General Attack Research Articles

Composable security of two-way continuous-variable quantum key distribution without active symmetrization

We present a general framework encompassing a number of continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocols, including standard one-way protocols, measurement-device-independent protocols as well as some two-way protocols, or any other continuous-variable protocol involving only a Gaussian modulation of coherent states and heterodyne detection. The main interest of this framework is that the corresponding protocols are all covariant with respect to the action of the unitary group $U(n)$, implying that their security can be established thanks to a Gaussian de Finetti reduction. In particular, we give a composable security proof of two-way continuous-variable quantum key distribution against general attacks. We also prove that no active symmetrization procedure is required for these protocols, which would otherwise make them prohibitively costly to implement.

Optimal stealthy false data injection attacks in cyber-physical systems

In this paper, the problem of false data injection attacks for cyber-physical systems is investigated. The Kullback–Leibler divergence is utilized to measure the stealthiness of the attacks. Different from the existing attack policies which are required to be zero-mean Gaussian distributed, a more general linear attack strategy based on Gaussian distribution with an arbitrary mean is proposed. Under the framework of the attacks, the degradation of system performance is analyzed by utilizing the statistical characteristics of the measurement innovation, and the optimal attack strategy is obtained by employing the Lagrange multiplier method to solve a constrained quadratic optimization problem. It is proved that the developed attack scheme can achieve the largest remote estimation error and guarantee the attack stealthiness simultaneously. Finally, simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the theoretical results.

Special versus general protection and attack of two assets

Two independent assets are analysed, being subjects to special and general protection and attack, supplementing earlier research on individual and overarching protection and attack. Sixteen analytical solutions are developed to examine how a defender and attacker choose either two special efforts, one general effort, or one special effort and one general effort. The latter occurs when the special unit effort cost for one asset is lower than that of the other asset and the general unit effort cost. The article provides a tool for each player to realise which of these three options it should choose when facing an opponent who also chooses between these three options. The solutions are explained and illustrated with examples. The article focuses on specialization versus generalization of effort which is of paramount importance.

Luther! Biographie Eines Befreiten by Joachim Köhler

Reviewed by: Luther! Biographie Eines Befreiten by Joachim Köhler Robert Christman Luther! Biographie Eines Befreiten. By Joachim Köhler. Leipzig: Evanglische Verlagsanstalt, 2016. 405 pp. Published on the eve of the Reformation's 500th anniversary, Joachim Köhler's biography is designed for a popular, but educated German audience. Neither a theologian nor Reformation historian, Köhler studied philosophy, German literature, and art history, receiving his Ph.D. for a dissertation on Friedrich Nietzsche. Since then he has authored biographies, monographs, and novels, most revolving around the lives of Nietzsche and Richard Wagner, has worked as editor for the German news magazine Stern, and directed its book-publishing branch. His current biography is his first foray into the sixteenth century. In his forward Köhler responds to claims that Luther is no longer relevant to Germans because he was too fanatical, no constitutionalist, [End Page 244] mostly devoid of democratic impulses, foreign to multiculturalism, not politically correct, brash, and servile to authority; nor did his message move toward humanistic, pacifistic, or socialist ideologies. Köhler claims—and this is his thesis—that for Luther, "it was enough to be a Christian, that is a truly human human being (menschlisher Mensch)" (7). In his own times, continues Köhler, Luther returned joy to religion, introduced a God who was not always wrathful, but smiling, a God who was present, not distant. For society, "He brought to the people their new freedom, and that sufficed" (9). Köhler insists that his book is no laudatio, but admits that in it the reader "will hear an unmistakable 'Long Live Luther!'" (9). The text follows the chronological arc of Luther's life in three sections: "Distress" (Bedrängnis) addresses Luther's life up to his Rome trip (1510/11); "Liberation" (Befreiung) describes his Reformation discoveries and early battles; and "Preservation" (Bewahrung) begins with the Diet of Worms (1521) and ends in 1525, with forays into Luther's later struggles, and even an assessment of his influence on J. S. Bach. Köhler's sources are exclusively German, consisting largely of Luther's own writings (with emphasis on the Table Talk), and a smattering of nineteenth-century treatments and more contemporary studies. Although much of the action of the book takes place in Luther's head, Köhler's biography is neither an intellectual nor psychological history, but a popularized version of both. The strength of the book is Köhler's skill in articulating complex theological issues in a comprehensible way. Köhler follows some current trends in Luther scholarship and ignores others. He emphasizes the influence of mysticism on Luther, and his copious (and uncritical) use of the Table Talk helps to humanize the Reformer. But he ignores studies that increasingly see Luther as the most important member of a group of intellectuals in Wittenberg. With the exception of Staupitz and his early encouragement, Luther stands as a solitary genius. Moreover Köhler takes as objective reality the Reformer's point of view, particularly with regard to late medieval piety and the papal church. More problematic is the work's teleological thrust. Often Köhler emphasizes the long-term impact of Luther's ideas—on the music of Bach or the formation of the German language—an approach [End Page 245] that while accurate, serves to heroicize Luther. Most dubious, however, is Köhler's claim that in its origins, Luther's Reformation was conceived of by Staupitz and Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, who employed the zealous young monk to attack the papacy. Having discerned that indulgences were the church's weakest point, these co-conspirators pointed Luther in that direction. As a result, Luther's ninety-five theses are no longer the result of a personal theological breakthrough or pastoral concerns, but ultimately a product of Staupitz's and Frederick's machinations. Köhler goes so far as to claim that "Because Frederick's professor raised his general attack on indulgences to the door of Wittenberg's indulgence central [the Castle Church], no suspicion would possibly fall on the Elector" (146). In other words, by having Luther nail the theses to the structure housing his own relic collection (a...

