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Conceptualizing, Applying and Evaluating SecMLOps: A Paradigm for Embedding Security into the ML Lifecycle
No full textAs machine learning (ML) systems become increasingly integrated into critical infrastructure and decision-making processes, ensuring their security and reliability is of paramount importance. However, traditional DevOps practices often fall short in addressing the unique security challenges posed by ML systems. This thesis introduces SecMLOps, a novel paradigm that explicitly integrates security considerations throughout the MLOps lifecycle to develop more secure, reliable, and trustworthy ML systems. The research begins with a comprehensive analysis of the DevOps landscape using a multivocal literature review methodology, providing a structured understanding of the various specialized DevOps variants and their relationships. Building upon these insights, the SecMLOps paradigm is conceptualized, examining its key aspects of people, technology, processes, governance, and compliance. To operationalize SecMLOps, a comprehensive framework is developed, integrating critical security activities into the MLOps workflow and assigning specific roles and responsibilities across the lifecycle stages. The effectiveness of the SecMLOps framework is evaluated through a real-world use case on a state-of-the-art pedestrian detection system, demonstrating its robustness against prevalent security threats such as data poisoning and adversarial examples. This thesis critically assesses the practical impact and challenges of adopting SecMLOps, considering factors such as organizational transformation, process integration, and resource implications. The applicability and generalizability of the framework across different domains are discussed, emphasizing its inherent adaptability while acknowledging the need for domain-specific considerations. By providing a structured approach to integrating security into MLOps and validating its effectiveness, this thesis advances the state of the art in secure ML development and deployment. The SecMLOps paradigm empowers organizations to proactively address security challenges, ensuring the integrity and trustworthiness of their ML systems in the face of evolving threats. As ML continues to expand into critical domains, the contributions of this thesis serve as a foundation for future research and practice in developing secure and reliable ML systems
Philosophy and Politics: How the Relationship of Theory and Practice Separate Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojeve on the Question of Political Wisdom
Full text linkThis essay is about the relationship between theory and practice as understood by Leo Strauss’ classic political philosophy and Alexandre Kojeve’s historicism. Kojeve’s account sees knowledge as a product of the reconciliation of theory and practice, and advocates for Hegel’s particular brand of Historicism. This means that philosophy and politics must be combined as far as possible to bring about utopia, the only completely just state built from the lessons of history. Conversely, Strauss believes the recognition of practice and theory is destructive of both wisdom and politics. Philosophy should be kept separate from political power such that it does not become corrupted, while theory is elevated to the highest kind of knowing, over and above practice. Both positions have conflicting views of theory and practice based on fundamental assumptions about nature and time
Discussions of the First Canadian Citizenship Act: A Comprehensive Exploration of Inclusion and Absence
Full text linkThis thesis analyzes citizenship debates in Canada in the wake of the Second World War. Adopting a comprehensive approach using both digital and traditional methods to analyze the discussions leading to the passing of the first Canadian Citizenship Act, this thesis explores when and how parliamentarians discussed the concerns of identifiable groups, if at all. Topic models and word frequencies were used to identify popular terms and topics corroborated by traditional reading of parliamentary records to demonstrate absence and exclusion. This comprehensive approach demonstrated that parliamentarians did discuss citizenship as it related to women and Japanese Canadians. However, citizenship was not considered regarding other groups such as Indigenous peoples who were only mentioned in passing. This thesis reinforces the perception that early citizenship debates in Canada focused largely on ideal subjects despite the transition from subjects to citizens was meant to result in a greater sense of belonging for all
If not for my Hustling Spirit: Youth Apprenticeships and the Complexity of Empowerment in Southeast Nigeria
Full text linkThis thesis examines how young people pursue socioeconomic independence and livelihood security—often framed as empowerment—through apprenticeships. It focuses primarily on trade apprenticeships in Igboland, southeastern Nigeria, which are deeply rooted in the historical modes of Igbo economic production and redistribution. Drawing on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork in the market city of Onitsha, this study explores how youth navigate apprenticeship amidst shifting political and market realities, including rapid financial hardship, increased transnational trade, and the rise of digital economies that enable new forms of extraction and accumulation. This thesis makes several key arguments and contributions. First, it examines the concept of the hustling spirit, a popular phrase among Nigerian youth, and links it to the Igbo philosophy of Igba mbo (loosely translated as resilience), demonstrating how it shapes market logic for both apprentices and other Onitsha youth. Second, challenging the notion that the Igbo apprenticeship system is in crisis due to modernity, this study traces evolving economic realities to position apprenticeships as productive spaces and temporalities of negotiation and transformation within Igbo society. Third, it analyses how private and public bodies employ the language of empowerment to justify interventions aimed at promoting Igbo apprenticeship, arguing that such initiatives—often driven by neoliberal ideals of success—tend to reproduce rather than resolve structural problems affecting the market ecosystem. Furthermore, this research examines cyberfraud apprenticeship as a burgeoning alternative increasingly pursued by youth disillusioned with trade apprenticeships. A critical intervention of this study lies in its examination of dependency relations within apprenticeship settings, revealing a dynamic of suffering and opportunity that youth actively mobilise as they navigate their aspirations
