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Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

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Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Application Monitoring And Checkpointing In Hpc: Looking Towards Exascale Systems, William M. Jones, John T. Daly, Nathan A. Debardeleben

Computing Sciences

As computational cluster computers rapidly grow in both size and complexity, system reliability and, in particular, application resilience have become increasingly important factors to consider in maintaining efficiency and providing improved compute performance over predecessor systems. One commonly used mechanism for providing application fault tolerance in parallel systems is the use of checkpointing.

We demonstrate the impact of sub-optimal checkpoint intervals on application efficiency via simulation with real workload data. We find that application efficiency is relatively insensitive to error in estimation of an application's mean time to interrupt (AMTTI), a parameter central to calculating the optimal checkpoint interval. This …

Algorithms For Visual Maritime Surveillance With Rapidly Moving Camera, Sergiy Fefilatyev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Visual surveillance in the maritime domain has been explored for more than a decade. Although it has produced a number of working systems and resulted in a mature technology, surveillance has been restricted to the port facilities or areas close to the coastline assuming a fixed-camera scenario. This dissertation presents several contributions in the domain of maritime surveillance. First, a novel algorithm for open-sea visual maritime surveillance is introduced. We explore a challenging situation with a camera mounted on a buoy or other floating platform. The developed algorithm detects, localizes, and tracks ships in the field of view of the …

Electro-Luminescent Display Device, Michael E. Miller, Joseph R. Bietry, Ronald S. Cok

AFIT Patents

An electro-luminescent display includes a first array of light-emitting elements. Each of these light-emitting elements has an optical element. A second array of light-emitting elements also includes a second optical element different from the first. One or more row lines are electrically connected to either light-emitting elements in the first array of light-emitting elements or light-emitting elements in the second array of light-emitting elements. One or more column lines provide a data signal to the first and second array of light-emitting elements. A driver circuit delivers common information to the light-emitting elements in both the first and second arrays in …

Detecting Surface Oil Using Unsupervised Learning Techniques On Modis Satellite Data, Joshua Kidd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The release of crude oil or other petroleum based products into marine habitats can have a devastating impact on the environment as well as the local economies that rely on these waters for commercial fishing and tourism. The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe that started on April 20th 2010 leaked an estimated 4.4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a 3 month period threatening thousands of species and crippling the gulf coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used several satellite remote sensing technologies to manually track and predict the extent and location of oil on …

Security Standards And Best Practice Considerations For Quantum Key Distribution (Qkd), Carole A. Harper

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems combine cryptographic primitives with quantum information theory to produce a theoretic unconditionally secure cryptographic key. However, real-world implementations of QKD systems are far from ideal and differ significantly from the theoretic model. Because of this, real-world QKD systems require additional practical considerations when implemented to achieve secure operations. In this thesis, a content analysis of the published literature is conducted to determine if established security and cryptographic standards and best practices are addressed in real world, practical QKD implementations. The research reveals that most published, real world QKD implementations do not take advantage of established …

Analysis Of The Impact Of Data Normalization On Cyber Event Correlation Query Performance, Smile T. Ludovice

Theses and Dissertations

A critical capability required in the operation of cyberspace is the ability to maintain situational awareness of the status of the infrastructure elements that constitute cyberspace. Event logs from cyber devices can yield significant information, and when properly utilized they can provide timely situational awareness about the state of the cyber infrastructure. In addition, proper Information Assurance requires the validation and verification of the integrity of results generated by a commercial log analysis tool. Event log analysis can be performed using relational databases. To enhance database query performance, previous literatures affirm denormalization of databases. Yet database normalization can also increase …

Magnesium Object Manager Sandbox, A More Effective Sandbox Method For Windows 7, Martin A. Gilligan

Theses and Dissertations

A major issue in computer security is limiting the affects a program can have on a computer. One way is to place the program into a sandbox, a limited environment. Many attempts have been made to create a sandbox that maintains the usability of a program and effectively limits the effects of the program. Sandboxes that limit the resources programs can access, have succeeded. To test the effectiveness of a sandbox that limits the resources a program can access on Windows 7, the Magnesium Object Manager Sandbox (MOMS) is created. MOMS uses a kernel mode Windows component to monitor and …