A Novel Digital Watermarking Approach against Geometical Distortions using DWT and LS-SVM

This paper proposes a novel algorithm for blind watermarking by applying discrete wavelet transformation and least squares support vector machine into watermark embedding and detection. It is strong against general attacks in the traditional digital watermarking, but difficult to geometric attacks. Firstly, discrete wavelet transformation is performed on coefficient block and watermark image is embedded. Subsequently, the trained least squares support vector machine is employed to extract the watermark blindly. Experimental results confirm that the proposed scheme is not only robust against common attacks such as noise, filter and crop, but also robust against geometrical distortions.

Source-device-independent heterodyne-based quantum random number generator at 17 Gbps

Random numbers are commonly used in many different fields, ranging from simulations in fundamental science to security applications. In some critical cases, as Bell’s tests and cryptography, the random numbers are required to be both private and to be provided at an ultra-fast rate. However, practical generators are usually considered trusted, but their security can be compromised in case of imperfections or malicious external actions. In this work we introduce an efficient protocol which guarantees security and speed in the generation. We propose a source-device-independent protocol based on generic Positive Operator Valued Measurements and then we specialize the result to heterodyne measurements. Furthermore, we experimentally implemented the protocol, reaching a secure generation rate of 17.42 Gbit/s, without the need of an initial source of randomness. The security of the protocol has been proven for general attacks in the finite key scenario.

On Jacob Marschak’s 1936 Erroneous Understanding of Keynes’s General Theory Comments on Mathematical Economics

Jacob Marschak badly misinterpreted Keynes’s critique of the Marshallian partial equilibrium approach to mathematical economics, as exemplified by A C Pigou, in the General Theory in 1936 when he helped set up the September, 1936 Econometrica seminar dealing with the General Theory, where Meade, Hicks, and Harrod presented their papers on the meaning of the General Theory. Harrod’s and Hick’s papers were later published in the first two issues of Econometrica in 1937 in volume 5. Marschak interpreted Keynes’s criticisms of Pigou’s Marshallian approach as a direct, general attack on all mathematical economics, instead of it being a specific attack on a particular type of mathematical economics that attempted to apply the ceteris paribus qualification, sound when made at the microeconomic level, at the macroeconomic level. Keynes wrote the General Theory to show that the Marshallian approach could not take into account the complications, feedback effects, and interdependencies at the macro level. What was required was a general, multiple equilibrium approach using sets of simultaneous, mathematical equations that incorporated uncertain expectations. The mathematical system had to be similar to the type of systems of simultaneous equations Keynes had worked with in the A Treatise on Probability to define upper and lower probabilities. Keynes provided a set of three simultaneous equations that he brought together in chapter 21 in section IV of the General Theory on pp. 298-299 that, when combined with his D-Z model of expected aggregate demand-expected aggregate supply, goes a long way toward allowing an economist to deal with the turbulence, intricacies and interdependences at the macroeconomic level. Marschak grasped none of Keynes’s system of mathematical equations.

