Joseph Migga Kizza

History of Computing

After reading this chapter, the reader should be able to: 1. Learn about the contributions of several pioneers in the computing field. 2. Compare life before and after the advent of personal computers and the Internet. 3. Identify significant continuing trends in the history of the computing field.

Discovering topics from dark websites

Analysis of dark websites is important for developing effective combating strategies against terrorism or extremists when more and more scattered terrorist cells use the ubiquity of the Internet to form communities in virtual space with fairly low costs. Terrorists or extremists anonymously set up various web sites embedded in the public Internet, exchanging ideology, spreading propaganda, and recruiting new members. In this paper, we propose a framework to discover latent topics via analyzing contents of dark websites. The content and data from dark websites are gathered and extracted by crawlers and exported to documents. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm is used to analyze the extracted documents so as to discover latent topics from web sites of terrorists or extremists. In contrast to the traditional Information Retrieval (IR) schemes, LDA-based analysis assigns a probability to a document and captures exchangeability of both words and documents. Our work helps to gain insights into the structure and communities of terrorists and extremists.

Fine-Grained Reputation-based Routing in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are the best choice for instant networks when no fixed infrastructure is available. MANETs can support applications in a variety of areas like emergency assistance and inter-vehicle communications. Most developed wireless ad-hoc routing protocols are designed to discover and maintain an active path from source to destination with an assumption that every node is friendly. However, it is possible that the participating nodes may be selfish or malicious. A mechanism to evaluate reputation and trust for each node is essential for the reliability of routing protocol in MANETs. We integrate reputation and trust management into routing protocols in MANETs. Reputation mechanism is based on constantly monitoring and updating first-hand and second-hand information. The nodes within the network are able to monitor their neighbors and obtain first-hand information based on the perceived behavior. Second-hand information is obtained from the sharing of first-hand information with other nodes. The nodes thus create total reputation value by a combination of firsthand and second-hand information. The total reputation value is then available to neighboring nodes for routing decisions. Dirichlet distribution is combined with Bayes theorem to provide finer granularity for nodes classification based on their behavior. Fine-grained reputation management is integrated into a routing protocol to explore the possibility and benefits on improvement of reliability in both route discovery and maintenance in MANETs.

System Intrusion Detection and Prevention

The psychology and politics of ownership have historically dictated that individuals and groups tend to protect valuable resources. This grew out of the fact that once a resource has been judged to have value, no matter how much protection given to it, there is always a potential that the security provided for the resource will at some point fail. This notion has driven the concept of system security and defined the disciplines of computer and computer network security. Computer network security is made up of three principles: prevention, detection, and response. Although these three are fundamental ingredients of security, most resources have been devoted to detection and prevention because if we are able to detect all security threats and prevent them, then there is no need for response.

Cloud Computing and Related Security Issues

Cloud computing as a technology is difficult to define because it is evolving without a clear start point and no clear prediction of its future course. Even though this is the case, one can say that it is a continuous evolution of a computer network technology going beyond the client–server technology. It is a technology extending the realms of a computer network, creating an environment that offers scalability, better utilization of hardware, on-demand applications and storage, and lower costs over the long run through the creation of virtual servers cloned from existing instances each offering near instantaneous increase in performance, allowing companies to react quickly and dynamically to emerging demands. The “cloud” or “cloud solution,” as the technology is commonly referred to, can either be hosted on-site by the company or off-site such as Microsoft’s SkyDrive and Samsung’s S-Cloud.

Mobile Money Technology and the Fast Disappearing African Digital Divide

Africa had a late start in the race to acquire most technologies and more so the information communication technologies (ICT). This last place in the race, compared to other continents, created the largest and deepest digital divide ever recorded in any technology for Africa. But the wind of change has unexpectedly started blowing across the continent following the rapid developments in digital technologies in the last 20 years. This coupled with the new African quest for technological acquisition driven mostly by an unprecedented indigenous interest in technological development and the numerous and sometimes ambitious initiatives by NGOs, the donor community and African governments themselves who have made comparatively huge investments in human capital development, have all created an environment where, for the first time in the history of Africa, Africans are running abreast with the rest of the world in the development of some technological milestones, including the mobile money payment system technology. The long awaited African technological dawn may be in sight. The article explores this amazing technological transformation of the African landscape and in particular focuses on the role of mobile money payment system in this transformation, one of the technologies that is cutting across the social economic stratification of the complex African societies and invigorate and excite the African elites as well as the rural poor, the unbanked and the unbankable, all in the process of accomplishing what other technologies of the past have failed to do in the last 50 years of African independence, that is to effectively start to narrow the insurmountable digital divide.

Securing the Information Infrastructure

As computer networks spread throughout the globe and as technology advances, we are increasingly dependent upon these networks to initiate and complete our daily tasks. However, in this steadily evolving environment, the privacy, security, reliability, and integrity of online content is tested continuously. Securing the Information Infrastructure provides a framework for building trust in computer technology by exploring an array of safeguards that can be used to uphold the integrity and reliability of computing systems. This book challenges readers to examine rapid advances in information technology to recognize its misuse in society, covering such pressing topics as computer ethics, computer network security, and computer forensics.

Developing Faculty Expertise in Information Assurance through Case Studies and Hands-On Experiences

Though many Information Assurance (IA) educators agree that hands-on exercises and case studies improve student learning, hands-on exercises and case studies are not widely adopted due to the time needed to develop them and integrate them into curriculum. Under the support of National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarship for Service program, we implemented two faculty development workshops to disseminate effective hands-on exercises and case studies developed through multiple previous and ongoing grants, and to develop faculty expertise in IA. This paper reports our experience of holding the faculty summer workshops on teaching information assurance through case studies and hands-on experiences. The topics presented at the workshops are briefly described and the evaluation results of the workshops are discussed. The workshops provided a valuable opportunity for IA educators to connect with each other and form collaboration in teaching and research in IA.

Security Threats to Computer Networks

In February, 2002, the Internet security watch group CERT Coordination Center first disclosed to the global audience that global networks, including the Internet, phone systems, and the electrical power grid, are vulnerable to attack because of weakness in programming in a small but key network component. The component, an Abstract Syntax Notation One, or ASN.1, is a communication protocol used widely in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Security in Wireless Networks and Devices

It is not feasible to discuss security in wireless networks without a thorough understanding of the working of wireless devices and networks. In fact, as we first set out to teach the computer network infrastructure in Chap. 1 in order to teach network security, we are going, in the first parts of this chapter, to discuss the wireless network infrastructure. As was the case in Chap. 1, it is not easy to discuss a network infrastructure in a few paragraphs and expect a reader to feel comfortable enough to deal with the security issues based on the infrastructure. So, although we are promising the reader to be brief, our discussion of the wireless infrastructure may seem long to some readers and sometimes confusing to others. Bear with us as we dispose of the necessary theory for a good understanding of wireless security.