Browser security : a requirements-based approach

A browser is a convenient way to access resources located remotely on computer networks. Security in browsers has become a crucial issue for users who use them for sensitive applications without knowledge ofthe hazards. This research utilises a structure approach to analyse and propose enhancements to browser security. Standard evaluation for computer products is important as it helps users to ensure that the product they use is appropriate for their needs. Security in browsers, therefore, has been evaluated using the Common Criteria. The outcome of this was a security requirements profile which attempts to formalise the security needs of browsers. The information collected during the research was used to produce a prototype model for a secure browser program. Modifications to the Lynx browser were made to demonstrate the proposed enhancements.

After the marketplace: evidence, social science and educational research

This paper is an essay on the state of Australian education that frames new directions for educational research. It outlines three challenges faced by Australian educators: highly spatialised poverty with particularly strong mediating effects on primary school education; the need for intellectual and critical depth in pedagogy, with a focus in the upper primary and middle years; and the need to reinvent senior schooling to address emergent pathways from school to work and civic life. It offers a narrative description of the dynamics of policy making in Australia and North America and argues for an evidence-based approach to social and educational policy – but one quite unlike current test and market-based approaches. Instead, it argues for a multidisciplinary approach to a broad range of empirical and case-based evidence that subjects these to critical, hermeneutic social sciences. Such an approach would join educational policy with educational research, and broader social, community and governmental action with the aim of reorganising and redistributing material, cultural and social resources.