Multi-level security is prevalent within the military; however, the private sector has not yet invested in the approach. As big data, Internet of things, and artificial intelligence drive businesses to collaborate (share data, algorithms, and tools) the need to secure such resources while simultaneously sharing them will push towards an alternative approach-–namely Multi-level security. The military labels data according to the sensitivity it carries as related to national security. Furthermore, the military restricts access by both the overall trust in the individual and by their need-to-know. To put it another way, data has a certain level of sensitivity and only those individuals that can be trusted with the data and have a need-to-know shall have access to such data. Military organizations not only limit access to digital data but also to sensitive discussions, often having sensitive talks within a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility referred to as a SCIF. Irrespective of the media, all data must be secured and disseminated in order to produce value. Inaccessible data has no real value, as data must be accessible in order to be actionable and produce value. Along the same lines, data often requires aggregation to become actionable. Creating a security domain with multiple levels of trust and need-to-know ensures that data can both be accessed and aggregated. Multi-level secure domains exist in military organizations today, however, the challenge arises when two domains want to share data—hence the need for multi-level secure data dissemination. One way to accomplish this objective is for Domain X to contact Domain Y and together identify how their two security domains can map to one another. After determining the mapping Domain X can send Domain Y data, however, what if Domain Z wants access to the same data? Should Domain Z request the data from Domain Y? Would Domain Y violate the trust of Domain X, if Domain Y disseminates the data? Perhaps, Domain Z is only cleared to a portion of the data. These are the issues related to the dissemination of MLS data within a multi-domain environment. The objective of this project is to propose a solution that would allow domains to securely disseminate data without the need to repackage the data for each domain. The solution outlined in this project, leverages Simple Public Key certificates, Active Bundle, and a directory server. When combined, the three technologies allow domains: to convey both trust and authorization policies, learn about trust and authorization policies of external domains, and provide a mechanism to securely disseminate data.

We currently live in a day and age where nearly everyone uses electronic devices and connects to the web. Whether it be from a desktop, laptop, or smartphone, staying connected and having information at your fingertips is easier than ever. Although technology has become so intermingled with our daily lives, the idea around security is not as momentous as it should be. As mentioned by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), “based on recent statistics, the average unprotected computer can be compromised in a matter of minutes. The majority of individuals who thought their computers were safe…were wrong.” (MS-ISAC 2) This paper specifically investigates what types of security practices individuals in Southern California are aware of, how much of these practices are actively implemented and how can we not only further spread awareness, but also keep them engaged in these practices. This study shows that most of the participants feel confident about their level of knowledge regarding basic cyber security practices. Similarly, they were also confident in their active and frequent implementation of security practices. Nonetheless, it is imperative that implementing security measures become an active part of people’s behavior. As technology and interconnectedness continues to grow, security will only become even more at risk. Since it is a difficult task to change the behavior of people, this study suggests the best route is to begin consistently teaching people at a young age. By doing so, many of these practices can become embedded within people and nearly function as second nature as they mature. Although this suggestion does not focus on security awareness and implementation on those individuals who currently use smartphones, computers, and other devices, it is a sure way of ensuring the future populations become more engaged in understanding the importance of security measures and practice them.

The emerging Internet of Things (IoT) revolution has introduced many useful applications that are utilized in our daily lives. Users can program these devices in order to develop their own IoT applications; however, the platforms and languages that are used during development are abounding, complicated, and time-consuming. The software solution provided in this thesis, PROVIZ+, is a secure sensor application development software suite that helps users create sophisticated and secure IoT applications with little software and hardware experience. Moreover, a simple and efficient domain-specific programming language, namely Panther language, was designed for IoT application development to unify existing programming languages. In addition to these contributions, PROVIZ+ supports a novel secure over-the-air programming framework, namely SOTA, using Bluetooth and WiFi as well as serial programming. In this thesis, we explain the features of PROVIZ+’s components, how these tools can help develop IoT applications, and SOTA. We also present the performance evaluations of PROVIZ+ and SOTA.

This thesis presents two phases of research in applying visualization to network security challenges. The first phase included discovering the most useful and powerful features in existing computer security visualizations and incorporating them into the AdviseAid visualization platform, an existing software package. The incorporation of such a complete feature set required novel resolution of software engineering, human factors, and computer graphics issues. We also designed additional novel features, such as plugin interfaces, allowing for rapid prototyping and experimentation with novel visualization features and capabilities. The second phase of the research focused on the development of novel visualization techniques themselves. These novel visualizations were designed and created within AdviseAid to demonstrate that the features of AdviseAid are functional and helpful in the development process, as well as to be effective in the analysis of computer networks in their own right.

No description available.

The key theme of this research is the planning and management of information security and in particular, the research focuses on the involvement of information stakeholders in this process. The main objective of the research is to study the ownership of, and acceptance of responsibility for, information security measures by stakeholders having an interest in that information.

