Digital Commons Network^™

Malware Target Recognition Via Static Heuristics, Thomas E. Dube, Richard A. Raines, Gilbert L. Peterson, Kenneth W. Bauer, Michael R. Grimaila, Steven K. Rogers

Faculty Publications

Organizations increasingly rely on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of their information and communications technologies to conduct effective business operations while maintaining their competitive edge. Exploitation of these networks via the introduction of undetected malware ultimately degrades their competitive edge, while taking advantage of limited network visibility and the high cost of analyzing massive numbers of programs. This article introduces the novel Malware Target Recognition (MaTR) system which combines the decision tree machine learning algorithm with static heuristic features for malware detection. By focusing on contextually important static heuristic features, this research demonstrates superior detection results. Experimental results on large …

How Is M&S Interoperability Different From Other Interoperability Domains?, Andreas Tolk, Saikou Y. Diallo, Jose J. Padilla, Charles D. Turnitsa

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

During every standard workshop or event, the examples of working interoperability solutions are used to motivate for 'plug and play' standards for M&S as well, like standardized batteries for electronics, or the use of XML to exchange data between heterogeneous systems. While these are successful applications of standards, they are off the mark regarding M&S interoperability. The challenge of M&S is that the product that needs to be made interoperable is not the service or the system alone, but the model behind it as well. The paper shows that the alignment of conceptualizations is the real problem that is not …

Linear Analysis Of Binary Data As An Aid To Anomaly Detection, Marc Leonard Santoro

Theses Digitization Project

This research focused on spreading packed load in increase throughput, rather than the analysis of the packets themselves. Using singular value decomposition to examine the binary structure of the individual packets, it is possible to perform frequency analysis to identify and classify data, thereby potentially allowing for a new type of paradigm for malicious packet/data identification.

Leveraging Help Requests In Pomdp Intelligent Tutors, Jeremiah Folsom-Kovarik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) are computer programs that model individual learners and adapt instruction to help each learner differently. One way ITSs differ from human tutors is that few ITSs give learners a way to ask questions. When learners can ask for help, their questions have the potential to improve learning directly and also act as a new source of model data to help the ITS personalize instruction. Inquiry modeling gives ITSs the ability to answer learner questions and refine their learner models with an inexpensive new input channel. In order to support inquiry modeling, an advanced planning formalism is …

Dns In Computer Forensics, Neil F. Wright

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Domain Name Service (DNS) is a critical core component of the global Internet and integral to the majority of corporate intranets. It provides resolution services between the human-readable name-based system addresses and the machine operable Internet Protocol (IP) based addresses required for creating network level connections. Whilst structured as a globally dispersed resilient tree data structure, from the Global and Country Code Top Level Domains (gTLD/ccTLD) down to the individual site and system leaf nodes, it is highly resilient although vulnerable to various attacks, exploits and systematic failures.

Bringing To Life An Ancient Urban Center At Monte Albán, Mexico: Exploiting The Synergy Between The Micro, Meso, And Macro Levels In A Complex System, Thaer W. Jayyousi

Wayne State University Dissertations

In this dissertation, agent-based models of emergent ancient urban centers were constructed through the use of techniques from computational intelligence, agent-based modeling, complex systems, and data-mining of existing archaeological data from the prehistoric urban center, Monte Albán. This real world application was selected because of its importance in understanding the emergence of modern economic and political systems. Specifically, Cultural Algorithms was used to evolve models of early Monte Alban, models that can then be compared with existing models of ancient and modern urban centers.

Features of a complex system were used to help interpret the archaeological data. The analysis went …

On The Development Of A Digital Forensics Curriculum, Manghui Tu, Dianxiang Xu, Samsuddin Wira, Cristian Balan, Kyle Cronin

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Computer Crime and computer related incidents continue their prevalence and frequency, resulting in losses approaching billions of dollars. To fight against these crimes and frauds, it is urgent to develop digital forensics education programs to train a suitable workforce that can effectively investigate computer crimes and incidents. There is presently no standard to guide the design of digital forensics curriculum for an academic program. In this research, previous work on digital forensics curriculum design and existing education programs are thoroughly investigated. Both digital forensics educators and practitioners were surveyed and results were analyzed to determine the industry and law enforcement …

