Computer Sciences Commons^™

The Application Of Data Mining Techniques To Interrogate Western Australian Water Catchment Data Sets, Ajdin Sehovic

Theses : Honours

Current environmental challenges such as increasing dry land salinity, waterlogging, eutrophication and high nutrient runoff in south western regions of Western Australia may have both cultural and environmental implications in the near future. Advances in computer science disciplines, more specifically, data mining techniques and geographic information services provide the means to be able to conduct longitudinal climate studies to predict changes in the Water catchment areas of Western Australia.

The research proposes to utilise existing spatial data mining techniques in conjunction of modern open-source geospatial tools to interpret trends in Western Australian water catchment land use. This will be achieved …

Data Remanence In New Zealand: 2011, Dax Roberts, H B. Wolfe

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

This paper presents findings from a study of computer data remanence in New Zealand and considers three research questions. Those questions are “What is the level of data remanence in New Zealand?”, “How does it compare with other countries?”, and “Are there industries in New Zealand that are more likely to have data remanence issues?” Computer data remanence is data that remains on a hard disk drive after that hard drive has been prepared for disposal. Typically data remanence research involves purchasing second hand hard drives without knowing the original source and then a variety of tools and techniques are …

Forensic Investigation Method And Tool Based On The User Behaviour Analysis, Namheun Son, Sangjin Lee

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

Today, people use a variety of digital devices, and events taking place in them are stored in specific forms mostly including data indicating when each event took place. So far, different methods have been constantly researched and developed to analyse various events, most of which analyse event data unnecessary for a forensic investigation. As a result, investigators should carry out additional work to select data needed for an actual investigation, making the process of analysis more difficult and longer. Besides, since the capacity of storage media gets higher and events become more diversified, such a phenomenon seems gradually worsened. Thus, …

Forensic Recovery And Analysis Of The Artefacts Of Crimeware Toolkits, Murray Brand

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

The total cost of cybercrime has been estimated to exceed US$388 billion annually. The availability of crimeware toolkits has lowered the bar for entry to the world of cybercrime. With very little technical knowledge required, cybercriminals can create, deploy and harvest financial data using banking trojans though a point and click graphical user interface that can cost less than US$1000. Technical support is also available for a fee, including technical infrastructure and servers to store harvested data. Fraudsters employing crimeware toolkits have been reported to have stolen US$3.2 million dollars in as little as six months. This paper presents preliminary …

A Strategy To Articulate The Facility Management Knowledge Categories Within The Built Environment, Robert Doleman, David J. Brooks

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Security is applied in the built environment and this requires a close relationship with facility managers. Therefore, this study puts forward an approach to establish the facility management knowledge categories within the built environment. In part, the significance of the study stemmed from research undertaken into the compliance to Australian fire door maintenance within nursing homes, which demonstrated 87 percent noncompliance. This high level of non-compliance appeared to identify a lack of facility management knowledge, among other issues (Doleman & Brooks, 2011). The article uses a method to test the supposition of facility management knowledge construct in a three-phase Grounded …

Is There A Core Set Of Skills For Visual Analysis Across Different Imaging Technologies?, Craig Hm Donald

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

This research examines the technological challenges posed by security imaging technologies for human visual analysis of images. Imaging technologies are increasing becoming part of an overall security strategy that incorporates a range of camera technologies, x-ray technologies, and other electromagnetic imaging such as millimetre wave and terahertz based systems. Still and video image types are increasingly becoming presented to viewers or screeners in forms that are only representative in nature and highly abstract, and the use of filters is increasing the complexity of interpretation. Despite a range of factors that are being looked at to enhance visual analysis, the contribution …

Forensic Analysis Of The Android File System Yaffs2, Darren Quick, Mohammed Alzaabi

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

The popularity of Android devices has resulted in a requirement for a process to extract and analyse data in a forensically sound manner. There is a wide range of devices which use the Android operating system, and hence a standard process for forensic extraction and analysis for all devices is not possible. Many devices use the Yet Another Flash File System (YAFFS), which introduces an additional layer of forensic requirements. Focussing on the internal storage of a Sony Ericsson Xperia x10i, a process to extract both logical and physical data from the internal NAND memory is possible after gaining super …

Implementation Of Iso 27001 In Saudi Arabia – Obstacles, Motivations, Outcomes, And Lessons Learned, Belal Abusaad, Fahad A. Saeed, Khaled Alghathbar, Bilal Khan

