M.Com. (Informatics) / The-utilization of information technology is essential for an organization, not only to handle daily business activities but also to facilitate management decisions. The greater the dependence of the organization upon information technology, the greater the risk the organization is exposed to in case of an information systems interruption. Computer disasters, such as fires, floods, storms, sabotage and human error, constitute a security threat which could prejudice the survival of an organization. Disaster recovery planning is a realistic and imperative activity for each organization whether large or small. In the light of the potential economic and legal implications o fa disaster, it is no longer acceptable not to be prepared for such an occurrence today.A well designed and tested disaster recovery plan, as part of the total information security strategy of the organization, is therefore not only essential in the terms of the recovery of business functions, but for the SURVIVAL of the organization. In viewpoint above, it can be expected that disaster counterrevolutionary be standard practice for all organizations. However that is not the case. The literature study undertook, as well as exposure in practice, indicate clearly that disaster recovery planning enjoys low priority in most organizations. The majority existentialists are superficial, unstructured and insufficient and will not be successful when real disaster strikes.:The most important single cause for the failure of an organization ~ disaster recovery plan, will be that too much emphasis is being placed on the technical aspects rather than on the management or organizational aspects. The solutions an integrated approach of strategies and the multiple technologies which are available today. These strategies and technologies should be combined to meet the specific needs of the individual organization. The purpose of this dissertation was firstly to identify the most critical problems related to disaster recovery planning and secondly to provide a methodology for the development and implementation of a disaster recovery plan which addresses these problems. This methodology constitutes an enhancement on an existing information security methodology in order to establish a total information security strategy for a large organization with disaster recovery as an essential aspect of this strategy. The final disaster recovery planning methodology as proposed in this dissertation, was developed as a result of an extensive literature study undertook as well as involvement during the development of a disaster recovery system by the company which initiated this study.

The Internet has influenced our lives greatly. The way we communicate evolved with the arrival of the Internet and has continued to evolve along with the Internet. While initially being used by Academia and large organizations such as the American Department of Defense, the Internet soon became a buzzword in the average home. E-mail has changed the way companies and individuals communicate, and the World Wide Web has changed the way all Internet users access information. Lately the ability to communicate globally and instantly via text services such as MSN, audio services such as Skype, or audio and video services such as Microsoft NetMeeting has become popular. These new services consume ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth; in turn these high quality services have driven the need for high-speed always-on Internet connections to businesses and homes. The development of 802.11b and later on 802.11g wireless local area network (LAN) standards have brought wireless networking to the home user. Cheap Wi- Fi-certified hardware has enabled many people to access their high-speed Internet connections from anywhere within their home, or even on the move. The convenience that Wi-Fi has brought has resulted in the increased use of the broadband services mentioned above. The end result is that the Internet changed the way we communicate, and continues to do so with the help of Wi-Fi. / Dr. E. Marais

Ubiquitous computing is already weaving itself around us and it is connecting everything to the network of networks. This interconnection of objects to the internet is new computing paradigm called the Internet of Things (IoT) networks. Many capacity and non-capacity constrained devices, such as sensors are connecting to the Internet. These devices interact with each other through the network and provide a new experience to its users. In order to make full use of this ubiquitous paradigm, security on IoT is important. There are problems with privacy concerns regarding certain algorithms that are on IoT, particularly in the area that relates to their avalanche effect means that a small change in the plaintext or key should create a significant change in the ciphertext. The higher the significant change, the higher the security if that algorithm. If the avalanche effect of an algorithm is less than 50% then that algorithm is weak and can create security undesirability in any network. In this, case IoT. In this study, we propose to do the following: (1) Search and select existing block cryptographic algorithms (maximum of ten) used for authentication and encryption from different devices used on IoT. (2) Analyse the avalanche effect of select cryptographic algorithms and determine if they give efficient authentication on IoT. (3) Improve their avalanche effect by designing a mathematical model that improves their robustness against attacks. This is done through the usage of the initial vector XORed with plaintext and final vector XORed with cipher tect. (4) Test the new mathematical model for any enhancement on the avalanche effect of each algorithm as stated in the preceding sentences. (5) Propose future work on how to enhance security on IoT. Results show that when using the proposed method with variation of key, the avalanche effect significantly improved for seven out of ten algorithms. This means that we have managed to improve 70% of algorithms tested. Therefore indicating a substantial success rate for the proposed method as far as the avalanche effect is concerned. We propose that the seven algorithms be replaced by our improved versions in each of their implementation on IoT whenever the plaintext is varied. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)

