This paper studies methodologically robust options for giving logical contents to nodes in abstract argumentation networks. It defines a variety of notions of attack in terms of the logical contents of the nodes in a network. General properties of logics are refined both in the object level and in the metalevel to suit the needs of the application. The network-based system improves upon some of the attempts in the literature to define attacks in terms of defeasible proofs, (...) the so-called rule-based systems. We also provide a number of examples and consider a rigorous case study, which indicate that our system does not suffer from anomalies. We define consequence relations based on a notion of defeat, consider rationality postulates, and prove that one such consequence relation is consistent. (shrink)

The study considers the development of methods for detecting anomalous network connections based on hybridization of computational intelligence methods. An analysis of approaches to detecting anomalies and abuses in computer networks. In the framework of this analysis, a classification of methods for detecting network attacks is proposed. The main results are reduced to the construction of multi-class models that increase the efficiency of the attack detection system, and can be used to build systems for classifying (...) class='Hi'>network parameters during the attack. A model of an artificial immune system based on an evolutionary approach, an algorithm for genetic-competitive learning of the Kohonen network and a method of hierarchical hybridization of binary classifiers with the addition to the detection of anomalous network connections have been developed. The architecture of the network distributed attack detection system has been developed. The architecture of the attack detection system is two-tier: the first level provides the primary analysis of individual packets and network connections using signature analysis, the second level processes the processing of aggregate network data streams using adaptive classifiers. A signature analysis was performed to study network performance based on the Aho-Korasik and Boyer-Moore algorithms and their improved analogues were implemented using OpenMP and CUDA technologies. The architecture is presented and the main points of operation of the network attack generator are shown. A system for generating network attacks has been developed. This system consists of two components: an asynchronous transparent proxy server for TCP sessions and a frontend interface for a network attack generator. The results of the experiments confirmed that the functional and non-functional requirements, as well as the requirements for computing intelligent systems, are met for the developed attack detection system. (shrink)

Security has become one of the important factors for any network communication and transmission of data packets. An organization with an optimal security system can lead to a successful business and can earn huge profit on the business they are doing. Different network devices are linked to route, compute, monitor, and communicate various real-time developments. The hackers are trying to attack the network and want to draw the organization’s significant information for its own profits. During the communication, (...) if an intrusion or eavesdropping occurs, it will lead to a severe disfigurement of the whole communication network, and the data will be controlled by wrong malicious users. Identification of attack is a way to identify the security violations and analyze the measures in a computer network. An identification system, which is effective and accurate, can add security to the existing system for secure and smooth communication among end to end nodes and can work efficiently in the identification of attack on data packets. The role of information security is to design and protect the entire data of networks and maintain its confidentiality, integrity, and availability for their right users. Therefore, there is a need for end to end security management, which will ensure the security and privacy of the network and will save the data inside networks from malicious users. As the network devices are growing, so the level of threats is also increasing for these devices. The proposed research is an endeavor toward the detection of data packets attack by using the rough set theory for a secure end to end communication. The experimental work was performed by the RSES tool. The accuracy of the K-NN was 88% for the total objects of 8459. For cross validation purposes, the decision rules and decomposition tree algorithms were used. The DR algorithm showed accuracy of 59.1%, while the DT showed accuracy of 61.5%. The experimental results of the proposed study show that the research is capable of detecting data packets attack. (shrink)

The computer’s effect on our understanding of causation has been enormous. By the mid‐1980s, philosophical and social‐scientific work on the topic had left us with (1) no reasonable reductive account of causation and (2) a class of statistical causal models tied to linear regression. At this time, computer scientists were attacking the problem of equipping robots with models of the external that included probabilistic portrayals of uncertainty. To solve the problem of efficiently storing such knowledge, they introduced Bayes (...) Networks and directed graphs. By attaching a causal interpretation to Bayes Networks, the philosophy of causation changed dramatically. We are now able to be extremely general about how causal structure connects to data, and systematic about when causal structures are empirically indistinguishable. In this essay I try to motivate and describe this synthesis. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the analysis of the characteristic features of the process of displaying virtual network platforms and cybernetic technologies in the early 1970s — early 2020s in the fantastic universe (literary and cinematic) created by S. King, one of the leading American science fiction writers of our time. In this study, the authors provide a justification for the relevance and scientific novelty of the problem under study. This paper analyzes the specific features of the impact of (...) electronic communication communities and computer technologies on modern society. This article provides an argument for the need to comprehend the coverage of this social problem in fantastic art — specifically in literature and cinematography — as one of the additional aspects of the progress of the predictive function of science. This study provides a reasoned explanation of the definition of the fantastic literary and cinematic universe of S. King as an object of research, taking into account its priority position in the fantasy genre as a whole. This problem was chosen by the authors for analysis in order to reasonably refute stereotypes, according to which the works of S. King and the film adaptations created on their basis are a complex of mass culture materials of an entertainment nature that do not have any semantic significance. At the same time, the authors explore the cardinal differences in the coverage of the studied problem in the original literary works of S. King and their film adaptations. This approach, among other things, allowed the authors to identify the reasons for the negative attitude of the writer to the embodiment of his books on the cinema screen. In this work, the specifics of the process of transformation of the display of social networks and high technologies in the fantastic universe of S. King during the 1970s and early 2020s are comprehended in the context of the author’s reaction to objective changes in scientific and technological progress and ideas about it in public opinion, as well as the growth of their importance in socio-economic, spiritual and the political spheres of life of the human community. In this study, using the example of the fantastic universe of S. King, the characteristic features of the evolution of the position of experts in the field of computer technology over the past five decades in the context of their perception in literature and cinema are also analyzed. The work also examines the moral criteria for the use of social networks and cybernetic technologies in public life and their impact on the development of modern family relations in the perception of S. King, one of the subjects of the formation of public relations in Western society. (shrink)

