Computer Sciences Commons^™

Towards A Usable-Security Engineering Framework For Enhancing Software Development, Yasser M. Hausawi

Theses and Dissertations

Computer systems are fundamental tools for almost every single process in life. People from all over the globe use computer systems for an unlimited number of purposes. Consequently, a close relationship between people and computer systems exists. Current research investigates how people and such systems to interact with each other in a proper manner. The research work on this matter is being conducted in different directions; one direction is investigating people’s behaviors toward computer systems, such as the cognitive and mental state of humans when interacting with computer systems; another direction studies the computer system’s behaviors toward people, such as …

Using A Nearest Neighbor Algorithm And Logistic Regression To Assess Hazard Identification In The U.S. Army Risk Management Process, Heath L. Mccormick

Theses and Dissertations

This research considers whether a person's demographic and experiential attributes play a significant role in how they perceive the presence or absence of hazards in a given situation. The goal of the research is to show that participants with enlisted military experience, prior to being commissioned as a junior officer, would be more successful at identifying the hazards presented in military scenarios than those who had only been trained on the process via their pre-commissioning and initial entry courses of instruction. The research study involves the use of two surveys with realistic military scenarios including both Foot March and Maintenance …

Framework For Open-Source Software Update Mechanism: Resistance To Stacking The Deck Attack, Khalid Alhamed

Theses and Dissertations

Currently many users trust open-source binaries downloaded from repositories such as sourceforge.net,github.com, and gitorious.org. As with any system connected to the Internet, such repositories can be subject to attacks tampering with the distributed binaries (inserting malicious code, changing behavior). Developers can change their vision and abandon features that are essential for certain users. Moreover, well-funded attackers can effectively take control of a project by orchestrating the transfer of the leadership of the developers to people whom they control. We propose a framework to reduce the level of trust that users are required to have into updates for open-source software that …

Gaseous Particulate Interaction In A 3-Phase Granular Simulation, Kevin W. Munns

Theses and Dissertations

As computer generated special effects play an increasingly integral role in the development of films and other media, simulating granular material continues to be a challenging and resource intensive process. Solutions tend to be pieced together in order to address the complex and different behaviors of granular flow. As such, these solutions tend to be brittle, overly specific, and unnatural. With the introduction of a holistic 3-phase granular simulation, we can now create a reliable and adaptable granular simulation.Our solution improves upon this hybrid solution by addressing the issue of particle flow and correcting interpenetration amongst particles while maintaining the …

Feature Identification And Reduction For Improved Generalization Accuracy In Secondary-Structure Prediction Using Temporal Context Inputs In Machine-Learning Models, Matthew Benjamin Seeley

Theses and Dissertations

A protein's properties are influenced by both its amino-acid sequence and its three-dimensional conformation. Ascertaining a protein's sequence is relatively easy using modern techniques, but determining its conformation requires much more expensive and time-consuming techniques. Consequently, it would be useful to identify a method that can accurately predict a protein's secondary-structure conformation using only the protein's sequence data. This problem is not trivial, however, because identical amino-acid subsequences in different contexts sometimes have disparate secondary structures, while highly dissimilar amino-acid subsequences sometimes have identical secondary structures. We propose (1) to develop a set of metrics that facilitates better comparisons between …

An Extensible Technology Framework For Cyber Security Education, Frank Jordan Sheen

Theses and Dissertations

Cyber security education has evolved over the last decade to include new methods of teaching and technology to prepare students. Instructors in this field of study often deal with a subject matter that has rigid principles, but changing ways of applying those principles. This makes maintaining courses difficult. This case study explored the kind of teaching methods, technology, and means used to explain these concepts. This study shows that generally, cyber security courses require more time to keep up to date. It also evaluates one effort, the NxSecLab, on how it attempted to relieve the administrative issues in teaching these …

Authentication Melee: A Usability Analysis Of Seven Web Authentication Systems, Scott Ruoti

Theses and Dissertations

Passwords continue to dominate the authentication landscape in spite of numerous proposals to replace them. Even though usability is a key factor in replacing passwords, very few alternatives have been subjected to formal usability studies and even fewer have been analyzed using a standard metric. We report the results of four within-subjects usability studies for seven web authentication systems. These systems span federated, smartphone, paper tokens, and email-based approaches. Our results indicate that participants prefer single sign-on systems. We utilize the Systems Usability Scale (SUS) as a standard metric for empirical analysis and find that it produces reliable, replicable results. …