Cryptanalysis of MRVLK Using Genetic Algorithm

Classical block ciphers do not show high performance confronting with analytical algorithms due to their rigid structure and fixed output. In recent years there is much attention to the encryption algorithms with random structure. One of these algorithms is message-based random variable length key (MRVLK) which has random numbers in its structure to achieve different random key and different random output in different execution. It is claimed that this algorithm is near random oracle model and its key has factorial order. In this article, it is tried to perform a general attack on that algorithm to analyze its weak points. Finally, by taking advantage of these weaknesses, a cipher-text only attack is applied by genetic algorithms to find the plaintext. Proposed method is implemented in Mat-lab software and was successful to find corresponding plaintext. Obtained results indicate that it is more than 80% efficient to find corresponding plaintext. These results can be improved by using other intelligent algorithms.

Security-proof framework for two-way Gaussian quantum-key-distribution protocols

Two-way Gaussian protocols have the potential to increase quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols' secret-key rates by orders of magnitudes~[Phys.~Rev.~A {\bf 94}, 012322 (2016)]. Security proofs for two-way protocols, however, are underdeveloped at present. In this paper, we establish a security proof framework for the general coherent attack on two-way Gaussian protocols in the asymptotic regime. We first prove that coherent-attack security can be reduced to collective-attack security for all two-way QKD protocols. Next, we identify two different constraints that each provide intrusion parameters which bound an eavesdropper's coherent-attack information gain for any two-way Gaussian QKD protocol. Finally, we apply our results to two such protocols.

Ping-pong protocol based on the orbital angular momentum of light

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) is one of the photon’s degrees of freedom in infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. In this paper, we use this photon property to propose a modified version of the deterministic two-way quantum key distribution protocol, known as ping-pong protocol, based on the OAM of light. The advantage of the protocol is that it does not require Bell measurement for decoding the information being transmitted, which makes the protocol more flexible and feasible for practical applications. We propose an implementation setup and show how the channel capacity of the protocol can be easily increased. The security of the protocol is analyzed and the probability of detecting Eve in a general incoherent attack is obtained.

An investigation of the corrosion behaviour of a FeNiCoAlTa shape memory alloy in 3.5 wt-% NaCl solution

ABSTRACTIn this study, the corrosion behaviour of an FeNiCoAlTa (NCAT) shape memory alloy in 3.5% (w w−1) NaCl solution was evaluated. Linear polarisation resistance and potentiodynamic polarisation tests were conducted at 25°C. An open circuit potential (OCP) of −381 mV (vs. saturated calomel reference electrode) and a corrosion rate (CR) of 0.0174 mm y−1 were obtained. The NCAT alloy did not show any passivation in the 3.5% (w w−1) NaCl solution. Its corrosion behaviour was very similar to that of G10180 (AISI 1018) carbon steel with the NCAT showing a lower CR and a less active OCP. Its corrosion in the solution was a combination of general dissolution and localised attack (pitting). Aging heat treatment caused β-Ni3Al phase, and tantalum to precipitate on the grain boundaries, resulting in chemical species segregation between the grain boundaries and the grains. The chemical segregation caused intergranular corrosion of the alloy.

