Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 250-252. / by Stephen Thomas Kent. / Ph.D.

Abstract not available

This thesis has taken an in-depth look into bank computer security, the bank security officer, and "The 1968 Bank Protection Act."To accomplish this, a questionnaire was developed and furnished to all bank members of the Indiana Bankers Association to be responded to by the bank security officers. This document was based on the premise that this bank officer is ill-trained, overworked by unrelated duties, and generally not interested in security."The 1968 Bank Protection Act" made this officer's position a legal requirement to maintain its banking operation and charged this officer with certain duties.The resultant responses verified the original hypothesis and showed a need for future training.This thesis shows the profile of, a computer criminal and also some cases to illustrate the type and scope of criminal ventures related to bank computer facilities. This was all coupled with an analysis of the law as it applies and offers a training vehicle to bring this officer up to a level of competency in this field.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306

Security systems are gaining increasing importance in recent times to protect life and valuable resources. Many advanced methods of providing security have been developed and are in use in the last few decades. Of these, one important area is the security system required for military/strategic applications, which has advanced greatly. But, such systems being complex and expensive are useful in high-end applications only. However, with the recent progress in technology and the growing need for increased security in civilian and other applications, many low cost solutions for security systems have now emerged. As a result, many applications where only a simple intruder alarm was the means of providing security in earlier days are now able to associate with more advanced and foolproof access control techniques. And the field of Access Control Systems (ACSs) using modern approaches has become a major means of providing security in all applications, both military and civilian.

Title from screen page; viewed 10 Oct 2005. / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Information and Communication Sciences, Dept. of Computing, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 163-175. / Introduction -- Cryptographic essentials -- Multicast: structure and security -- Authentication of multicast streams -- Authentication of concast communication -- Authentication of transit flows -- One-time signatures for authenticating group communication -- Authentication of anycast communication -- Authentication of joining operation - Conclusion and future directions. / Electronic publication; full text available in PDF format. / Multicast is a relatively new and emerging communication mode in which a sender sends a message to a group of recipients in just one connection establishment... reducing broadband overhead and increasing resource utilization in the already congested and contented network... The focus of the research in this area has been in two directions: first, building an efficient routing infrastructure, and secondly, building a sophisticated security infrastructure. The focus of this work is on the second issue. / An ideal authenticated multicast environment ... provides authenticity for all the communication operations in the system... We ... propose a comprehensive solution to the problem ... for all its possible operations... 1. one-to-one (or joining mode) 2. one-to-many (or broadcast mode) 3. many-to-one (or concast mode) 4. intermediate (or transit mode) ... We study the ... mode known as anycast, in which a server is selected from a group of servers. Further we develop ... schemes for group-based communication exploiting the distinct features of one-time signatures... cover situations when a threshold number of participants are involved and ... where a proxy signer is required. / Electronic reproduction. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Also available in a print form

This thesis performs an investigation into issues concerning the broad area ofIdentity and Access Management, with a focus on open environments. Through literature research the issues of privacy, anonymity and access control are identified. The issue of privacy is an inherent problem due to the nature of the digital network environment. Information can be duplicated and modified regardless of the wishes and intentions ofthe owner of that information unless proper measures are taken to secure the environment. Once information is published or divulged on the network, there is very little way of controlling the subsequent usage of that information. To address this issue a model for privacy is presented that follows the user centric paradigm of meta-identity. The lack of anonymity, where security measures can be thwarted through the observation of the environment, is a concern for users and systems. By an attacker observing the communication channel and monitoring the interactions between users and systems over a long enough period of time, it is possible to infer knowledge about the users and systems. This knowledge is used to build an identity profile of potential victims to be used in subsequent attacks. To address the problem, mechanisms for providing an acceptable level of anonymity while maintaining adequate accountability (from a legal standpoint) are explored. In terms of access control, the inherent weakness of single factor authentication mechanisms is discussed. The typical mechanism is the user-name and password pair, which provides a single point of failure. By increasing the factors used in authentication, the amount of work required to compromise the system increases non-linearly. Within an open network, several aspects hinder wide scale adoption and use of multi-factor authentication schemes, such as token management and the impact on usability. The framework is developed from a Utopian point of view, with the aim of being applicable to many situations as opposed to a single specific domain. The framework incorporates multi-factor authentication over multiple paths using mobile phones and GSM networks, and explores the usefulness of such an approach. The models are in tum analysed, providing a discussion into the assumptions made and the problems faced by each model. / Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.5.1 / Adobe Acrobat 9.51 Paper Capture Plug-in

Ad-Hoc mesh networks offer great promise. Low-cost ad-hoc mesh networks can be built using popular IEEE 802.11 equipment, but such networks are unable to guarantee each node a fair share of bandwidth. Furthermore, hidden node problems cause collisions which can cripple the throughput of a network. This research proposes a novel mechanism which is able to overcome hidden node problems and provide fair bandwidth sharing among nodes on ad-hoc 802.11 networks, and can be implemented on existing network devices. The scheme uses TDM (time division multiplexing) with slot reservation. A distributed beacon packet latency measurement mechanism is used to achieve node synchronisation. The distributed nature of the mechanism makes it applicable to ad-hoc 802.11 networks, which can either grow or fragment dynamically.