Scalable Wavelet-Based Active Network Stepping Stone Detection, Joseph I. Gilbert

Theses and Dissertations

Network intrusions leverage vulnerable hosts as stepping stones to penetrate deeper into a network and mask malicious actions from detection. This research focuses on a novel active watermark technique using Discrete Wavelet Transformations to mark and detect interactive network sessions. This technique is scalable, nearly invisible and resilient to multi-flow attacks. The watermark is simulated using extracted timestamps from the CAIDA 2009 dataset and replicated in a live environment. The simulation results demonstrate that the technique accurately detects the presence of a watermark at a 5% False Positive and False Negative rate for both the extracted timestamps as well as …

An Analysis Of Error Reconciliation Protocols For Use In Quantum Key Distribution, James S. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a method for transmitting a cryptographic key between a sender and receiver in a theoretically unconditionally secure way. Unfortunately, the present state of technology prohibits the flawless quantum transmission required to make QKD a reality. For this reason, error reconciliation protocols have been developed which preserve security while allowing a sender and receiver to reconcile the errors in their respective keys. The most famous of these protocols is Brassard and Salvail's Cascade, which is effective, but suffers from a high communication complexity and therefore results in low throughput. Another popular option is Buttler's Winnow protocol, …

Evaluation Of Malware Target Recognition Deployed In A Cloud-Based Fileserver Environment, G. Parks Masters

Theses and Dissertations

Cloud computing, or the migration of computing resources from the end user to remotely managed locations where they can be purchased on-demand, presents several new and unique security challenges. One of these challenges is how to efficiently detect malware amongst files that are possibly spread across multiple locations in the Internet over congested network connections. This research studies how such an environment will impact the performance of malware detection. A simplified cloud environment is created in which network conditions are fully controlled. This environment includes a fileserver, a detection server, the detection mechanism, and clean and malicious file sample sets. …

Evaluation Of Traditional Security Solutions In The Scada Environment, Robert D. Larkin

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems control and monitor the electric power grid, water treatment facilities, oil and gas pipelines, railways, and other Critical Infrastructure (CI). In recent years, organizations that own and operate these systems have increasingly interconnected them with their enterprise network to take advantage of cost savings and operational benefits. This trend, however, has introduced myriad vulnerabilities associated with the networking environment. As a result, the once isolated systems are now susceptible to a wide range of threats that previously did not exist. To help address the associated risks, security professionals seek to incorporate mitigation solutions …

Security Verification Of Secure Manet Routing Protocols, Matthew F. Steele

Theses and Dissertations

Secure mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing protocols are not tested thoroughly against their security properties. Previous research focuses on verifying secure, reactive, accumulation-based routing protocols. An improved methodology and framework for secure MANET routing protocol verification is proposed which includes table-based and proactive protocols. The model checker, SPIN, is selected as the core of the secure MANET verification framework. Security is defined by both accuracy and availability: a protocol forms accurate routes and these routes are always accurate. The framework enables exhaustive verification of protocols and results in a counter-example if the protocol is deemed insecure. The framework is …

A Black Hole Attack Model For Reactive Ad-Hoc Protocols, Christopher W. Badenhop

Theses and Dissertations

Net-Centric Warfare places the network in the center of all operations, making it a critical resource to attack and defend during wartime. This thesis examines one particular network attack, the Black Hole attack, to determine if an analytical model can be used to predict the impact of this attack on ad-hoc networks. An analytical Black Hole attack model is developed for reactive ad-hoc network protocols DSR and AODV. To simplify topology analysis, a hypercube topology is used to approximate ad-hoc topologies that have the same average node degree. An experiment is conducted to compare the predicted results of the analytical …

Empirical Analysis Of Optical Attenuator Performance In Quantum Key Distribution Systems Using A Particle Model, Thomas C. Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum key distribution networks currently represent an active area of development and software modeling to address the security of future communications. One of the components used in quantum key distribution implementations is an optical attenuator. Its role in the system is necessary to reach the single photon per bit necessary to maintain theoretically perfect secrecy. How the photon pulse is modeled has a significant impact on the accuracy and performance of quantum channel components like the optical attenuator. Classical physics describe light using Maxwell's wave equations for electromagnetism. Quantum physics has demonstrated light also behaves as discrete particles referred to …