Security proof for round-robin differential phase shift QKD

We give a security proof of the ‘round-robin differential phase shift’ (RRDPS) quantum key distribution scheme, and we give a tight bound on the required amount of privacy amplification. Our proof consists of the following steps. We construct an EPR variant of the scheme. We show that the RRDPS protocol is equivalent to RRDPS with basis permutation and phase flips performed by Alice and Bob; this causes a symmetrization of Eve’s state. We identify Eve’s optimal way of coupling an ancilla to an EPR qudit pair under the constraint that the bit error rate between Alice and Bob should not exceed a value beta . As a function of beta , we derive, for non-asymptotic key size, the trace distance between the real state and a state in which no leakage exists. We invoke post-selection in order to go from qudit-wise attacks to general attacks. For asymptotic key size, we obtain a bound on the trace distance based on the von Neumann entropy. Our asymptotic result for the privacy amplification is sharper than existing bounds. At low qudit dimension, even our non-asymptotic result is sharper than existing asymptotic bounds.

Medical image security enhancement using two dimensional chaotic mapping optimized by self-adaptive grey wolf algorithm

The development of encryption and decryption plays a vital role in the field of security. Recently, Chaos-based security has suggested the reliable and efficient way of securing the images. In this paper, Self-Adaptive Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) is proposed for optimizing 2-dimensional Logistic Chaotic Mapping (2DCM). Further, the security analysis of the proposed method is performed using different comparison such as key sensitivity, histogram analysis, adjacent pixel autocorrelation, information entropy, attacks, quality of encryption, Chi square test etc. Moreover, analytical outcomes are compared with the conventional algorithms like standard encryption and decryption, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and GWO. The experimental result stated that the proposed method is key sensitive and opposed to the general attacks during the encryption and decryption of images.

A counter-mine that explodes silently: Romano and Schmitt on the unity of the legal order

ABSTRACTThis contribution is intended to provide an answer to a controversial question: Why does Carl Schmitt – perhaps the firmest advocate of the state unity – not only mention and praise Santi Romano’s book on the legal order – a work that can be rightfully considered an uncompromising defence of legal pluralism – but even list him among his inspirers? While a given (and essentially flawed) interpretation of Romano’s institutional model, like that provided by Schmitt, actually makes his concrete-order thinking better suited to cope with the legal pluralism of modern social theory (and this is a possible answer to the opening question), it ultimately reveals the serious deficiencies of what can be defined as Schmitt’s institutional decisionism. Contrary to what Schmitt believes, indeed, Romano’s social ontology decisively contributes to demonstrate how the argument Schmitt uses in his general attack on social pluralism can also be re-deployed in its defence. Yet, Schmitt’s reappraisal of Romano’s concept of institution, questionable as it may be, addresses and tackles a crucial issue – probably, the crucial issue of both the entire book and his legal institutionalism as a whole – that Romano himself appears to be unable to solve and that still remains an open and challenging question for most social theorists.

Composable security analysis of continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with squeezed states for coherent attacks

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution protocol, whose security analysis does not rely on any assumption on the detection system, can immune the attacking against detectors. We give a first composable security analysis for continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution using squeezed states against general coherent attacks. The security analysis is derived based on the entanglement-based scheme considering finite size effect. A version of entropic uncertainty relation is exploited to give a lower bound on the conditional smooth min-entropy by trusting Alice's and Bob's devices. The simulation results indicate that, in the universal composable security framework, the protocol can tolerate 2.5 dB and 6.5 dB channel loss against coherent attacks with direct and reverse reconciliation, respectively.

Security analysis of a key based color image watermarking vs. a non-key based technique in telemedicine applications

Recently, digital watermarking has become an important technique to preserve patients’ privacy in telemedicine applications. Since, medical information are highly sensitive, security of watermarked medical images becomes a critical issue in telemedicine applications. In this paper, two targeted attacks have been proposed against a key based color image watermarking scheme and also a non-key based one, in order to evaluate their security in telemedicine applications. The target schemes are SVD-based and QR-based color image watermarking algorithms, which their embedding procedures are quit the same. The proposed attacks exploit the prior knowledge of the watermarking algorithms to make changes in the exact embedding spaces. Thus, these changes would cause disruption in extraction procedure. Our experimental results show that the key based watermarking scheme is more secure than the non-key based one. This is because the proposed targeted attack needs to distort the key based watermarked images more than non-key based ones to remove the embedded watermarks. Our proposed targeted attacks also have more efficient performance in removing watermarks than other general attacks such as JPEG compression, Gaussian noise and etc. Finally, these attacks have been proposed to show the vulnerabilities of watermarking schemes in order to help the designers to implement more secure schemes.

