Information Security Commons^™

A Taxonomy For And Analysis Of Anonymous Communications Networks, Douglas J. Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Any entity operating in cyberspace is susceptible to debilitating attacks. With cyber attacks intended to gather intelligence and disrupt communications rapidly replacing the threat of conventional and nuclear attacks, a new age of warfare is at hand. In 2003, the United States acknowledged that the speed and anonymity of cyber attacks makes distinguishing among the actions of terrorists, criminals, and nation states difficult. Even President Obama’s Cybersecurity Chief-elect recognizes the challenge of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Now through April 2009, the White House is reviewing federal cyber initiatives to protect US citizen privacy rights. Indeed, the rising quantity and ubiquity …

Analysis Of Information Remaining On Hand Held Devices Offered For Sale On The Second Hand, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Iain Sutherland

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The ownership and use of mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants and other hand held devices is now ubiquitous both for home and business use. The majority of these devices have a high initial cost, a relatively short period before they become obsolescent and a relatively low second hand value. As a result of this, when the devices are replaced, there are indications that they tend to be discarded. As technology has continued to develop, it has led to an increasing diversity in the number and type of devices that are available, and the processing power and the storage capacity of …

Steganography: Forensic, Security, And Legal Issues, Merrill Warkentin, Ernst Bekkering, Mark B. Schmidt

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Steganography has long been regarded as a tool used for illicit and destructive purposes such as crime and warfare. Currently, digital tools are widely available to ordinary computer users also. Steganography software allows both illicit and legitimate users to hide messages so that they will not be detected in transit. This article provides a brief history of steganography, discusses the current status in the computer age, and relates this to forensic, security, and legal issues. The paper concludes with recommendations for digital forensics investigators, IT staff, individual users, and other stakeholders.

The 2007 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Glenn S. Dardick, Iain Sutherland

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

All organisations, whether in the public or private sector, increasingly use computers and other devices that contain computer hard disks for the storage and processing of information relating to their business, their employees or their customers. Individual home users also increasingly use computers and other devices containing computer hard disks for the storage and processing of information relating to their private, personal affairs. It continues to be clear that the majority of organisations and individual home users still remain ignorant or misinformed of the volume and type of information that is stored on the hard disks that these devices contain …

Anonymous And Authenticated Key Exchange For Roaming Networks, Guomin Yang, Duncan S. Wong, Xiaotie Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

User privacy is a notable security issue in wireless communications. It concerns about user identities from being exposed and user movements and whereabouts from being tracked. The concern of user privacy is particularly signified in systems which support roaming when users are able to hop across networks administered by different operators. In this paper, we propose a novel construction approach of anonymous and authenticated key exchange protocols for a roaming user and a visiting server to establish a random session key in such a way that the visiting server authenticates the user's home server without knowing exactly who the user …

Anti-Forensics And The Digital Investigator, Gary C. Kessler

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

Viewed generically, anti-forensics (AF) is that set of tactics and measures taken by someone who wants to thwart the digital investigation process. This paper describes some of the many AF tools and methods, under the broad classifications of data hiding, artefact wiping, trail obfuscation, and attacks on the forensics tools themselves. The concept of AF is neither new nor solely intended to be used by the criminal class; it also has legitimate use by those who wish to protect their privacy. This paper also introduces the concept of time-sensitive anti-forensics, noting that AF procedures might be employed for the sole …

Cyber Crime And Biometric Authentication – The Problem Of Privacy Versus Protection Of Business Assets, Michael G. Crowley

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Cyber crime is now a well recognised international problem that is a major issue for anyone who runs, manages, owns, uses or accesses computer systems linked to the worldwide web. Computer systems are business assets. Personal biometric information is also an asset. Studies have shown that privacy concerns represent a key hurdle to the successful introduction of biometric authentication. In addition, terrorist activity and the resultant legislation have added an additional risk factor businesses need to take into account if they propose using biometric authentication technology. This paper explores the use of biometric authentication to protect business and individual assets. …

Uncontrollable Privacy - The Right That Every Attacker Desires, Giannakis Antoniou, Stefanos Gritzalis

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The request of the Internet users enjoying privacy during their e-activities enforces the Internet society to develop techniques which offer privacy to the Internet users, known as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). Among the Internet users, there are attackers who desire more than anything else to enjoy privacy during their malicious actions, and a PET is what they were looking for. Thus, although a PET should offer privacy to the internet users, proper techniques should also be employed in order to help the victims during the investigation procedure and unveil the identification of the attackers. The paper summarizes the current design …

Electronic Surveillance In Hospitals: A Review, Sue Kennedy

Australian Information Security Management Conference

This paper focuses on the increasing use of electronic surveillance systems in hospitals and the apparent lack of awareness of the implications of these systems for privacy of the individual. The systems are used for identification and tracking of equipment, staff and patients. There has been little public comment or analysis of these systems with regard to privacy as their implementation has been driven by security issues. The systems that gather this information include video, smart card and more recently RFID systems. The system applications include tracking of vital equipment, labelling of blood and other samples, tracking of patients, new …

Making Research Real: Is Action Research A Suitable Methodology For Medical Information Security Investigations?, Patricia A. Williams

Australian Information Security Management Conference

In the medical field, information security is an important yet vastly underrated issue. Research into the protection of sensitive medical data is often technically focused and does not address information systems and behavioural aspects integral to effective information security implementation. Current information security policy and guidelines are strategically oriented which, whilst relevant to large organisations, are less supportive to smaller enterprises such as primary care practices. Further, the conservative nature of the medical profession has been shown to hinder investigation into information technology use and management, making effective improvement based on research problematical. It is an environment which relies greatly …

Privacy Enhanced Superdistribution Of Layered Content With Trusted Access Control, Daniel J. T. Chong, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traditional superdistribution approaches do not address consumer privacy issues and also do not reliably prevent the malicious consumer from indiscriminately copying and redistributing the decryption keys or the decrypted content. The layered nature of common digital content can also be exploited to efficiently provide the consumer with choices over the quality of the content, allowing him/her to pay less for lower quality consumption and vice versa. This paper presents a system that superdistributes encrypted layered content and (1) allows the consumer to select a quality level at which to decrypt and consume the content; (2) prevents the merchant from knowing …

Privacy Issues In The Era Of Ubiquitous Commerce, Holtjona Galanxhi, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The vision of ubiquitous commerce (u-commerce) is realized through the convergence of electronic, mobile, television, voice and silent commerce applications. The ubiquity, universality, uniqueness, and unison of u-commerce will provide two principal benefits for individual users and companies: increased convenience as well as more personalized and customized services. However, u-commerce will also bring new issues such as a greater degree of privacy concerns that will impact individual users, companies, and the society at large. This paper proposes and elaborates on a conceptual framework for privacy in the u-commerce era. It combines Lessig’s macro-level perspective – the four-factor model of privacy …

Privacy Issues Dealing With Technology : A Review Of The Literature, Kimberly S. Mccoy

Graduate Research Papers

The sophisticated applications of technology are expanding everyday. Unfortunately, so are the many concerns individuals in society are having about their right to privacy. The actual regulations dealing with one's right to privacy has not expand as rapidly as the applications of technology. Individuals using various types of technology are under the assumption their activities are private; however, this is not the case. It does not seem to matter if you are using a computer for communications work, school, or in the "privacy" of your own home, there is absolutely no privacy when dealing with this type of technology.

This …