Windows Authentication, Rfid Security, Shkëlqim Rexhepi

Theses and Dissertations

Identifikimi Radio Frekuencor (Radio Frequency Identification - RFID) është teknologji identifikimi automatik që duke përdorur radio valët transmeton informata shumë fleksibile në lidhje me një objekt të caktuar, person apo gjësend. Me ndihmën e sistemeve RFID dhe sidomos me zhvillimin e atyre NFC (NearFieldCommunication) kjo lloj teknologjie ka tërhek interes dhe ka gjetur zbatim shumë të madh në mbarë botën në shumë fusha të ndryshme. Në këtë punim është bërë një studim dhe shtjellim i temave të ndryshme lidhur me teknologjinë RFID duke filluar prej koncepteve bazë si verifikimi, identifikimi dhe performaca e ketyre llojeve të teknologjisë, është bërë shtjellim …

Developing A Fuzzy Expert System To Examine Hazard Analysis In The United States Army, Charles J. Karels

Theses and Dissertations

The research conducted in this thesis is an attempt to determine if there are any biographical similarities between second lieutenants in the US Army who view risk in a similar manner and if so, which are the most significant. A study was conducted using in-group surveys of 72 second lieutenants receiving training in Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (IBOLC). The participants were provided with two written surveys each presenting a scenario based on military activities. They were asked to evaluate the scenarios and fill out Risk Management (RM) worksheets based on the US Army's doctrinal process for conducing RM. The …

Using Instance-Level Meta-Information To Facilitate A More Principled Approach To Machine Learning, Michael Reed Smith

Theses and Dissertations

As the capability for capturing and storing data increases and becomes more ubiquitous, an increasing number of organizations are looking to use machine learning techniques as a means of understanding and leveraging their data. However, the success of applying machine learning techniques depends on which learning algorithm is selected, the hyperparameters that are provided to the selected learning algorithm, and the data that is supplied to the learning algorithm. Even among machine learning experts, selecting an appropriate learning algorithm, setting its associated hyperparameters, and preprocessing the data can be a challenging task and is generally left to the expertise of …

Color Relationship Transfer For Digital Painting, Gregory Eric Philbrick

Theses and Dissertations

A digital painter uses reference photography to add realism to a scene. This involves making n colors in a painting relate to each other more like n corresponding colors in a photograph, in terms of value and temperature. Doing this manually requires either experience or tedious experimentation. Color relationship transfer performs the task automatically, recoloring n regions of a painting so they relate in value and temperature more like n corresponding regions of a photograph. Relationship transfer also has applications in computational photography. In fact, it introduces a new paradigm for image editing in general, based on treating an image's …

The Unified Behavior Framework For The Simulation Of Autonomous Agents, Daniel M. Roberson

Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1980s, researchers have designed a variety of robot control architectures intending to imbue robots with some degree of autonomy. A recently developed architecture, the UBF, implements a variation of the three-layer architecture with a reactive controller to rapidly make behavior decisions. Additionally, the UBF utilizes software design patterns that promote the reuse of code and free designers to dynamically switch between behavior paradigms. This paper explores the application of the UBF to the simulation domain. By employing software engineering principles to implement the UBF architecture within an open-source simulation framework, we have extended the versatility of both. The …

Constructing Cost-Effective And Targetable Ics Honeypots Suited For Production Networks, Michael M. Winn

Theses and Dissertations

Honeypots are a technique that can mitigate the risk of cyber threats. Effective honeypots are authentic and targetable, and their design and implementation must accommodate risk tolerance and financial constraints. The proprietary, and often expensive, hardware and software used by Industrial Control System (ICS) devices creates the challenging problem of building a flexible, economical, and scalable honeypot. This research extends Honeyd into Honeyd+, making it possible to use the proxy feature to create multiple high interaction honeypots with a single Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Honeyd+ is tested with a network of 75 decoy PLCs, and the interactions with the decoys …

Tactical Ai In Real Time Strategy Games, Donald A. Gruber

Theses and Dissertations

The real time strategy (RTS) tactical decision making problem is a difficult problem. It is generally more complex due to its high degree of time sensitivity. This research effort presents a novel approach to this problem within an educational, teaching objective. Particular decision focus is target selection for a artificial intelligence (AI) RTS game model. The use of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) in this tactical decision making problem allows an AI agent to make fast, effective solutions that do not require modification to the current environment. This approach allows for the creation of a generic solution building tool that is …

Context-Sensitive Entity Resolution, William C. Decker

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes an entity resolution approach that is context-sensitive, meaning it relies less on high-risk information, such as social security numbers, to discern whether records from a data set belong to the same real-world individual or to different real-world individuals. The research follows an iterative process of assessing the quality, or fitness of use, of identity data housed in an educational institution and then processing the data with the proposed context-sensitive entity resolution (ER) rule set. The efficacy of this process is demonstrated through calculation of the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate, a prevalent longitudinal data analysis challenge for …

Unified Behavior Framework For Discrete Event Simulation Systems, Alexander J. Kamrud