In recent years, the network has become more complex, and the attacker’s ability to attack is gradually increasing. How to properly understand the network security situation and improve network security has become a very important issue. In order to study the method of extracting information about the security situation of the network based on cloud computing, we recommend the technology of knowledge of the network security situation based on the data extraction technology. It converts each (...) received cyber security event into a standard format that can be defined as multiple brochures, creating a general framework for the cyber security situation. According to the large nature of network security situation data, the Hadoop platform is used to extract aggregation rules, and perform model extraction, pattern analysis, and learning on a network security event dataset to complete network security situation rule mining, and establish a framework for assessing the state of network security. According to the results of the federal rule extraction, the level of network node security risk is obtained in combination with signal reliability, signal severity, resource impact, node protection level, and signal recovery factor. A simulation test is performed to obtain the intrusion index according to the source address of the network security alarm. Through the relevant experiments and analysis of the results, the attack characteristics obtained in this study were obtained after manually reducing the network security event in the 295 h window. The results show that after the security event is canceled, the corresponding window attack index decreases to 0, indicating that this method can effectively implement a network security situation awareness. The proposed technique allows you to accurately sense changes in network security conditions. (shrink)

Due to the complexity and versatility of network security alarm data, a cloud-based network security data extraction method is proposed to address the inability to effectively understand the network security situation. The information properties of the situation are generated by creating a set of spatial characteristics classification of network security knowledge, which is then used to analyze and optimize the processing of hybrid network security situation information using cloud computing technology and co-filtering technology. Knowledge and (...) information about the security situation of a hybrid network has been analyzed using cloud computing strategy. The simulation results show that a cyber security crash occurs in window 20, after which the protection index drops to window 500. The increase in the security index of 500 windows is consistent with the effectiveness of the concept of this document method, indicating that this document method can sense changes in the network security situation. Starting from the first attacked window, the defense index began to decrease. In order to simulate the added network defense, the network security events in the 295th time window were reduced in the original data, and the defense index increased significantly in the corresponding time period, which is consistent with the method perception results, which further verifies the effectiveness and reliability of this method on the network security event perception. This method provides high-precision knowledge of network security situations and improves the security and stability of cloud-based networks. (shrink)

We present a computer-supported approach for the logical analysis and conceptual explicitation of argumentative discourse. Computational hermeneutics harnesses recent progresses in automated reasoning for higher-order logics and aims at formalizing natural-language argumentative discourse using flexible combinations of expressive non-classical logics. In doing so, it allows us to render explicit the tacit conceptualizations implicit in argumentative discursive practices. Our approach operates on networks of structured arguments and is iterative and two-layered. At one layer we search for logically correct formalizations for (...) each of the individual arguments. At the next layer we select among those correct formalizations the ones which honor the argument’s dialectic role, i.e. attacking or supporting other arguments as intended. We operate at these two layers in parallel and continuously rate sentences’ formalizations by using, primarily, inferential adequacy criteria. An interpretive, logical theory will thus gradually evolve. This theory is composed of meaning postulates serving as explications for concepts playing a role in the analyzed arguments. Such a recursive, iterative approach to interpretation does justice to the inherent circularity of understanding: the whole is understood compositionally on the basis of its parts, while each part is understood only in the context of the whole. We summarily discuss previous work on exemplary applications of human-in-the-loop computational hermeneutics in metaphysical discourse. We also discuss some of the main challenges involved in fully-automating our approach. By sketching some design ideas and reviewing relevant technologies, we argue for the technological feasibility of a highly-automated computational hermeneutics. (shrink)

This paper identifies two conceptions of security in contemporary concerns over the vulnerability of computers and networks to hostile attack. One is derived from individual-focused conceptions of computer security developed in computer science and engineering. The other is informed by the concerns of national security agencies of government as well as those of corporate intellectual property owners. A comparative evaluation of these two conceptions utilizes the theoretical construct of “securitization,”developed by the Copenhagen School of International Relations.