Context Aware Routing Management Architecture For Airborne Networks, Joan A. Betances

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis advocates the use of Kalman filters in conjunction with network topology information derived from the Air Tasking Order (ATO) during the planning phase for military missions. This approach is the basis for an algorithm that implements network controls that optimize network performance for Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET). The trajectories of relevant nodes (airborne platforms) participating in the MANET can be forecasted by parsing key information contained in the ATO. This information is used to develop optimum network routes that can significantly improve MANET performance. Improved MANET performance in the battlefield enables decision makers to access information from …

Detector Design Considerations In High-Dimensional Artificial Immune Systems, Jason M. Bindewald

Theses and Dissertations

This research lays the groundwork for a network intrusion detection system that can operate with only knowledge of normal network traffic, using a process known as anomaly detection. Real-valued negative selection (RNS) is a specific anomaly detection algorithm that can be used to perform two-class classification when only one class is available for training. Researchers have shown fundamental problems with the most common detector shape, hyperspheres, in high-dimensional space. The research contained herein shows that the second most common detector type, hypercubes, can also cause problems due to biasing certain features in high dimensions. To address these problems, a new …

Understanding How Reverse Engineers Make Sense Of Programs From Assembly Language Representations, Adam R. Bryant

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops a theory of the conceptual and procedural aspects involved with how reverse engineers make sense of executable programs. Software reverse engineering is a complex set of tasks which require a person to understand the structure and functionality of a program from its assembly language representation, typically without having access to the program's source code. This dissertation describes the reverse engineering process as a type of sensemaking, in which a person combines reasoning and information foraging behaviors to develop a mental model of the program. The structure of knowledge elements used in making sense of executable programs are …

Towards Quantifying Programmable Logic Controller Resilience Against Intentional Exploits, Henry W. Bushey

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems control and monitor services for the nation's critical infrastructure. Recent cyber induced events (e.g., Stuxnet) provide an example of a targeted, covert cyber attack against a SCADA system that resulted in physical effects. Of particular note is how Stuxnet exploited the trust relationship between the human machine interface (HMI) and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Current methods for validating system operating parameters rely on message exchange and network communications protocols, generally observed at the HMI. Although sufficient at the macro level, this method does not provide detection of malware that exhibits physical effects via …

Obfuscating Against Side-Channel Power Analysis Using Hiding Techniques For Aes, Austin W. Fritzke

Theses and Dissertations

The transfer of information has always been an integral part of military and civilian operations, and remains so today. Because not all information we share is public, it is important to secure our data from unwanted parties. Message encryption serves to prevent all but the sender and recipient from viewing any encrypted information as long as the key stays hidden. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the current industry and military standard for symmetric-key encryption. While AES remains computationally infeasible to break the encrypted message stream, it is susceptible to side-channel attacks if an adversary has access to the appropriate …

Binary Disassembly Block Coverage By Symbolic Execution Vs. Recursive Descent, Jonathan D. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This research determines how appropriate symbolic execution is (given its current implementation) for binary analysis by measuring how much of an executable symbolic execution allows an analyst to reason about. Using the S2E Selective Symbolic Execution Engine with a built-in constraint solver (KLEE), this research measures the effectiveness of S2E on a sample of 27 Debian Linux binaries as compared to a traditional static disassembly tool, IDA Pro. Disassembly code coverage and path exploration is used as a metric for determining success. This research also explores the effectiveness of symbolic execution on packed or obfuscated samples of the same binaries …

Mfire-2: A Multi Agent System For Flow-Based Intrusion Detection Using Stochastic Search, Timothy J. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Detecting attacks targeted against military and commercial computer networks is a crucial element in the domain of cyberwarfare. The traditional method of signature-based intrusion detection is a primary mechanism to alert administrators to malicious activity. However, signature-based methods are not capable of detecting new or novel attacks. This research continues the development of a novel simulated, multiagent, flow-based intrusion detection system called MFIRE. Agents in the network are trained to recognize common attacks, and they share data with other agents to improve the overall effectiveness of the system. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) is the primary classifier with which agents …

