Thesis (M.A. ( Information Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study aimed to examine the extent of awareness and the adoption of Open Access (OA) publishing for the purpose of scholarly communication by academic staff at the University of Limpopo (UL). The study was guided by Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory (1) to measure the level of awareness of academics on the availability and use of OA resources; (2) to determine the adoption and usage levels of OA publishing as a platform for information sharing by academics in scholarly communication; (3) to establish academics’ attitudes towards the use of the OA publishing platforms; and (4) to identify perspectives of academic staff with regards to challenges and benefits presented by OA publishing. A dominantly quantitative research approach was adopted using a google forms questionnaire with closed ended questions to collect data from 250 academics at the University of Limpopo. Academics were selected using the systematic simple random sampling method. To ensure the survey instrument’s reliability and validity, the researcher conducted a pilot study through a web-based survey. A descriptive statistics method of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data. The study established that the majority (82%) of academics were aware of OA publishing platforms. The internet and subject librarians were the main communication channels through which they became aware of OA publishing. The study also found that there was minimal the adoption and usage of OA publishing among academics. Their attitudes towards OA and their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of OA. The general attitudes of academics about OA were positive, signifying the acceptance of this scholarly communication mode. However, some of the challenges encountered in adopting and using OA publishing include slow internet connectivity and access, publication charges by some publishers, lack of skills to publish online, power interruptions, lack of policies on OA, fake and predatory v publishers and OA articles not being peer-reviewed. These were reported as problems that directly or indirectly hinder academics from publishing in OA platforms. The study recommends the institutionalisation of OA publishing at UL to improve research output dissemination. An area for further research will be to establish more insights regarding the feasibility of OA development and possible ways of dealing with article processing fees. Keywords: Open Access publishing, scholarly communication, Academic staff, Institutional Repositories, Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory, University of Limpopo.

Purpose: This study is based on one of 60 residential areas in Sweden which is evaluated to have low socio-economic status and where criminals have an impact on the society. Råslätt in Jönköping is referred as an exposed area and this studys aim is to identify, analyze and assist Vätterhem with guidance concerning crime prevention and providing safe design in urban space. The aim of this study is to comprehend how urban spaces can be designed to prevent crime in exposed areas in general and Råslätt in particular. In this way, this study will contribute with knowledge to make Råslätt a secure and safe area. Method: This study’s methods is both qualitative and quantitative. First, a literature research was conducted on where CPTED has been implemented as a tool in crime. A document analysis has been carried out using statistics from the police department regarding reported crimes in Råslätt. Interviews were conducted on people with good knowledge of Råslätt, in order to supplement and compare the document analysis. The questions asked were regarding perceived crime and insecurity. To map Råslätt, an area analysis was then implemented based on the tool Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Findings: This study shows that parking lots on the outskirts of Råslätt, Havsörnsgatan and Stadsgården with its surrounding areas are common places for crimes within three crime categories: Public acts of violence that risk damaging third parties are found where you can find problems with natural surveillance. Open drug dealing is found where there is a problem with natural surveillance and natural access control. Outward dissatisfaction against society is found in places where there is a problem with natural surveillance and territorial reinforcement. Implications: This study shows that there is a connection between the tool CPTED and the crimes that are reported in Råslätt as well as the perceived feeling of where crimes are committed is in consistent with the reality of where crimes are reported. The conclusion shows that there is some improvement to make when it comes to the built environment and reduce the occurrence of criminal acts. Examples of such measures are better lightning, concealed walking paths and restrict the car traffic in the area. Limitations: This study only includes the residential area Råslätt with its surrounding parking lots and garages. This means that forest areas, outdoor areas and roads that connect Råslätt with nearby residential areas are excluded. This study also focuses on the indirect oppressions in the assignment of exposed areas. The aspect in CPTED regarding the natural access control and segregation from surrounding areas will not be evaluated in this study. / Syfte: Studien har sin grund i ett av de 60 områden i Sverige som bedöms ha låg socialekonomisk status och där kriminella har en påverkan på samhället. Råslätt i Jönköping benämns som ett utsatt område och studien syftar till att identifiera, analysera och bistå Vätterhem med vägledning rörande brottsförebyggande och trygghetssäkrande utformning i urban miljö. Målet med studien är att komma till insikt om hur offentliga platser kan utformas för att preventivt och aktivt förhindra brott i utsatta områden i allmänhet och Råslätt i synnerhet. På så sätt bidra med information för att göra Råslätt till ett säkrare och tryggare område. Metod: Studien innehåller både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder. Först genomfördes litteraturstudier om CPTED som verktyg i brottsbekämpning. En dokumentanalys genomfördes sedan av statistisk från polismyndigheten angående anmälda brott som återfinns i området. För att komplettera och jämföra dokumentanalysen gjordes intervjuer på personer med god kännedom över Råslätt. De frågor som ställdes handlade om upplevd brottslighet och otrygghet. För att kartlägga Råslätt genomfördes sedan en områdesanalys utifrån verktyget Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Resultat: Studien visar på att parkeringsplatserna i Råslätts utkanter, Havsörnsgatan och Stadsgården med omnejd är vanligt förekommande platser för anmälda brott inom de tre brottskategorierna: Offentliga våldshandlingar som riskerar att skada tredje man återfinns i högst grad där problem med den naturliga övervakningen återfinns. Öppen narkotikahandel återfinns där det är problem med den naturliga övervakningen och den naturliga åtkomstkontrollen. Brottshandlingar i form av utåtagerande missnöje mot samhället återfinns på platser där det är problem med den naturliga övervakningen och den territoriella förstärkningen. Konsekvenser: Studien visar att det finns en koppling mellan verktyget CPTED och de brottshandlingar som anmälts i Råslätt. Även att den upplevda känslan om var brott begås, till viss del stämmer överens med verklighetsbilden över var brotten anmäls Slutsatsen visar även att det finns en del förbättringsåtgärder att vidta när det kommer till den bebyggda miljön för att reducera uppkomsten av brottshandingar. Exempel på sådana åtgärder är bättre belysning, mindre avskärmningar vid gångstråk och att begränsa biltrafiken in i området. Begränsningar: Studien innefattas bara av bostadsområdet Råslätt med dess omkringliggande parkeringar/garage. Det innebär att skogsområden, friluftsområden samt vägar som förbinder Råslätt med närliggande bostadsområden exkluderas. Studien har också fokus på de indirekta påtryckningarna i bedömningen av utsatta områden. Aspekten i CPTED rörande den naturliga åtkomstkontrollen och hur segregerat området är från kring liggande områden kommer inte att beaktas i studien.