Stealthy attack detection and solution strategy for consensus-based distributed economic dispatch problem

Distributed system is efficient and scalable in modern power grid. However, a distributed system is so susceptible to attack. In this paper, we formulate consensus-based distributed economic problem under attacks, and the convergence of the algorithm under a realizable and general stealthy attack is proved. Then the expression of the convergence point is also provided. Furthermore, a strategy based on a defined observation network is proposed to detect whether the system is attacked by the false data injection to broadcast information. Consequently, the misbehaving agents are detected and removed, and the other agents can reach the optimal point under new optimal objective, the incremental cost and total generation cost can be decreased. The simulation studies not only validate the theoretical results but also show the effectiveness of proposed strategy.

Legitimation Crisis in Education

Professional educators are increasingly the subject of criticism from citizens. Citizens are concerned that graduates seem unable to perform in work roles. Although this problem significantly reflects changes in the content of work, citizens hold teachers responsible because education has implicitly promised vocational success. The attack on professional educators is intensified by a general citizen attack on commoditized social services. The extent of service delivery structures has led citizens to force service policy into the public political arena. Professional educators have difficulty responding to these problems or challenges because in claiming professional status they disavowed any political interests or skills. The politicization of services suggests that professions will take a new form in the future.

Relendo o debate entre Hart e Dworkin: uma crítica aos positivismos interpretativos

Com este trabalho, pretendemos lançar uma crítica a variações atuais do positivismo jurídico. Para tanto, consideramos útil, ainda hoje, traçar a trajetória do debate Hart-Dworkin como espécie de espinha dorsal da teoria dworkiniana sobre o direito válido, apresentada na forma de ataque geral (general attack) ao positivismo jurídico. Na sequência, expomos brevemente a teoria de Dworkin e como ela encaminha a polêmica que segue hoje. Por fim, propomos uma reflexão a respeito da via interpretativa deixada aos positivismos.

Impact of General Practitioner Transient Ischemic Attack Training on 90-Day Stroke Outcomes: Secondary Analysis of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Many patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA) receive initial assessments by general practitioners (GPs) who may lack TIA management experience. In a randomized controlled trial (RCT), we showed that electronic decision support for GPs improves patient outcomes and guideline adherence. Some stroke services prefer to improve referrer expertise through TIA/stroke education sessions instead of promoting TIA decision aids or triaging tools. This is a secondary analysis of whether a GP education session influenced TIA management and outcomes. Post hoc analysis of a multicenter, single blind, parallel group, cluster RCT comparing TIA/stroke electronic decision support guided GP management with usual care to assess whether a pretrial TIA/stroke education session also affected RCT outcomes. Of 181 participating GPs, 79 (43.7%) attended an education session and 140 of 291 (48.1%) trial patients were managed by these GPs. There were fewer 90-day stroke events and 90-day vascular events or deaths in patients treated by GPs who attended education; 2 of 140 (1.4%) and 10 of 140 (7.1%) respectively, compared with those who did not; 5 of 151 (3.3%), and 14 of 151 (9.3%), respectively. Logistic regression for association between 90-day stroke and 90-day vascular events or death and education, however, was nonsignificant (odds ratio [OR] .42 (.08 to 2.22), P = .29 and .59 (95% confidence interval [CI] .27 to 1.29), P = .18 respectively. Guideline adherence was not improved by the education session: OR .84 (95% CI .49 to 1.45), P = .54. In the described setting, a GP TIA/stroke education session did not significantly enhance guideline adherence or reduce 90-day stroke or vascular events following TIA.