The proliferation of connected embedded devices has driven wireless communications into commercial, military, industrial, and personal systems. It is unreasonable to expect privacy and security to be inherent in these networks given the spatial density of these devices, limited spectral resources, and the broadcast nature of wireless communications systems. Communications for these systems must have sufficient information capacity and secrecy capacity while typically maintaining small size, light weight, and minimized power consumption. With increasing crowding of the electromagnetic spectrum, interference must be leveraged as an available resource. This work develops a new beamforming method for direction-dependent modulation that provides wireless communications devices with enhanced physical layer security and the ability to simultaneously communicate and harvest energy by exploiting co-channel interference. We propose a method that optimizes a set of time-varying array steering vectors to enable direction-dependent modulation, thus exploiting a new degree of freedom in the space-time-frequency paradigm. We formulate steering vector selection as a convex optimization problem for rapid computation given arbitrarily positioned array antenna elements. We show that this method allows us to spectrally separate co-channel interference from an information-bearing signal in the analog domain, enabling the energy from the interference to be diverted for harvesting during the digitization and decoding of the information-bearing signal. We also show that this method provides wireless communications devices with not only enhanced information capacity, but also enhanced secrecy capacity in a broadcast channel. By using the proposed method, we can increase the overall channel capacity in a broadcast system beyond the current state-of-the-art for wireless broadcast channels, which is based on static coding techniques. Further, we also increase the overall secrecy capacity of the system by enabling secrecy for each user in the system. In practical terms, this results in higher-rate, confidential messages delivered to multiple devices in a broadcast channel for a given power constraint. Finally, we corroborate these claims with simulation and experimental results for the proposed method. / PHD / The proliferation of connected devices has driven wireless communications into commercial, military, industrial, and personal systems. It is unreasonable to expect privacy and security to be inherent in these networks given the spatial density of these devices, limited available resources, and the broadcast nature of wireless communications systems. Communications for these systems need not only sufficient information capacity, but also the assurance that the available information capacity remains confidential while typically maintaining small size, light weight, and minimized power consumption. With increasing crowding of the electromagnetic spectrum due to the numerous connected devices, interference between them must be leveraged as an available resource. This work develops a new method for electrically steering an array of antennas to overlay or encode information onto a signal in a way that is direction-dependent and provides wireless communications devices with enhanced security and the ability to simultaneously communicate and harvest energy from interfering devices. We propose a method that optimizes a set of time-varying array steering vectors to enable direction-dependent modulation, thus exploiting a new degree of freedom in the traditional space-time-frequency paradigm. We formulate the selection of steering vectors as a convex optimization problem for rapid computation given arbitrarily positioned array antenna elements in three dimensions. We show that this method allows us to separate interference from an information-bearing signal in the analog domain, enabling the energy from the interference to be diverted for harvesting during the digitization and decoding of the information-bearing signal. We also show that this method provides broadcast wireless communications devices with not only increased information capacity, but also assured secrecy. By using the proposed time-varying method, we can increase the overall channel capacity in a broadcast system beyond the current state-of-the-art, which is based on static encoding techniques. Further, we also increase the overall secrecy capacity of the system by ensuring that each user in the system receives separate and confidential signals. In practical terms, this results in higher-rate, confidential messages delivered to multiple devices in a broadcast channel for a given power constraint. Finally, we corroborate these claims with simulation and experimental results for the proposed method.