Assurer l'appropriation des données personnelles et l'interopérabilité des applications Web sociaux décentralisées est actuellement un sujet controversé, surtout en prenant compte des aspects de la vie privée et du contrôle d'accès. Il est important d'améliorer le Web social de telle manière à permettre des modèles d'affaires viables tout en étant capable de fournir une plus grande appropriation des données et l'interopérabilité des données par rappport à la situation actuelle. A cet égard, nous avons concentré notre recherche sur trois thèmes différents: le contrôle d'identité, l'authentifiaction et le contrôle d'accès. Tout d'abord, nous abordons le sujet de l'identité décentralisée en proposant un nouveau standard Web appelé "Web Identity and Discovery" (WebID), qui offre un mécanisme d'identification simple et universel qui est distribué et ouvertement extensible. Ensuite, nous passons à la question de l'authentification où nous proposons WebID-TLS, un protocole d'authentification décentralisé qui permet l'authentification sécurisée, simple et efficace sur le Web en permettant aux personnes de se connecter à l'aide de certificats clients. Nous étendons également WebID-TLS, en offrant des moyens d'effectuer de l'authentification déléguée et de la délégation d'accès. Enfin, nous présentons notre dernière contribution, un service de contrôle d'accès social, qui sert à protéger l'accès aux ressources Linked Data générés par les utilisateurs (par exemple, les données de profil, messages du mur, conversations, etc) par l'application de deux mesures: la "distance de proximité sociale" et "contexte social" / Ensuring personal data ownership and interoperability for decentralized social Web applications is currently a debated topic, especially when taking into consideration the aspects of privacy and access control. Since the user's data are such an important asset of the current business models for most social Websites, companies have no incentive to share data among each other or to offer users real ownership of their own data in terms of control and transparency of data usage. We have concluded therefore that it is important to improve the social Web in such a way that it allows for viable business models while still being able to provide increased data ownership and data interoperability compared to the current situation. To this regard, we have focused our research on three different topics: identity, authentication and access control. First, we tackle the subject of decentralized identity by proposing a new Web standard called "Web Identity and Discovery" (WebID), which offers a simple and universal identification mechanism that is distributed and openly extensible. Next, we move to the topic of authentication where we propose WebID-TLS, a decentralized authentication protocol that enables secure, efficient and user friendly authentication on the Web by allowing people to login using client certificates and without relying on Certification Authorities. We also extend the WebID-TLS protocol, offering delegated authentication and access delegation. Finally we present our last contribution, the Social Access Control Service, which serves to protect the privacy of Linked Data resources generated by users (e.g. pro le data, wall posts, conversations, etc.) by applying two social metrics: the "social proximity distance" and "social contexts"