Assessing The Accessibility Of E-Learning, Morten Goodwin, Iain Sutherland, Frode Roarson, Tom Drange

Research outputs 2012

Equal participation for people with special needs is an important objective in education politics. Governments have a strong emphasis on enabling education for all citizens. The trend of using e-learning both for on campus and remote delivery of students has the potential of enabling new opportunities for people who previously faced challenges following education. On the other hand, providing online education bears the risk of creating new barriers. This paper examines different stages of providing educational content and delivering teaching material online. This is based on practical experiences from Noroff University College providing a bachelor degree in a security related …

Coevolutionary Algorithms For The Optimization Of Strategies For Red Teaming Applications, Tirtha Ranjeet

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Red teaming (RT) is a process that assists an organization in finding vulnerabilities in a system whereby the organization itself takes on the role of an “attacker” to test the system. It is used in various domains including military operations. Traditionally, it is a manual process with some obvious weaknesses: it is expensive, time-consuming, and limited from the perspective of humans “thinking inside the box”. Automated RT is an approach that has the potential to overcome these weaknesses. In this approach both the red team (enemy forces) and blue team (friendly forces) are modelled as intelligent agents in a multi-agent …

Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Video Surveillance Platform Quadrocopter Aircraft, Michael John Skadan

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Android Memory Capture And Applications For Security And Privacy, Joseph T. Sylve

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Android operating system is quickly becoming the most popular platform for mobiledevices. As Android’s use increases, so does the need for both forensic and privacy toolsdesigned for the platform. This thesis presents the first methodology and toolset for acquiringfull physical memory images from Android devices, a proposed methodology for forensicallysecuring both volatile and non-volatile storage, and details of a vulnerability discovered by theauthor that allows the bypass of the Android security model and enables applications to acquirearbitrary permissions.

Exploring Information Technologies To Support Shotgun Proteomics, Alexander M. Mendoza

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Shotgun proteomics refers to the direct analysis of complex protein mixtures to create a profile of the proteins present in the cell. These profiles can be used to study the underlying biological basis for cancer development. Closely studying the profiles as the cancer proliferates reveals the molecular interactions in the cell. They provide clues to researchers on potential drug targets to treat the disease. A little more than a decade old, shotgun proteomics is a relatively new form of discovery, one that is data intensive and requires complex data analysis. Early studies indicated a gap between the ability to analyze …

A Novel Malware Target Recognition Architecture For Enhanced Cyberspace Situation Awareness, Thomas E. Dube

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid transition of critical business processes to computer networks potentially exposes organizations to digital theft or corruption by advanced competitors. One tool used for these tasks is malware, because it circumvents legitimate authentication mechanisms. Malware is an epidemic problem for organizations of all types. This research proposes and evaluates a novel Malware Target Recognition (MaTR) architecture for malware detection and identification of propagation methods and payloads to enhance situation awareness in tactical scenarios using non-instruction-based, static heuristic features. MaTR achieves a 99.92% detection accuracy on known malware with false positive and false negative rates of 8.73e-4 and 8.03e-4 respectively. …

Icodes: A Load-Planning System That Demonstrates The Value Of Ontologies In The Realm Of Logistical Command And Control (C2), Kym J. Pohl, Peter Morosoff

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

No abstract provided.

A Threat To Cyber Resilience: A Malware Rebirthing Botnet, Murray Brand, Craig Valli, Andrew Woodward

International Cyber Resilience conference

This paper presents a threat to cyber resilience in the form of a conceptual model of a malware rebirthing botnet which can be used in a variety of scenarios. It can be used to collect existing malware and rebirth it with new functionality and signatures that will avoid detection by AV software and hinder analysis. The botnet can then use the customized malware to target an organization with an orchestrated attack from the member machines in the botnet for a variety of malicious purposes, including information warfare applications. Alternatively, it can also be used to inject known malware signatures into …

