With computers, mobile phones and other smart devices being an increasingly part of peoples lives. It is important now, more than ever that people know how to operate them safely and stay protected in the cyber landscape. For citizens to understand how to stay protected online, it is important to understand what to stay safe from. This thesis is therefore examining the cyber threat landscape to understand what threats pose the greatest threat to users. To understand the prerequisites people have in defending themselves, the thesis also examines and evaluates what are recommendations provided to the general public. The results show that the biggest threat is malware with phishing being the usual access vector for it. Recommendations seem to fall behind in reflecting the most prevalent threats, but manage to stay relevant nonetheless.

Social workers who in their profession have direct contact with other people have a higher risk for being exposed to harassment, threats and violence at their workplace. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate social workers experiences of harassment, threat and violence from clients. The study is based on six qualitative semi-structured interviews where the focus is on the social workers stories. The narrative framework of this thesis is based on the narrative theory. The results of the study shows that there are social workers that have been exposed to harassment, threat or violence in different ways. Based on information from the interviews conducted in this thesis social workers have been exposed from verbal threats to physical violence. The study has discussed whether the social workers tend to report the incidents and it showed that the majority of the social workers actually do report them.

I och med samhällets ökande digitalisering stiger behoven för att kunna fastställa att säkerheten hos datornätverk ligger på en adekvat nivå. När det gäller informations- säkerhet fastnar fokus lätt på enskilda enheter men idag består i regel de flesta orga- nisationer av större datanätverk där information finns åtkomlig på ett flertal sätt. Denna rapport försöker utröna huruvida det går att kvantifierbart påvisa effektivite- ten hos de säkerhetsåtgärder som nätverkstekniker implementerar i syfte att höja säkerheten i en organisations datornätverk. För att mäta säkerhetsförbättringar kombineras en penetrationstestningsstandard med en hotmodelleringsmetod som sedan appliceras på ett nätverk i en laborations- miljö. I ett första skede appliceras dessa på ett sårbart nätverk för att ge en insikt om det ursprungliga säkerhetsläget. Därefter implementeras ett urval av skyddsåtgärder på det sårbara datornätverket vilka baserat på vilka säkerhetsbrister som har upp- täckts. I ett nästa steg appliceras både penetrationstester och hotmodellering återi- gen på samma sätt som tidigare och därefter jämförs resultaten från före och efter att sårbarheterna har åtgärdats. När resultaten jämförs påvisas de säkerhetshöjande åtgärdernas effekt. Tack vare kombinationen av både penetrationstester och hotmodellering tydliggörs även re- sultaten både bredare och mer djupgående än vad användandet av enbart en av me- toderna hade visat på. Dessa resultat visar att metoden med applikation av kombinerade penetrationstester och hotmodelleringar, både före och efter att säkerhetsluckor har åtgärdats, kan an-vändas som ett kvalitetsintyg för säkerhetsarbeten riktade mot datornätverk. / Following the increasing digitalization of society there is a growing need to ensure that the security of computer networks is at an adequate level. When it comes to net- work security, focus tend to fall on individual devices, but nowadays most organiza- tions consist of large computer networks where information is accessible in several different ways. This thesis attempts to determine whether it is possible to ensure the effectiveness of the security measures implemented by network engineers to improve an organisation’s security stance. In order to measure security, a combination of a penetration testing standard and threat modelling is applied to a network in a laboratory environment. First, these are applied to a vulnerable network. Then, a selection of protection measures are imple- mented on the vulnerable network based on the results from the methodology. In a next step, both penetration testing and threat modelling are reapplied. The com- bined results, before and after the vulnerabilities have been addressed, can then be compared to each other. When comparing the results, the impact of the security improving measures becomes clear. Due to the use of both penetration testing and threat modelling the results are further clarified compared to what the use of only one of the methods would have shown. These results shows that the method of combining penetration testing with threat modelling in two stages, both before and after security measures have been imple- mented, can be used as a quality certificate for security work directed at computernetworks.