Bullying victimization in school settings is a serious problem in many countries including the United States. Bullying victimization has been associated with serious incidents of school violence as well as detrimental physical, psychological, emotional, and social consequences for its victims. Given its consequences, it is crucial to understand who is more likely to be targeted for bullying victimization. This study examines whether a number of important factors such as gender, physical and interactionist school security measures, and involvement in extracurricular activities influence individuals’ risk of bullying victimization from social bond and routine activity perspectives. The study employs the 2011 School Crime Supplement (SCS) of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to investigate the causes of bullying victimization. The results of this study show that gender, interactionist school security measures, and extracurricular activities impact individuals’ likelihood of bullying victimization.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The web applications are now being used in many security oriented areas, including online shopping, e-commerce, which require the users to transmit sensitive information on the Internet. Therefore, to successfully authenticate each party of web applications is very important. A popular deployed technique for web authentication is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) protocol. However the protocol does not protect the careless users who connect to fraudulent websites from being trapped into tricks. For example, in a phishing attack, a web user who connects to an attacker may provide password to the attacker, who can use it afterwards to log in the target website and get the victim’s credentials. To prevent phishing attacks, the Two-Way Password Protocol (TPP) and Dynamic Two-Way Password Protocol (DTPP) are developed. However there still exist potential security threats in those protocols. For example, an attacker who makes a fake website may obtain the hash of users’ passwords, and use that information to arrange offline password guessing attacks. Based on TPP, we incorporated challenge responses with arbitrary images to prevent the off-line password guessing attacks in our new protocol, TPP with Challenge response using Arbitrary image (TPPCA). Besides TPPCA, we developed another scheme called Rain to solve the same problem by dividing shared secrets into several rounds of negotiations. We discussed various aspects of our protocols, the implementation and experimental results.

No description available.

M. Tech. Information Networks / The growth of the internet has made it easy for people to exchange information resulting in the abundance of information commonly referred to as information overload. It causes retailers to fail to make adequate sales since the customers are swamped with a lot of options and choices. To lessen this problem retailers have begun to find it useful to make use of algorithmic approaches to determine which content to show consumers. These algorithmic approaches are known as recommender systems. Collaborative Filtering recommender systems suggest items to users based on other users reported prior experience with those items. These systems are, however, vulnerable to shilling attacks since they are highly dependent on outside sources of information. Shilling is a process in which syndicating users can connive to promote or demote a certain item, where malicious users benefit from introducing biased ratings. It is, however, critical that shilling detection systems are implemented to detect, warn and shut down shilling attacks within minutes. Modern patented shilling detection systems employ: (a) classification methods, (b) statistical methods, and (c) rules and threshold values defined by shilling detection analysts, using their knowledge of valid shilling cases and the false alarm rate as guidance. The goal of this dissertation is to determine a context for, and assess the performance of Meta-Learning techniques that can be integrated in the shilling detection process.

published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

M.Com. (Informatics) / Cyber issues are global phenomena in a world of inter-related systems, and as such, the discussion on cybersecurity frameworks, policies and strategies inevitably requires reference to, and benchmarking with regional, continental and global trends and solutions. This, in the context of the effects of globalisation on developing countries, with specific reference to areas such as Africa as a developing continent with regard to the protection of its cyberspace. More drastic measures, such as the utilization of cyber warfare techniques and pre-emptive cyber strike-teams in addition to traditional cybersecurity mechanisms as an essential part of a national security effort to protect cyberspace has become more prevalent within the developed worlds. Likewise, developing nations need to gear themselves in a structured, coordinated and responsible way in order to do their part to secure their own environments. Cyberspace is a dynamic global environment with cyber related issues being a global concern. Although countries generally regulate their own cyber environment through policy; cross-border cyber issues are difficult to resolve and the lack of international cyber laws impede cybersecurity efforts. Cybercrime and the management of cross-border cyber incidents are becoming a growing national security concern as the lack of effective controls leave critical infrastructure and the cyber-connected environment vulnerable to attack. Some developing countries are on track with the maturity of their cybersecurity initiatives, but appropriate cybersecurity frameworks for many developing countries require careful consideration, especially due to the lack of resources, infrastructure and local technology development capabilities.