The popularity of the internet has made the use of web applications ubiquitous and essential to the daily lives of people, businesses and governments. Web servers and web applications are commonly used to handle tasks and data that can be critical and highly valuable, making them a very attractive target for attackers and a vector for successful attacks that are aimed at the application layer. Existing misuse and anomaly-based detection and prevention techniques fail to cope with the volume and sophistication of new attacks that are continuously appearing, which suggests that there is a need to provide new additional layers of protection. This work aims to design a new layer of defense based on deception that is employed in the context of web application-layer traffic with the purpose of detecting and preventing attacks. The proposed design is composed of five deception strategies: Deceptive Comments, Deceptive Request Parameters, Deceptive Session Cookies, Deceptive Status Codes and Deceptive JavaScript. The strategies were implemented as a software artifact and their performance evaluated in a testing environment using a custom test script, the OWASP ZAP penetration testing tool and two vulnerable web applications. Deceptive Parameter strategy obtained the best security performance results, followed by Deceptive Comments and Deceptive Status Codes. Deceptive Cookies and Deceptive JavaScript got the poorest security performance results since OWASP ZAP was unable to detect and use deceptive elements generated by these strategies. Operational performance results showed that the deception artifact could successfully be implemented and integrated with existing web applications without changing their source code and adding a low operational overhead.

In my thesis I explain why the common, pre-theoretical understanding of morality is an important part of Kant's ethics, and I critically evaluate what the strengths and weaknesses are of doing ethics with the common perspective as a point of reference. In chapter 1, I discuss the significance of common rational capacities for the deduction in Groundwork III as well as for the Fact of Reason. Attention to the fundamental role of common rational capacities in the Second Critique reveals that Kant intends to provide further warrant for the Fact than its introspective self-evidence. In chapter 2, I discuss what it means for a rational agent to be endowed with common rational capacities. The agent has everything she needs to reason on her own about what she ought to do and act from rational judgements. Furthermore, I critically evaluate Kant's claim that his ethics spells out fundamental, pre-theoretical convictions. In chapter 3, I discuss Kant's conception of rationalizing (“Vernünfteln”). I analyse rationalizing as a process of self-deception in which an agent tries to justify or excuse violations of the moral law. This can lead to loss of the reliable use of common rational capacities. I discuss what help critical practical philosophy and moral education can afford against rationalizing. In chapter 4, I argue that Kant saw dialogical engagement with ordinary agents as an important way of obtaining data concerning the correct starting point of practical philosophy. Kant demands that whatever we get from dialog and observation has to be isolated from its contingent elements. I conclude that the main problem for Kant's method is how we can, on the one hand, exclude non-rational content, and, on the other hand, be open to what other agents actually have to say about morality.

This study investigated whether age differences in deceit detection are related to impairments in emotion recognition. Key cues to deceit are facial expressions of emotion (Frank and Ekman, 1997). The aging literature has shown an age-related decline in decoding emotions (e.g., Malatesta, Izard, Culver, and Nicolich, 1987). In the present study, 354 participants were presented with 20 interviews and asked to decide whether each man was lying or telling the truth. Ten interviews involved a crime and ten a social opinion. Each participant was in one of three presentation conditions: 1) visual only, 2) audio only, or 3) audio-visual. For crime interviews, age-related impairments in emotion recognition hindered older adults in the visual only condition. In the opinion topic interviews, older adults exhibited a truth bias which rendered them worse at detecting deceit than young adults. Cognitive and dispositional variables did not help to explain the age differences in the ability to detect deceit.

I denna undersökning med (N=255) deltagare undersöktes sambanden mellan strategier för socialt självbedrägeri, narcissistiska personlighetsdrag, uppmärksamhetssökande samt personers subjektiva uppfattning av generell självkänsla på plattformen Facebook. Vidare undersöktes dessa aspekters samband med mängd tid spenderad på Facebook samt antal vänner på Facebook. Ett mätinstrument konstruerades för att fånga två huvuddimensioner för socialt självbedrägeri, situating och persuasive enligt Roy Dings (2017) teori. En exploratorisk faktoranalys resulterade i endast en dimension och tre multipla regressionsanalyser visade att de tre aspekterna predicerade användandet av strategier för socialt självbedrägeri där narcissistiska personlighetsdrag var starkast kopplat. Låg självkänsla var kopplat till att personer spenderade mer tid på Facebook och narcissism till att ha ett större antal vänner på Facebook. Det visade sig även att personer oavsett ålder använde sig av strategier för socialt självbedrägeri på Facebook i ungefär samma utsträckning. Avslutningsvis diskuteras begränsningar och uppslag för framtida forskning. / This study with (N=255) test subjects, examined the relations between strategies for social self-deception, narcissistic personality traits, attention-seeking and the test subjects' perceived self-esteem on Facebook. Furthermore, it examined how these three aspects related to time spent on Facebook and number of friends on Facebook. A measuring tool was constructed to capture two main dimensions - 'situating' and 'persuasive', as per Roy Dings (2017) theory. An exploratory factor analysis resulted in only one dimension, and three multiple regression analyses showed that the three aspects did predict the usage of strategies for social self-deception, with narcissistic personality traits being the strongest predictor. Low self-esteem correlated to spending more time on Facebook, and narcissism correlated to having a higher number of friends on Facebook. Another discovery was that people, regardless of age, were nearly equally likely to use strategies for social self-deception on Facebook. Finally, limitations and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