This thesis aims to gain a better understanding of the experiences of women in the esports industry. This is achieved through the exploration of the concepts of sexual harassment and gamer identity with the help of collective identity, stereotype threat and various aspects of feminist theory as the main theoretical framework, accompanying a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with seven women in various positions within esports. The results of this research add to the body of existing literature that highlights women’s position as a stigmatised and marginalised group within the gaming community. The interviews yielded strong feelings of collective identity experienced between women in esports, linked by shared experiences of harassment. Further, the strong presence of fragile ‘geek masculinity’ and hegemonic, masculine power structures was confirmed through the experiences of the respondents. This caused the women to adjust their behaviour, as several respondents note that they lean into more masculine behaviours frequently to thrive in the environment. At the same time, participants were oftentimes aware of the issues in the industry, making active efforts to speak out against them, and some even offered possible solutions towards improving the environment in an effort to make it more accessible for women and therefore more equal. / <p>Grade: A</p><p>Examiner: Jeannette Ginslov</p>

<p>Social fears gain in prominence among higher primates, including humans, where threats associated with other conspecifics become more common. Social fearfulness is expressed on a continuum, ranging from shyness to a diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Despite the wide prevalence and considerable distress associated with social anxiety, our understanding of its neural and cognitive correlates remains in its infancy and remains an imperative for future translational research. The current dissertation examined social anxiety by utilizing multiple experimental approaches and employing a broad range of measures involving neural, cognitive, behavioural and clinical assessments.</p> <p>Chapters 2 to 4 relied on nonclinical samples of adults selected for social anxiety from a large adult population. Chapters 2 and 3 employed event-related brain potentials to index distinct aspects of perceptual and cognitive processing in tasks that manipulated novelty under socio-emotional and affectively neutral contexts. The aim was to provide a fine-grained characterization of the information processing stages that are biased by social anxiety. Chapter 4 measured reaction times in a selective attention task that independently varied the temporal and energetic aspects of affective stimulus delivery to provide convergent evidence into how affective processing is perturbed by social anxiety. Chapter 5 employed a novel method of quantifying continuous EEG to examine large-scale brain activity during rest and symptom provocation in patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. The aim was to examine, for the first time, whether there are treatment-related changes in a measure that putatively indexes communication across different (cortical and subcortical) neuronal systems.</p> <p>Findings suggest that social anxiety is associated with a sensitization of (bottom-up) systems reacting to social threat and that these biases appear during the early, relatively automatic stages of information processing. Some of these systems may be susceptible to evidence-based psychological treatments that are correlated with changes in brain activity detectable in EEG patterns. <br /><br /></p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>A clear picture describing cognitive change in pregnant women has yet to emerge. Recent work investigating pregnancy-induced cognition in women focuses on memory deficits, in contrast to the cognitive advantage and neural plasticity described in the nonhuman literature. The following thesis reviews the literature investigating pregnancy-induced cognitive change, and then reports three empirical studies investigating cognition in pregnant and postpartum women. I hypothesized that, given the high stakes associated with pregnancy and the postpartum period, adaptive mechanisms designed to keep the mother safe exist in the cognitive domain, in much the same way that Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy is now believed to buffer the mother and fetus from harm. The results of a meta-analysis and a longitudinal study comparing cognitive performance in pregnant and non-pregnant women suggest that there are cognitive costs associated with becoming a mother, in both pregnancy and the postpartum period. Recent research suggests that pregnant women possess an advantage in processing social stimuli: I report that pregnant women show facilitated recognition of faces. Finally, I examined nesting, and developed a questionnaire that tracked women through pregnancy and into the postpartum period, comparing non-pregnant women at similar time points. I report that nesting peaks in the third trimester, and involves space preparation and social withdrawal. Reproductive state affects cognition in ways that are distinct, and perhaps specialized, including a deficit in some areas (processing speed), and a cognitive advantage in others (face recognition), some of which may serve a protective function.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Basing its foreign policy on the Wilsonian internationalism, the new Turkish Republic established good relations with countries around the world. It signed neutrality and friendship treaties, and pursued a neutral foreign policy. However, at the end of World War II, it abandoned its longtime neutral foreign policy and aimed to establish closer ties with the American-led West. This thesis examines how and why Turkey shifted its foreign policy from neutrality to active alliance. In the first half of the thesis, I closely deal with what role international developments played in that shift. First, I focus on how Josef Stalin's efforts to obtain bases and joint-control with Turkey over the Turkish Straits created a threat to Turkey's national security. Then, I explore how this threat forced Turkey to leave its neutral foreign policy and seek closer ties with the U.S. In the second half of the thesis, I examine how Turkey's search for economic aid and military commitment accelerated and intensified the shift from neutrality to active alliance. First, I focus on how Turkish officials aggressively sought economic assistance from the U.S. and how U.S. officials became resistant to the Turkish requests for additional aid beginning with the second half of 1947. Considering that Turkey was less vulnerable to the Soviet threat, U.S. officials judged that Turkey did not need aid as much as Western Europe did. In order to overcome the resistance, Turkish officials exaggerated the Soviet threat and used the problem of high defense spending. Then, I explore how Turkish officials sought a military commitment from the U.S. A U.S. military commitment could alleviate the problem of high defense spending and facilitate the flow of economic aid from the U.S. Therefore, Turkish officials carried on a diplomatic offensive to secure a military commitment from the U.S. In doing so, they distanced themselves from neutrality and became an institutional ally of the U.S. in 1952. / History

