applied to any supplier with high volume shipments in order to develop a predictive model for outbound transit time delays over any land route.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how to enable forward traceability of textile and fashion products at product level, using BC based traceability solutions. The study finds that within TC industry, forward traceability using available technologies (RFIDs, NFCs, QR codes ) is technically possible, however there could be impending regulatory, legal, technical implications of using these technologies. These implications may result in a slew of added compliance requirements, risk assessments and resources allocations from brands and retailers. As a result, this study uncovered that using QR codes with BC technology offers a suitable forward traceability solution which has the potential to set off most of the implications explored during this study. Moreover, to attain forward traceability at product levels, a complete mechanism involving readiness from customers, suppliers and all other stake holders is required. All these stake holders need to be connected to the central BC network, where data is protected and made tamper proof. Lastly, forward tracing at product levels is a futuristic concept, as TC industry is still majorly focused on the backward traceability, however this study finds that forward traceability at product levels may pave its way as a beneficial component of overall sustainability.

Internet of things (IoT) is growing at a phenomenal speed and outpacing all the technological revolutions that occurred in the past. Together with window of opportunity it also poses quite a few challenges. One of the most important and unresolved challenge is vulnerability in security and privacy in IoT. This is mainly due to lack of a global decentralized standard even though characteristically IoT is based on distributed systems. Due to lack of standard IoT has interoperability issue between different devices and platform suppliers which implicitly creates need of reliance on the suppliers as they store and control user data. There is no decentralized industry wide solution which can offer the control of user data and security back to the user. While experts in IoT are still wondering on solving the challenge, a new Block chain technology has surfaced in past few years and showed signs of disruptive innovation in financial industry. This technology is decentralized, secure and private. Let alone information, block chain innovation has proven to keep assets secure. Recently few forms of block chains have emerged. This research will focus on analyzing the innovative block chain technology, their characteristics specifically the types of block chain to address the privacy and security challenges of IoT. Research proposes a new concept of hybrid block chain as a solution to IoT security and privacy problem.

The monetary policies of states and systems built upon them do not naturally allow transactions of a very small value, as the transaction costs exceeds the actual value of the transaction. These types of transactions are called micropayments. This is problematic as it removes the possibility to monetize content that has a valuation that is so low that the costs of the transaction exceeds the value of the content. In this thesis we aim to create a system that allows micropayments to monetize low value content. We do so by developing a design theory based on Gregor and Jones conceptual model for design theories within Information Systems research. The system that we develop will use the end users computational power to generate a value, by running a cryptocurrency miner. We present the background knowledge required to fully understand the presented design theory. Within the design theory, we present a theoretical framework to base systems on that enables micropayments through cryptocurrency mining. We also present a developed proof of work prototype that proves the validity of the theoretical framework. Lastly we discuss our design theory. We conclude that the design theory enables transactions of a very low value, such as 0,0001 \$ cents. Transactions of such small value is not possible with systems built upon states monetary policies. We also conclude that the proposed design theory can be further developed to function independently of cryptocurrency mining. Instead the value for the transaction could be generated through solving complicated problems if institutions are willing to pay for computational power to solve them.

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Since the Trump election, the subject of extra-territorial application of national law – in particular U.S. law – has received considerable attention. This is so because the U.S. administration increasingly uses this legal tool to enforce its foreign policy interests. A legal area with a particularly strong reach of extra-territoriality is U.S. export controls as this allows the U.S. to control foreign states’ business. A very recent and vivid example is the Huawei trade ban by the U.S. The purpose of this article is to show the (harsh) legal and economic effects, which the extra-territorial application of U.S. export-related laws have on international trade. The article will focus on the approach taken by the U.S. to impose its export controls outside the U.S. It will analyze the legal framework of extra-territorial U.S. export controls and explore to which extent the U.S. laws apply to foreign business, i.e., business outside the U.S. The article will define the cases in which foreign companies are subject to U.S. export controls and therefore must comply with U.S. regulations. It will show that the applicability of U.S. export controls to foreign companies and their business is considerably broad. It rigorously controls the destiny of U.S. origin products and components once they have been exported from U.S. territory and also regulates the worldwide export of products that have been manufactured by using U.S. technology. In addition, U.S. export controls impose economic sanctions on countries (e.g., Iran) or companies (e.g., Huawei) and prohibit foreign companies from doing business with these sanctioned parties. Understanding U.S. export controls and its extra-territorial reach are a challenge for foreign companies. It is a rather complex legal system that requires deeper knowledge of the underlying concept. However, foreign companies are well advised to comply with U.S. export controls, as the penalties for violations can be severe, including millions of dollars in fines and even imprisonment. In addition, the U.S. may blacklist foreign companies with the effect that business with the U.S. or elsewhere is no longer possible. Therefore, understanding U.S. export controls and its extra-territorial reach is vital to foreign companies.