Engineering Commons^™

A Synopsis Of Proposed Data Protection Legislation In Sa, Francis S. Cronjé

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Privacy International1 made the following statement regarding South Africa’s financial sector in its 2005 world survey: “South Africa has a well-developed financial system and banking infrastructure. Despite the sophistication of the financial sector, the privacy of financial information is weakly regulated by a code of conduct for banks issued by the Banking Council.” This extract highlights some of the problems South Africa are experiencing with its current status on privacy as viewed from an International perspective. In recent years the International society has stepped up its efforts in creating a global village wherein the individual could be assured of having …

Bluetooth Hacking: A Case Study, Dennis Browning, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes a student project examining mechanisms with which to attack Bluetooth-enabled devices. The paper briefly describes the protocol architecture of Bluetooth and the Java interface that programmers can use to connect to Bluetooth communication services. Several types of attacks are described, along with a detailed example of two attack tools, Bloover II and BT Info.

Detection Of Steganography-Producing Software Artifacts On Crime-Related Seized Computers, Asawaree Kulkarni, James Goldman, Brad Nabholz, William Eyre

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Steganography is the art and science of hiding information within information so that an observer does not know that communication is taking place. Bad actors passing information using steganography are of concern to the national security establishment and law enforcement. An attempt was made to determine if steganography was being used by criminals to communicate information. Web crawling technology was used and images were downloaded from Web sites that were considered as likely candidates for containing information hidden using steganographic techniques. A detection tool was used to analyze these images. The research failed to demonstrate that steganography was prevalent on …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Prevention Is Better Than Prosecution: Deepening The Defence Against Cyber Crime, Jacqueline Fick

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In the paper the author proposes that effectively and efficiently addressing cyber crime requires a shift in paradigm. For businesses and government departments alike the focus should be on prevention, rather than the prosecution of cyber criminals. The Defence in Depth strategy poses a practical solution for achieving Information Assurance in today’s highly networked environments. In a world where “absolute security” is an unachievable goal, the concept of Information Assurance poses significant benefits to securing one of an organization’s most valuable assets: Information. It will be argued that the approach of achieving Information Assurance within an organisation, coupled with the …

To License Or Not To License Revisited: An Examination Of State Statutes Regarding Private Investigators And Digital Examiners, Thomas Lonardo, Doug White, Alan Rea

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In this update to the previous year's study, the authors examine statutes that regulate, license, and enforce investigative functions in each US state. After identification and review of Private Investigator licensing requirements, the authors find that very few state statutes explicitly differentiate between Private Investigators and Digital Examiners. After contacting all state agencies the authors present a distinct grouping organizing state approaches to professional Digital Examiner licensing. The authors conclude that states must differentiate between Private Investigator and Digital Examiner licensing requirements and oversight.

The Impact Of Hard Disk Firmware Steganography On Computer Forensics, Iain Sutherland, Gareth Davies, Nick Pringle, Andrew Blyth

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The hard disk drive is probably the predominant form of storage media and is a primary data source in a forensic investigation. The majority of available software tools and literature relating to the investigation of the structure and content contained within a hard disk drive concerns the extraction and analysis of evidence from the various file systems which can reside in the user accessible area of the disk. It is known that there are other areas of the hard disk drive which could be used to conceal information, such as the Host Protected Area and the Device Configuration Overlay. There …

Electronic Forms-Based Computing For Evidentiary Analysis, Andy Luse, Brian Mennecke, Anthony M. Townsend

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The paperwork associated with evidentiary collection and analysis is a highly repetitive and time-consuming process which often involves duplication of work and can frequently result in documentary errors. Electronic entry of evidencerelated information can facilitate greater accuracy and less time spent on data entry. This manuscript describes a general framework for the implementation of an electronic tablet-based system for evidentiary processing. This framework is then utilized in the design and implementation of an electronic tablet-based evidentiary input prototype system developed for use by forensic laboratories which serves as a verification of the proposed framework. The manuscript concludes with a discussion …

Graduate Accounting Students' Perception Of It Forensics: A Multi-Dimensional Analysis, Grover S. Kearns

