39 research outputs found
Humans and Vulnerability During Times of Change: Computer Security Needs, Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2022This dissertation explores the relationship between *change* and vulnerability to security and privacy harms. I suggest that change causes vulnerability in part due to the nature of change, and in part due to the design of technical and sociopolitical systems. I suggest that this connection between change and vulnerability exists for three reasons. First, when someone experiences change, new or different threats, risks, assets, technologies, and actors arise; if they do not update their personal threat model, it may be incomplete or inaccurate, making them unable to respond to emergent threats. Second, even if they are aware of all threats, they may be unable to prioritize security and privacy, as other needs may be more important. Third, the design of technology and user education is often misaligned with the needs and threat models of those going through change, causing vulnerable populations to become more vulnerable and exacerbating existing systemic inequities. I explore these three themes through four populations experiencing immense change differing in scope, cause, and time frame: (a) refugees who have moved to the United States; (b) activists in Sudan during the 2018-2019 revolution; (c) people considering using contact tracing apps during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic; and (d) people who experience hurricanes. This dissertation makes contributions at two levels. First, each individual research chapter contributes an understanding of the security and privacy needs, experiences, and challenges of vulnerable populations. In each chapter, I make design, policy, and research recommendations to work towards more equitable technology. Second, taken together, the entirety of this dissertation contributes a deep understanding of the relationship between *change* and *vulnerability* to computer security and privacy harms. While the nature of change itself *does* engender vulnerability, in many ways the vulnerability is constructed---by sociopolitical and historical injustices or by technical design, or both
Recognizing and Imitating Programmer Style: Adversaries in Program Authorship Attribution
No full textAbstract
Source code attribution classifiers have recently become powerful. We consider the possibility that an adversary could craft code with the intention of causing a misclassification, i.e., creating a forgery of another author’s programming style in order to hide the forger’s own identity or blame the other author. We find that it is possible for a non-expert adversary to defeat such a system. In order to inform the design of adversarially resistant source code attribution classifiers, we conduct two studies with C/C++ programmers to explore the potential tactics and capabilities both of such adversaries and, conversely, of human analysts doing source code authorship attribution. Through the quantitative and qualitative analysis of these studies, we (1) evaluate a state-of-the-art machine classifier against forgeries, (2) evaluate programmers as human analysts/forgery detectors, and (3) compile a set of modifications made to create forgeries. Based on our analyses, we then suggest features that future source code attribution systems might incorporate in order to be adversarially resistant.</jats:p
Algorithm for Internal State Financial Control by the Treasury of Russia: Problems and Solutions
No full textThe paper discusses an integrated research of implementing internal state financial control by the Federal Treasury. The aim of the study is to show the organization and stages (algorithm) of implementing internal state financial control, to identify problems and possible solutions. The relevance of the study determines the modern development of financial control, aimed at automation and digitalization. Scientific novelty is in systematizing problems of financial control and finding new solutions. The author uses methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, scientific abstraction, logical thinking, the dialectical method of cognition and observation. The study results in describing an algorithm for internal state financial control by the Treasury of Russia, and identifies problems (weaknesses) related to the planning and implementation of control measures in the financial and budgetary sphere, as well as possible solutions. The author points out the need to revise the procedures for implementing internal state financial control and its new forms with the current methods of financial control. The study suggests such a new form of financial control as automated remote financial monitoring, which warns on the impermissibility of violations in the financial and budgetary sphere. The author concludes that in order to automate and digitalize internal state financial control, it is necessary to create a unified information base, including systematized information according to the criteria set by the state. This will allow for a deeper economic analysis of using budgetary funds allocated by the state for certain purposes, at the stages of preliminary and subsequent control, that will improve and increase the efficiency of financial control, and save time and labor during control activities. The author recommends to improve the regulatory framework governing the implementation of financial control by the Russian Treasury, including internal state financial control
Melatonin stabilizes atherosclerotic plaques: an association that should be clinically sploited
No full textAuthor contributions:
RR: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft. RS: Data curation, Project administration, Software, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. AR: Data curation, Validation, Writing – review & editing. FS: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing. AD-R: Data curation, Validation, Writing – review & editing. DC: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing.Atherosclerosis is the underlying factor in the premature death of millions of humans annually. The cause of death is often a result of the rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque followed by the discharge of the associated molecular debris into the vessel lumen which occludes the artery leading to ischemia of downstream tissue and to morbidity or mortality of the individual. This is most serious when it occurs in the heart (heart attack) or brain (stroke). Atherosclerotic plaques are classified as either soft, rupture-prone, or hard, rupture resistant. Melatonin, the production of which diminishes with age, has major actions in converting soft to hard plaques. Experimentally, melatonin reduces the ingrowth of capillaries from the tunica media into the plaque relieving pressure on the plaque, reducing intraplaque hemorrhage and limiting the size of the necrotic core. Moreover, melatonin promotes the formation of collagen by invading vascular smooth muscle cells which strengthen the plaque crown making it resistant to rupture.
Melatonin is also a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent such that is reduces oxidative damage to tissues associated with the plaque and limits inflammation both of which contribute to plaque cap weakness. Additional benefits of melatonin relative to atherosclerosis is inhibition of adhesion molecules on the endothelial cell surface, limiting the invasion of monocytes into the arterial intima, and reducing the conversion of anti-inflammatory M2 macrophages to pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages. Given the high physiological and financial cost of cardiac and neural ischemic events, this information should be given high priority in the clinical settingDepto. de Farmacología y ToxicologíaFac. de VeterinariaTRUEpu
A Study of Usage-Based Navigation Models and Generated Abstract Test Cases for Web Applications
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