38459829
Mandatory protection for Internet server software
Server software on the Internet is today's high point for software at risk. Ongoing reports of security flaws suggest that conventional Internet server software packages are intrinsically vulnerable to "server overrun", an attack that subverts the server's behavior and causes it to run attack code instead. The attack code then penetrates other portions of the server host or site unless there are additional defenses. Mandatory protection mechanisms, like those developed for multilevel security applications, can limit the risks of server overrun to a site. Commercial systems have been developed that use three distinct mechanisms: Unix "chroot" isolation, multilevel security (MLS), and type enforcement. The paper compares and contrasts these three mechanisms for server protection.
226549
Using type enforcement to assure a configurable guard
Prior to the introduction of guard systems for electronic mail, guards tended to be overly specialized and not versatile enough for today's user community. The paper examines the use of type enforcement to create a highly assured yet administrator configurable guard. The administrator must be able to trust that the configuration provided will indeed be followed. This occurs by using highly assured or trusted components. These trusted components are then linked together via type enforcement to form a pipeline, with one input channel for data to enter the guard, and one separate, connected output channel for data to exit the guard. These channels are connected via assured processes whose behavior is restricted by the type enforcement mechanism. Furthermore, type enforcement is also used to isolate many components of the guard, which simplifies the assurance arguments. This technology is applied in the latest operational guards developed by the Secure Computing Corporation.
15267324
The Contract Net Protocol: High-Level Communication and Control in a Distributed Problem Solver
The contract net protocol has been developed to specify problem-solving communication and control for nodes in a distributed problem solver. Task distribution is affected by a negotiation process, a discussion carried on between nodes with tasks to be executed and nodes that may be able to execute those tasks.
5462210
Programming as an Experience: The Inspiration for Self
The Self system attempts to integrate intellectual and nonintellectual aspects of programming to create an overall experience. The language semantics, user interface, and implementation each help create this integrated experience. The language semantics embed the programmer in a uniform world of simple objects that can be modified without appealing to definitions of abstractions. In a similar way, the graphical interface puts the user into a uniform world of tangible objects that can be direcdy manipulated and changed without switching modes. The implementation strives to support the world-of-objects illusion by minimizing perceptible pauses and by providing true source-level semantics without sacrificing performance. As a side benefit, it encourages factoring. Although we see areas that fall short of the vision, on the whole, the language, interface, and implementation conspire so that die Self programmer lives and acts in a consistent and malleable world of objects.
12720907
XCS for robust automatic target recognition
A primary strength of the XCS approach is its ability to create maximally accurate general rules. In automatic target recognition (ATR) there is a need for robust performance beyond so-called standard operating conditions (SOCs, those conditions for which training data is available) to extended operating conditions (EOCs, conditions of known targets that cannot be foreseen and trained for). EOCs include things like vehicle-specific variations, environmental effects (mud, etc.), unanticipated viewing angles, and articulation of components of the target (hatches, turrets, etc.). This paper presents experiments where XCS addresses structural generalization over global and local features normally used in ATR classification. In many SOCs, these features are adequate for target recognition. Our goal with XCS is to form generalized rules that utilize these features for effective ATR in EOCs. Results show that XCS is effective in this generalization task. Conclusions and future directions for research are discussed.
11578423
A Framework to place Cross-cultural Case Study Research in an Information Systems Action Research Context
2 School of Management Information Systems, Deakin University, Australia. E-mail: smithr@deakin.edu.au . ABSTRACT: The progressive evolution of the global information society has escalated the debate over effective ways to facilitate relevance in information systems research without sacrificing rigor. Accommodation of interpretivist research methodologies has been suggested to address this problem, particularly in instances of research conducted in Asian developing countries. This paper discusses problems encountered in attempting to apply, in such a context, positivist longitudinal case study research methods, using models originating from research focused on organisations in Western, developed economies. We outline a synthesis of the positivist methods with an action research approach, and the subsequent use of a particular research framework to track progress and report outcomes.
31744347
Undergraduate Software Engineering - An Innovative Degree at Swinburne
In this paper we outline the context for the development of an undergraduate degree in Software Engineering in Australia, reflect on curriculum development ideas relevant to such a degree, and describe aspects of the Computer Science degree at Swinburne which, despite its title, may be viewed as a Software Engineering degree. We emphasise the role of project-based units within the degree.