Orientadores: Maurício Ferreira Magalhães, Jussi Kangasharju / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T04:57:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Wong_Walter_D.pdf: 8583260 bytes, checksum: d8d0b4860d62302e3b4d81e44323d66c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A segurança da informação é responsável pela proteção das informações contra o acesso nãoautorizado, uso, modificação ou a sua destruição. Com o objetivo de proteger os dados contra esses ataques de segurança, vários protocolos foram desenvolvidos, tais como o Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC) e o Transport Layer Security (TLS), provendo mecanismos de autenticação, integridade e confidencialidade dos dados para os usuários. Esses protocolos utilizam o endereço IP como identificador de hosts na Internet, tornando-o referência e identificador no estabelecimento de conexões seguras para a troca de dados entre aplicações na rede. Com o advento da Web e o aumento exponencial do consumo de conteúdos, como vídeos e áudios, há indícios da migração gradual do uso predominante da Internet, passando da ênfase voltada para a conexão entre hosts para uma ênfase voltada para a obtenção de conteúdo da rede, paradigma esse conhecido como information-centric networking. Nesse paradigma, usuários buscam por documentos e recursos na Internet sem se importarem com o conhecimento explícito da localização do conteúdo. Como consequência, o endereço IP que previamente era utilizado como ponto de referência do provedor de dados, torna-se meramente um identificador efêmero do local onde o conteúdo está armazenado, resultando em implicações para a autenticação correta dos dados. Nesse contexto, a simples autenticação de um endereço IP não garante a autenticidade dos dados, uma vez que o servidor identificado por um dado endereço IP não é necessariamente o endereço do produtor do conteúdo. No contexto de redes orientadas à informação, existem propostas na literatura que possibilitam a autenticação dos dados utilizando somente o conteúdo propriamente dito, como a utilização de assinaturas digitais por bloco de dado e a construção de árvores de hash sobre os blocos de dados. A ideia principal dessas abordagens é atrelar uma informação do provedor original do conteúdo nos blocos de dados transportados, por exemplo, uma assinatura digital, possibilitando a autenticação direta dos dados com o provedor, independentemente do host onde o dado foi obtido. Apesar do mecanismo citado anteriormente possibilitar tal verificação, esse procedimento é muito oneroso do ponto de vista de processamento, especialmente quando o número de blocos é grande, tornando-o inviável de ser utilizado na prática. Este trabalho propõe um novo mecanismo de autenticação utilizando árvores de hash com o objetivo de prover a autenticação dos dados de forma eficiente e explícita com o provedor original e, também, de forma independente do host onde os dados foram obtidos. Nesta tese, propomos duas técnicas de autenticação de dados baseadas em árvores de hash, chamadas de skewed hash tree (SHT) e composite hash tree (CHT), para a autenticação de dados em redes orientadas à informação. Uma vez criadas, parte dos dados de autenticação é armazenada em um plano de segurança e uma outra parte permanece acoplada ao dado propriamente dito, possibilitando a verificação baseada no conteúdo e não no host de origem. Além disso, essa tese apresenta o modelo formal, a especificação e a implementação das duas técnicas de árvore de hash para autenticação dos dados em redes de conteúdo através de um plano de segurança. Por fim, esta tese detalha a instanciação do modelo de plano de segurança proposto em dois cenários de autenticação de dados: 1) redes Peer-to-Peer e 2) autenticação paralela de dados sobre o HTTP / Abstract: Information security is responsible for protecting information against unauthorized access, use, modification or destruction. In order to protect such data against security attacks, many security protocols have been developed, for example, Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), providing mechanisms for data authentication, integrity and confidentiality for users. These protocols use the IP address as host identifier on the Internet, making it as a reference and identifier during the establishment of secure connections for data exchange between applications on the network. With the advent of the Web and the exponential increase in content consumption (e.g., video and audio), there is an evidence of a gradual migration of the predominant usage of the Internet, moving the emphasis on the connection between hosts to the content retrieval from the network, which paradigm is known as information-centric networking. In this paradigm, users look for documents and resources on the Internet without caring about the explicit knowledge of the location of the content. As a result, the IP address that was used previously as a reference point of a data provider, becomes merely an ephemeral identifier of where the content is stored, resulting in implications for the correct authentication data. In this context, the simple authentication of an IP address does not guarantee the authenticity of the data, because a hosting server identified by a given IP address is not necessarily the same one that is producing the requested content. In the context of information-oriented networks, some proposals in the literature proposes authentication mechanisms based on the content itself, for example, digital signatures over a data block or the usage of hash trees over data blocks. The main idea of these approaches is to add some information from the original provider in the transported data blocks, for example, a digital signature, enabling data authentication directly with the original provider, regardless of the host where the data was obtained. Although the mechanism mentioned previously allows for such verification, this procedure is very costly in terms of processing, especially when the number of blocks is large, making it unfeasible in practice. This thesis proposes a new authentication mechanism using hash trees in order to provide efficient data authentication and explicitly with the original provider, and also independently of the host where the data were obtained. We propose two techniques for data authentication based on hash trees, called skewed hash tree (SHT) and composite hash tree (CHT), for data authentication in information-oriented networks. Once created, part of the authentication data is stored in a security plane and another part remains attached to the data itself, allowing for the verification based on content and not on the source host. In addition, this thesis presents the formal model, specification and implementation of two hash tree techniques for data authentication in information-centric networks through a security plane. Finally, this thesis details the instantiation of the security plane model in two scenarios of data authentication: 1) Peer-to-Peer and 2) parallel data authentication over HTTP / Doutorado / Engenharia de Computação / Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica

To perform their business activities effectively, organizations rely heavily on the use of information (ISO/IEC TR 13335-2, 1996, p 1). Owens (1998) reiterates this by claiming that all organizations depend on information for their everyday operation and without it business will fail to operate (Owens, 1998, p 1-2). For an organization it means that if the right information is not available at the right time, it can make the difference between profit and loss or success and failure (Royds, 2000, p 2). Information is an asset and just like other important business assets within the organization, it has extreme value to an organization (BS 7799-1, 1999, p 1; Humphreys, Moses & Plate, 1998, p 8). For this reason it has become very important that business information is sufficiently protected. There are many different ways in which information can exist. Information can be printed or written on paper, stored electronically, transmitted electronically or by post, even spoken in conversation or any other way in which knowledge and ideas can be conveyed (URN 99/703, 1999, p. 2; Humphreys, Moses & Plate, 1998, p 8; URN 96/702, 1996, p 3).It is, therefore, critical to protect information, and to ensure that the security of IT (Information Technology) systems within organizations is properly managed. This requirement to protect information is even more important today, since many organizations are internally and externally connected by networks of IT systems (ISO/IEC TR 13335-2, 1996, p 1). Information security is therefore required to assist in the process of controlling and securing of information from accidental or malicious changes, deletions or unauthorized disclosure (Royds, 2000, p 2; URN 96/702, 1996, p 3). By preventing and minimizing the impact of security incidents, information security can ensure business continuity and reduce business damage (Owens, 1998, p 7). Information security in an organization can be regarded as a management opportunity and should become an integral part of the whole management activity of the organization. Obtaining commitment from management is therefore extremely important for effective information security. One way in which management can show their commitment to ensuring information security, is to adopt and enforce a security policy. A security policy ensures that people understand exactly what important role they play in securing information assets.

The challenge of having to create and remember a secure password for each user account has become a problem for many computer users and can lead to bad password management practices. Simpler and less secure passwords are often selected and are regularly reused across multiple user accounts. Computer users within corporations and institutions are subject to password policies, policies which require users to create passwords of a specified length and composition and change passwords regularly. These policies often prevent users from reusing previous selected passwords. Security vendors and professionals have sought to improve or even replace password authentication. Technologies such as multi-factor authentication and single sign-on have been developed to complement or even replace password authentication. The objective of the study was to investigate the password habits of South African computer and internet users. The aim was to assess their attitudes toward password security, to determine whether password policies affect the manner in which they manage their passwords and to investigate their exposure to alternate authentication technologies. The results from the online survey demonstrated that password practices of the participants across their professional and personal contexts were generally insecure. Participants often used shorter, simpler and ultimately less secure passwords. Participants would try to memorise all of their passwords or reuse the same password on most of their accounts. Many participants had not received any security awareness training, and additional security technologies (such as multi-factor authentication or password managers) were seldom used or provided to them. The password policies encountered by the participants in their organisations did little towards encouraging the users to apply more secure password practices. Users lack the knowledge and understanding about password security as they had received little or no training pertaining to it.