<p>With the emergence of computers in every day activities and with the ever-growing complexity of networks and network protocols, covert channels are becoming an eminent threat to confidentiality of information. With increasing sensitivity of data in many computer application domains, the leakage of confidential information can have severe repercussions on the institution from which the information was leaked. <br /><br />In light of this eminent threat, we propose a technique to detect confidential information leakage via covert channels. We limit our focus to instances where the users of covert channels modulate the information that is being sent; either by encryption, or some other form of encoding.<br /><br />In the literature, the difference between classes of covert channels under the current classification is unclear. This lack of clarity results in the development of incomplete techniques for modeling, detecting and preventing covert channels. In this thesis, we propose a new classification for covert channels which organizes covert channels into two types: protocol-based covert channels and environment-based covert channels. We also develop a novel, comprehensive model for protocol-based covert channel communication. Using the developed model, we explore the relationship between covert channel communication, steganography and watermarking. The intent is to provide a better understanding of covert channel communication in an attempt to develop investigative support for confidentiality. Finally, we propose a technique for detecting confidential information leakages via covert channels. The technique is based on relation algebra and offers tests for verifying the existence of an abstraction relation which relates the confidential information to the information that is observed to be sent on the communication channel. It focuses on protocol-based covert channels. <br /><br />With a better understanding of covert channel communication, we are able to develop more effective and efficient mechanisms for detecting and preventing the use of covert channels to leak confidential information in computer systems.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

<p>Fixing the errors in programs is usually very labor-intensive and thus an expensive task. It is also known to be prone to human error thus not fully reliable. There have been many methods of program verification developed, however they still require a lot of human input and interaction throughout the process. There is an increasing need for an automated software verification tool that would reduce human interaction to the minimum. Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solvers, a series of SAT-solvers such as Z3 looked initially to be a proper and easy to use tool. Its syntax is fairly uncomplicated and it seems to be quite efficient. In this thesis, Z3 is used to find loop invariants, prove some properties of concurrent programs written in Owicki-Gries style and prove some properties of recursive programs. It appears that - in general- Z3 does not work as well as expected in all areas to which it was applied.</p> / Master of Science (MS)

<p>This thesis presents the design and implementation of a generative geometric kernel suitable for supporting a family of mesh generation programs. The kernel is designed as a program generator which is generic, parametric, type-safe. and maintainable. The generator can generate specialized code that has minimal traces of the design abstractions. We achieve genericity, understandability, and maintainability in the generator by a layered design that adopts its concepts from the affine geometry domain. We achieve parametricity and type-safety by using MetaOCaml's module system and its support for higher order modules. The cost of adopting natural domain abstractions is reduced by combining MetaOCaml's support for multi-stage programming with the technique of abstract interpretation.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

<p>Considerable emphasis in scientific computing (SC) software development has been placed on the software qualities of performance and correctness. How ever, other software qualities have received less attention, such as the qualities of usability, maintainability, testability and reusability.</p> <p>Presented in this work is a survey titled "Survey on Developing Scientific Computing Software", which is apparently the first conducted to explore the current approaches to SC software development and to determine which qualities of SC software are in most need of improvement. From the survey we found that systematic development process is frequently not adopted in the SC software community, since 58% of respondents mentioned that their entire development process potentially consists only of coding and debugging. Moreover, semi-formal and formal specification is rarely used when developing SC software, which is suggested by the fact that 70% of respondents indicate that they only use informal specification.</p> <p>In terms of the problems in SC software development, which are discovered by analyzing the survey results, a solution is proposed to improve the quality of SC software by using SE methodologies, concretely, using a modified Parnas' Rational Design Process (PRDP) and the Unified Software Development Process (USDP). A comparison of the two candidate processes is provided to help SC software practitioners determine which of the two pro cesses fits their particular situation. To clarify the discussion of PRDP and USDP for SC software and to help SC software practitioners better understand how to use PRDP and USDP in SC software, a completely documented one-dimensional numerical integration solver (ONIS) example is presented for both PRDP and USDP.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

<p>For the past few years, research in the area of computer clusters has been a hot topic. The main focus has been towards on how to achieve the best performance in such systems. While this problem has been well studied, many of the solutions maximize performance at the expense of increasing the amount of power consumed by the cluster and consequently raising the cost of power usage. Therefore, power management (PM) in such systems has become necessary. Many PM policies are proposed in the literature to achieve this goal for both homogeneous and heterogeneous clusters.</p> <p>In this work, in the case of homogeneous clusters, we review two applicable policies that have been proposed in the literature for reducing power consumption. We also propose a power saving policy, that uses queueing theory formulas, which attempts to minimize power consumption while satisfying given performance constraints. We evaluate this policy by using simulation and compare it to other applicable policies.</p> <p>Our main contribution is for heterogeneous clusters. We suggest a task distribution policy in order to reduce power consumption. Our suggested policy requires solving two linear programming problems (LPs). Our simulation experiments show that our proposed policy is successful in terms of achieving a significant power savings in comparison to other distribution policies, especially in the case of highly heterogeneous clusters.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

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The business drivers within managed care are mandating that physicians have point-of-care access to medical reference data, patient specific data, formularies, treatment protocols, and billing/coding information. One emerging technology that has the potential to provide this access with little economic investment is the mobile Personal Digital Assistant. The authors address a variety of wireless technologies and security concerns regarding real-time access to patient data. The family practice staff at the Naval Hospital Lemoore explored and contrasted the capabilities of commercially available PDAs, wireless interfaces, and medical software applications to ascertain their value within the Military Health System. A production-ready interface between the Composite Health Care System and the Nutrition Management Information Server demonstrates the potential for eliminating the difficulties associated with documenting patient encounters and capturing charges. Survey tools generate a requirements standard for deployment of this technology within the Military Health System on an enterprise-wide scale with a hybrid approach to packaging based on functionality. The authors recommend the Military Health System embrace this technology as a means to realize its vision of best value health services. / US Navy (USN) author

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / This thesis extends the Computer Aided Software Evolution System (CASES) with Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to enhance dependency traceability (type and degree) between software development artifacts. Embedding Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in the Relational Hypergraph Software Evolution Model to prototype a Holistic Framework for Software Engineering (HFSE) is the major task achieved by this thesis. CASES is implemented by using Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.3.1 and an open software architecture. The primary contributions of this research include: 1) Embedding QFD into CASES to record and track artifact dependencies, 2) Providing engineering views of QFD dependencies, and 3) Providing a stakeholder Graphical User Interface (GUI) to define and manage any software evolution process. These major contributions allow a software engineer to: 1) Input, modify, and analyze dependency characteristics between software artifacts within a QFD framework; 2) Make decisions based upon views of dependency information; and 3) Design a custom software evolution model through the use of a GUI. / Major, United States Army

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / This thesis proposes a new structured methodology for incorporating the use of enterprise architecture techniques into the DoD software acquisition process, to provide a means by which interoperability requirements can be captured, defined, and levied at the appropriate time in a system's development. It discusses the necessary components of these architectural models, how these models capture our interoperability needs, and how these interoperability needs form the basis for meaningful dialogue between the DoD's acquisition and planning communities. While this methodology is applicable to many domains and functional areas, for the purposes of this thesis, the focus will be solely on software systems (including systems with embedded software) within the DoD. / Captain, United States Air Force