21st National Information Systems Security Conference : building the information security bridge to the 21st century : October 5-8, 1998, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, Va.

Cover title.

Identifying critical components during information security evaluations

Electronic communications devices intended for government or military applications must be rigorously evaluated to ensure that they maintain data confidentiality. High-grade information security evaluations require a detailed analysis of the device's design, to determine how it achieves necessary security functions. In practice, such evaluations are labour-intensive and costly, so there is a strong incentive to find ways to make the process more efficient. In this paper we show how well-known concepts from graph theory can be applied to a device's design to optimise information security evaluations. In particular, we use end-to-end graph traversals to eliminate components that do not need to be evaluated at all, and minimal cutsets to identify the smallest group of components that needs to be evaluated in depth.

Dynamic Ontologies in Information Security Systems

Different types of ontologies and knowledge or metaknowledge connected to them are considered and analyzed aiming at realization in contemporary information security systems (ISS) and especially the case of intrusion detection systems (IDS) or intrusion prevention systems (IPS). Human-centered methods INCONSISTENCY, FUNNEL, CALEIDOSCOPE and CROSSWORD are algorithmic or data-driven methods based on ontologies. All of them interact on a competitive principle ‘survival of the fittest’. They are controlled by a Synthetic MetaMethod SMM. It is shown that the data analysis frequently needs an act of creation especially if it is applied to knowledge-poor environments. It is shown that human-centered methods are very suitable for resolutions in case, and often they are based on the usage of dynamic ontologies

Analysis of Spatial-temporal Dynamics in the System of Economic Security of Different Subjects of Economic Management

The importance to solve the problem of spatial-temporal dynamics analysis in the system of economic security of different subjects of economic management is substantiated. Various methods and approaches for carrying out analysis of spatial-temporal dynamics in the system of economic security are considered. The basis of the generalized analysis of spatial-temporal dynamics in economic systems is offered.

Information Security in the Cloud: Should We be Using a Different Approach?

Postprint

On the race of worms and patches: modeling the spread of information in wireless sensor networks

Sensor networks are a branch of distributed ad hoc networks with a broad range of applications in surveillance and environment monitoring. In these networks, message exchanges are carried out in a multi-hop manner. Due to resource constraints, security professionals often use lightweight protocols, which do not provide adequate security. Even in the absence of constraints, designing a foolproof set of protocols and codes is almost impossible. This leaves the door open to the worms that take advantage of the vulnerabilities to propagate via exploiting the multi-hop message exchange mechanism. This issue has drawn the attention of security researchers recently. In this paper, we investigate the propagation pattern of information in wireless sensor networks based on an extended theory of epidemiology. We develop a geographical susceptible-infective model for this purpose and analytically derive the dynamics of information propagation. Compared with the previous models, ours is more realistic and is distinguished by two key factors that had been neglected before: 1) the proposed model does not purely rely on epidemic theory but rather binds it with geometrical and spatial constraints of real-world sensor networks and 2) it extends to also model the spread dynamics of conflicting information (e.g., a worm and its patch). We do extensive simulations to show the accuracy of our model and compare it with the previous ones. The findings show the common intuition that the infection source is the best location to start patching from, which is not necessarily right. We show that this depends on many factors, including the time it takes for the patch to be developed, worm/patch characteristics as well as the shape of the network.

Asset identification in information security risk assessment: A business practice approach

Organizations apply information security risk assessment (ISRA) methodologies to systematically and comprehensively identify information assets and related security risks. We review the ISRA literature and identify three key deficiencies in current methodologies that stem from their traditional accountancy-based perspective and a limited view of organizational "assets". In response, we propose a novel rich description method (RDM) that adopts a less formal and more holistic view of information and knowledge assets that exist in modern work environments. We report on an in-depth case study to explore the potential for improved asset identification enabled by the RDM compared to traditional ISRAs. The comparison shows how the RDM addresses the three key deficiencies of current ISRAs by providing: 1) a finer level of granularity for identifying assets, 2) a broader coverage of assets that reflects the informal aspects of business practices, and 3) the identification of critical knowledge assets.

Measuring the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the classroom

In 2003, the “ICT Curriculum Integration Performance Measurement Instrument” was developed froman extensive review ofthe contemporary international and Australian research pertaining to the definition and measurement of ICT curriculum integration in classrooms (Proctor, Watson, & Finger, 2003). The 45-item instrument that resulted was based on theories and methodologies identified by the literature review. This paper describes psychometric results from a large-scale evaluation of the instrument subsequently conducted, as recommended by Proctor, Watson, and Finger (2003). The resultant 20-item, two-factor instrument, now called “Learning with ICTs: Measuring ICT Use in the Curriculum,” is both statistically and theoretically robust. This paper should be read in association with the original paper published in Computers in the Schools(Proctor, Watson, & Finger, 2003) that described in detail the theoretical framework underpinning the development of the instrument.