In 2005 the author introduced networks which allow attacks on attacks of any level. So if a → b reads a attacks 6, then this attack can itself be attacked by another node c. This attack itself can attack another node d. This situation can be iterated to any level with attacks and nodes attacking other attacks and other nodes. In this paper we provide semantics to such networks. We offer three different approaches to obtaining (...) semantics. 1. The translation approach This uses the methodology of ' Logic by translation'. We translate faithfully the new networks into ordinary Dung networks with more nodes and extract the semantics from the translation. 2. The labelling approach This method regards the arrows as additional entities to be attacked and to mount attacks and applies a variation of the usual machinery of Camindada like labelling to the network. The new concept we need to employ here is that of 'joint attacks'. 3. The logic programming approach We translate the higher level network into a logic program and obtain semantics for it through known semantics for logic programs. We then compare our methods with those of S. Modgil and P. M. Dung et al. (shrink)

As the world keeps advancing, the need for automated interconnected devices has started to gain significance; to cater to the condition, a new concept Internet of Things has been introduced that revolves around smart devicesʼ conception. These smart devices using IoT can communicate with each other through a network to attain particular objectives, i.e., automation and intelligent decision making. IoT has enabled the users to divide their household burden with machines as these complex machines look after the environment variables (...) and control their behavior accordingly. As evident, these machines use sensors to collect vital information, which is then the complexity analyzed at a computational node that then smartly controls these devicesʼ operational behaviors. Deep learning-based guessing attack protection algorithms have been enhancing IoT security; however, it still has a critical challenge for the complex industries’ IoT networks. One of the crucial aspects of such systems is the need to have a significant training time for processing a large dataset from the networkʼs previous flow of data. Traditional deep learning approaches include decision trees, logistic regression, and support vector machines. However, it is essential to note that this convenience comes with a price that involves security vulnerabilities as IoT networks are prone to be interfered with by hackers who can access the sensor/communication data and later utilize it for malicious purposes. This paper presents the experimental study of cryptographic algorithms to classify the types of encryption algorithms into the asymmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithm. It presents a deep analysis of AES, DES, 3DES, RSA, and Blowfish based on timing complexity, size, encryption, and decryption performances. It has been assessed in terms of the guessing attack in real-time deep learning complex IoT applications. The assessment has been done using the simulation approach and it has been tested the speed of encryption and decryption of the selected encryption algorithms. For each encryption and decryption, the tests executed the same encryption using the same plaintext for five separate times, and the average time is compared. The key size used for each encryption algorithm is the maximum bytes the cipher can allow. To the comparison, the average time required to compute the algorithm by the three devices is used. For the experimental test, a set of plaintexts is used in the simulation—password-sized text and paragraph-sized text—that achieves target fair results compared to the existing algorithms in real-time deep learning networks for IoT applications. (shrink)

This paper provides equational semantics for Dung's argumentation networks. The network nodes get numerical values in [0,1], and are supposed to satisfy certain equations. The solutions to these equations correspond to the ?extensions? of the network. This approach is very general and includes the Caminada labelling as a special case, as well as many other so-called network extensions, support systems, higher level attacks, Boolean networks, dependence on time, and much more. The equational approach has its conceptual (...) roots in the nineteenth century following the algebraic equational approach to logic by George Boole, Louis Couturat, and Ernst Schroeder. (shrink)

In recent years, while extensive researches on various networks properties have been proposed and accomplished, little has been proposed and done on network robustness and node vulnerability assessment under cascades in directed large-scale online community networks. In essential, an online directed social network is a group-centered and information spread-dominated online platform which is very different from the traditional undirected social network. Some further research studies have indicated that the online social network has high robustness to random (...) removals of nodes but fails to the intentional attacks, particularly to those attacks based on node betweenness or node directed coefficient. To explore on the robustness of directed social network, in this article, we have proposed two novel node centralities of ITG and I M p v. These two new centrality models are designed to capture this cascading effect in directed online social networks. Furthermore, we also propose a new and highly efficient computing method based on iterations for I M p v. Then, with the abundant experiments on the synthetic signed network and real-life networks derived from directed online social media and directed human mobile phone calling network, it has been proved that our ITG and I M p v based on directed social network robustness and node vulnerability assessment method is more accurate, efficient, and faster than several traditional centrality methods such as degree and betweenness. And we also have proposed the solid reasoning and proof process of iteration times k in computation of I M p v. To the best knowledge of us, our research has drawn some new light on the leading edge of robustness on the directed social network. (shrink)

Today’s computer network technologies are sociologically founded on hunter-gatherer principles; common users may be possible subjects of surveillance and sophisticated internet-based attacks are almost impossible to prevent. At the same time, information and communication technology, ICT offers the technical possibility of embedded privacy protection. Making technology legitimate by design is a part of the intentional design for democracy. This means incorporating options for socially acceptable behaviour in technical systems, and making the basic principles of privacy protection, rights (...) and responsibilities, transparent to the user. The current global e-polis already has, by means of different technologies, de facto built-in policies that define the level of user-privacy protection. That which remains is to make their ethical implications explicit and understandable to citizens of the global village through interdisciplinary disclosive ethical methods, and to make them correspond to the high ethical norms that support trust, the essential precondition of any socialization. The good news is that research along these lines is already in progress. Hopefully, this will result in a future standard approach to the privacy of network communications. (shrink)

The traditional Dung networks depict arguments as atomic and study the relationships of attack between them. This can be generalised in two ways. One is to consider various forms of attack, support, feedback, etc. Another is to add content to nodes and put there not just atomic arguments but more structure, e.g. proofs in some logic or simply just formulas from a richer language. This paper offers to use temporal and modal language formulas to represent arguments in the nodes of (...) a network. The suitable semantics for such networks is Kripke semantics. We also introduce a new key concept of usability of an argument. This is the beginning of a continuing research for adding contents to the nodes of an argumentation network. This research will allow us to address notions like ?what does it exactly mean for a node to attack another? or ?what does it mean for a network to be consistent? or ?can we give proper proof rules to manipulate networks?, and more. (shrink)