Theses and Dissertations

Intelligent agents provide simulations a means to add lifelike behavior in place of manned entities. Generally when developed, a single intelligent agent model is chosen, such as rule based, behavior trees, etc. This choice introduces restrictions into what behaviors agents can manifest, and can require significant testing in edge cases. This thesis presents the use of the UBF in the AFSIM environment. The UBF provides the flexibility to implement any and all intelligent agent models, allowing the developer to choose the model he/she feels best fits the experiment at hand. Furthermore, the UBF demonstrates several key software engineering principles through …

Evaluating Machine Learning Classifiers For Hybrid Network Intrusion Detection Systems, Michael D. Rich

Theses and Dissertations

Existing classifier evaluation methods do not fully capture the intended use of classifiers in hybrid intrusion detection systems (IDS), systems that employ machine learning alongside a signature-based IDS. This research challenges traditional classifier evaluation methods in favor of a value-focused evaluation method that incorporates evaluator-specific weights for classifier and prediction threshold selection. By allowing the evaluator to weight known and unknown threat detection by alert classification, classifier selection is optimized to evaluator values for this application. The proposed evaluation methods are applied to a Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX) dataset. Network data is processed to produce connection-level features, then labeled using …

Git As An Encrypted Distributed Version Control System, Russell G. Shirey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis develops and presents a secure Git implementation, Git Virtual Vault (GV2), for users of Git to work on sensitive projects with repositories located in unsecure distributed environments, such as in cloud computing. This scenario is common within the Department of Defense, as much work is of a sensitive nature. In order to provide security to Git, additional functionality is added for confidentiality and integrity protection. This thesis examines existing Git encryption implementations and baselines their performance compared to unencrypted Git. Real-world Git repositories are examined to characterize typical Git usage and determine if the existing Git encryption implementations …

Focal Structures Analysis In Complex And Social Networks, Fatih Sen

Theses and Dissertations

Identifying influential individuals is a well-known approach in extracting actionable knowledge in a network. Previous researches suggest measures to identify influential individuals, e.g., they focus on the question ``which individuals are best connected to others or have the most influence?". Such individuals, however, might not represent the context (relationships, interactions, etc.) entirely in a social network. For example, it is nearly an impossible task for a single individual to organize a mass protest of the scale of the 2011 Arab Spring and the 2012 Occupy Wall Street. Similarly, other events such as mobilizing the 2013 Taksim square-Gezi Park protesters, coordinating …

Modeling And Simulation Of Evacuation Plan For Hancock Stadium, Nirmal Neranjan Weerasekara

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to use Modeling and Simulation of Evacuation Plan (MSEP) to support management to execute proper evacuation plan in case of emergency at Hancock Stadium in Illinois State University. Analyses of the research literature and evacuation scenarios are used to build a simulation system that will connect a description of emergency and evacuation situation with its context. It shows how an evacuation plan actually functions. The results of the study will help safety managers to understand the current situations of evacuation according to the specific simulation scenarios. The evacuation simulation is categorized according to the …

Unknown Threat Detection With Honeypot Ensemble Analsyis Using Big Datasecurity Architecture, Michael Eugene Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

The amount of data that is being generated continues to rapidly grow in size and complexity. Frameworks such as Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark are evolving at a rapid rate as organizations are building data driven applications to gain competitive advantages. Data analytics frameworks decomposes our problems to build applications that are more than just inference and can help make predictions as well as prescriptions to problems in real time instead of batch processes.

Information Security is becoming more important to organizations as the Internet and cloud technologies become more integrated with their internal processes. The number of attacks and …

Using Software Defined Networking To Solve Missed Firewall Architecture In Legacy Networks, Jared Dean Vogel

Theses and Dissertations

This study is concerned with migrating traditional networks and their inherent firewall architecture to Software Defined Networking (SDN) architecture to provide an initial attempt at preventing application downtime due to hidden firewall domain rules. In legacy organization environments the networking engineers, firewall teams, and application analysts are often silo groups, but Software Defined Networking (SDN) can blur the lines between these group silos.

This thesis first outlines the interworking of SDN, traditional firewall architecture and how it interacts with SDN, an experiment of implementation, and the resulting conclusions.