This thesis project aimed to design and implement a secure system for handling and safeguarding personal data. The purpose of the work is to prevent unauthorized actors from gaining access to systems and data. The proposed solution is a Zero Trust architecture which emphasizes strong security measures by design and strict access controls. The system must provide minimal access for users and should be integrated with the existing cloud-based infrastructure. The result is a system that leverages Keycloak for identity management and authentication services, GitLab to provide a code hosting solution, GPG for commit signing, and OpenVPN for network access. Through the utilization of Gitlab, Keycloak and OpenVPN the system achieved a comprehensive design for data protection, user authentication and network security. This report also highlights alternative methods, future enhancements and potential improvements to the completed system. / Målet med denna rapport är att designa och implementera ett säkert system för hantering och skydd av personlig data. Syftet med arbetet är att förhindra obehöriga att få tillgång till system och data. Den föreslagna lösningen är en Zero Trustarkitektur som betonar skärpta säkerhetsåtgärder genom design och strikta åtkomstkontroller. Systemet måste ge minimal åtkomst för användare som brukar det och integreras med den befintliga molnbaserade infrastrukturen. Resultatet är ett system som använder Keycloak för hantering av identiteter och autentisering, GitLab för att tillhandahålla ett kodarkiv där användare kan ladda upp sin kod, GPG för att signera commits, och OpenVPN för nätverksåtkomst. Genom användning av GitLab, Keycloak och OpenVPN uppnådde systemet en omfattande design för dataskydd, användarautentisering och nätverkssäkerhet. Denna rapport nämner också alternativa metoder, framtida och potentiella förbättringar av det färdiga systemet.

<p>The production of row crops in the Midwestern (Indiana) region of the US has been facing environmental and economic sustainability issues. There has been an increase in trend for the application of fertilizers (Nitrogen & Phosphorus), farm machinery fuel costs and decrease in labor productivity leading to non-optimized usage of farm-inputs. A structured literature review describes Lean and Green practices such as profitability (return on investments), operational cost reduction, hazardous waste reduction, delivery performance and overall productivity might be adopted in the context of Precision Agriculture practices (variable rate irrigation, variable rate fertilization, cloud-based analytics, and telematics for farm-machinery navigation). </p> <p>The literature review describes low adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) based precision agriculture practices, such as variable rate fertilizer (39 %), variable rate pesticide (8%), variable rate irrigation (4 %), cloud-based data analytics (21 %) and telematics (10 %) amongst Midwestern row crop producers. Barriers for the adoption of IoT based Precision Agriculture practices include cost effectiveness, power requirements, communication range, data latency, data scalability, data storage, data processing and data interoperability. Focused group interviews (n=3) with Subject Matter Expertise (SME’s) (N=18) in IoT based Precision Agriculture practices were conducted to understand and define decision-making variables related to barriers. The content analysis and subsequent ISM model informed an action research approach in the deployment of an IoT wireless sensor nodes for performance improvement. The improvements resulted in variable cost reduction by 94 %, power consumption cost reduction by 60 %, and improved data interoperable and user-interactive IoT wireless sensor-based data pipeline for improved adoption of Precision Agriculture practices. A relationship analysis of performance data (n=2505) from the IoT sensor deployment empirically validated the ISM model and explained the variation in power consumption for mitigation of IoT adoption among producers. The scope of future research for predicting IoT power consumption, based upon the growing season through correlation was developed in this study. </p> <p>The implications of this research inform adopters (row-crop producers), researchers and precision agriculture practitioners that a Lean and Green framework is driven substantively by cost and power concerns in an IoT sensors-based precision agriculture solution. </p>

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.

In the light of almost daily media reports of accidents and incidents of violence in South African schools, it can be assumed that most South African schools are unsafe. This study investigates the manner in which rural public schools implement the school safety regulations prescribed by the South African Schools Act to ensure learner safety. This qualitative study investigates the implementation of the Schools Act’s safety regulations at four public schools situated in the rural areas east of Pretoria in Gauteng. Data was gathered using interviews with the principals of these schools as well as by the observation and recording of the normal day-to-day activities at the school and by an analysis of each school’s school safety policy. The interviews with the principals focused on the manner in which each school implements the regulations for school safety in areas such as access to the school and the conducting of searches, the arranging of trips and excursion and the planning and managing water-based activities and the early release of learners. Observation at each of the four schools focused on the physical condition of the school and the schools’ procedures for playground duty, fire fighting and emergency drills. The analysis of each school’s safety policy aimed to determine the compliance of these policies with the Schools Act regulations and to determine the practicability and effectiveness of each policy. The researcher’s conclusions include the fact that none of four schools had an effective and practicable school safety policy in place and were not implementing their inadequate policies effectively. He suggests among other things a comprehensive compulsory school safety training programme including aspects such as information on the intent, content and aims of the school safety regulations, the concepts of liability and negligence and methods for drafting, adopting and implementing effective school safety policies. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Access control models and implementation guidelines for determining, provisioning, and de-provisioning user permissions are challenging due to the differing approaches, unique for each organization, the lack of information provided by case studies concerning the organization’s security policies, and no standard means of implementation procedures or best practices. Although there are multiple access control models, one stands out, role-based access control (RBAC). RBAC simplifies maintenance by enabling administrators to group users with similar permissions. This approach to managing user permissions supports the principle of least privilege and separation of duties, which are needed to ensure an organization maintains acceptable user access security requirements. However, if not properly maintained, RBAC produces the problem of role explosion. What happens when security administrations cannot maintain the increasing number of roles and their assigned permissions provisioned to the organization users? This paper attempts to solve this problem by implementing a scalable RBAC system and assigning each permission a risk value score determined by the severity of risk it would expose the organization to if someone had unauthorized access to that permission. Using RBAC’s role and permission design, each user will be assigned a risk value score determined by the summation of their roles’ risk based on permission values. This method allows security administrators to view the users and roles with the highest level of risk, therefore prioritizing the highest risk users and roles when maintaining user roles and permissions.