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Protecting information assets is very vital to the core survival of an organization. With the increase in cyberattacks and viruses worldwide, it has become essential for organizations to adopt innovative and rigorous procedures to keep these vital assets out of the reach of exploiters. Although complying with an international information security standard such as ISO 27001 has been on the rise worldwide, with over 7000 registered certificates, few companies in Saudi Arabia are ISO 27001 certified. In this paper, we explore the motives, obstacles, challenges, and outcomes for a Saudi organization during their implementation of ISO 27001, with the goal …

An Investigation Into Darknets And The Content Available Via Anonymous Peer-To-Peer File Sharing, Symon Aked

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Media sites, both technical and non-technical, make references to Darknets as havens for clandestine file sharing. They are often given an aura of mystique; where content of any type is just a mouse click away. However, can Darknets really be easily accessed, and do they provide access to material that would otherwise be difficult to obtain? This paper investigates which Darknets are easily discovered, the technical designs and methods used to hide content on the networks, the tools needed to join, and ultimately what type and quantities of files can be found on anonymous peer-to-peer file sharing networks. This information …

Evaluation Of Users’ Perspective On Voip’S Security Vulnerabilities, Alireza Heravi, Sameera Mubarak

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) represents a major newish trend in telecommunications and an alternative to traditional phone systems. VoIP uses IP networks and therefore inherits their vulnerabilities. Adding voice traffic to IP networks complicates security issues and introduces a range of vulnerabilities. A VoIP system may face either an exclusive attack or an attack to the underlying IP network. The significance of security and privacy in VoIP communications are well known, and many studies mostly from the technical perspective have been published. However to date, no known research has been conducted to evaluate users’ perspectives on these issues. In …

An Analysis And Comparison Of Predominant Word Sense Disambiguation Algorithms, David J. Craggs

Theses : Honours

This thesis investigates research performed in the area of natural language processing. It is the aim of this research to compare a selection of predominant word sense disambiguation algorithms, and also determine if they can be optimised by small changes to the parameters used by the algorithms. To perform this research, several word sense disambiguation algorithms will be implemented in Java, and run on a range of test corpora. The algorithms will be judged on metrics such as speed and accuracy, and any other results obtained; while an algorithm may be fast and accurate, there may be other factors making …

Intelligent Buildings: An Investigation Into Current And Emerging Security Vulnerabilities In Automated Building Systems Using An Applied Defeat Methodology, David J. Brooks

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Intelligent Buildings (IB) have become increasing popular during the past decade, driven through the need to reduce energy, have more reactive and safer buildings, and increase productivity. IB integrate many systems that were in the past isolated from each other, including fire and life safety, HVAC, lighting, security, etc. Facilities contain commercial-in-confidence material and other valued assets; however, IB are integrated through open and common data communication protocols and hardware, leaving facilities exposed to external and internal threats. The study presents an investigation into IB, based on a defeat evaluation methdology. IB vulnerabilities considered two areas, namely physical and software …

Intelligence Analysis And Threat Assessment: Towards A More Comprehensive Model Of Threat, Charles Vandepeer

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

A central focus of intelligence is the identification, analysis and assessment of threat. However, as acknowledged by intelligence practitioners, threat assessment lags behind the related field of risk assessment. This paper highlights how definitions of threat currently favoured by intelligence agencies are primarily based on threatening entities alone. Consequently, assessments of threat are almost singularly concerned with understanding an identified enemy’s intentions and capabilities. This ‘enemy-centric’ approach to intelligence analysis has recently come in for criticism. In particular, the shortcomings of the current approach become apparent where the focus of intelligence analysis is on threats from difficult-to-identify sub-state or non-state …

Information Leakage Through Second Hand Usb Flash Drives Within The United Kingdom, Widya Chaerani, Nathan Clarke, Christopher Bolan

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

The pervasiveness of flash based USB storage alongside increasing capacity and lowering price points has lead to a documented potential for information leakage. Such a potential is significantly raised when employees are able to use personal devices within a business environment with little regard to safe disposal practices. This study purchased a range of USB storage devices from UK based auction sites to determine what if any data was recoverable. The study found a total of 36136 recoverable files including a range of data detailing private information of previous owners, confidential corporate data, with twenty percent of the purchased USB …

Understanding The Management Of Information Security Controls In Practice, Daniel Bachlechner, Ronald Maier, Frank Innerhofer-Oberperfler, Lukas Demetz

