Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Targeted Study On The Match Between Cybersecurity Higher Education Offerings And Workforce Needs, Diane Murphy, Nektaria Tryfona, Andrew M. Marshall

Virginia Journal of Science

The Cybersecurity Workforce Gap is a call to action on a two-fold problem: the worldwide shortage of qualified cybersecurity workers and the need to develop a growing highly-knowledgeable, agile, well-trained cybersecurity workforce. This paper presents a methodological approach to achieve this goal in the Northern Virginia area. The area is characterized by an abundance of cyber-related industries, government agencies, and large businesses with high demand of skilled cybersecurity workers; at the same time, academic institutions offer cutting edge education and training access to highly capable students. Central to this methodology is the collaboration between local academia and industry and it …

Covid-19 Crowd Detection, Mustafa Ibrahim, Aly M. Zeineldin, Yameen Khan, Ayman Elmesalami, Soad Ibrahim

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

Object detection was introduced by researchers for face detection. Researchers explain how the detected face is divided into minor frames to be recognized by the algorithm. Due to COVID-19 and government regulations, many people face problems going to shopping centers and shop safely. It has been very hard for both the government and the people to manage social distancing. In our study, we developed a system using Raspberry Pi-4 that will detect the distance between people along with counting the number of distance and mask violations. An error message will appear on the screen in red, showing the total number …

Odu Undergraduate Students Addressing The Societal Problems Of Parking Control, Classroom Seating, And Flood Monitoring In Hampton Roads, Stephanie K. Trusty, Gabriel Del Razo, Nathan Potter, Soad Ibrahim, Ayman Elmesalami

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

During the summer of 2021, ODU undergraduate computer science students undertook image processing research projects. These projects focused on utilizing the Raspberry Pi computer and camera module to address three real-world problems concerning parking control, classroom seating, and flood monitoring. The parking lot occupancy project aimed to develop a system that monitors the occupancy of parking spaces in a lot and communicates the status of the lot of drivers and the lot attendants. The COVID-19 classroom occupancy project sought to enforce social distancing protocols in a classroom environment by detecting seating violations and notifying the instructor and the impacted students …

Autonomous Vehicles And The Ethical Tension Between Occupant And Non-Occupant Safety, Jason Borenstein, Joseph Herkert, Keith Miller

The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique

Given that the creation and deployment of autonomous vehicles is likely to continue, it is important to explore the ethical responsibilities of designers, manufacturers, operators, and regulators of the technology. We specifically focus on the ethical responsibilities surrounding autonomous vehicles that these stakeholders have to protect the safety of non-occupants, meaning individuals who are around the vehicles while they are operating. The term “non-occupants” includes, but is not limited to, pedestrians and cyclists. We are particularly interested in how to assign moral responsibility for the safety of non-occupants when autonomous vehicles are deployed in a complex, land-based transportation system.

A Survey On Securing Personally Identifiable Information On Smartphones, Dar’Rell Pope, Yen-Hung (Frank) Hu, Mary Ann Hoppa

Virginia Journal of Science

With an ever-increasing footprint, already topping 3 billion devices, smartphones have become a huge cybersecurity concern. The portability of smartphones makes them convenient for users to access and store personally identifiable information (PII); this also makes them a popular target for hackers. This survey shares practical insights derived from analyzing 16 real-life case studies that exemplify: the vulnerabilities that leave smartphones open to cybersecurity attacks; the mechanisms and attack vectors typically used to steal PII from smartphones; the potential impact of PII breaches upon all parties involved; and recommended defenses to help prevent future PII losses. The contribution of this …

Human Supremacy As Posthuman Risk, Daniel Estrada

The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique

Human supremacy is the widely held view that human interests ought to be privileged over other interests as a matter of ethics and public policy. Posthumanism is the historical situation characterized by a critical reevaluation of anthropocentrist theory and practice. This paper draws on animal studies, critical posthumanism, and the critique of ideal theory in Charles Mills and Serene Khader to address the appeal to human supremacist rhetoric in AI ethics and policy discussions, particularly in the work of Joanna Bryson. This analysis identifies a specific risk posed by human supremacist policy in a posthuman context, namely the classification of …

Understanding The Use Of Malware And Encryption, Eva M. Castillo

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

The main objective of this research project is understanding malware and encryption.

Topical Review Of Vulnerability Management For Local Hampton Roads Industry, Gregory W. Hubbard Jr., Matthew Eunice

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

The progress towards an interconnected digital world offers an exciting level of advancement for humanity. Unfortunately, this “online” connection is not safe from the threats and dangers typically associated with physical operations. With the foundation of Cyber Command of DoD cyberspace, the United States Government is taking a prominent stance in cyberspace operations. Like the federal government, both industries and individuals are not immune and are oftentimes unknowingly at risk to cyberattack. This report hopes to bring awareness to common vulnerabilities in multi-user networks by describing a historical background on cyber security as well as outlining current methods of vulnerability …

Study Of The Feasibility Of A Virtual Environment For Home User Cybersecurity, Sean Powell

