DEECo represents an example of a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) consisting of potentially vast number of components able to share data with each other. So far, access to data was not restricted, thus enabling components to exploit sensitive data owned by other components. The goal of this work is to analyze security threats in distributed environments such as DEECo and propose a security solution which would provide both physical security of component data and introduce an access control mechanism. However, while confidentiality may be critical to certain applications, data integrity is crucial to almost every one. This work therefore also proposes a trust model, which prevents components operating with defective or malicious data. Both proposed models are realized in jDEECo, a Java implementation of DEECo.

There is an ongoing discussion about trusts significance and role in the reliance on accounting performance measures (RAPM) field and organizational behavior. This knowledge gap has led to opposite findings but still many researchers give recognition to the concept that trust may be crucial and significant in management control. Considering previous research a continuation is necessary and since it seems that the researchers have come to an impasse, it is time to include different variables that can help to explain the variation in the relationship. The main purpose of this study is to challenge the research gap and change the dependent variable; instead of behavioral outcome this study investigates performance. Is it possible that mutual trust, high budget participation and empowerment together have an impact on organizational performance? If so, is it possible that these variables together can lower the information asymmetry and increase performance? A qualitative research method is used to investigate these questions in form of a critical incident survey and semi structured interviews. To test if there is any connection or correlation between the variables a supportive correlation analysis is conducted in the program SPSS. The results have shown that there is a connection and correlation between the variables trust, budget participation and empowerment. When these variables function together it is possible to see a greater organizational performance. When there is mutual trust and high budget participation there is more willingness to disclose information directly. This study has contributed to the current knowledge gap and provided new theoretical and empirical insight. Keywords: Trust, budget participation, empowerment, information asymmetry, organizational performance.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Science / Eugene Vasserman / Since the early 2000s, Internet users have continuously fallen prey to the perils of identity theft and malware . A number of tools have been proposed and implemented to foster trust towards deserving websites and alert users of undeserving websites, including P3P and trust seals. Each of these has fallen short, with studies showing that users simply do not use them. TrustVoucher is a prototype system o forge bonds of trust between users and websites by automatically determining if the website is backed by a trusted third party. Inspiration is taken from the real life way of trusting businesses, in which one aggregates recommendations by friends. TrustVoucher protects users who are attentive to its messages by informing them of sites who have put forth the effort to be endorsed by a trusted third party. An experimental study was performed on the effectiveness of the chosen interface for doing this, and determined that users did not consistently trust the recommendations of TrustVoucher, so future work will explore options for gathering the trust of users to distribute among websites.

Context: The advent of the Information and Communication Technologies mostly referred to “digitalization”; offers a new paradigm. Information technology is now perceived as a disruptive innovation capable of shaking up the traditional financial industry. On one side and as a result of the former trend, a new taxonomy emerged under the name of “FinTech” corresponding to the embracement of “digitalization”. FinTech is implicated in the process of disintermediation through innovation. On the other hand and due to the recent incidents at the macroeconomic level such as the 2008 financial crisis or even more recently the Snowden case; the regulatory environment is undergoing drastic changes. Even though the changing regulatory environment firstly acted as a catalyst by promoting the FinTech phenomenon into the spotlight, it inherently touched upon one of the prominent challenges of “FinTech”: to the extent Information Security. Along the line, the FinTech ecosystem which is symbolized by the “Always Available” expression conveys an explicit statement which is yet challenged by the threat of cyberattacks and emphasized by the duality between availability and security. The existing paradox reasserts the growing need for trust from a customer perspective.   Purpose: In this thesis, the authors aimed to investigate the information security and consumer trust challenges within the FinTech ecosystem by empirically testing the customer’s perceptions on the variables that are likely to affect technological adoption   Design/Methodology/approach: A cross sectional quantitative study was conducted with the distribution of a self-completion questionnaire to FinTech customers in Sweden. The designed conceptual model was built on the previous work of Stewart & Jürjens (2018). Stewart and Jürjens (2018) extended the TAM model by considering: Data Security, Customer Trust, Value Added, User Design Interface and FinTech Promotion. In this thesis, the authors adapted Stewart and Jürjens model (2018) by redefining “Data Security” and “Customer Trust”. Three regressions have been performed: one binary logistic regression and two multiple regressions.   Findings: We first ran a principal component analysis in order to reduce dimensionality within our questionnaire. We performed a PCA with an oblique rotation which helped us to produce factor scores. Based on the binary logistic regression, we found out that only Perceived Usefulness and Device security was significantly affecting our respondent’s payment intention. The multiple regression intending to predict the respondent’s intention to use based the on the factor scores from the PCA, revealed that Perceived Usefulness, Usability & ergonomics, Device security and Organizational trust were significant. Lastly, the final regression suggested that Overall trust and security were significantly affecting the respondent’s intention to use. In essence, it appeared that both dimensions are affecting the technological acceptance of users of mobile payment applications.   Research Limitations/implications: There are multiple limitations to our study, the first one being the use of a convenience sampling. Therefore, our results lack of generalizations. Yet, the results of our study confirm what the antecedents of customer’s intention to use mobile payment applications are, to the extent that both security and trust matter.