Previous research on Temporal Self-Appraisal Theory demonstrated that people make downward comparisons to their past selves. Researchers have discussed this tendency to denigrate past selves as a self-esteem maintenance strategy; however, little research has been done on how people recall their past selves following active threats to their self-esteem. Reconstruing one’s past self for self-enhancement may lead to changes in construal level. I conducted three studies in which participants were randomly assigned to either an intelligence self-esteem threat or control condition and then tasked to recall an autobiographical memory, rate attributes of their recalled past self, and complete a measure of construal level. In the pilot study (N = 113), participants were free to recall any memory of their choosing. In Studies 1 and 2, participants recalled and rated two memories from early high-school: pre- and post-threat manipulation. Participants in Study 1 (N = 240) recalled their academic experience, while participants in Study 2 (N = 243) recalled their interpersonal relationships. A pattern emerged across studies suggesting that when people recall autobiographical memories related to the domain in which their self-esteem has been threatened (an academic memory and intelligence threat), threatened participants are more likely to denigrate their past selves (lower endorsement of positive self-attributes post-manipulation than pre-test) than controls in threat-relevant traits (competence, knowledge). This pattern is accompanied by an increased likelihood to recall positive transformations and periods of growth, as opposed to stability. However, a relationship with construal level was not observed. Further, when people recall autobiographical memories unrelated to the domain in which their self-esteem has been threatened (an interpersonal memory and intelligence threat), threatened participants are more likely to idealize their past selves (higher endorsement of positive self-attributes post-manipulation than pre-test) than controls in threat-irrelevant traits (likeable, attractive). However, this pattern was only observed for those who demonstrated fixed mindsets, emphasizing stability, and was not associated with an impact on construal level. / Psychology

yes / Cyber-attacks have been an increasing threat on people and organisations, which led to massive unpleasant impact. Therefore, there were many solutions to handle cyber-attacks, including Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). These solutions will provide a huge number of alarms that produce more are false positives. Therefore, the IDS tool result should be operated by a human intelligent be filtered effectively the huge amount of alerts to identify true positive attacks and perform accordingly to the incident response rule. This requires the IT employees to have enough knowledge and competency on operating IDS, IPS and incident handling. This paper aims to examine the awareness of cyber security threat among all IT employees, focusing on three domains: Knowledge, Monitoring and Prevention.

Yes / Cyber security has become a matter of a global interest, and several attacks target industrial companies and governmental organizations. The advanced persistent threats (APTs) have emerged as a new and complex version of multi-stage attacks (MSAs), targeting selected companies and organizations. Current APT detection systems focus on raising the detection alerts rather than predicting APTs. Forecasting the APT stages not only reveals the APT life cycle in its early stages but also helps to understand the attacker's strategies and aims. This paper proposes a novel intrusion detection system for APT detection and prediction. This system undergoes two main phases; the first one achieves the attack scenario reconstruction. This phase has a correlation framework to link the elementary alerts that belong to the same APT campaign. The correlation is based on matching the attributes of the elementary alerts that are generated over a configurable time window. The second phase of the proposed system is the attack decoding. This phase utilizes the hidden Markov model (HMM) to determine the most likely sequence of APT stages for a given sequence of correlated alerts. Moreover, a prediction algorithm is developed to predict the next step of the APT campaign after computing the probability of each APT stage to be the next step of the attacker. The proposed approach estimates the sequence of APT stages with a prediction accuracy of at least 91.80%. In addition, it predicts the next step of the APT campaign with an accuracy of 66.50%, 92.70%, and 100% based on two, three, and four correlated alerts, respectively. / The Gulf Science, Innovation and Knowledge Economy Programme of the U.K. Government under UK-Gulf Institutional Link Grant IL 279339985 and in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), U.K., under Grant EP/R006385/1.