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

This research focuses on the average home computer user’s ability to download, install and manage a virtual machine software program. The findings of this research is to be used as a foundation to the possibility of using a virtual machine software program as another form of defense for the home user’s computer. Virtual machines already have various uses, some in the cybersecurity field; this possibility could add another useful application for the software program. This research is conducted by monitoring volunteers’ ability to download, install, set up, and perform basic instructions on the virtual environment. It was from the volunteers’ …

A Study Of Existing Cross-Site Scripting Detection And Prevention Techniques Using Xampp And Virtualbox, Jalen Mack, Yen-Hung (Frank) Hu, Mary Ann Hoppa

Virginia Journal of Science

Most operating websites experience a cyber-attack at some point. Cross-site Scripting (XSS) attacks are cited as the top website risk. More than 60 percent of web applications are vulnerable to them, and they ultimately are responsible for over 30 percent of all web application attacks. XSS attacks are complicated, and they often are used in conjunction with social engineering techniques to cause even more damage. Although prevention techniques exist, hackers still find points of vulnerability to launch their attacks. This project explored what XSS attacks are, examples of popular attacks, and ways to detect and prevent them. Using knowledge gained …

Hacking The Extended Mind: The Security Implications Of The New Metaphysics, Robin L. Zebrowski

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Computer security expert Paul Syverson has argued that there is a computer security equivalent of gaslighting: where a clever adversary could convince some system that some component that is not really a part of the system is in fact a part of the system. If non-biological items from our environments (or even pieces of our environments themselves) can be part of our minds (the standard Extended Mind hypothesis, EM), they are therefore part of our selves, and therefore subject to Syverson’s worry about boundary in a way that has not been explored before. If some version of EM holds, then …

Confucian Robot Ethics, Qin Zhu, Tom Williams, Ruchen Wen

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In the literature of artificial moral agents (AMAs), most work is influenced by either deontological or utilitarian frameworks. It has also been widely acknowledged that these Western “rule-based” ethical theories have encountered both philosophical and computing challenges. To tackle these challenges, this paper explores a non-Western, role-based, Confucian approach to robot ethics. In this paper, we start by providing a short introduction to some theoretical fundamentals of Confucian ethics. Then, we discuss some very preliminary ideas for constructing a Confucian approach to robot ethics. Lastly, we briefly share a couple of empirical studies our research group has recently conducted that …

Difference Between Algorithmic Processing And The Process Of Lifeworld (Lebenswelt), Domenico Schneider

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The following article compares the temporality of the life-world with the digital processing. The temporality of the life-world is determined to be stretched and spontaneous. The temporality of the digital is given by discrete step-by-step points of time. Most ethical issues can be traced back to a mismatch of these two ways of processing. This creates a foundation for the ethics of the digital processing. Methodologically, phenomenological considerations are merged with media-philosophical considerations in the article.

Rethinking Algorithmic Bias Through Phenomenology And Pragmatism, Johnathan C. Flowers

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In 2017, Amazon discontinued an attempt at developing a hiring algorithm which would enable the company to streamline its hiring processes due to apparent gender discrimination. Specifically, the algorithm, trained on over a decade’s worth of resumes submitted to Amazon, learned to penalize applications that contained references to women, that indicated graduation from all women’s colleges, or otherwise indicated that an applicant was not male. Amazon’s algorithm took up the history of Amazon’s applicant pool and integrated it into its present “problematic situation,” for the purposes of future action. Consequently, Amazon declared the project a failure: even after attempting to …

Autonomous Vehicles And The Ethical Tension Between Occupant And Non-Occupant Safety, Jason Borenstein, Joseph Herkert, Keith W. Miller

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Autonomous vehicle manufacturers, people inside an autonomous vehicle (occupants), and people outside the vehicle (non-occupants) are among the distinct stakeholders when addressing ethical issues inherent in systems that include autonomous vehicles. As responses to recent tragic cases illustrate, advocates for autonomous vehicles tend to focus on occupant safety, sometimes to the exclusion of non-occupant safety. Thus, we aim to examine ethical issues associated with non-occupant safety, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and riders of motorized scooters. We also explore the ethical implications of technical and policy ideas that some might propose to improve non-occupant safety. In addition, if safety (writ large) …

What To Do When Privacy Is Gone, James Brusseau

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Today’s ethics of privacy is largely dedicated to defending personal information from big data technologies. This essay goes in the other direction. It considers the struggle to be lost, and explores two strategies for living after privacy is gone. First, total exposure embraces privacy’s decline, and then contributes to the process with transparency. All personal information is shared without reservation. The resulting ethics is explored through a big data version of Robert Nozick’s Experience Machine thought experiment. Second, transient existence responds to privacy’s loss by ceaselessly generating new personal identities, which translates into constantly producing temporarily unviolated private information. The …

Responding To Some Challenges Posed By The Re-Identification Of Anonymized Personal Data, Herman T. Tavani, Frances S. Grodzinsky

