Computer Sciences Commons^™

Denial Of Service Attacks: Difference In Rates, Duration, And Financial Damages And The Relationship Between Company Assets And Revenues, Abebe Gebreyes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractDenial-of-service/distributed denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on network connectivity are a threat to businesses that academics and professionals have attempted to address through cyber-security practices. However, currently there are no metrics to determine how attackers target certain businesses. The purpose of this quantitative study was to address this problem by, first, determining differences among business sectors in rates and duration of attacks and financial damages from attacks and, second, examining relationship among assets and/or revenues and duration of attacks and financial damages. Cohen and Felson's routine activity theory and Cornish and Clarke's rational choice theory served as frameworks as they address the …

Strategies Universities’ And Colleges’ It Leaders Use To Prevent Malware Attacks, Felix Agyei

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information systems at universities and colleges are not exempt from the threat of malware. Preventing and mitigating malware attacks is important to universities’ and colleges’ IT leaders to protect sensitive data confidentiality. Grounded in general system theory, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore strategies universities’ and colleges’ information technology (IT) leaders use to prevent and mitigate malware attacks. Participants consisted of 6 IT leaders from 3 universities and colleges in Southern California responsible for preventing and mitigating malware attacks. Data were collected through semistructured video teleconferences and 7 organizational documents. Three significant themes emerged through …

Strategies In Software Development Effort Estimation, Kevin R. Roark

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Software development effort estimating has notoriously been the Achilles heel of the software planning process. Accurately evaluating the effort required to accomplish a software change continues to be problematic, especially in Agile software development. IT organizations and project managers depend on estimation accuracy for planning software deliveries and cost determination. The purpose of this multiple case qualitative study was to identify strategies used by software development professionals in providing accurate effort estimations to stakeholders. The planning fallacy served as the study’s conceptual framework. The participants were 10 software development professionals who were actively engaged in delivering estimates of effort on …

The Impact Of Technological Advances On Older Workers, Toni Mcintosh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The general problem addressed in this study was the treatment of older workers in the information technology industry that contributes to age discrimination in the workplace. Age discrimination is against the law irrespective of whether it is aimed at older workers in the workforce or becoming job candidates at an advanced age. Although previous research has shown that age discrimination is prevalent in work environments, little has been suggested to eradicate the issue in the workplace. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the issue of age discrimination as it relates to workers over the age of …

Exploring Strategies For Capturing Requirements For Developing Ict4d Applications, Jonathan Makanjera

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some software engineers make decisions using applications designed from poorly captured user requirements. The quality of user requirements is crucial in the requirements engineering process, costing 50 times more to remedy the defects of using poorly captured user requirements. Grounded in the socialization, externalization, combination and internalization model of Nonaka theoretical framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies software engineers in Southern African software houses and IT departments use for capturing information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) requirements. The participants consisted of software 12 engineers who were working in Southern Africa, capturing ICT4D …

Ethics Of Collection And Use Of Consumer Information On The Internet, Thanh M. Pham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Consumer online activities can generate massive volumes of data that private companies may collect and use for business purposes. Consumer personal data need to be protected from unauthorized access and misuse. The specific problem is that consumers have little control regarding their data being collected and used by private companies. The purpose of this qualitative archival research was to explore business practices involving collection and use of consumer data without an individual’s consent. This study used the big data ethical conceptual framework to focus on various privacy issues, including those related to ownership, transparency, ethics, and consumer privacy laws. Archival …

Creating A Sample Of Off-Color Galaxies Using Big Data Tools, Christopher Becker

Honors Program Theses

This thesis begins an investigation into the presence of off-colored galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Through establishing the emergence and history of Astroinformatics, the thesis introduces the concepts surrounding both off-color galaxies and the Big Data tools helpful in analyzing the data to find them. A discussion of initial implementation methods and revised implementation due to difficulties with previous plans follows. Results are presented, with well in excess of 500,000 candidates for off-color galaxies present in the sample. Conclusions are then drawn regarding such a large sample and the implications this may have on the conventional understanding of …

Building Something With The Raspberry Pi, Richard Kordel

Harrisburg University Presidential Research Grants

In 2017 Ryan Korn and I submitted a grant proposal in the annual Harrisburg University President’s Grant process. Our proposal was to partner with a local high school to install a classroom of 20 Raspberry Pi’s, along with the requisite peripherals. In that classroom students would be challenged to design something that combined programming with physical computing. In our presentation to the school we suggested that this project would give students the opportunity to be “amazing.”