A Generic Framework For Three-Factor Authentication: Preserving Security And Privacy In Distributed Systems, Xinyi Huang, Yang Xiang, Ashley Chonka, Jianying Zhou, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As part of the security within distributed systems, various services and resources need protection from unauthorized use. Remote authentication is the most commonly used method to determine the identity of a remote client. This paper investigates a systematic approach for authenticating clients by three factors, namely password, smart card, and biometrics. A generic and secure framework is proposed to upgrade two-factor authentication to three-factor authentication. The conversion not only significantly improves the information assurance at low cost but also protects client privacy in distributed systems. In addition, our framework retains several practice-friendly properties of the underlying two-factor authentication, which we …

The Effects Of Eye Gaze Based Control On Operator Performance In Monitoring Multiple Displays, Allison Popola

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study investigated the utility and efficacy of using eye tracking technology as a method for selecting control of a camera within a multiple display configuration. A task analysis with a Keystroke-Level-Model (KLM) was conducted to acquire an estimated time for switching between cameras. KLM estimates suggest that response times are faster using an eye tracker than manual control -indicating a time savings. To confirm these estimates, and test other hypotheses a 2 × 2 within-subjects factorial design was used to examine the effects of Control (Using an eye tracker, or manual) under different Task Loads (Low, High). Dependent variables …

Determining The Effects Of Technology On Children, Kristina E. Hatch

Senior Honors Projects

Determining the Effects of Technology on Children

Kristina Hatch

Faculty Sponser: Timothy Henry, Computer Science and Statistics

Technology has become an essential part of Americans’ daily lives, affecting our communications, mail, relationships, the management of our bills and finances. As we have become more immersed in the benefits and capabilities of these constantly developing technologies, children as well as adults have become avid users. Laptops and cell phones are specially developed for preteens. Software and game companies have been targeting children in their game development. Video games have become common entertainment for children as young as four. Children today can …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Collision Avoidance From Moving Obstacles, Atila Ozdemir

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The usage of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is becoming more diverse day by day in both military and civil applications. Specifically in military applications, they are becoming a "must-have" component in every arsenal. Low cost, and especially the importance of human life, makes these vehicles desired in any military situation. But in order to take advantage of the UAVs, these vehicles should be able to navigate safely and not collide with other air vehicles, especially ones that are manned and carry personnel. As a result, the importance of a collision avoidance system of the UA V arises and begins …

Electronic Warfare By Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Aydin Meric

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Technology continues to evolve rapidly by the day. Developments in technology should be followed closely if a country wants to become more powerful. Nowadays nobody can afford to ignore the importance of Electronic Warfare and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in military applications. Both of them play a crucial role in military operations that they can change the course of a war.

There are different kinds of Electronic Warfare methods that can be applied according to the situations and any evolving circumstances. In the beginning Electronic Warfare was used mainly for defensive purposes, but these days Electronic Warfare is used for …

War Fighting In Cyberspace: Evolving Force Presentation And Command And Control, M. Bodine Birdwell, Robert F. Mills

Faculty Publications

The Department of Defense (DOD) is endeavoring to define war fighting in the global cyberspace domain. Creation of US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), a subunified functional combatant command (FCC) under US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), is a huge step in integrating and coordinating the defense, protection, and operation of DOD networks; however, this step does not mean that USCYBERCOM will perform or manage all cyberspace functions. In fact the vast majority of cyberspace functions conducted by the services and combatant commands (COCOM), although vital for maintaining access to the domain in support of their operations, are not of an active war-fighting nature. …

Underfunded And Understaffed: A Ground-Level View Of Ir Creation In Difficult Times, John Davison

Giving Undergraduate Research a Worldwide Voice: Institutional Repositories as Publishers

A discussion of the creation of OhioLINK, the institutional repository system for the Ohio University system.

