Broadband futures : content, connectivity and control

This introduction to the Broadband Futures: Content, Connectivity and Control special issue begins with the claim that we are at the start of a new period of debate and analysis about network infrastructure and use that declares government failure and reinvigorates the drive to a free-market solution in Australia and New Zealand. But questions remain about the effectiveness and social value of network developments, regardless of the degree of government investment and regulation. As canvassed in this introduction, and the articles that make up the special issue, we can only move forward, both in research and practical implementation, if we accept the intricate weaving together of past, present and future interactions between governments, service providers and their consumers in broadband development

New developments in network forensics - tools and techniques

Network forensics is a branch of digital forensics which has evolved recently as a very important discipline used in monitoring and analysing network traffic-particularly for the purposes of tracing intrusions and attacks. This paper presents an analysis of the tools and techniques used in network forensic analysis. It further examines the application of network forensics to vital areas such as malware and network attack detection; IP traceback and honeypots; and intrusion detection. Further, the paper addresses new and emerging areas of network forensic development which include critical infrastructure forensics, wireless network forensics, as well as its application to social networking. © 2012 IEEE.

Pharmaceuticals in Australia: developments in regulation and governance

The pharmaceutical domain represents a type of internationalised policy network theorised in recent writings on neo-liberalism, neo-corporatism and governance. This article presents an analysis of developments in prescription drug regulation in Australia. A relatively stable, state-managed pattern of interaction has been superseded by less closed exchange, and the government itself has fragmented into agencies pursuing different objectives. Developments in the three core regulatory areas are described: safety and efficacy controls, social policy (access and equity), and state support for industry (economic) development. Consensus-building occurs within the context of the National Medicines Policy. The pharmaceutical industry, represented by Medicines Australia, has a stake in all aspects of pharmaceutical policy and regulation, and draws upon unique resources (expertise and lobbying capacity). The context for the developments described is Australia's abandonment of a protectionist version of the Keynesian welfare national state in favour of the model of the competition state, which is oriented towards support for the growth of high technology industries such as pharmaceuticals, premised on partnerships with business.

An integrated observation network for the Gippsland Lakes, Victoria, Australia : balancing the needs of science and management

The Gippsland Lakes region in eastern Victoria is a partially flushed coastal lake system within a diverse catchment of rural and urban communities. Pressure from lakeside developments, re-occurring blue-green algal blooms, declining fisheries, sedimentation and infilling of the ocean entrance, has borne several decades of focussed studies and routine monitoring programs, along with a variety of engineering and management solutions. A recent review recommended that these disparate studies should be enhanced to formulate a coordinated monitoring network that could improve both spatial and temporal coverage, develop a capacity to trigger responsive investigations and was able to serve the needs of system management. Through a series of partnerships an integrated network was developed that comprises event and baseline monitoring of catchment loads, local meteorological forcing and an array of water quality sampling sites within the lakes system. A majority of these sites are incorporated with real-time telemetry that provides up to the minute information to stakeholders via a web-based information management system and vital operational status to technical system management.

Privacy preserving social network data publication

The introduction of online social networks (OSN) has transformed the way people connect and interact with each other as well as share information. OSN have led to a tremendous explosion of network-centric data that could be harvested for better understanding of interesting phenomena such as sociological and behavioural aspects of individuals or groups. As a result, online social network service operators are compelled to publish the social network data for use by third party consumers such as researchers and advertisers. As social network data publication is vulnerable to a wide variety of reidentification and disclosure attacks, developing privacy preserving mechanisms are an active research area. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the recent developments in social networks data publishing privacy risks, attacks, and privacy-preserving techniques. We survey and present various types of privacy attacks and information exploited by adversaries to perpetrate privacy attacks on anonymized social network data. We present an in-depth survey of the state-of-the-art privacy preserving techniques for social network data publishing, metrics for quantifying the anonymity level provided, and information loss as well as challenges and new research directions. The survey helps readers understand the threats, various privacy preserving mechanisms, and their vulnerabilities to privacy breach attacks in social network data publishing as well as observe common themes and future directions.