As part of the grant, the top three students would be given scholarships to HU and the top five finalists would all be permitted …

The Concept Of Representation Capability Of Databases And Its Application In Is Development, Lishuan Qin, Junkang Feng

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The representation capability of an information system in general and a database in particular seems an important and yet elusive concept, which is concerned with, in our view, how a database ever becomes capable of representing real-world objects accurately or otherwise. To explore how to approach and then define this concept, we explore what is meant and required by the statement that a database connection (i.e., a connection between database constructs such as entities in an Entity-relationship (ER) diagram and relations in a relational schema that are made available by a database) refers to, represents and accurately represents a …

Measuring Differential Forest Growth In The Sheepscot River Headwaters With Bitemporal Lidar, Soren Denlinger

Honors Theses

In recent years, lidar has proven itself as a forestry tool capable of accurate, large- scale inventories. Lidar has even shown utility in multitemporal analysis and growth assessment, given high-resolution or small-scale point clouds. However, lidar’s efficacy as a multitemporal tool with relatively low-resolution, large-scale datasets is comparatively unknown. In this study, I compared forest in Midcoast Maine bitemporally, with publicly available datasets from the years 2007 and 2012. Specifically, I compared differences in growth characteristics of riparian, wetland, and upland forests. Although the 2007 dataset (created for geomorphological research) and the 2012 dataset (statewide, general-purpose) possess varying point densities …

Exploring Strategies For Adapting Traditional Vehicle Design Frameworks To Autonomous Vehicle Design, Alex Munoz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fully autonomous vehicles are expected to revolutionize transportation, reduce the cost of ownership, contribute to a cleaner environment, and prevent the majority of traffic accidents and related fatalities. Even though promising approaches for achieving full autonomy exist, developers and manufacturers have to overcome a multitude of challenged before these systems could find widespread adoption. This multiple case study explored the strategies some IT hardware and software developers of self-driving cars use to adapt traditional vehicle design frameworks to address consumer and regulatory requirements in autonomous vehicle designs. The population consisted of autonomous driving technology software and hardware developers who are …

User Perception Of The U.S. Open Government Data Success Factors, Joy Alatta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This quantitative correlational study used the information systems success model to examine the relationship between the U.S. federal departments' open data users' perception of the system quality, perception of information quality, perception of service quality, and the intent to use open data from U.S. federal departments. A pre-existing information system success model survey instrument was used to collect data from 122 open data users. The result of the standard multiple linear regression was statistically significant to predict the intent to use the U.S. open government data F(3,99) = 6479.916, p <0.01 and accounted for 99% of the variance in the intent to use the U.S. open government data (R²= .995), adjusted R²= .995. The interdependent nature of information quality, system quality, and service quality may have contributed to the value of the R². Cronbach's alpha for this study is α=.99, and the value could be attributed to the fact that users of open data are not necessarily technical oriented, and were not able to distinguish the differences between the meanings of the variables. The result of this study confirmed that there is a relationship between the user's perception of the system quality, perception of information quality, perception of service quality, and the intent to use open data from U.S. federal departments. The findings from this study might contribute to positive social change by enabling the solving of problems in the healthcare, education, energy sector, research community, digitization, and preservation of e-government activities. Using study, the results of this study, IT software engineers in the US federal departments, may be able to improve the gathering of user specifications and requirements in information system design.

Comparing Tagging Suggestion Models On Discrete Corpora, Bojan Bozic, Andre Rios, Sarah Jane Delany

Articles

This paper aims to investigate the methods for the prediction of tags on a textual corpus that describes diverse data sets based on short messages; as an example, the authors demonstrate the usage of methods based on hotel staff inputs in a ticketing system as well as the publicly available StackOverflow corpus. The aim is to improve the tagging process and find the most suitable method for suggesting tags for a new text entry.

Information Systems Strategies For Small And Medium Size Enterprise Sustainability, Oluseyi Solomon Awotayo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium size business owners who do not use information systems effectively degrade business models, reduce customer value, and diminish the prospects for business stability, profitability, and growth. Grounded in the resource based view framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the information systems strategies small business owners used to sustain their business beyond 5 years. A purposeful sample of 5 owners of 5 different small and medium sized businesses in the state of Texas participated in the study. Data were collected via semistructured, face-to-face interviews, company documents, and member checking. Data were analyzed using …

Strategies Federal Government It Project Managers Use To Migrate It Systems To The Cloud, Latonya Denise Griffith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several processes, security, and confidentiality challenges cause the slow adoption of cloud computing within the federal government. Information Technology (IT) senior leadership in the federal government is concerned about the slow adoption of cloud computing because it impedes federal IT systems management. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore strategies federal government IT project managers used to select systems to migrate to the cloud. Participants consisted of 10 IT project managers from 3 federal organizations in Virginia and Washington, D.C., responsible for migrating federal government systems to the cloud. Data …