Recently e-Commerce systems have undergone an accelerated development, bringing a new set of risks and issues to government. As a result of this trend processes, policies and practices of organisations have changed dramatically. However, current research into the organisational risks and security in e- Government from an Australian viewpoint continues to be limited. This thesis is concerned with improving our understanding IS Security in e- Government. Key e-Government security issues are identified through a literature review. The results of a review of recent literature, together with investigatory interviews with experts from NSW Government, are used to further refine issues, research questions and propose a model of activity theory within a fuzzy logic framework. The developed model was refined and used to analyse results from the collected survey data, the results allow agencies to be classified by their progress towards accreditation to AS/NZS17799.1:2001. These results were able to be externally validated by another government agencies IS security survey. A series of surveys, forums, and interviews with government e-Commerce security officers were used to further test and refine the model, as well as answer the research questions posed. This study was conducted over a period of three years and identified the key issues in e-Government across a broad cross-section of NSW Government agencies. The results provide, a significant contribution to theory, especially for IS security managers through a more detailed understanding of the perceptions of practitioners. This research improves the level of understanding of IS security within the domain of e-Commerce risks and security within NSW Government by grouping agencies into meaningful categories, documenting successful practices by IS security managers, identifying drivers and inhibitors to IS security, determining the status of IS security across the NSW Government and monitoring the progress of agencies towards accreditation to AS/NZS177999:2001.

This thesis analyses conflict dynamics in West Africa and assesses the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a security organisation in its response to armed conflict. In so doing, it argues that conventional approaches misinterpret key feature of the civil wars in the “Greater Mano River Area” which includes Liberia, Sierra Leone and C??te d’Ivoire. It demonstrates that the progression and spread of conflict is engendered primarily by transversal political structures. The thesis utilises a critical international society approach to consider patterns of security and insecurity across the sub-region of West Africa. However, rather than accepting that West African politics operates within a single, comprehensive international society, it argues instead that it should be understood at two levels. One level is state-centric international society, where West African inter-state relations can largely be explained according to existing constructivist paradigms. At the second level is “transversal” society that cuts across state borders, generating a regional, normative structure that prescribes and constrains behaviour within and between communities outside of the international society framework. The thesis proceeds in two parts. In the first section it works towards an understanding of the transversal politics of regional conflict in the Greater Mano River Area. Conflict is nominally internal, and centralised state authority is the object of both attack and transformation. However, a close examination of civil violence in Liberia, Sierra Leone and C??te d’Ivoire reveals that it cannot be completely understood without recognising the non-state structures of authority and domination that disrupt the traditional domestic/international divide. The transversal communities generated by conflict create a regional cycle of violence that is resistant to efforts made to resolve it. The second section of the thesis is concerned with the ability of ECOWAS to foster durable peace. As West Africa’s key regional organisation, ECOWAS would seem well-placed to respond to regional conflict. It is well-integrated, has significant normative legitimacy and has developed sophisticated security mechanisms. Critically however, as it was created within inter-state international society, ECOWAS is limited by its assumption that states are and should remain unitary actors. Its failure ultimately lies in its inability to respond to the alternative political contours of transversal communities.

Rich people in Thailand are enjoying higher shares in income transfer than their poor counterparts. This strange phenomenon implies the malfunction of the Thai social security system. Studies on the relationship between social security development and social, economic and political factors are also very limited. These evident constraints are the rationales for this study. A comparative study was chosen because the justification of social security problems would be more objectively valid if r000esearch findings were compared with external criteria. In addition, comparative analysis would clearly pinpoint possible factors that influenced social security development in Thailand. Like many comparative studies, this investigation did not expect only to identify possible influential factors, but it also intended to learn how the modern social security system could be established in a more developed country. However, the findings would be more adaptable if they were transferred from a country that was economically and culturally close to Thailand. By these reasons, Australia, instead of other Western countries, was more appropriate to be the case for comparison. After reviewing theoretical and empirical literature, the research methodology was designed. Basically, the study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods in analysing data gathered from Thailand and Australia. Comparative evidence shows many problems in social security provisions in Thailand. Relatively narrow coverage, low quality and quantity of benefits and services, higher financial burdens borne by people, and marginal welfare rights are the important indications of the severity of the problems. Many factors are responsible for the existence of these problems. The problematic system of social security was partly the legacy of historical development. The effects of historical roots are intensified by many contemporary factors. Undesirable social values, volatile economic growth, late industrialisation and the defeat of socialism are the four major factors that account for the undeveloped social security system. The influences of the four major factors are supported by another four less crucial ones. These supporting factors comprise the elite�s agenda, workers� power, weak non-governmental organisations and population growth. The findings in both Thailand and Australia similarly indicate that religious institutions and colonial influence do not produce significant effects upon social security development. The comparative findings provide valuable guidelines for the suggestions of system development. Several findings help extend existing theoretical explanations of social security development as well. The study recommends comprehensive operational strategies for the improvement of Thai social security. The study made its final suggestion on the importance of applied research based on Western knowledge and experiences for the improvement of Thai social security.

<p>At the moment the demand for IP Telephony is increasing because of its scalability and efficient use of bandwidth. The main issues are security and quality of voice in IP Telephony .The study comprises previous research papers and, on the bases of those papers, comparison is made between two security techniques, IPSec VPN and MPLS VPN. The goal behind this study is to build an IP Telephony setup, with security for private branch network, which is an ISP. IP Telephony networks are currently facing issues regarding security and competent packet switching. </p><p>The comparison further describes that MPLS VPN technique is more scalable and efficient than IPSec VPN, which has been approved in implementation. In the implementation, one centralized call manager is configured to establish calls between different sites. To secure traffic over the internet which travels from one site to another other site, MPLS VPN is configured in MPLS domain. In order to increase the performance of IP Telephony, quality of service (QoS) is implemented. QoS provides thriving outcomes and it is also practically implemented in the lab. QoS enhances the flow of data by prioritizing the voice packets. At the end, it is concluded that MPLS VPN is more efficient and scalable than IPSec VPN, and shows better results, while completely supporting QoS.</p>