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The ever greater reliance on complex information technology environments together with dynamically changing threat scenarios and increasing compliance requirements make an efficient and effective management of information security controls a key concern for most organizations. Good practice collections such as COBIT and ITIL as well as related standards such as the ones belonging to the ISO/IEC 27000 family provide useful starting points for control management. However, neither good practice collections and standards nor scholarly literature explain how the management of controls actually is performed in organizations or how the current state-of-practice can be improved. A series of interviews with information …

A Risk Index Model For Security Incident Prioritisation, Nor Badrul Anuar, Steven Furnell, Maria Papadaki, Nathan Clarke

Australian Information Security Management Conference

With thousands of incidents identified by security appliances every day, the process of distinguishing which incidents are important and which are trivial is complicated. This paper proposes an incident prioritisation model, the Risk Index Model (RIM), which is based on risk assessment and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The model uses indicators, such as criticality, maintainability, replaceability, and dependability as decision factors to calculate incidents’ risk index. The RIM was validated using the MIT DARPA LLDOS 1.0 dataset, and the results were compared against the combined priorities of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) v2 and Snort Priority. The experimental …

Seniors Language Paradigms: 21st Century Jargon And The Impact On Computer Security And Financial Transactions For Senior Citizens, David M. Cook, Patryk Szewczyk, Krishnun Sansurooah

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Senior Citizens represent a unique cohort of computer users insomuch as they have come to the field of computer usage later in life, as novices compared to other users. As a group they exhibit a resentment, mistrust and ignorance towards cyber related technology that is born out of their educational and social experiences prior to widespread information technology. The shift from analogue to digital proficiency has been understated for a generation of citizens who were educated before computer usage and internet ubiquity. This paper examines the language difficulties encountered by senior citizens in attempting to engage in banking and communications …

Human-Related Information Security Problems Faced By British Companies In Economically Rising Countries, Suchinthi Fernando, Tatsuo Asai

Australian Information Security Management Conference

In some cases, global businesses expansion leads to human-related problems due to cultural differences between investor countries and investee countries. This study focuses on such problems in the area of information security. Potential problems which British companies may face in rising economies are discussed here. Russia, India and China, where UK is one of the key investors, are examined. Potential problems were developed by using Hofstede’s framework of culture and the recently proposed theory of Level of Potential (LoP) was adopted to predict their magnitudes. Three online surveys were conducted in Russia, India and China to evaluate the severity of …

Out-Of-Band Wormhole Attack Detection In Manets, Sana Ul Haq, Faisal B. Hussain

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are prone to a variety of attacks due to their unique characteristics such as dynamic topology, open wireless medium, absence of infrastructure, multi hop nature and resource constraints. Any node in mobile ad hoc networks operates not only as end terminal but both as an intermediate router and client. In this way, multi-hop communication occurs in MANETs and thus it is a difficult task to establish a secure path between source and destination. The purpose of this work is overcome a special attack called wormhole attack launched by at least two colluding nodes within the …

A Preliminary Investigation Of Distributed And Cooperative User Authentication, C G. Hocking, S M. Furnell, N L. Clarke, P L. Reynolds

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Smartphones and other highly mobile yet sophisticated technologies are rapidly spreading through society and increasingly finding their way into pockets and handbags. As reliance upon these intensifies and familiarity grows, human nature dictates that more and more personal details and information is now to be found upon such devices. The need to secure and protect this valuable and desirable information is becoming ever more prevalent. Building upon previous work which proposed a novel approach to user authentication, an Authentication Aura, this paper investigates the latent security potential contained in surrounding devices in everyday life. An experiment has been undertaken to …

Are Existing Security Models Suitable For Teleworking?, Peter James

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The availability of high performance broadband services from the home will allow a growing number of organisations to offer teleworking as an employee work practice. Teleworking delivers cost savings, improved productivity and provides a recruitment policy to attract and retain personnel. Information security is one of the management considerations necessary before an effective organisational teleworking policy can be implemented. The teleworking computing environment presents a different set of security threats to those present in an office environment. Teleworking requires a security model to provide security policy enforcement to counter the set of security threats present in the teleworking computing environment. …

Security Aspects Of Sensor-Based Defence Systems, Michael N. Johnstone

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has IMAP and JMAP to perform planning prior to the deployment of forces, but there is a knowledge gap for on-ground forces during the execution of an operation. Multi-agent based sensor systems can provide on-ground forces with a significant amount of real-time information that can be used to modify planning due to changed conditions. The issue with such sensor systems is the degree to which they are vulnerable to attack by opposing forces. This paper explores the types of attack that could be successful and proposes defences that could be put in place to circumvent …

Privacy-Preserving Pki Design Based On Group Signature, Sokjoon Lee, Hyeok Chan Kwon, Dong-Il Seo