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In this paper, we examine a cluster of ethical controversies generated by the re-identification of anonymized personal data in the context of big data analytics, with particular attention to the implications for personal privacy. Our paper is organized into two main parts. Part One examines some ethical problems involving re-identification of personally identifiable information (PII) in large data sets. Part Two begins with a brief description of Moor and Weckert’s Dynamic Ethics (DE) and Nissenbaum’s Contextual Integrity (CI) Frameworks. We then investigate whether these frameworks, used together, can provide us with a more robust scheme for analyzing privacy concerns that …

Information Privacy: Not Just Gdpr, Danilo Bruschi

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The "information rush" which is characterizing the current phase of the information age calls for actions aimed at enforcing the citizens' right to privacy. Since the entire information life-cycle (collection, manipulation, storing) is now carried out by digital technologies, most of such actions consists of the adoption of severe measures (both organizational and technological) aimed at improving the security of computer systems, as in the case of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Usually, data processors which comply with these requirements are exempted by any other duty. Unfortunately recent trends in the computer attack field show that even the adoption …

Human Supremacy As Posthuman Risk, Daniel Estrada

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Human supremacy is the widely held view that human interests ought to be privileged over other interests as a matter of public policy. Posthumanism is an historical and cultural situation characterized by a critical reevaluation of anthropocentrist theory and practice. This paper draws on Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanism and the critique of ideal theory in Charles Mills and Serene Khader to address the use of human supremacist rhetoric in AI ethics and policy discussions, particularly in the work of Joanna Bryson. This analysis leads to identifying a set of risks posed by human supremacist policy in a posthuman context, specifically …

Keeping Anonymity At The Consumer Behavior On The Internet: Proof Of Sacrifice, Sachio Horie

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The evolution of the Internet and AI technology has made it possible for the government and the businesses to keep track of their personal lives. GAFA continues to collect information unintended by the individuals. It is a threat that our privacy is violated in this way. In order to solute such problems, it is important to consider a mechanism that enables us to be peaceful lives while protecting privacy in the Internet society.

This paper focuses on the consumption behavior on the Internet and addresses anonymity. We consider some network protocols that enable sustainable consensus by combining anonymity methods such …

The Right To Human Intervention: Law, Ethics And Artificial Intelligence, Maria Kanellopoulou - Botti, Fereniki Panagopoulou, Maria Nikita, Anastasia Michailaki

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The paper analyses the new right of human intervention in use of information technology, automatization processes and advanced algorithms in individual decision-making activities. Art. 22 of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides that the data subject has the right not to be subject to a fully automated decision on matters of legal importance to her interests, hence the data subject has a right to human intervention in this kind of decisions.

Legal And Technical Issues For Text And Data Mining In Greece, Maria Kanellopoulou - Botti, Marinos Papadopoulos, Christos Zampakolas, Paraskevi Ganatsiou

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

Web harvesting and archiving pertains to the processes of collecting from the web and archiving of works that reside on the Web. Web harvesting and archiving is one of the most attractive applications for libraries which plan ahead for their future operation. When works retrieved from the Web are turned into archived and documented material to be found in a library, the amount of works that can be found in said library can be far greater than the number of works harvested from the Web. The proposed participation in the 2019 CEPE Conference aims at presenting certain issues related to …

On The Responsibility For Uses Of Downstream Software, Marty J. Wolf, Keith W. Miller, Frances S. Grodzinsky

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

In this paper we explore an issue that is different from whether developers are responsible for the direct impact of the software they write. We examine, instead, in what ways, and to what degree, developers are responsible for the way their software is used “downstream.” We review some key scholarship analyzing responsibility in computing ethics, including some recent work by Floridi. We use an adaptation of a mechanism developed by Floridi to argue that there are features of software that can be used as guides to better distinguish situations where a software developer might share in responsibility for the software’s …

A Comparative Study On Machine Learning Algorithms For Network Defense, Abdinur Ali, Yen-Hung Hu, Chung-Chu (George) Hsieh, Mushtaq Khan

Virginia Journal of Science

Network security specialists use machine learning algorithms to detect computer network attacks and prevent unauthorized access to their networks. Traditionally, signature and anomaly detection techniques have been used for network defense. However, detection techniques must adapt to keep pace with continuously changing security attacks. Therefore, machine learning algorithms always learn from experience and are appropriate tools for this adaptation. In this paper, ten machine learning algorithms were trained with the KDD99 dataset with labels, then they were tested with different dataset without labels. The researchers investigate the speed and the efficiency of these machine learning algorithms in terms of several …

Section Abstracts: Computer Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Computer Science Section for the 94th Annual Virginia Academy of Science Meeting, May 18-20, 2016, at University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA.

Section Abstracts: Computer Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Computer Science Section for the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 21-23, 2015, James Madison University, Richmond, Virginia

Section Abstracts: Computer Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Computer Science Section for the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 13-15, 2014, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia

Section Abstracts: Computer Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Computer Science Section for the 91st Annual Virginia Journal of Science Meeting, May 2013

Section Abstracts: Computer Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Computer Science Section for the 90th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 23-25, 2012, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.

2011 Meeting Missing Abstracts

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts not included in Virginia Journal of Science Volume 62, No. 1 and 2, presented at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 25-27, 2011, at the University of Richmond, Richmond VA.