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Forensics and information technology (IT) have become increasingly important to accountants and auditors. Undergraduate accounting students are introduced to general IT topics but discussion of forensic knowledge is limited. A few schools have introduced an undergraduate major in forensic accounting. Some graduate schools offer accounting students an emphasis in forensic or fraud accounting that includes instruction in forensics and information technology. When students do not view the IT topics as being equally important to their careers as traditional accounting topics, these attitudes may reduce the quality of the course. In an effort to assess student attitudes, a survey of 46 …

Book Review: Cyber Security And Global Information Assurance: Threat Analysis And Response Solutions, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

I freely admit that this book was sent to me by the publisher for the expressed purpose of my writing a review and that I know several of the chapter authors. With that disclosure out of the way, let me say that the book is well worth the review (and I get to keep my review copy).
The preface to the book cites the 2003 publication of The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace by the White House, and the acknowledgement by the U.S. government that our economy and national security were fully dependent upon computers, networks, and the telecommunications infrastructure. …

A Covert Encryption Method For Applications In Electronic Data Interchange, Jonathan Blackledge, Dmitry Dubovitskiy

Articles

A principal weakness of all encryption systems is that the output data can be ‘seen’ to be encrypted. In other words, encrypted data provides a ‘flag’ on the potential value of the information that has been encrypted. In this paper, we provide a new approach to ‘hiding’ encrypted data in a digital image.

In conventional (symmetric) encryption, the plaintext is usually represented as a binary stream and encrypted using an XOR type operation with a binary cipher. The algorithm used is ideally designed to: (i) generate a maximum entropy cipher so that there is no bias with regard to any …

Partial Program Admission, Michael Wilson, Ron Cytron, Jon Turner

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Real-time systems on non-preemptive platforms require a means of bounding the execution time of programs for admission purposes. Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) is most commonly used to bound program execution time. While bounding a program’s WCET statically is possible, computing its true WCET is difficult.We present a new technique we call partial program admission, a means of statically enforcing an otherwise untrusted assertion of WCET without adding runtime overhead, by means of code duplication. We apply this technique to real programs from the virtual networking arena and present the results.

Scheduling Design With Unknown Execution Time Distributions Or Modes, Robert Glaubius, Terry Tidwell, Christopher Gill, William D. Smart

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Open soft real-time systems, such as mobile robots, experience unpredictable interactions with their environments and yet must respond both adaptively and with reasonable temporal predictability. Because of the uncertainty inherent in such interactions, many of the assumptions of the real-time scheduling techniques traditionally used to ensure predictable timing of system actions do not hold in those environments. In previous work we have developed novel techniques for scheduling policy design where up-front knowledge of execution time distributions can be used to produce both compact representations of resource utilization state spaces and efficient optimal scheduling policies over those state spaces. This paper …

Enabling A Low-Delay Internet Service Via Built-In Performance Incentives, Maxim Podlesny, Sergey Gorinsky

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

The single best-effort service of the Internet struggles to accommodate divergent needs of different distributed applications. Numerous alternative network architectures have been proposed to offer diversified network services. These innovative solutions failed to gain wide deployment primarily due to economic and legacy issues rather than technical shortcomings. Our paper presents a new simple paradigm for network service differentiation that accounts explicitly for the multiplicity of Internet service providers and users as well as their economic interests in environments with partly deployed new services. Our key idea is to base the service differentiation on performance itself, rather than price. We design …

Design Of An Extensible Network Testbed With Heterogeneous Components, Charlie Wisemen, Jyoti Parwatikar, Ken Wong, John Dehart, Jonathan Turner

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Virtualized network infrastructures are currently deployed in both research and commercial contexts. The complexity of the virtualization layer varies greatly in different deployments, ranging from cloud computing environments, to carrier Ethernet applications using stacked VLANs, to networking testbeds. In all of these cases, there are many users sharing the resources of one provider, where each user expects their resources to be isolated from all other users. Our work in this area is focused on network testbeds. In particular, we present the design of the latest version of the Open Network Laboratory (ONL) testbed. This redesign generalizes the underlying infrastructure to …

Robust Sensor Networks In Homes Via Reactive Channel Hopping, Mo Sha, Greg Hackmann, Chenyang Lu