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Nowadays, Internet becomes a part of our life. We can make use of numerous services with personal computer, Lap-top, tablet, smart phone or smart TV. These devices with network make us enjoy ubiquitous computing life. Sometimes, on-line services request us authentication or identification for access control and authorization, and PKI technology is widely used because of its security. However the possibility of privacy invasion will increase, if We’re identified with same certificate in many services and these identification data are accumulated. For privacy-preserving authentication or anonymous authentication, there have been many researches such as Group signatures, anonymous credentials, etc. Among …

An Empirical Study Of Challenges In Managing The Security In Cloud Computing, Bupesh Mansukhani, Tanveer A. Zia

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Cloud computing is being heralded as an important trend in information technology throughout the world. Benefits for business and IT include reducing costs and increasing productivity. The downside is that many organizations are moving swiftly to the cloud without making sure that the information they put in the cloud is secure. The purpose of this paper is to learn from IT and IT security practitioners in the Indian Continent the current state of cloud computing security in their organizations and the most significant changes anticipated by respondents as computing resources migrate from on-premise to the cloud. As organizations grapple with …

Stakeholders In Security Policy Development, S B. Maynard, A B. Ruighaver, A Ahmad

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The Information Security Policy (ISP) of an organisation is expected to specify for employees their behaviour towards security, and the security ethos of the organisation. However, there are a wide range of opinions and expertise that should be considered by organisations when developing an ISP. This paper aims to identify the stakeholders that should be utilised in an ISP development process and how this may differ based on organisational size. The research identifies from literature nine stakeholder roles that are suggested to be required in an ISP development process. Contextual interviews are then used to validate these nine stakeholder roles …

Trusted Interoperability And The Patient Safety Issues Of Parasitic Health Care Software, Vincent B. Mccauley, Patricia A H Williams

Australian Information Security Management Conference

With the proliferation of software systems and products in the healthcare environment, it is increasingly common for such software products to be constructed in a modular design. However, for modular software to be securely interoperable with other software products requires agreed consistent and accountable interfaces. This agreement may take the form of bilateral vendor to vendor arrangements or via a trusted external third-party who coordinates agreed interaction methods, such as a jurisdiction. Standards are a particular form of mutually trusted third party. Unfortunately, this agreed method of interoperability is not always present in vendor software. Where one software product or …

Analysis Of Bgp Security Vulnerabilities, Muhammad Mujtaba, Priyadarsi Nanda

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a dynamic routing protocol in the Internet that allows Autonomous System (AS) to exchange information with other networks. The main goal of BGP is to provide a loop free path to the destination. Security has been a major issue for BGP and due to a large number of attacks on routers; it has resulted in router misconfiguration, power failure and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Detection and prevention of attacks in router at early stages of implementation has been a major research focus in the past few years. In this research paper, we compare three …

Experimental Study Of Dns Performance, Ananya Tripathi, Farhat Khan, Akhilesh Sisodia

Australian Information Security Management Conference

An abbreviation for Domain Name System, DNS is a system employed for naming computers and network services. This system is organized into a hierarchical scheme of domains. Naming service provided by DNS is used in TCP/IP networks, such as the Internet, to easily locate computers and services like mail exchanger servers, through user-friendly names. When a user enters a DNS name in an application, DNS services resolves this name to other information associated with the name, such as an IP address. This paper presents the evaluation of a DNS server performance in the experimental backgrounds to establish the fact that …

Attack Vectors Against Social Networking Systems: The Facebook Example, Matthew Warren, Shona Leitch, Ian Rosewall

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Social networking systems (SNS’s) such as Facebook are an ever evolving and developing means of social interaction, which is not only being used to disseminate information to family, friends and colleagues but as a way of meeting and interacting with "strangers" through the advent of a large number of social applications. The attractiveness of such software has meant a dramatic increase in the number of frequent users of SNS’s and the threats which were once common to the Internet have now been magnified, intensified and altered as the potential for criminal behaviour on SNS’s increases. Social networking sites including Facebook …

Help Or Hindrance: The Practicality Of Applying Security Standards In Healthcare, Patricia A H Williams

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The protection of patient information is now more important as a national e-health system approaches reality in Australia. The major challenge for health care providers is to understand the importance information security whilst also incorporating effective protection into established workflow and daily activity. Why then, when it is difficult for IT and security professionals to navigate through and apply the myriad of information security standards, do we expect small enterprises such as primary health care providers to also be able to do this. This is an onerous and impractical task without significant assistance. In the development of the new Computer …