Detecting Stealthy Backdoors with Association Rule Mining

in IFIP Networking 2012 (2012)

In this paper we describe a practical approach for detecting a class of backdoor communication channel that relies on port knocking in order to activate a backdoor on a remote compromised system ... [more ▼]

In this paper we describe a practical approach for detecting a class of backdoor communication channel that relies on port knocking in order to activate a backdoor on a remote compromised system. Detecting such activation sequences is extremely challenging because of varying port sequences and easily modifiable port values. Simple signature-based ap- proaches are not appropriate, whilst more advanced statistics-based test- ing will not work because of missing and incomplete data. We leverage techniques derived from the data mining community designed to detect se- quences of rare events. Simply stated, a sequence of rare events is the joint occurrence of several events, each of which is rare. We show that search- ing for port knocking sequences can be reduced to a problem of finding rare associations. We have implemented a prototype and show some ex- perimental results on its performance and underlying functioning. [less ▲]

Detecting Target-Area Link-Flooding DDoS Attacks using Traffic Analysis and Supervised Learning

in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (2018)

Detecting the ‘Black Hole’ of age-period excess mortality in 25 countries: Age-period-cohort residual analysis

in Bell, Andrew (Ed.) Age, Period, and Cohort Effects (2021)

In a time of worldwide availability of annual age-specific mortality data, we lack basic tools for detecting and graphing, from a comparative perspective, fine-grained deviations from mortality trends. We ... [more ▼]

In a time of worldwide availability of annual age-specific mortality data, we lack basic tools for detecting and graphing, from a comparative perspective, fine-grained deviations from mortality trends. We provide a new age-period-cohort-based methodology, combining information from age-period (AP) and APC-Detrended (APCD) analyses to detect all-cause mortality increases. Plotting the resulting AP coefficients and APCD residuals in equilateral Lexis diagrams, mortality patterns can easily be distinguished as age, period, or cohort trends and fluctuations. We highlight abnormalities as interactions of age and period (‘Black Holes’). We then investigate the ‘Black Holes’ of mortality of young-adult cohorts in the early 1990s in Spain, other southern European countries, and the U.S., in emphasizing their simultaneously occurring mortality crises. Additional analyses with WHO mortality data and epidemiological evidence from other studies show that these mortality increases likely result from lack of treatment and inadequate public health responses to the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We discuss other possible applications of the new method. [less ▲]

Detecting User Mode Linux Honeypots is fine ... but it's better to crash them.

Scientific Conference (2008)

Detecting “slippery slope” and other argumentative stances of opposition using tree kernels in monologic discourse

in International Joint Conference on Rules and Reasoning (2019)

The aim of this study is to propose an innovative methodology to classify argumentative stances in a monologic argumentative context. Particularly, the proposed approach shows that Tree Kernels can be ... [more ▼]

The aim of this study is to propose an innovative methodology to classify argumentative stances in a monologic argumentative context. Particularly, the proposed approach shows that Tree Kernels can be used in combination with traditional textual vectorization to discriminate between different stances of opposition without the need of extracting highly engineered features. This can be useful in many Argument Mining sub-tasks. In particular, this work explores the possibility of classifying opposition stances by training multiple classifiers to reach different degrees of granularity. Noticeably, discriminating support and opposition stances can be particularly useful when trying to detect Argument Schemes, one of the most challenging sub-task in the Argument Mining pipeline. In this sense, the approach can be also considered as an attempt to classify stances of opposition that are related to specific Argument Schemes. [less ▲]

Detection and characterization of critical transitions in mitochondrial activity via high content screening

Doctoral thesis (2014)

Critical transitions exist in many dynamical systems, ranging from the Earth’s cli- mate system to microcosm populations. During a critical transition, the state of a dynamical system abruptly changes ... [more ▼]

Critical transitions exist in many dynamical systems, ranging from the Earth’s cli- mate system to microcosm populations. During a critical transition, the state of a dynamical system abruptly changes from one stable state to another, typically without obvious prior warning. Preventing such abrupt changes remains a chal- lenge, however recently, several metrics were suggested as early warning signals. These indicators are thought to have predictive value for upcoming critical transi- tions. In Parkinson’s disease, there are no detectable motor symptoms in a patient until neuronal dopaminergic cell death exceeds 60–70%. Being able to define early warning signals in a disease context could open new avenues for both preventive and disease modifying treatments. We hypothesize that the dynamics of progression of some disorders including Parkinson’s disease could be manifested by critical tran- sitions. However, before rushing into medical applications, a thorough framework needs to be developed that aims to describe such nonlinear dynamics in cellular systems. In this thesis, we set out to study critical transitions in a simple cellular model using mitochondrial membrane potential ∆Ψ m as readout. To identify criti- cal transitions, we established a modular high-content screening platform allowing systematic perturbation of oxidative phosphorylation. To increase the probability for detecting a critical transition in ∆Ψ m , five inhibitory compounds were combined in multiple pairwise concentration landscapes. We show that critical transitions, de- tectable via ∆Ψ m , are an intrinsic property of the cellular system studied and that two-component Gaussian mixture models adequately capture the dynamics of the critical transition occurring for the combination of Oligomycin A and Antimycin A. Adding to that, we identified the coefficient of variation as a strong early warning signal for the upcoming of the critical transitions. This thesis should serve as a foundation for a broader application of critical transitions and early warning sig- nals in both cell culture systems and translational studies aiming to understand the nonlinear dynamics of biological systems. [less ▲]

DETECTION AND LOCALISATION OF DAMAGE ON INDUSTRIALLY PRODUCED CONCRETE SLABS THROUGH TIME- AND FREQUENCY-DOMAIN APPROACHES

in Carrera, E.; Miglioretti, F; Petrolo, M. (Eds.) 6th ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Smart Structures and Materials (SMART2013), Torino 24-26 June 2013 (2013, June)

The objective of this work is to address the problem of damage detection in civil engineering structures using non-destructive techniques and dynamic measurements. To this purpose, time- or frequency ... [more ▼]

The objective of this work is to address the problem of damage detection in civil engineering structures using non-destructive techniques and dynamic measurements. To this purpose, time- or frequency-domain methods are used for the diagnostics. It consists in practical output-only techniques as Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI) for modal identification or Enhanced Principal Component Analysis (EPCA) for detecting the presence of damage. The use of the Hankel matrix instead of the observation matrix improves effectively the robustness of these methods. Damage localization is based on Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) and sensitivity analysis of PCA results. The efficiency of the above-mentioned methods has been demonstrated in earlier studies mainly on numerical examples and small-scale laboratory experiments. It was also tested successfully on industrial examples to perform machine condition monitoring using a reduced set of sensors. In this work, the investigation is performed on precast prestressed and non-prestressed concrete slabs. Successive damages were artificially introduced in the slabs by loading heavy weights and by cutting steel wires, which induced cracks in the structure. The examples show the consequences of the considered techniques for damage identification. The results that are very different between prestressed and non-prestressed slabs may be used as input for the condition control of this kind of structures. [less ▲]

The detection and perveived intensity of noxious thermal stimuli in monkey and human

in Journal of Neurophysiology (1989), 62(2), 429-436

Détection de l'évolution du réseau tridimensionnel de fissures dans des matériaux poreux fragiles

in Conference: Techniques d'Imagerie pour la Caractérisation des Matériaux et des Structures du Génie Civil (2016)

Detection of a MoSe2 secondary phase layer in CZTSe by spectroscopic ellipsometry

in JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS (2015), 118