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Home area networks (HANs) consisting of wireless sensors have emerged as the enabling technology for important applications such as smart energy and assisted living. A key challenge faced in deploying robust wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for home automation applications is the need to provide long-term, reliable operation in the face of the varied sources of interference found in typical residential settings. To better understand the channel dynamics in these environments, we performed an in-depth empirical study of the performance of HANs in ten real-life apartments. Our empirical study leads to several key insights into designing robust HANs for residential environments. …

Reliable Patient Monitoring: A Clinical Study In A Step-Down Hospital Unit, Octav Chipara, Chenyang Lu, Thomas C. Bailey, Gruia-Catalin Roman

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

This paper presents the design, deployment, and empirical study of a wireless clinical monitoring system that collects pulse and oxygen saturation readings from patients. The primary contribution of this paper is an in-depth clinical trial that assesses the feasibility of wireless sensor networks for patient monitoring in general (non-ICU) hospital units. The trial involved 32 patients monitored in a step-down cardiology unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis. During a total of 31 days of monitoring, the network achieved high reliability (median 99.92%, range 95.21% - 100%). The overall reliability of the system was dominated by sensing reliability (median 80.55%, range …

Performance Evaluation Of Network-On-Chip Interconnect Architectures, Xinan Zhou

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With a communication design style, Network-on-Chips (NoCs) have been proposed as a new Multi-Processor System-on-Chip paradigm. Simulation and functional validation are essential to assess the correctness and performance of the NoC design. In this thesis, a cycle-accurate NoC simulation system in Verilog HDL is developed to evaluate the performance of various NoC architectures. First, a library of NoC components is developed based on an existing design. Each NoC architecture to be evaluated is constructed from the library according to the topology description which specifies the network topology, network size, and routing algorithm. The network performance of four NoC architectures under …

On-Board Three-Dimensional Object Tracking: Software And Hardware Solutions, Ajay Kumar Mandava

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

We describe a real time system for recognition and tracking 3D objects such as UAVs, airplanes, fighters with the optical sensor. Given a 2D image, the system has to perform background subtraction, recognize relative rotation, scale and translation of the object to sustain a prescribed topology of the fleet. In the thesis a comparative study of different algorithms and performance evaluation is carried out based on time and accuracy constraints. For background subtraction task we evaluate frame differencing, approximate median filter, mixture of Gaussians and propose classification based on neural network methods. For object detection we analyze the performance of …

Extents And Limits Of Radioscopic Detection Of Nuclear Materials In Cargo Containers With Two Megavoltage Energy Barriers, Vijay Kumar Mandava

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The megavoltage X-ray technology is utilized for detecting nuclear materials in cargo containers. Interlaced response is obtained by switching rapidly between 6MeV and 9 MeV beams. It is known that the ratio of penetration levels of cargo contents taken at nominal and dual energies provides the information about atomic numbers of materials, and thus can also indicate the threat group. However, the identification is not straightforward if combinations of materials are present. The latter can lead to misdetections. It is imperative to know what are the extent and the limit of the currently employed technology, and how to carry out …

Multicast Encryption Infrastructure For Security In Sensor Networks, Richard R. Brooks, Brijesh Pillai, Matthew Pirretti, Michele C. Weigle

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Designing secure sensor networks is difficult. We propose an approach that uses multicast communications and requires fewer encryptions than pairwise communications. The network is partitioned into multicast regions; each region is managed by a sensor node chosen to act as a keyserver. The keyservers solicit nodes in their neighborhood to join the local multicast tree. The keyserver generates a binary tree of keys to maintain communication within the multicast region using a shared key. Our approach supports a distributed key agreement protocol that identifies the compromised keys and supports membership changes with minimum system overhead. We evaluate the overhead of …

Precise Measurement Of The Neutron Magnetic Form Factor Gnm In The Few-Gev² Region, Clas Collaboration, J. Lachniet, H. Bagdasaryan, S. Bültmann, N. Kalantarians, G. E. Dodge, T. A. Forest, G. Gavalian, C. E. Hyde-Wright, A. Klien, S. E. Kuhn, M. R. Niroula, R. A. Niyazov, L. M. Qin, L. B. Weinstein, J. Zhang

