Ioanis Nikolaidis

The Crisis of Today Is the Joke of Tomorrow [Editor's Note]

Dear readers, welcome to the November 2008 issue of IEEE Network. Hopefully, the end of the year is finding you all in good health. This has been an interesting period in recent history. Acute convulsions in the financial sector will be felt for a while in the technology sector as well. As with most events of some significance, even words and expressions lose their meaning. (Think how secure you feel today when hearing the expression that something is as safe as ?money in the bank?!) But on a more hopeful note, we can remember how H. G. Wells put it: ?The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow.? So, let us wait for tomorrow then.

Risk homeostasis and network security [Editor's Note]

This Special Issue is dedicated to the topic of network intrusion detection. The wide use of many varieties of intrusion detection systems reveals a certain degree of acceptance that, despite our best intentions for building secure systems, there is always enough opportunity for attacks, possibly exploiting weaknesses of the very systems we thought to be secure. Moreover, even though attacks usually follow patterns that can be subsequently used to detect them, they also happen to be the product of intelligent adversaries ? humans. The ability to orchestrate ever more elaborate attacks, exhibiting patterns not seen before, means that we expect an IDS to be ready to discern new patterns found to be conceivably detrimental to the security requirements of a system. Intrusion detection systems are sometimes criticized as doing too little too late. However, there are cases where even a late response is better than no response at all.

Handover [Editor's Note]

After more than two years serving as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Network I am stepping down, as new duties at my University have caught up with whatever free time (under whatever definition of free time) I was able to devote to IEEE Network. We are extremely fortunate to have as our new Editor-in- Chief, Dr. Thomas M. Chen. Dr. Chen is a Professor in Networking at the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications (IAT) of Swansea University, UK. Tom has, among other things, the valuable experience of having been Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Communications Magazine between 2006 and 2007. I would like to extend a warm welcome and wish Tom the best of luck!

The procrustean network [Editor's Note]

A variety of compositions suitable for use within methods for (a) reducing the formation of stomach ulcers in warm-blooded animals, (b) reducing the secretion of stomach acid in warm-blooded animals, and (c) increasing the secretion of ctyoprotective mucous in the stomach of warm-blooded animals are disclosed. The compositions include glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine, glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine: copper(II), and derivatives thereof.

On Voyeuristic Protocols [Editor's Note]

A pharmaceutical composition containing a thiophene compound of formula: (I) where R1, R2, R3 and R4 have the meanings given in the description, or a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt thereof. Said pharmaceutical compositions are useful in treating tumors. New thiophene compounds are also described.

Mobile applications; architecture, design, and development [Book Review]

The Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and its Component Information Model (CIM) are a means to develop telecommunication applications management. Reading about network management in abstract terms is a problem avoided in Chris Hobbs’ book by introducing examples of how WBEM/CIM can be used by a developer. Early on, the distinction between WBEM’s and SNMP’s models of operation is made (SNMP being data-centric, i.e., based on a structural model, and WBEM being task-centric, i.e., based on a behavioral model). However, WBEM’s power comes at the expense of having to master a fairly wide set of standardized technologies. WBEM is described as a combination of four technologies: CIM (a modeling process and language, the latter going by the name of Managed Object Format, mof), a standardized architecture for hierarchical management systems (inclusive of a WBEM server), an encoding specification (xmlCIM) for commands and responses (includes the representation of CIM in XML), and, most familiar to all, a protocol, HTTP, for encapsulation and transport across a network. Part of the book deals with what amounts to object-oriented modeling, which is fundamental to CIM. Thus, the target audience is implementers of network management systems, mildly familiar with objectoriented languages but not necessarily seasoned in modeling using object-oriented approaches. Understandably, apart from three introductory chapters, the modeling part (models in CIM, standard models, and building models for devices and services) along with the implementation part (experiences of the book’s author, transition from SNMP, helpful tools and available software implementations) form a major part of the book. Added background is provided in three chapters regarding the high-level architecture as well as the interaction of WBEM server and client entities.