More information at http://drc.ohiolink.edu/

Evaluating Information Assurance Control Effectiveness On An Air Force Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (Scada) System, Jason R. Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are increasingly being connected to corporate networks which has dramatically expanded their attack surface to remote cyber attack. Adversaries are targeting these systems with increasing frequency and sophistication. This thesis seeks to answer the research question addressing which Information Assurance (IA) controls are most significant for network defenders and SCADA system managers/operators to focus on in order to increase the security of critical infrastructure systems against a Stuxnet-like cyber attack. This research applies the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) IA controls to an attack tree modeled on a remote Stuxnet-like cyber …

Defensive Cyber Battle Damage Assessment Through Attack Methodology Modeling, Ryan T. Ostler

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the growing sophisticated capabilities of advanced persistent cyber threats, it is necessary to understand and accurately assess cyber attack damage to digital assets. This thesis proposes a Defensive Cyber Battle Damage Assessment (DCBDA) process which utilizes the comprehensive understanding of all possible cyber attack methodologies captured in a Cyber Attack Methodology Exhaustive List (CAMEL). This research proposes CAMEL to provide detailed knowledge of cyber attack actions, methods, capabilities, forensic evidence and evidence collection methods. This product is modeled as an attack tree called the Cyber Attack Methodology Attack Tree (CAMAT). The proposed DCBDA process uses CAMAT to analyze …

Measuring The Utility Of A Cyber Incident Mission Impact Assessment (Cimia) Process For Mission Assurance, Christy L. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Information is a critical asset on which virtually all modern organizations depend upon to meet their operational mission objectives. Military organizations, in particular, have embedded Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) into their core mission processes as a means to increase their operational efficiency, exploit automation, improve decision quality, and shorten the kill chain. However, the extreme dependence upon ICT results in an environment where a cyber incident can result in severe mission degradation, or possibly failure, with catastrophic consequences to life, limb, and property. These consequences can be minimized by maintaining real-time situational awareness of mission critical resources so appropriate …

Determining Solution Space Characteristics For Real-Time Strategy Games And Characterizing Winning Strategies, Gary B. Lamont, Kurt Weissgerber, Brett J. Borghetti, Gilbert L. Peterson

Faculty Publications

The underlying goal of a competing agent in a discrete real-time strategy (RTS) game is to defeat an adversary. Strategic agents or participants must define an a priori plan to maneuver their resources in order to destroy the adversary and the adversary's resources as well as secure physical regions of the environment. This a priori plan can be generated by leveraging collected historical knowledge about the environment. This knowledge is then employed in the generation of a classification model for real-time decision-making in the RTS domain. The best way to generate a classification model for a complex problem domain depends …

Amid The Vipers: Establishing Malware's Position Within The Information Ecosystem, Shawn Louis Everett Robertson

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The paper consists of a detailed examination of malware broken down into three main sections.

1. Introduction: Malware in the World Today. Begins with a definition of terms, examination of the types of malware, research into historical pieces of malicious code, a detailed analysis of the attackers, why malware is so prevalent, and why it is so hard to defend against. This section finishes with a comparison of reasons to create and not to create malware.
2. Background: "Good" Pieces of Malware. Examination of what makes malware effective. Analysis of the existing CVSS standard and proposal of the alternative VIPERS classification system. …

Security Risk Management In The Asia Pacific Region: What Are Security Professional Using?, David J. Brooks, Hamish Cotton

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

The Asia Pacific (APAC) region encompasses a heterogeneous group of nation-states. Like the APAC region, the security industry operates within a diverse and multi-disciplined knowledge base, with risk management being a fundamental knowledge domain within security. Nevertheless, there has been limited understanding of what security professionals use when applying security risk management. The study was designed to gain a better understanding of risk management practice in place throughout APAC. Questions were generated to gauge an understanding of current practice and levels of implementation of standards and frameworks. Participants were drawn from many industries, using non-probabilistic sampling methods in a “snowball” …

The Rock 2011, School Of Engineering And Computer Science

The Rock

No abstract provided.

Vascular Countercurrent Network For 3d Triple-Layered Skin Structure With Radiation Heating, Xiaoqi Zeng

Doctoral Dissertations

Heat transfer in living tissue has become more and more attention for researchers, because high thermal radiation produced by intense fire, such as wild fires, chemical fires, accidents, warfare, terrorism, etc, is often encountered in human's daily life. Living tissue is a heterogeneous organ consisting of cellular tissue and blood vessels, and heat transfer in cellular tissue and blood vessel is quite different, because the blood vessels provide channels for fast heat transfer. The metabolic heat generation, heat conduction and blood perfusion in soft tissue, convection and perfusion of the arterial-venous blood through the capillary, and interaction with the environment …