Endowing artificial systems with explanatory capacities about the reasons guiding their decisions, represents a crucial challenge and research objective in the current fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computational Cognitive Science [Langley et al., 2017]. Current mainstream AI systems, in fact, despite the enormous progresses reached in specific tasks, mostly fail to provide a transparent account of the reasons determining their behavior (both in cases of a successful or unsuccessful output). This is due to the fact that the classical problem (...) of opacity in artificial neural networks (ANNs) explodes with the adoption of current Deep Learning techniques [LeCun, Bengio, Hinton, 2015]. In this paper we argue that the explanatory deficit of such techniques represents an important problem, that limits their adoption in the cognitive modelling and computational cognitive science arena. In particular we will show how the current attempts of providing explanations of the deep nets behaviour (see e.g. [Ritter et al. 2017] are not satisfactory. As a possibile way out to this problem, we present two different research strategies. The first strategy aims at dealing with the opacity problem by providing a more abstract interpretation of neural mechanisms and representations. This approach is adopted, for example, by the biologically inspired SPAUN architecture [Eliasmith et al., 2012] and by other proposals suggesting, for example, the interpretation of neural networks in terms of the Conceptual Spaces framework [Gärdenfors 2000, Lieto, Chella and Frixione, 2017]. All such proposals presuppose that the neural level of representation can be considered somehow irrelevant for attacking the problem of explanation [Lieto, Lebiere and Oltramari, 2017]. In our opinion, pursuing this research direction can still preserve the use of deep learning techniques in artificial cognitive models provided that novel and additional results in terms of “transparency” are obtained. The second strategy is somehow at odds with respect to the previous one and tries to address the explanatory issue by avoiding to directly solve the “opacity” problem. In this case, the idea is that one of resorting to pre-compiled plausible explanatory models of the word used in combination with deep-nets (see e.g. [Augello et al. 2017]). We argue that this research agenda, even if does not directly fits the explanatory needs of Computational Cognitive Science, can still be useful to provide results in the area of applied AI aiming at shedding light on the models of interaction between low level and high level tasks (e.g. between perceptual categorization and explanantion) in artificial systems. (shrink)

In order to correct the deficiencies of intrusion detection technology, the entire computer and network security system are needed to be more perfect. This work proposes an improved k-means algorithm and an improved Apriori algorithm applied in data mining technology to detect network intrusion and security maintenance. The classical KDDCUP99 dataset has been utilized in this work for performing the experimentation with the improved algorithms. The algorithm’s detection rate and false alarm rate are compared with the experimental (...) data before the improvement. The outcomes of proposed algorithms are analyzed in terms of various simulation parameters like average time, false alarm rate, absolute error as well as accuracy value. The results show that the improved algorithm advances the detection efficiency and accuracy using the designed detection model. The improved and tested detection model is then applied to a new intrusion detection system. After intrusion detection experiments, the experimental results show that the proposed system improves detection accuracy and reduces the false alarm rate. A significant improvement of 90.57% can be seen in detecting new attack type intrusion detection using the proposed algorithm. (shrink)

Bankruptcy of listed companies or shareholders delisting usually causes the crisis spreading in stock markets. Based on the systematic analysis of the epidemic diseases and rumors spreading on the complex networks, the SIR model is introduced to research the crisis spreading in shareholding networks of listed companies and their main holders on the basis of the data about ownership structure in Chinese Stock Markets. The characteristics of shareholding networks are studied, and the parameters for the SIR model are obtained by (...) empirical approach. Then, the numerical computation method is successfully used to analyze the crisis spreading in the networks when the networks meet random failures or intentional attacks. We find the networks have good robustness against the random failures. However, the crisis will spread at a high speed and cause catastrophic damage if there are some failures or attacks on hub vertices in the networks. Under this condition, the networks show obvious vulnerability. Last but not least, the controllability of the networks under the condition of intentional attacks and random failures is studied. The results show that if the network is controlled globally, it is more reliable to allow a politically good new or an appropriate exciting economical policy to play the role in orienting markets under the control of public opinions as the crisis occurs. However, under normal circumstances, controlling a small part of driver vertices representing listed companies, applying appropriate control strategies, and using its characteristics of high efficiency of sending information can effectively control the stock market. Our research provides a new reference to further exploration about the transmission mechanism of the crisis based SIR model and further research on the controllability of crisis spreading in financial markets. (shrink)

A great deal of attention has been paid in recent years to the legality of the actions of states and state agents in international and non-international cyber conflicts. Less attention has been paid to ethical considerations in these situations, and very little has been written regarding the ethics of the participation of non-state actors in such conflicts. In this article, I analyze different categories of non-state participation in cyber operations and undertake to show under what conditions such actions, though illegal, (...) might be morally defensible. (shrink)

This paper studies general numerical networks with support and attack. Our starting point is argumentation networks with the Caminada labelling of three values 1=in, 0=out and ½=undecided. This is generalised to arbitrary values in [01], which enables us to compare with other numerical networks such as predator?prey ecological networks, flow networks, logical modal networks and more. This new point of view allows us to see the place of argumentation networks in the overall landscape of networks and import and export ideas (...) to and from argumentation networks. We make a special effort to make clear how general concepts in general networks relate to the special case of argumentation networks. We pay special attention to the handling of loops and to the special features of numerical support. We find surprising connections with the Dempster?Shafer rule and with the cross-ratio in projective geometry. This paper is an expansion of our 2005 paper and so we also consider higher level features such as numerical attacks on attacks, and propagation of numerical values.We conclude with a brief view of temporal numerical argumentation and with a detailed comparison with related papers published since 2005. (shrink)

Computation and philosophy intersect three times in this essay. Computation is considered as an object, as a method, and as a model used in a certain line of philosophical inquiry concerning the relation of mind to matter. As object, the question considered is whether computation and related notions of mental representation constitute the best ways to conceive of how physical systems give rise to mental properties. As method and model, the computational techniques of artificial life and embodied evolutionary connectionism are (...) used to conduct prosthetically enhanced thought experiments concerning the evolvability of mental representations. Central to this essay is a discussion of the computer simulation and evolution of three‐dimensional synthetic animals with neural network controllers. The minimally cognitive behavior of finding food by exhibiting positive chemotaxis is simulated with swimming and walking creatures. These simulations form the basis of a discussion of the evolutionary and neurocomputational bases of the incremental emergence of more complex forms of cognition. Other related work has been used to attack computational and representational theories of cognition. In contrast, I argue that the proper understanding of the evolutionary emergence of minimally cognitive behaviors is computational and representational through and through. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Cybernetic attacks have been wrongly perceived as weapons of physical destruction rather than of disruption. Because modern, post‐industrial societies have become critically dependent on computer networks to function on a day‐to‐day basis, disruption of those networks could have serious social and economic consequences. In order to better protect society, policymakers will have to re‐orient their approach toward cyber security so as to emphasize the genuine cybernetic threat, which is network disruption rather than physical destruction.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) has a wide influence on the exchange rate, education, health, training, and educational programs. In this paper we describe an intelligent tutoring system that helps student study computer networks. The current ITS provides intelligent presentation of educational content appropriate for students, such as the degree of knowledge, the desired level of detail, assessment, student level, and familiarity with the subject. Our Intelligent tutoring system was developed using ITSB authoring tool for building ITS. A preliminary evaluation (...) of the ITS was done by a group of students and teachers. The results were acceptable. (shrink)

Network theory is necessary for the realization of cognitive representations and resulting empirical observations of social groups. We propose that the triadic primitives denoting individual roles are multilayer, with positive and negative relations feeding into cost–benefit calculations. Through this, we advance a computational theory that generalizes to different scales and to contexts where conflict is not present.

This article offers a reading of internet-based activism or ‘hacktivism’ as a phenomenon that cannot be confined to the instrumental use of information technologies. It focuses on a subset of hacktivism – the distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack for political ends – that aims at making an internet host unavailable to its intended users. Since the early 2000s these attacks have been increasingly conducted by means of botnets – networks of infected computers that send bogus requests to a target website without (...) the consent of their users. The capacity of botnets to engender a more-than-human politics is analyzed from two distinct theoretical angles. First, drawing from Deleuze and Guattari, the hacktivist DDoS is discussed as an assemblage of signifying and a-signifying components, voluntary and involuntary actions. Second, Gilbert Simondon’s notions of transindividuation and transduction allow for a conceptualization of hacktivism as a sociotechnical assemblage with a high degree of indetermination. (shrink)

Biometrics readers are deployed in many public sites and are used for user identification and verification. Nowadays, most biometrics readers can be connected to local area networks, and consequently, they are potential targets for network attacks. This article investigates the robustness of several fingerprint and iris readers against common denial of service attacks. This investigation has been conducted using a set of laboratory experiments and DoS attack generator tools. The experiments show clearly that the tested biometric readers (...) are very vulnerable to common DoS attacks, and their recognition performances deteriorate significantly once they are under DoS attacks. Finally, the article lists some security consideration that should be taken into consideration when designing secure biometrics readers. (shrink)

The fundamental assumptions in Dijkstra''s influential article on computing science teaching are challenged. Dijkstra''s paper presents the radical novelties of computing, and the consequent problems that we must tackle through a formal, logic-based approach to program derivation. Dijkstra''s main premise is that the algorithmic programming paradigm is the only one, in fact, the only possible one. It is argued that there is at least one other, the network-programming paradigm, which itself is a radical novelty with respect to the implementation (...) of problems on computers. And, as one might expect of a radical alternative, it shows much of the conventional wisdom concerning computing science, which Dijkstra variously attacks and dispenses, to be special pleading; not universals of computing at all. Finally, we explore what is known of this new paradigm in order to see what light it sheds on the fundamental problems that computing really does present to us. Not surprisingly, some become less problematic, some disappear altogether and others take their place, but, in general, it must be of benefit to modern computer technology to gain a wider perspective on the possibilities instead of seeing everything through the traditional tunnel of programming as formula derivation, and computers as the requisite, special type of symbol manipulation device. (shrink)

This aricle discusses the similarity between the propagation of pathogens (viruses and worms) on computer networks and the proliferation of pathogens in cellular organisms (organisms with genetic material contained within a membrane-encased nucleus). It introduces several biological mechanisms which are used in these organisms to protect against such pathogens and presents security models for networked computers inspired by several biological paradigms, including genomics (RNA interference), proteomics (pathway mapping), and physiology (immune system). In addition, the study of epidemiological models for (...) disease control can inspire methods for controlling the spread of pathogens across multiple nodes of a network. It also presents results based on the authors’ research in immune system modeling. (shrink)

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois. The focus of this paper is to present observations related to information assurance in rural and urban populations. Based on our experience teaching college students in these environments, we have noted that on entering school, generally, individuals demonstrate limited background knowledge of a variety of computer related technologies. Students begin with a technical disadvantage that (...) represents a readily exploitable attack vector for identity thieves. Because of the experience deficit, the hazard of identity theft is significant with possible severe detrimental outcomes for the student victim. In addition, the negative impact on the society as a whole is substantial. Methods that reach beyond traditional formal computer or network security instruction in the classroom and extend information assurance education across disciplines are needed. We have explored this direction at the university and have worked on strategies to educate students about identity theft. The interdisciplinary programs outlined here span the curriculum. In addition, we suggest community outreach programs that extend the scope of influence of information assurance education beyond the university to include surrounding at risk populations. (shrink)

This book deals with the major ethical and social implications of computer networking and its technological development. In this book, a number of leading thinkers--philosophers, computer scientists and researchers--address some fundamental questions posed by the new technology.

The tenuous network of interconnected data that supports our nation's critical infrastructure has been built up, computer by computer, over only the last few decades. From punch cards to the supercomputers constructed by pioneers in today's fields, computers have been controlling our nation's critical sectors nearly every step of the way. As designers of today's critical systems gravitate slowly towards systems that require less human oversight than ever before, the vulnerability of the networks that control our electricity (...) systems, water supply, and banking services also continues to increase. In recent control system security reviews, the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security hired experts from Idaho National Labs who found that not only do "all of the evaluated systems suffer from high-impact security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a low-skill-level attacker," but "in currently deployed systems, enhanced security controls cannot easily be implemented while still assuring basic system functionality". While the federal government has attempted on several occasions to outline its strategy to implement cybersecurity policies, its defining statement on the issue is in the form of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan. Even then, these government documents mean little if neither government nor private agencies implement them in their respective fields. (shrink)

In Belnap's useful 4-valued logic, the set 2 = {T, F} of classical truth values is generalized to the set 4 = ������(2) = {Ø, {T}, {F}, {T, F}}. In the present paper, we argue in favor of extending this process to the set 16 = ᵍ (4) (and beyond). It turns out that this generalization is well-motivated and leads from the bilattice FOUR₂ with an information and a truth-and-falsity ordering to another algebraic structure, namely the trilattice SIXTEEN₃ with an (...) information ordering together with a truth ordering and a (distinct) falsity ordering. Interestingly, the logics generated separately by the algebraic operations under the truth order and under the falsity order in SIXTEEN₃ coincide with the logic of FOUR₂, namely first degree entailment. This observation may be taken as a further indication of the significance of first degree entailment. In the present setting, however, it becomes rather natural to consider also logical systems in the language obtained by combining the vocabulary of the logic of the truth order and the falsity order. We semantically define the logics of the two orderings in the extended language and in both cases axiomatize a certain fragment comprising three unary operations: a negation, an involution, and their combination. We also suggest two other definitions of logics in the full language, including a bi-consequence system. In other words, in addition to presenting first degree entailment as a useful 16-valued logic, we define further useful 16-valued logics for reasoning about truth and (non-)falsity. We expect these logics to be an interesting and useful instrument in information processing, especially when we deal with a net of hierarchically interconnected computers. We also briefly discuss Arieli's and Avron's notion of a logical bilattice and state a number of open problems for future research. (shrink)

There is much effort nowadays to protect communication networks against different cybersecurity attacks (which are more and more sophisticated) that look for systems’ vulnerabilities they could exploit for malicious purposes. Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDSs) are popular tools to detect and classify such attacks, most of them based on ML models. However, ML-based NIDSs cannot be trained by feeding them with network traffic data as it is. Thus, a Feature Engineering (FE) process plays a crucial role (...) transforming network traffic raw data onto derived one suitable for ML models. In this work, we study the effects of applying one such FE technique in different ways on the performance of two ML models (linear and non-linear) and their selected features. This the Feature as a Counter approach. The derived observations are computed from either with the same number of raw samples, (batch-based approaches) or by aggregating them by time intervals (timestamp-based approach). Results show that there is no significant differences between the proposed approaches neither in the performance of the models nor in the selected features that validate our proposal making it feasible to be widely used as a standard FE method. (shrink)

25 years ago, when AI & Society was launched, the emphasis was, and still is, on dehumanisation and the effects of technology on human life, including reliance on technology. What we forgot to take into account was another very great danger to humans. The pervasiveness of computer technology, without appropriate security safeguards, dehumanises us by allowing criminals to steal not just our money but also our confidential and private data at will. Also, denial-of-service attacks prevent us from accessing (...) the information we need when we want it. We are being dehumanised not by the technology but by criminals who use the ubiquity of the technology and its lack of security to steal from us and prevent us from doing what we want. What is more interesting is that this malevolent use of the technology doesn’t come from monolithic corporate structures eager to control our lives but mainly from individuals keen to demonstrate their knowledge of the technology for social networking purposes. The aim of this paper is to turn the clock back 25 years and present an alternative perspective: the single, biggest threat of dehumanisation is not the pervasiveness and ubiquity of computers but the lack of ensuring that humans are provided with the basic security they need for using the technology safely and securely. Cyberspace is not a safe space to be. This was something that even far-sighted researcher colleagues in the 1970s and 1980s overlooked. The paper will explore where we went wrong 25 years ago in our predictions and concerns. We will also present a scenario that allows future generations to have a safer cyberworld. (shrink)

The first decade of the twenty-first century introduced a cultural shift where terrorism is concerned by making new technologies such as computers and networks available as both tools and targets for exploitation. The current rise in the number of attempts at launching a cyber attack may represent a new generation of “terrorists” and their discontent with governments, private companies, or with other non-governmental groups. Using cyber technologies has many benefits for the user and the potential of causing more damage by (...) a keystroke than a bomb is increasing daily. Despite much recent scholarship on cyber terrorism, however, there continue to be problems not only in defining what cyber terrorism means but in identifying both who are the actors and the panoply of choices actors confront. In this essay, I attempt to clarify these problems by defining key terms and by analyzing the recent escalation in cyber use in the European context. (shrink)

Blockchain technology applied to cryptocurrencies is the dominant factor in maintaining the security of cryptocurrencies. This article reviews the technological implementation of cryptocurrency and the security and stability of cryptocurrency and analyzes the security support from blockchain technology and its platforms based on empirical case studies. Our results show that the security support from blockchain technology platforms is significantly insufficient and immature. In addition, we further Zyskind and Nathan and Choi and find that the top ten platforms play critical roles (...) in security support and have significant advantages in terms of funds, duration, and human resources. Moreover, these platforms provide computational resources and benefits to the consensus algorithm selection for blockchain practitioners. Second, encryption ensures the security of cryptocurrencies. On the one hand, the digital signatures identify the identity of the signatory and the transaction. However, the principle of the hash algorithm confirms ownership. Meanwhile, SHA256 is infeasible to compute in the reverse direction and is difficult to attack. Furthermore, the records in the blockchain can be queried by every participant, making the system information transparent and open reliable. Third, compared to the study of Fu and Fang 2016, we find that the blockchain structure is composed of security components and basic components of six layers that are independent and cannot be extended completely and have a certain coupling among them. Fourth, the underlying ledger structures of Bitcoin and DAG are highly correlated to their security. Specifically, we follow Sompolinsky et al. and detect that the structure of SPECTRE ensures network security and robustness from its block production, conflict resolution, and generated trusted transaction sets. Meanwhile, the voting algorithm of SPECTRE makes resolving conflicting transactions by calculating votes and ensuring the transaction information that is virtually unable to be tampered with possible. In particular, the security calculation power of SPECTRE can reach 51% and resist “double-spend attacks” and “censorship attacks” effectively. In addition, the RDL framework of SPECTRE achieves security confirmation of transferring funds. Moreover, PHANTOM identifies evil blocks by employing block connectivity analysis and ensures its security. Eventually, we also expand the studies of and compare the basic characteristics of the protocols of Bitcoin, SPECTRE, and PHANTOM and find that protocols play imperative roles throughout the implementation process of cryptocurrency. In addition, the underlying ledger structure and consensus mechanism make up a blockchain while the confirmation time, throughput limit, and ordering are prerequisites for smart contracts. (shrink)

Abstract: Networking is one of the most important areas currently used for data transfer and enterprise management. It also includes the security aspect that enables us to protect our network to prevent hackers from accessing the organization's data. In this paper, we would like to learn what the network is and how it works. And what are the basics of the network since its emergence and know the mechanism of action components. After reading this paper - even (...) if you do not have a general background on networking - you will be able to manage your own network and be able to distribute and control your ip. (shrink)

Role-based database management systems are most widely used for information storage and analysis but are known as vulnerable to insider attacks. The core of intrusion detection lies in an adaptive system, where an insider attack can be judged if it is different from the predicted role by performing classification on the user’s queries accessing the database and comparing it with the authorized role. In order to handle the high similarity of user queries for misclassified roles, this paper proposes a (...) deep metric neural network with strategic sampling algorithm that properly extracts salient features and directly learns a quantitative measure of similarity. A strategic sampling method of heuristically generating and learning training pairs through Monte Carlo search is proposed to select a training pair that can represent the entire dataset. With the TPC-E–based benchmark data trained with 11,000 queries for 11 roles, the proposed model produces the classification accuracy of 95.41%, which is the highest compared with the previous models. The results are verified through comparison of quantitative and qualitative evaluations, and the feature space modelled in the neural network is analysed by t-SNE algorithm. (shrink)

Over the years, artificial neural networks have been applied successfully in many areas including IT security. Yet, neural networks can only process continuous input data. This is particularly challenging for security-related, non-continuous data like system calls of an operating system. This work focuses on five different options to preprocess sequences of system calls so that they can be processed by neural networks. These input options are based on one-hot encodings and learning word2vec, GloVe or fastText representations of system calls. As (...) an additional option, we analyse if mapping system calls to their respective kernel modules is an adequate generalization step for replacing system calls or enhancing system call data with additional information regarding their context. When performing such preprocessing steps it is important to ensure that no relevant information is lost during the process. The overall objective of system call analysis in the context of IT security is to categorize a sequence of them as benign or malicious behavior. Therefore, this scenario is used to evaluate different system call representations in a classification task. Results indicate that a broader range of attacks can be detected when enriching system call representations with corresponding kernel module information. Prior learning of embeddings does not achieve significant improvements. This work is an extension of the work by Wunderlich et al. [1] published in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. (shrink)

Fluid neural networks can be used as a theoretical framework for a wide range of complex systems as social insects. In this article we show that collective logical gates can be built in such a way that complex computation can be possible by means of the interplay between local interactions and the collective creation of a global field. This is exemplified by a NOR gate. Some general implications for ant societies are outlined. ©.

Formal models of argumentation have been investigated in several areas, from multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence (AI) to decision making, philosophy and law. In artificial intelligence, logic-based models have been the standard for the representation of argumentative reasoning. More recently, the standard logic-based models have been shown equivalent to standard connectionist models. This has created a new line of research where (i) neural networks can be used as a parallel computational model for argumentation and (ii) neural networks can be used (...) to combine argumentation, quantitative reasoning and statistical learning. At the same time, non-standard logic models of argumentation started to emerge. In this paper, we propose a connectionist cognitive model of argumentation that accounts for both standard and non-standard forms of argumentation. The model is shown to be an adequate framework for dealing with standard and non-standard argumentation, including joint-attacks, argument support, ordered attacks, disjunctive attacks, meta-level attacks, self-defeating attacks, argument accrual and uncertainty. We show that the neural cognitive approach offers an adequate way of modelling all of these different aspects of argumentation. We have applied the framework to the modelling of a public prosecution charging decision as part of a real legal decision making case study containing many of the above aspects of argumentation. The results show that the model can be a useful tool in the analysis of legal decision making, including the analysis of what-if questions and the analysis of alternative conclusions. The approach opens up two new perspectives in the short-term: the use of neural networks for computing prevailing arguments efficiently through the propagation in parallel of neuronal activations, and the use of the same networks to evolve the structure of the argumentation network through learning (e.g. to learn the strength of arguments from data). (shrink)

According to usage‐based approaches to language acquisition, linguistic knowledge is represented in the form of constructions—form‐meaning pairings—at multiple levels of abstraction and complexity. The emergence of syntactic knowledge is assumed to be a result of the gradual abstraction of lexically specific and item‐based linguistic knowledge. In this article, we explore how the gradual emergence of a network consisting of constructions at varying degrees of complexity can be modeled computationally. Linguistic knowledge is learned by observing natural language utterances in an (...) ambiguous context. To determine meanings of constructions starting from ambiguous contexts, we rely on the principle of cross‐situational learning. While this mechanism has been implemented in several computational models, these models typically focus on learning mappings between words and referents. In contrast, in our model, we show how cross‐situational learning can be applied consistently to learn correspondences between form and meaning beyond such simple correspondences. (shrink)

Imagine this scenario: a bank customer walks up to an ATM to withdraw cash from her account. While entering her PIN, she accidentally presses the '3' key at the same time as the 'Clear' key. Instantly $100 comes out of the cash dispenser! Curious, she checks the receipt and seeing that the money did not from her account, she tries the same operation. Again, $100 comes out of the cash dispenser. At this point she has two options, A: she can (...) continue to take advantage of this obvious flaw and tell her friends, or B: she can report this problem to the bank, telling no one else. While Kantian ethics might require the latter, the issue becomes much grayer when it comes to computer software vulnerabilities. Many variables exist to cloud the ethical judgment of a software flaw's discoverer. The question becomes: is it better to report any vulnerability that could cause catastrophic problems or to make the vulnerability information public in order to simultaneously compel the software vendor to address the problem while giving the vendor's customers a chance to prepare for potential exploitation? Software companies are facing this dilemma on a regular basis. There are dozens of websites, newsgroups, and e-mail lists dedicated to the task of sharing vulnerability information, whether condoned by the software company or not. The issue increases in severity as vulnerable software becomes ubiquitous across global networks. The public release of vulnerability information is often the first drop of the monsoon that is the malicious network worm. How this information is controlled and disseminated is critical to the stable operation of millions of computer systems and networks across the globe.Modern software with network capability is fundamentally complex and can span thousands of lines of source code for one small part of the package. Without proper testing and quality assurance, many bugs and errors slip through. Software development requires these iterations of coding and bug fixing to produce stable and polished final products. Larger and more complex software gives a greater chance for a bug to remain undiscovered. Yet, since major vulnerabilities have appeared in relatively smaller projects, proper code audit and testing are critical regardless of the size of a software package or the amount of source code required to produce it. If bugs or security vulnerabilities are not discovered and fixed by the software manufacturers, it is inevitable that they will be discovered by outside researchers.This breeds the ethical conundrum of what the researchers do with the information once it has been discovered. Foundational to disclosure, regardless of the ideology, is the notion of providing useful protective information to the most appropriate audience. Many suggest that disclosure is about doing the 'greatest good' for the greatest number of people, which is an obvious adherence to the ethical principle of Utilitarianism. There are numerous parties involved in the network security process such as software vendor, security researcher, system administrator, and even malicious attacker: all whose intentions reflect on the ethical principles behind their actions. (shrink)