It Security Managers' Strategies For Mitigating Data Breaches In Texas School Districts, Mercy Ikhuoria Nwankwo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School districts are increasingly becoming a prime target for cybercriminals. As a result, information technology (IT) security managers in Texas school districts are concerned about hackers gaining access to network resources that could lead to data breaches on their network. Grounded in the technology threat avoidance theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies IT security managers use to mitigate data breaches in school district networks in Texas. The participants comprised 6 IT security managers in 3 Texas school districts whose roles involved managing and implementing data security strategies. Data collection involved conducting semistructured interviews …

Opening Books And The National Corpus Of Graduate Research, William A. Ingram, Edward A. Fox, Jian Wu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Virginia Tech University Libraries, in collaboration with Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science and Old Dominion University Department of Computer Science, request $505,214 in grant funding for a 3-year project, the goal of which is to bring computational access to book-length documents, demonstrating that with Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). The project is motivated by the following library and community needs. (1) Despite huge volumes of book-length documents in digital libraries, there is a lack of models offering effective and efficient computational access to these long documents. (2) Nationwide open access services for ETDs generally function at the metadata level. …

Strategies For It Product Managers To Manage Microservice Systems In Enterprises, Walter Zrzavy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many information technology (IT) product managers have experienced significant challenges in adopting microservice architecture (MSA) systems successfully in their organizations. Inefficiencies resulting from MSA system adoption are of concern to IT product managers as these inefficiencies increase the cost of maintenance and increase the time to deliver software updates to the business. Grounded in the technology-organization-environment theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by IT product managers for the domain-driven design and development and operations practices to reduce the inefficiencies during the MSA system adoption. The participants were 18 IT product managers …

Exploring Trust In Cloud Computing For A Governmental Organization In Ethiopia: A Case Study, Estifanos Abebe Seyoum

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizations face a rapidly changing environment that forces them to seek high computing power. The problem was how to overcome factors that cause managers at governmental organizations in Ethiopia to be reluctant to trust cloud computing, while some managers overcame this lack of trust. The purpose of this qualitative, single case study was to provide a deeper understanding of how a governmental organization in Ethiopia overcame the factors that adversely influenced managers of other organizations to the extent that they distrusted and decided against adopting cloud computing. The population for this study was comprised of 12 managers from a governmental …

The Challenges Of Adopting Cloud Computing In Nigerian Government Organizations, Ayodele Adegbenga Bakare

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several technical challenges prevent the adoption of cloud computing by government organizations in Nigeria. Information technology (IT) leaders in the Nigerian government are concerned about this problem because the lack of cloud computing adoption may prevent the Nigerian government from taking advantage of cloud-based information systems to improve its service delivery to citizens and businesses. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine if IT administrators’ perception of data security and perception of fault tolerance can predict their intentions to adopt cloud computing. Data were collected from 79 IT administrators in government …

Strategies To Implement A Material Management Information System For Medical Device Recalls, Paul Leo Lafrance

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Health care business executives lack strategies to implement material management information systems (MMIS) related to medical device recalls. Lacking sufficient MMIS, health care business executives face insufficient product tracking related to medical devices affecting operational efficiency. Grounded in the conceptual frameworks of the technology acceptance model and diffusion of innovation, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore health care business executives’ strategies for implementing an MMIS related to medical device recalls. The participants were 6 health care executives who implemented an MMIS in an urban hospital in the northeast region of the United States. Data were …

Design Strategies For User Interfaces In Virtual Reality Environments, Jennifer Maple

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The virtual reality market is rapidly increasing and is projected to drastically expand soon as more head-mounted displays are released to customers. These changes have made it more critical that organizations have adequate user interface strategies. Yet there is still a lack of research on how to design quality virtual reality user interfaces that result in positive user experiences. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to identify design strategies software developers use to create user interfaces for virtual reality environments. Constructionist and constructivist theories served as the conceptual frameworks. The participants consisted of 6 developers from 3 different …

Strategies To Lower Security Risks Involving Medical Devices In Patient Care, Brittany Latonia Thigpen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Insufficient security and design strategies used during the analysis phase of medical device software development can lead to possible cybersecurity vulnerabilities with patient data. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to explore strategies software developers use to implement security measures to protect patient information collected, sent, and stored by medical devices. The population for this study included software developers whose primary focus was on the security aspect of medical software in three software companies in the Baton Rouge, LA, area. The data collection process included semistructured interviews with 10 software developers and reviewing 16 organizational documents. …

A Content Analysis-Based Approach To Explore Simulation Verification And Identify Its Current Challenges, Christopher J. Lynch, Saikou Y. Diallo, Hamdi Kavak, Jose J. Padilla

VMASC Publications

Verification is a crucial process to facilitate the identification and removal of errors within simulations. This study explores semantic changes to the concept of simulation verification over the past six decades using a data-supported, automated content analysis approach. We collect and utilize a corpus of 4,047 peer-reviewed Modeling and Simulation (M&S) publications dealing with a wide range of studies of simulation verification from 1963 to 2015. We group the selected papers by decade of publication to provide insights and explore the corpus from four perspectives: (i) the positioning of prominent concepts across the corpus as a whole; (ii) a comparison …

Technical Strategies Database Managers Use To Protect Systems From Security Breaches, Leonard Ogbonna

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Healthcare organizations generate massive amounts of data through their databases that may be vulnerable to data breaches due to extensive user privileges, unpatched databases, standardized query language injections, weak passwords/usernames, and system weaknesses. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore technical strategies database managers in Southeast/North Texas used to protect database systems from data breaches. The target population consisted of database managers from 2 healthcare organizations in this region. The integrated system theory of information security management was the conceptual framework. The data collection process included semistructured interviews with 9 database managers, including a review of …

Strategies For Information Technology Employee Retention, Stephen Horton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information technology (IT) employee retention is essential to IT departments tasked with supporting the goals and objectives of the organization. IT employees manage, support, and direct IT to drive business, pursue innovation, and create a competitive edge. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to identify strategies that IT managers use to retain IT employees in order to support the goals and objectives of the IT organization. The population for this study consisted of 5 IT managers in the transportation industry. The IT managers selected for this study had subordinates and delegation duties and worked for employers …

Strategies To Mitigate The Effects Of Identity Theft In The Hospitality Industry, Patricia Lee Jirsa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders in the U.S. hospitality industry experience significant losses in profitability, increased mitigation cost, and reduced revenues because of business and consumer identity theft. Grounded in the fraud triangle theory and the fraud diamond theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies leaders in the hospitality industry use to mitigate identity theft. A purposeful sample of 5 leaders of 5 different hospitality businesses in Montana participated in the study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, member checking, and a review of company documents. During data analysis using Yin’s 5-step process, 3 key themes emerged: a new …

Temporal Data Extraction And Query System For Epilepsy Signal Analysis, Yan Huang

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

The 2016 Epilepsy Innovation Institute (Ei2) community survey reported that unpredictability is the most challenging aspect of seizure management. Effective and precise detection, prediction, and localization of epileptic seizures is a fundamental computational challenge. Utilizing epilepsy data from multiple epilepsy monitoring units can enhance the quantity and diversity of datasets, which can lead to more robust epilepsy data analysis tools. The contributions of this dissertation are two-fold. One is the implementation of a temporal query for epilepsy data; the other is the machine learning approach for seizure detection, seizure prediction, and seizure localization. The three key components of our temporal …

Deepmag+ : Sniffing Mobile Apps In Magnetic Field Through Deep Learning, Rui Ning, Cong Wang, Chunsheng Xin, Jiang Li, Hongyi Wu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper reports a new side-channel attack to smartphones using the unrestricted magnetic sensor data. We demonstrate that attackers can effectively infer the Apps being used on a smartphone with an accuracy of over 80%, through training a deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). Various signal processing strategies have been studied for feature extractions, including a tempogram based scheme. Moreover, by further exploiting the unrestricted motion sensor to cluster magnetometer data, the sniffing accuracy can increase to as high as 98%. To mitigate such attacks, we propose a noise injection scheme that can effectively reduce the App sniffing accuracy to only …

Exploring Strategies For Enforcing Cybersecurity Policies, Bayo Olushola Omoyiola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some cybersecurity leaders have not enforced cybersecurity policies in their organizations. The lack of employee cybersecurity policy compliance is a significant threat in organizations because it leads to security risks and breaches. Grounded in the theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the strategies cybersecurity leaders utilize to enforce cybersecurity policies. The participants were cybersecurity leaders from 3 large organizations in southwest and northcentral Nigeria responsible for enforcing cybersecurity policies. The data collection included semi-structured interviews of participating cybersecurity leaders (n = 12) and analysis of cybersecurity policy documents (n = 20). Thematic …