The decision of romantic partners to share or keep a secret involves each partner’s perception of the other’s trustworthiness. Indeed, trust may influence how romantic partners enact secrecy in their relationship. This study investigated the willingness of individuals to keep secrets from their partner, the number of secrets that people keep from their partner, individuals’ reports of their reasons for discussing their expectations regarding secrets, and the association between each of these characteristics and partners’ trust. First, the literature regarding secrecy and people’s willingness to keep secrets from a relational partner is investigated. People’s willingness to keep secrets from a relational partner should differ based on their trust in the partner. Secret holders are more likely to disclose to a confidant when they perceive that confidant to be trustworthy (Kelly & McKillop, 1996) and, conversely may not disclose to a confidant who lacks trustworthiness (Wheeless & Grotz, 1977). In light of these findings, it was expected that individuals’ willingness to keep secrets would be negatively related to the degree to which they trusted their partner. In a similar vein, the association between trust and the frequency of discussing expectations regarding secrecy was explored. The literature suggests two possibilities for the association between trust and the frequency of discussing expectations regarding secrecy. The first is that individuals who trust their partner enough may decide to discuss how secrets should be managed, because dyadic trust is associated with increased intimacy of disclosure (Larzelere & Huston, 1980). The second possibility is that people may choose to discuss their expectations of how they should manage secrets, not because of trust, but because a lack of trustworthiness. Research questions explored the associations between the frequency of discussing expectations regarding secrecy and partners’ willingness to keep secrets, the number of secrets they keep, and their trust. Finally, the reasons why individuals might or might not discuss their expectations regarding secrets with their partner, and what these discussions might consist of were explored. / text

Title of the thesis: Banking secrecy The paper deals with a traditional instrument dedicated to protection of client's personal data provided to the bank - banking secrecy. The instrument is analysed in connection with breaking of banking secrecy. The ways of breaking the banking secrecy are divided into two groups: (i) manners of breaking the banking secrecy regulated by law and (ii) manners of breaking the bank secrecy not specifically regulated by law where the main role is given to secondary legislation and case law. Regarding the ways of breaking regulated by law, the paper describes the Act on Banks as a general law and also regulation included in specific laws. There are two categories of specific laws: which specify the process of breaking the bank secrecy included in the Act on Banks or which regulate specific case of breaking the banking secrecy. As for the civil procedure, there is a premise of diminution of use of the Civil Procedure Act for gathering client information by authorised persons because of the Central Registry of Accounts. The important type of laws regulating the breaking of the banking secrecy is those regulating registers of client information protected by the banking secrecy. The most important development of legislation is the new regulation of non-banking registers in...

Corruption, Tax Abuse, and Financial Secrecy PhD Dissertation, Miroslav Palanský, IES CUNI, 2020 Abstract This dissertation is composed of three papers that focus on different aspects of the relationship between the public sector and individuals who do not comply with the norms and regulations set by the government. I classify the ways in which individuals do so into two categories - corruption and tax abuse. Corruption, defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, results in individuals obtaining more benefits from the public sector than is intended. Tax abuse, on the other hand, is defined as contributing less to the public sector than is intended. The last chapter of the dissertation focuses on financial secrecy, which I argue is the key facilitator of the two channels. In Chapter 2, I show that companies that donate money to Czech political parties subsequently report abnormally high profits, pointing to preferential treatment that these firms enjoy as a result of their political connections: I conservatively estimate that the connected firms outperform their non-connected but otherwise similar competitors by 8 to 12% following the establishment of the connection, which is a higher effect than found previously for more developed economies. Importantly, however, I find that the effect...

The Chief Security Officer Problem (CSO) consists of a CSO, a group of agents trying to communicate with the CSO and a group of eavesdroppers trying to listen to the conversations between the CSO and its agents. Through Lemmas and Theorems, several Information Theoretic questions are answered.

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The role of tax havens in the global issue of tax evasion has been illustrated by numerous studies. In 2009, a major international initiative has been launched by G20 and OECD with a purpose to put an end to offshore tax evasion. Yet the outcomes of this tax haven crackdown are often contested. This thesis brings new findings to the empirical research that has been done on the field of crackdown's evaluation. First, I confirm the results of earlier academic papers and I find a negative impact of information exchange treaties on the value of funds placed in tax havens. Second, I extend the existing research shifting the attention to deposits in non-havens, concluding that also the money from tax havens placed on non-havens' bank accounts disappear after signing a treaty. In the final part of the thesis, I - for the first time in literature - link the data on cross-border deposits with a measure of financial secrecy. I find that a decrease in secrecy score corresponds to a decline in deposits on a sample of all countries and non-havens. All my findings suggest that weakening the financial secrecy is associated with a significant outflow of cross-border deposits.