Against the background of principal-agent and transaction-cost theoretical considerations, this study addresses the question whether relational competencies relate to trust within cooperative relationships, taking into account also situational and personal factors. In its conclusion, the study presents an experimentally confirmed model (n = 282) that shows the strong causal relationship between relational competencies and trust allowing boundary-spanning agents to exert influence on the development and maintenance of complex cooperative relationships characterized by long-term objectives.

Thesis advisor: Joseph O'Keefe / Thesis advisor: James Marini / Using social capital theory as a conceptual framework, this qualitative study of one Massachusetts district analyzed how principals’ relational trust and interconnectedness with central office administrators (COAs) correlated with their perceptions of district efforts to support their growth and development. Data included interviews with principals and COAs and document analyses. Findings revealed a decided split among principals, with some reporting high trust levels and close connections with COAs and others reporting distrust and isolation. Of the district’s five major initiatives designed to support principals, two were perceived positively by most principals, two received mixed reactions with connected principals more favorable than isolated principals, and one received widespread negative perceptions. District initiatives widely perceived to be effective mirrored principal goals, provided opportunities for COA direct assistance, and were structured to facilitate the development of professional assistance relationships. Conversely, the initiatives with mixed or negative perceptions lacked such relationship-building opportunities. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

La thèse qui a été préparée dans le cadre d’une cotutelle est consacrée à la fiducie-sûreté au sens des articles 2011 et s. du Code civil. Elle est rédigée en langue allemande et comporte un résumé en français. La thèse présente le sujet d’un point de vue comparatif. Après un bref aperçu introductif de la fiducie-sûreté, la thèse aborde les questions de la propriété fiduciaire et du patrimoine fiduciaire. Elle examine la question de savoir si la fiducie-sûreté se présente comme une sûreté accessoire à la créance garantie. Le dénouement de la fiducie-sûreté ainsi que les formalités de l’enregistrement et de publicité qui doivent être respectées font l’objet des développements dans les chapitres suivants. Les effets d’une procédure collective sur la fiducie-sûreté sont examinés de manière détaillée. La thèse conclut avec un résumé des résultats les plus importants soulignant les forces et les faiblesses majeures de la fiducie-sûreté. / The present thesis is dedicated to the fiducie-sûreté – the security trust in terms of articles 2011 et seqq. of the French Civil Code. The study is written in German and comprises an abstract in French. The author discusses the fiducie-sûreté from a comparative perspective. After providing a short overview of the fiducie-sûreté, the study deals with the questions related to the propriété fiduciaire and the patrimoine fiduciaire. It examines whether the fiducie-sûreté is accessory to the claim secured by this security right. In the following chapters, the work sheds light on the phase of termination of the fiducie-sûreté as well as on the measures of registration and publication which have to be observed. The work then explores the impact of insolvency proceedings on the fiducie-sûreté in its different aspects. The study concludes with a summary of its most important results underlining the strengths and weaknesses of the fiducie-sûreté.