Physics Faculty Publications

The neutron elastic magnetic form factor was extracted from quasielastic electron scattering on deuterium over the range Q² = 1.0–4.8  GeV² with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. High precision was achieved with a ratio technique and a simultaneous in situ calibration of the neutron detection efficiency. Neutrons were detected with electromagnetic calorimeters and time-of-flight scintillators at two beam energies. The dipole parametrization gives a good description of the data

Mapping Reality Into Virtual Worlds, Josh Mcfarlane

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

As virtual worlds become more prevalent, they become increasingly useful as a means of information dissemination. This thesis examines the possible connections between real world objects and their virtual world counterparts. We look at how, by attaching sensors to an object, or by using a smart object with embedded sensors, the information can be relayed to a server. From this information, it will be possible to create a duplicate object in the virtual world and have it mirror the real world object in terms of state and movement. Almost all current solutions for remotely viewing a room or area are …

Estimating Risk Under Interval Uncertainty: Sequential And Parallel Algorithms, Vladik Kreinovich, Hung T. Nguyen, Songsak Sriboonchitta

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In traditional econometrics, the quality of an individual investment -- and of the investment portfolio -- is characterized by its expected return and its risk (variance). For an individual investment or portfolio, we can estimate the future expected return and a future risk by tracing the returns x₁, ..., x_n of this investment (and/or similar investments) over the past years, and computing the statistical characteristics based on these returns. The return (per unit investment) is defined as the selling of the corresponding financial instrument at the ends of, e.g., a one-year period, divided by the buying price …

Mathematical Justification Of Spectral/Covariance Techniques: On The Example Of Arc Detection, Jan Beck, David Nemir, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Detecting arcing faults is an important but difficult-to-solve practical problem. Many existing methods of arc detection are based upon acquiring a signal that is proportional to current and then making an analysis of the signal's power spectrum (or, equivalently, its covariance function). Since the power spectrum, i.e., the absolute values of the Fourier transform, carries only partial information about the signal, a natural question is: why should we restrict ourselves to the use of this partial information? A related question is caused by the fact that even the most efficient methods still miss some arcing faults and/or lead to false …

Computing With Tensors: Potential Applications Of Physics-Motivated Mathematics To Computer Science, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In this paper, we explain what are tensors and how tensors can help in computing.

Steganography In Ipv6, Barret Miller

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Steganography is the process of hiding a secret message within another message such that it is difficult to detect the presence of the secret message. In other words, the existence of the secret message is hidden. A covert channel refers to the actual medium that is used to communicate the information such as a message, image, or file. This honors thesis uses steganography within the source address fields of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) packets to create a covert channel through which clandestine messages are passed from one party to another. A fully functional computer program was designed and written …

Intelligence Techniques Are Needed To Further Enhance The Advantage Of Groups With Diversity In Problem Solving, Oscar Castillo, Patricia Melin, J. Esteban Gamez, Vladik Kreinovich, Olga Kosheleva

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In practice, there are many examples when the diversity in a group enhances the group's ability to solve problems -- and thus, leads to more efficient groups, firms, schools, etc. Several papers, starting with the pioneering research by Scott E. Page from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, provide a theoretical justification for this known empirical phenomenon. However, when the general advise of increasing diversity is transformed into simple-to-follow algorithmic rules (like quotas), the result is not always successful. In this paper, we prove that the problem of designing the most efficient group is computationally difficult (NP-hard). Thus, in …

Ballot Mark Detection, Elisa H. Barney Smith, Daniel Lopresti, George Nagy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Optical mark sensing, i.e., detecting whether a "bubble" has been filled in, may seem straightforward. However, on US election ballots the shape, intensity, size and position of the marks, while specified, are highly variable due to a diverse electorate. The ballots may be produced and scanned by poorly maintained equipment. Yet near-perfect results are required. To improve the current technology, which has been subject to criticism, components of a process for identifying marks on an optical sense ballot are evaluated. When marked synthetic ballots are compared to an unmarked ballot, the absolute difference of adaptive thresholded images gives best detection …