L’évolution du secret médical vers un secret professionnel concernant de nombreuses professions soulève la question de la transmission des données personnelles de santé. Étudiant les fondements juridiques de cette transmission et s’appuyant sur des exemples pratiques relevés au cours de l’activité des praticiens conseils au sein de l’assurance maladie, ce travail développe les droits de l’individu sur la maîtrise du secret et les possibilités de transmissions des données dans le respect du droit des autres personnes que sont les ayants droits et les employeurs comme les droits de la défense. La possibilité d’une prédominance de la société sur la personne est envisagée dans le cadre de la protection de la santé, de la justice et de la gestion économique des dépenses de santé.Des propositions d’évolution des pratiques et de la législation visent à permettre l’encadrement des transmissions des données personnelles de santé dans le respect des droits des personnes. / Medical secrecy is moving towards a professional secrecy, which concerns numerous professions, raising the question of transmission of personnel health data.This thesis, based on practical examples taken from professional activities of practitioners advisers in the Health insurance, studies legal foundations of this transmission and develops individual rights on how to control secrecy and possibilities of transmission of data according to the respect of the rights of other people such as eligible parties and employers. The fact that a society can be more prominent than a person is contemplated in the context of health protection, justice and economic management of health spending.Evolutions of practices and legislation are suggested and aim at allowing the supervision of transmission of personal health data according to people’s rights.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Secrets and silence appear frequently in the work of Toni Morrison. In three novels, The Bluest Eye, Jazz, and Paradise, she repeats a specific phrase that acts as a signal to the reader. Morrison three times writes, “Quiet as it’s kept” in her novels to alert readers to the particular significance secrets and silence play in these novels. Morrison portrays this secrecy and silence as a barrier to building strong communities and even a strong self-identity. While the phrase appears in the same form, with each subsequent appearance, Morrison takes the idea a step further. In each novel she demonstrates how breaking the silence and refusing to keep quiet is an act of healing or salvation and she expands this healing to be increasingly inclusive. What begins as a single voice breaking the silence in The Bluest Eye becomes a group of people sharing their secrets in Jazz, and finally an entire town coming to terms with the power of speaking up. This thesis looks at the secrets and their impact on characters in each novel and explores the progression of the power in refusing to keep quiet.

The world is becoming strongly dependent on computers, and on distributed communication between computers. As a result of this, communication security is important, sometimes critically so, to many day-to-day activities. Finding strategies for discovering attacks against security protocols and for proving security protocols correct is an important area of research. An increasingly popular technique that is used to simplify the design of security protocols is to rely on a secure transport layer to protect messages on the network, and to provide protection against attackers. In order to make the right decision about which secure transport layer protocols to use, and to compare and contrast different secure transport protocols, it is important that we have a good understanding of the properties that they can provide. To do this, we require a means to specify these properties precisely. The aim of this thesis is to improve our understanding of the security guarantees that can be provided by secure transport protocols. We define a framework in which one can capture security properties. We describe a simulation relation over specifications based on the events performed by honest agents. This simulation relation allows us to compare channels; it also allows us to specify the same property in different ways, and to conclude that the specifications are equivalent. We describe a hierarchy of confidentiality, authentication, session and stream properties. We present example protocols that we believe satisfy these specifications, and we describe which properties we believe that the various modes of TLS satisfy. We investigate the effects of chaining our channel properties through a trusted third party, and we prove an invariance theorem for the secure channel properties. We describe how one can build abstract CSP models of the secure transport protocol properties. We use these models to analyse two single sign-on protocols for the internet that rely on SSL and TLS connections to function securely. We present a new methodology for designing security protocols which is based on our secure channel properties. This new approach to protocol design simplifies the design process and results in a simpler protocol.