How people come to trust computing technology is an important factor in the degree to which they come to accept the services that such technologies are able to provide. This is particularly important where the usage of a technology might risk compromising a person’s private information, making them vulnerable to technologically mediated attack. Research into interpersonal trust development between people has allowed designers of systems deployed using technologies such as the World Wide Web to successfully modulate a number of human interpersonal trust cues into the computer-mediated communication domain. Pervasive computing however, describes a significant shift in the ways in which people will come to encounter and use interactive technologies. No longer limited to the confines of the desktop, people can and will be able to perform many of the technological activities they would otherwise do at home in any place and at any time. However, while the services that a pervasive computing infrastructure will be able to provide may be similar to those that people are used to in the traditional world of the ‘desktop metaphor’, the novel characteristics of pervasive computing mean that many of the trust cues that were previously available to technology users may no longer offer an effective means of helping users to place their trust well. In this thesis, a mixed methods research plan, involving both laboratory-based and field-based experimental design, was developed to investigate the role of human-computer trust in respect of two novel characteristics of pervasive computing: service discovery and secure ad-hoc device association. Through leveraging various artefacts in the immediate physical world to support information presented by services in the digital world, this thesis posits that the provision of user-verifiable links between the physical and digital worlds might provide a means of increasing user trust in services whose source they can otherwise not perceive nor verify.

Government initiatives called for electronic health records for each individual healthcare consumer by 2014. the purpose of the initiatives is to provide for the common exchange of clinical information between healthcare consumers, healthcare providers, third-party payers and public healthcare officials.This exchange of healthcare information will impact the healthcare industry and enable more effective and efficient application of healthcare so that there may be a decrease in medical errors, increase in access to quality of care tools, and enhancement of decision making abilities by healthcare consumers, healthcare providers and government health agencies. an electronic personal health record (ePHR) created, managed and accessed by healthcare consumers may be the answer to fulfilling the national initiative. However, since healthcare consumers potentially are in control of their own ePHR, the healthcare consumer’s concern for privacy may be a barrier for the effective implementation of a nationwide network of ePHR. a technology acceptance model, an information boundary theory model and a trust model were integrated to analyze usage intentions of healthcare consumers of ePHR. Results indicate that healthcare consumers feel there is a perceived usefulness of ePHR; however they may not see ePHR as easy to use. Results also indicate that the perceived usefulness of utilizing ePHR does not overcome the low perceived ease of use to the extent that healthcare consumers intend to utilize ePHR. in addition, healthcare consumers may not understand the different components of usage: access, management, sharing and facilitating third-party ePHR. Also, demographics, computer self-efficacy, personal innovativeness, healthcare need and healthcare literacy impact a healthcare consumer’s privacy concerns and trusting intentions in the context of ePHR and intent to utilize ePHR. Finally, this research indicates that healthcare consumers may need a better understanding of the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) regulations of ePHR as well as a better understanding of the impact HIPAA has on websites that may facilitate ePHR.

We can observe a well-documented decline of trust levels in Western societies: from the reputation of political representatives as being "not trustworthy" to the rise of anti-system-oriented populist parties. Yet the implications of different forms of distrust for a society and democratic institutions have been theorized in conflicting ways so far. In order to illuminate existing inconsistencies in social and democratic theory, this article addresses two research questions: What are the implications of different manifestations of distrust for the acceptance of democracy and democratic institutions? How do different forms of distrust affect the motivation to become engaged in democratic decision-making and in civil society institutions? Taking empirical evidence from 25 focus groups in Germany, our findings show that growing social divisions affect the role distrust plays for political interest representation of social groups and for the acceptance of liberal representative democracy.