Testing with SDN shows we are approaching new environments where the edges …

Sensitivity Analysis For The Winning Algorithm In Knowledge Discovery And Data Mining ( Kdd ) Cup Competition 2014, Fakhri Ghassan Abbas

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis applies multi-way sensitivity analysis for the winning algorithm in the Knowledge Discovery in Data Mining (KDD) cup competition 2014 -`Predicting Excitement at Donors.org'. Because of the highly advanced nature of this competition, analyzing the winning solution under a variety of different conditions provides insight about each of the models the winning team has used in the competition. The study follows Cross Industry Standard Process (CRISP) for data mining to study the steps taken to prepare, model and evaluate the model. The thesis focuses on a gradient boosting model. After careful examination of the models created by the researchers …

Distributed Kernelized Locality-Sensitive Hashing For Faster Image Based Navigation, Scott A. Hutchison

Theses and Dissertations

Content based image retrieval (CBIR) remains one of the most heavily researched areas in computer vision. Different image retrieval techniques and algorithms have been implemented and used in localization research, object recognition applications, and commercially by companies such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo!. Current methods for image retrieval become problematic when implemented on image datasets that can easily reach billions of images. In order to process extremely large datasets, the computation must be distributed across a cluster of machines using software such as Apache Hadoop. There are many different algorithms for conducting content based image retrieval, but this research focuses …

Judicious Use Of Communication For Inherently Parallel Optimization, Andrew W. Mcnabb

Theses and Dissertations

Function optimization---finding the minimum or maximum of a given function---is an extremely challenging problem with applications in physics, economics, machine learning, engineering, and many other fields. While optimization is an active area of research, only a portion of this work acknowledges parallel computation, which is now widely available. Today, anyone with a modest budget can buy a cluster with hundreds of cores, pay for access to a supercomputer with thousands of processors, or at least purchase a laptop with 8 cores. Thus, an algorithm that works well in serial but cannot be parallelized is needlessly inefficient in real-life computationalenvironments.We address …

Kuptimi Dhe Rëndësia E Studimit, Te Dizajnimi Ux, Shkëlqim Mula

Theses and Dissertations

Ky dokumente paraqet rëndësinë e dizajnimit Përdoruesi në Qendër ( nga Anglishtja “User Experience” që njihet me shkurtesën UX ) në ndryshimin e industrisë, duke theksuar fuqinë e këtij dizajnimi për të zhvilluar produkte, sisteme, softvere, aplikacione të reja me fokus përdoruesin, për të arritur një produkt final që i përmbushë të gjitha çka kërkohet dhe më shumë.

Bazuar në evoluimin e teknologjisë dhe rritjes së konkurrencës ndërmjet zhvilluesve për të ofruar një produkt, aplikacion revulocionar, dizajnimi UX tanimë veçse është e qartë, që përdormi i këtij dizajni është bërë një mënyrë e zakonshme për krijimin e produkteve, aplikacioneve të …

Spiking Neural Networks: Neuron Models, Plasticity, And Graph Applications, Shaun Donachy

Theses and Dissertations

Networks of spiking neurons can be used not only for brain modeling but also to solve graph problems. With the use of a computationally efficient Izhikevich neuron model combined with plasticity rules, the networks possess self-organizing characteristics. Two different time-based synaptic plasticity rules are used to adjust weights among nodes in a graph resulting in solutions to graph prob- lems such as finding the shortest path and clustering.

Frontier: A Framework For Extracting And Organizing Biographical Facts In Historical Documents, Joseph Park

Theses and Dissertations

The tasks of entity recognition through ontological commitment, fact extraction and organization with respect to a target schema, and entity deduplication have all been examined in recent years, and systems exist that can perform each individual task. A framework combining all these tasks, however, is still needed to accomplish the goal of automatically extracting and organizing biographical facts about persons found in historical documents into disambiguated entity records. We introduce FROntIER (Fact Recognizer for Ontologies with Inference and Entity Resolution) as the framework to recognize and extract facts using an ontology and organize facts of interest through inferring implicit facts …

Brand Positioning Map And Analysis Using Web Scraping And Advertisement Analysis, Surya Bhatt

Theses and Dissertations

There’s a significant increase in online consumer forums. When customers set out to buy a product they use these forums to form an opinion. Our research focuses on comparing Brand positioning maps based on consumer reviews. We also analyse the impact of advertisements and expert reviews. Our goal is to show that combining consumer reviews with ads and electronic media will help us analyze the effectiveness of advertising on brand positioning maps. This approach shall also help us in making association graphs for a brand using words of perception/opinion associated with that brand/product. Which may in turn assist companies in …

Propagated Image Segmentation Using Edge-Weighted Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation Based Methods, Youjie Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Propagated image segmentation is the problem of utilizing the existing segmentation of an image for obtaining a new segmentation of, either a neighboring image in a sequence, or the same image but in different scales. We name these two cases as the inter-image propagation and the intra-image propagation respectively. The inter-image propagation is particularly important to material science, where efficient and accurate segmentation of a sequence of 2D serial-sectioned images of 3D material samples is an essential step to understand the underlying micro-structure and related physical properties. For natural images with objects in different scales, the intra-image propagation, where segmentations …