The main aim of my thesis is to identify various forms of consumer deception. These include misleading and aggressive practices that consumers encounter in everyday life and which often exceed limits of acceptability regulated by legislation. The thesis emphasises primarily advertising which strongly affects consumer decision-making for buying. Legal means of protection against deception are included in the thesis as well. The deception of consumers in German, Austrian and Spanish legislation is the topic of the final chapter. The thesis is supplemented with practical examples and judicial practice.

No abstract available / Old Testament / D.Th. (Old Testament)

No description available.

This research has two facets within separate research areas. The research area of Belief, Desire and Intention (BDI) agent capability development was extended. Deception detection research has been advanced with the development of automation using BDI agents. BDI agents performed tasks automatically and autonomously. This study used these characteristics to automate deception detection with limited intervention of human users. This was a useful research area resulting in a capability general enough to have practical application by private individuals, investigators, organizations and others. The need for this research is grounded in the fact that humans are not very effective at detecting deception whether in written or spoken form. This research extends the deception detection capability research in that typical deception detection tools are labor intensive and require extraction of the text in question following ingestion into a deception detection tool. A neural network capability module was incorporated to lend the resulting prototype Machine Learning attributes. The prototype developed as a result of this research was able to classify online data as either "deceptive" or "not deceptive" with 85% accuracy. The false discovery rate for "deceptive" online data entries was 20% while the false discovery rate for "not deceptive" was 10%. The system showed stability during test runs. No computer crashes or other anomalous system behavior were observed during the testing phase. The prototype successfully interacted with an online data communications server database and processed data using Neural Network input vector generation algorithms within seconds

Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Specific deceptive messages in Tshivenda were collected and subsequently analysed according to a methodology which is regularly used in deceptive message production. Forty deceptive messages were randomly collected from the following persons: teenage males and females and adult males and females. The main findings of the study can be summarized as follows: The respondents gave nine categories of reasons for their deceptive messages. The person involved in these deceptions are the deceivers (six categories of people) and the persons who have been deceived (seven categories of people). Extensive arguments have been utilized to strengthen the deceptive messages i.e. a total of 225 arguments. Various cues to deception have been extensively used i.e. 12 cues to deception which have been used 252 times. The four groups of people above have used these cues almost equally i.e. 61-65 cues per group. Cultural issues within deception have been given attention and nine different cultural issues have been found which have been used 46 times. The success rate of deception is not equal between the groups. The two female groups have a success rate of 75% while the male groups have a success rate of only 35%. Various other issues within message production in general have also received attention, i.e. plans which have been made to deceive as well as the complexity, type and quality of the plans. The action in deception has also been given attention, specifically message production and emotional appeals. Of the message effects mention can be made of relational and emotional effects, competence, appropriateness and effectiveness as well as politeness. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Spesifieke misleidende of bedrieglike boodskappe in Tshivenda is bymekaar gemaak en vervolgens ontleed volgens 'n metodologie wat algemeen gebruik word In misleidende boodskappe. Veertig misleidende boodskappe is van oral versamel van die volgende persone: jeugdige mans en vrouens, en volwasse mans en vrouens, Die hoof bevindinge van die studie kan soos volg saamgevat word: Die respondente het nege kategorieë van redes gegee vir hulle misleidende boodskappe. Die persone betrokke in hierdie misleidings is die misleier of bedrieër (ses kategorieë van mense) en die persone wat mislei is (sewe kategorieë van mense). Heelwat argumente is gebruik om die misleidende boodskappe te versterk, d.i. 'n totaal van 225 argumente. Verskeie aanwysings vir misleiding is ekstensief gebruik, d.i. 12 aanwysings vir misleiding is 252 kere gebruik. Die vier groepe deelnemers hierbo het hierdie aanwysings omtrent ewe veel gebruik, d.i. tussen 61 - 65 aanwysings per groep. Kulturele aangeleenthede in misleiding het ook aandag gekry en nege verskillende kulturele sake is gevind in die dialoë wat altesame 46 keer gebruik is. Die sukseskoers van misleiding is nie ewe sterk tussen die groepe nie. Die twee vroulike groepe het 'n sukseskoers van 75% terwyl die manlike groepe 'n sukseskoers van slegs 35% het. Verskeie ander sake in boodskapproduksie oor die algemeen is ook onder die loep geneem w.o. planne wat gemaak is om te mislei, asook die kompleksiteit, tipe en kwaliteit van die planne. Die handeling in misleiding het ook aandag geniet, spesifiek boodskapproduksie en emosionele aangeleenthede in misleiding. Van die boodskapeffekte kan melding gemaak word van die relasionele en emosionele effekte van misleiding, kompetensie, toepasllkheid en effektiwiteit sowel as beleefdheid in misleiding.

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy