Browsing by Subject "security"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

Inferno: Side-channel Attacks for Mobile Web Browsers
(2015) Philipose, Manuel; Halpern, Matthew; Lifshits, Pavel; Silberstein, Mark; Tiwari, Mohit
We demonstrate power consumption as a side-channel on mobile devices. While web pages may look aesthetically similar, the web browser exercises different behaviors while rendering the underlying code. The variance between the browser’s behavior and power consumption implies that different webpages consume different amounts of power. Thus, webpages can be uniquely identified from one another by analyzing power traces collected during a page load. While power channel attacks and defenses have been analyzed for fixed function units such as secure cryptoprocessors, this side- channel has not been studied for general-purpose systems such as mobile devices. In our evaluation, we use this side-channel to reveal a mobile user’s browsing activity from the hardware level with 80% accuracy. In addition, we attempt to develop countermeasures to combat this type of attack. We use two approaches to decrease information leakage: normalizing the computational workload to make a signal indistinguishable or increasing the amount of computational noise to make a signal incomparable. To do this, we altered DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling) to alter CPU frequency. We noticed that holding CPU frequency constant improved the accuracy of our machine learning classification. Thus, we developed a CPU governor that would change the frequency randomly. This defense managed to reduce the accuracy of the attack to 26%.
Japan and a New International Security Paradigm
(IC² Institute, 1999-03-11) DiFilippo, Anthony
Argues that Japan has the potential to be recognized as a post-Cold War superpower, but has not been able to do so because of a lack of military/nuclear power and its alignment with the U.S. Discusses two security options, developing an offensive-oriented military and creating a new security paradigm based on United Nations–centered security and nuclear disarmament. Dismisses the first option as implausible and problematic and describes four areas, related to the second option, requiring steps for Japan to acquire superpower status: (1) advance the international perception that national pride may be raised by non-military use of science and technology, (2) make politically creative use of foreign assistance spending, (3) enlarge its role in diplomatic policy development, and (4) be willing to use engagement policies in its relations with the U.S. and other nations will nuclear weapons, such as tying trade concessions to participation in a global disarmament process.
Letter From Emmett L. Bennett Jr. to Thomas G. Palaima, April 20, 1996
(1996-04-20) Bennett, Emmett L., Jr.
Mapping Government Presence in the Northern Triangle: A Comprehensive Study on the Human Security Systems of the Northern Triangle, and Why Indicators of Government Presence are Difficult to Map
(2020-05-15) Royse, Mara Belle
After a surge of migrants in seek of security and asylum attempted to cross the United States’ southern border in 2019, U.S. officials have grown increasingly concerned with the condition of their neighbors to the south. The U.S. Department of State (DOS) and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) are attempting to identify and categorize indicators of government presence in the Northern Triangle region of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras), specifically in the sector of public security. Ideally, research gathered for this project would include a map of the collected addresses of public institutions that provide some form of essential human security to the region (i.e. public law offices, hospitals, police stations or outposts, etc.). The map would include details like numbers of staff per capita in a given area, and level of efficiency and efficacy. The information and data collected would assist the DOS and INL in targeting (with extreme accuracy) which precise locations need more resources and development to increase their response and service capabilities, and would allow agents to determine what areas of the overall systems of security require reform and restructuring.
On the United Nations
(2018-04-30) Reaves, Brooke
Safety In Numbers: Improving the University of Texas’ Security Climate Through the Control and Transmission of Information
(2018-05) Black III, Michael
Campus safety and security is a concern that challenges colleges across the country. This is true also for The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). With two recent homicides, a growing awareness of rampant sexual assault, and the political polarization of the student body, the dialogue surrounding UT Austin and its safety environment has become especially urgent and energetic. Interview with campus administrators suggested that one of the most effective ways to create a secure student body is to educate its constituents so that they can make informed decisions about their safety. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways that UT Austin can enhance its ability to create that informed community. The topic was divided into three categories, information, communication, and transparency that were analyzed individually. The first section investigates what information UT Austin is disseminating, how the data are formatted, how the information is contextualized, and what data are often inaccessible to the public. Delaying or withholding information degrades administrative transparency, which can erode student feelings of safety. The final section investigates ways that the University improve that relationship through performance analysis and feedback solicitation. To conduct this analysis, research on campus safety and security from 2000 to 2017 and interviews with campus administrators were synthesized along with a dataset comparing twenty peer institutions across a series of performance metrics. The results indicate that UT Austin currently has substantial growth potential in regards to its safety environment, and the study concludes by suggesting recommendations for the University that include publishing crime data in more open formats, increasing student involvement in campus security, streamlining and formatting online resources, and ensuring the recency of security information.
Seismic Detection and Analysis of Underground Laboratory Facilities
(2001) Hardage, Bob Adrian, 1939-
An abandoned underground tunnel complex at Fort Hood, Texas, was made available for project study. The physical size and depth of this tunnel system were similar to the physical dimensions and burial depths of underground laboratory (UGL) targets that are the subject of this UGL Countermeasures program. The first seismic field test objective at the Fort Hood tunnel system was to determine if cultural activity within a tunnel can be detected with seismic sensors deployed on the surface near an underground facility. The second objective was to try to identify a tunnel target with these same surface-positioned sensors using reflected and refracted seismic wavefields generated by a weight-drop source stationed at locations around the tunnel target. Seismic test data were recorded with three-component (3-C) geophones to allow vector extrapolation of event arrivals to their subsurface points of origin. The recording system had only 24 active recording channels, which limited the number of 3-D geophones that could be used for target detection and analysis to eight. Test results verified that cultural activity within a tunnel can be detected by surface-positioned seismic sensors. Point-source disturbances, such as hammering at a fixed location within the tunnel, yielded more interpretable data than did disturbances from a distributed source, such as the movement of airwaves along the entire 1000-ft length of the study tunnel when the entry doors were opened and closed. These data show that passive seismic monitoring of a UGL site will provide valuable information about UGL structure and geometry. The weight-drop source produced sufficient seismic illumination of the chosen tunnel target and other near-surface discontinuities in the tunnel area. These data demonstrate that UGL targets can be illuminated appropriately for target analysis purposes with seismic wavefields if an adequate number of moderate-energy source stations are distributed across a target area. The results shown here are qualitative in nature. Quantitative analysis of the data will be done during the next funding period.
Stabilizing Haiti: A Guide for Policymakers (Spring 2024)
(Texas National Security Review, 2024) Murray, Ian; Bernotavicius, Chris
Proposals for a security-focused intervention in Haiti are logical given the rampant instability and endless escalation of gang violence. Many argue that Haiti’s foundational problems of economic underdevelopment, violence, and weak institutions cannot be addressed without improvements in basic security. Previous interventions — always on scales far larger than the currently proposed U.N.-approved mission — have not served Haitian civil society. Instead they have shored up corrupt regimes, and it is far from clear that they have contributed to any stability in Haiti. The country’s challenges are fatalistically ascribed to violence, and the narrative that nothing can be done to improve Haiti’s economic and social conditions until security improves both belies the origin of Haiti’s economic challenges and precludes discussion of economic engagement. Haiti is in chaos, and events are moving quickly. This heightens the need to consider both immediate and longer-term policy responses rather than another security intervention that will repeat the mistakes of the past.
Strange Bedfellows: Understanding the Motives Behind the U.S.-Saudi Relationship from 1961-2016
(2021-05) Lee, Katie C.
After Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, many Americans questioned why the United States, a proud democracy, continued to work alongside the repressive Saudi monarchy. This thesis addresses this question and explains how this partnership evolved between 1961 and 2016. Throughout this work, I explore the principal interests that drove and maintained the U.S.-Saudi relationship over time. Although the United States claimed to champion human rights in its foreign policy decision-making, I argue that mutual oil and security interests, rather than liberal reform, directed the two countries’ relations.
Trump's National Security Strategy: A Critics Dream (February 2018)
(Texas National Security Review, 2018-02) Ashford, Emma; Itzkowitz Shifrinson, Joshua R.