A Principled Approach To Policy Composition For Runtime Enforcement Mechanisms, Zachary Negual Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Runtime enforcement mechanisms are an important and well-employed method for ensuring an execution only exhibits acceptable behavior, as dictated by a security policy. Wherever interaction occurs between two or more parties that do not completely trust each other, it is most often the case that a runtime enforcement mechanism is between them in some form, monitoring the exchange. Considering the ubiquity of such scenarios in the computing world, there has been an increased effort to build formal models of runtime monitors that closely capture their capabilities so that their effectiveness can be analysed more precisely. While models have grown more …

Method And Apparatus For Enabling Digital Rights Management In File Transfers, William L. Olson, Vida Ilderem, Frederick L. Kitson, Morris A. Moore, Paul Moroney, Petr Peterka, Theodore Rzeszewski, Robert H. Yacobellis

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method and apparatus for enabling digital rights management in file transfers. One embodiment of a method for transferring digital content from a first user to a second user, includes transferring ownership of an instance of the digital content to the second user, where the instance of the digital content resides on a first device belonging to the first user. Copies of the digital content are then deleted from one or more additional devices belonging to the first user (including at least one offline device).

Conflict Detection And Resolution For Product Line Design In A Collaborative Decision Making Environment, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Eric Christopher Barnes, Juha Erik Savolainen

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ensuring that the non-functional requirements (NFRs), of a system are satisfied is an essential task in software development. However, this task is complicated by the fact that many NFRs conflict with each other from multiple perspectives. It is essential to resolve conflicts collectively in a collaborative decision-making process since stakeholders often disagree on how conflicts should be resolved. in this paper, we describe a method for dividing high-level NFR conflicts within a product line into more manageable sub-problems. Stakeholders make use of an argumentation based collaborative decision support system to determine which design alternatives provide the best trade-offs between NFRs. …

Developing Predictive Models For Lung Tumor Analysis, Satrajit Basu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A CT-scan of lungs has become ubiquitous as a thoracic diagnostic tool. Thus, using CT-scan images in developing predictive models for tumor types and survival time of patients afflicted with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) would provide a novel approach to non-invasive tumor analysis. It can provide an alternative to histopathological techniques such as needle biopsy. Two major tumor analysis problems were addressed in course of this study, tumor type classification and survival time prediction. CT-scan images of 109 patients with NSCLC were used in this study. The first involved classifying tumor types into two major classes of non-small cell …

Combinatorics Using Computational Methods, Derrick Stolee

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Computational combinatorics involves combining pure mathematics, algorithms, and computational resources to solve problems in pure combinatorics. This thesis provides a theoretical framework for combinatorial search, which is then applied to several problems in combinatorics. Some results in space-bounded computational complexity are also presented.

Entropy And The Complexity Of Graphs Revisited, Abbe Mowshowitz, Matthias Dehmer

Publications and Research

This paper presents a taxonomy and overview of approaches to the measurement of graph and network complexity. The taxonomy distinguishes between deterministic (e.g., Kolmogorov complexity) and probabilistic approaches with a view to placing entropy-based probabilistic measurement in context. Entropy-based measurement is the main focus of the paper. Relationships between the different entropy functions used to measure complexity are examined; and intrinsic (e.g., classical measures) and extrinsic (e.g., Körner entropy) variants of entropy-based models are discussed in some detail.

Matching Phosphorylation Response Patterns Of Antigen-Receptor-Stimulated T Cells Via Flow Cytometry, Ariful Azad, Saumyadipta Pyne, Alex Pothen

Department of Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background

When flow cytometric data on mixtures of cell populations are collected from samples under different experimental conditions, computational methods are needed (a) to classify the samples into similar groups, and (b) to characterize the changes within the corresponding populations due to the different conditions. Manual inspection has been used in the past to study such changes, but high-dimensional experiments necessitate developing new computational approaches to this problem. A robust solution to this problem is to construct distinct templates to summarize all samples from a class, and then to compare these templates to study the changes across classes or conditions. …