Biomedical applications offer an exciting growth opportunity for wireless sensor networks. However, radio frequency communication is problematic in hospital environments that are susceptible to interference in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands. Also, RF is inherently insecure as eavesdroppers can easily pick up signals. The Intra-Body Network (IBNet) proposes a novel communication model for biomedical sensor networks. It seeks the convenience of wireless communication while avoiding interference and privacy concerns associated with RF. IBNet's solution is to utilize a subject's own body tissue as a transmission medium. Assuming that transmissions are contained within the body, IBNet solves otherwise complex problems of privacy and interference. Unfortunately, transmitting through the same medium in which we sense creates a new type of conflict; it is possible that one sensor's network transmission might corrupt an adjacent sensor's sample data. We present Body Language, a set of protocols that arbitrate IBNet's sampling/communication conflict while providing basic services such as dynamic node discovery, network configuration, quality of service, and sensor sample collection. Body Language seeks to provide these services and solve IBNet's unique communication challenges while minimizing hardware resource requirements and hence sensor node cost. In order to prove Body Language feasibility, we created an IBNet prototype environment where the protocols were demonstrated on real hardware and in real time. The prototype also offers important insight into the Body Language's computational resource requirements. Our results show that Body Language provides all services required by IBNet and it does so with a very modest footprint.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a two-step verification process that aims to provide an additional layer of security by requiring the user to authenticate himself/herself using a secondary means (ownership factor or inheritance factor). Without the use of 2FA, an attacker could gain access to a person’s devices or accounts solely by knowing the victim’s password, while with 2FA knowing only this password is insufficient to pass the authentication check. In this project, we analyze different methods in which 2FA could be implemented by a Digital Assessment Platform. These platforms allow test assessments to be built directly into digital content; therefore, an important requirement of these systems is secure authentication. Moreover, it is important to securely protect teachers’ account in order to avoid unauthorized people gaining access to those accounts. We investigate how 2FA could be used to add an extra layer of security to teachers’ accounts, focusing on cost, user experience, ease of use, and deployment of the solution. We arrived at the conclusion that 2FA through an ownership factor is a suitable method and we implemented a solution based upon One-Time Passwords. This thesis project will hopefully benefit Digital Assessment Platforms who wish to implement 2FA by providing broader knowledge regarding this subject. The project should also benefit society by increasing the general knowledge of 2FA, hence leading to more secure services. / Tvåfaktorsautentisering (2FA) är en tvåstegs verifieringsprocess som syftar att ge en extra nivå av säkerhet, i och med att den kräver användaren att autentisera sig själv genom en sekundär faktor (något man äger eller har ärvt). Utan användning av 2FA, kan en förövare få åtkomst till en persons mobila enhet eller konto endast genom att kunna offrets lösenord. Att enbart kunna lösenordet är inte tillräckligt för att en autentiseringsprocess ska vara godkänd om 2FA är implementerad. I det här projektet analyseras olika 2FA som skulle kunna implementeras av en digital utvärderingsplattform. Sådana plattformar  förvandlar tester och prov till digitalt innehåll och kräver därför en säker autentisering. Dessutom är det viktigt att säkra lärarnas konton för att undvika att icke auktoriserade personer loggar in på deras konton. Vi undersöker hur 2FA kan användas för att lägga till en extra nivå av säkerhet på lärarnas konton, med fokus på kostnad, användarupplevelse, lättanvändlighet och utplacering av lösningen. Vi kom fram till att 2FA via en faktor man äger är en passande metod  och vi implementerade sedan en lösning grundad på engångslösenord. Detta projekt kan förhoppningsvis vara till förmån för digitala utvärderingsplattformar  som vill implementera 2FA,  genom att ge en bredare kunskap inom detta område. Projektet skulle kunna gynna allmänheten genom att bidra till ökad generell kunskap om 2FA, och därav leda till säkrare tjänster.