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As organizations increasingly view information as one of their most valuable assets, which supports the creation and distribution of their products and services, information security will be an integral part of the design and operation of organizational business processes. Yet, risks associated with cyber-attacks are on the rise. Organizations that are subjected to attacks can suffer significant reputational damage as well as loss of information and knowledge. As a consequence, effective leadership is cited as a critical factor for ensuring corporate level attention for information security. However, there is a lack of empirical understanding as to the roles strategic leaders play in shaping and supporting the cyber-security strategy. This article seeks to address this gap in the literature by focusing on how senior leaders support the cyber-security strategy. The authors conducted a series of exploratory interviews with leaders in the positions of Chief Information Officer, Chief Security Information Officer, and Chief Technology Officer. The findings revealed that leaders are engaged in both transitional, where the focus is on improving governance and integration and transformational support, which involves fostering a new cultural mindset for cyber-resiliency and the development of an ecosystem approach to security thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gary McGraw talks to Craig Froelich, the CISO of Bank of America. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gary McGraw talks to Wafaa Mamilli is vice president, chief information security officer (CISO) at Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company, where she leads a global enterprise-wide information and product security organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gary McGraw speaks to Bruce Potter, chief information security officer (CISO) at Expel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gary McGraw interviews Gary Warzala, Visa's chief information security officer. He talks about the daily life of a CISO, how companies can attract and retain good security employees, and how to measure security and discuss the results with management. Hear the full podcast at www.computer.org/silverbullet. Show links, notes, and an online discussion can be found at www.cigital.com/silverbullet. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The divide between IT security and software security can result in the neglect of proper software security. This divide can be bridged by establishing a formal security champion role in the development team and conducting collaborative risk-based security activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Carolina governor's response to the SCDOR hack represents a textbook application of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's "five stages of grief" to cybersecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We need to bring serious study of misinformation and deception into the academy for analysis. A new discipline might be just the vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploration result of an increase in power electronics converter-based variable-speed drives for industrial applications reveals the impact of inverter-induced bearing current on the prevailing electric machine failure. The bearing current associated with drive systems is concerned about operating frequencies of the solid-state semiconductor switches, which may cause the electrostatic charge between stator and rotor, which eventually causes damage to windings and bearings. The various techniques comprised in the literature to suppress bearing currents are filter design, switching redundancy, common-mode circuitry, isolated grounding scheme, and grounding the motor shaft. From the literature, the pulse-width modulation inverter-injected common-mode voltage (CMV) is the main source of common-mode current, which causes the bearing current. Hence, the elimination of CMV paves the way for eliminating bearing current of the machine. This paper presents an innovative solution to suppress bearing currents by aiding a fourth arm circuitry to acquire near to zero potential (zero CMV) at machine neutral point. All the proposed circuitry and algorithm are simulated using MATLAB/Simulink and validation is done through a 2.5-kW neutral-point-clamped-multilevel inverter laboratory prototype using a Xilinx family SPARTAN-III-3A XC3SD1800A-FG676 digital signal processor-field programmable gate array board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Building Security in Maturity Model survey has been tracking software security activity adoption in 211 companies over 12 years. This article explores how organizations should adapt to the latest security challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) dual-parameter sensor is designed and fabricated. It was electroless plated with silver on the surface of the core of the plastic-clad optical fiber and a gold film was plated near the end face side to produce the double SPR resonance valleys. 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (4-MPBA) and $\beta $ -cyclodextrin ($\beta $ -CD) were coated separately on the surface of the silver and gold films. 4-MPBA can selectively recognize the structures of cis-vicinal diols, and thus can capture glucose that contains such structures. $\beta $ -CD is a class of cyclic oligosaccharides whose unique hydrophilic outer surface and lipophilic central cavity help facilitate the formation of inclusion complexes with cholesterol through multiple interactions. The sensor can detect 0–4 mM glucose and 0–500 nM cholesterol, and it has a linear response in the concentration range of 0–0.1 mM glucose and 0–15 nM cholesterol. The sensitivity of glucose and cholesterol concentration of the sensor is 89.6 and 0.994 nm/nM, respectively. The detection limits for quantifying glucose and cholesterol are $1.12~\mu \text{M}$ and 0.1 nM, respectively. The experimental results also show that the sensor has good selectivity and stability. The proposed technique can be further applied in medicine, environment, and biology monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT), which involves nanoparticles and near-infrared radiation (NIR) to generate confined heat, is a potential technique for selective thermal damage of cancerous tissue. Herein, tumor-selective spatial damage characteristics during polydopamine (PDA) coated gold nano blackbodies (AuNBs) mediated PPTT is investigated through a tumor-tissue mimicking phantom. The spatial temperatures during PPTT were measured within the phantom mimicking the optical scattering of superficial invasive ductal carcinoma (injected with AuNBs) surrounded by a region without AuNBs. The phantom was irradiated using broadband NIR radiation (754-816 nm), and spatial temperatures were measured using thermocouples and an infrared thermal camera. The obtained results demonstrate that the tumor region’s temperature was elevated to >50°C in about 2.5 minutes and was maintained thereafter for about 6 minutes, which is well sufficient for the thermal ablation of the tumor. While for the region surrounding the tumor, a temperature of about 40-44°C was attained, which is within safe limits for the said exposure duration. Overall, this study demonstrates that for the considered experimental parameters and tumor dimensions, heat-based thermal damage could be confined to the nanoparticle embedded tumor region while maintaining the safe temperature levels for the surrounding region, i.e., 2 mm beyond the tumor boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A proper description of the frequency-dependent seismic amplitude variation versus offset (AVO) responses should consider the effect of both the layered structure of a reservoir and the dispersive and attenuated property of the media in the reservoir. We propose an improved method to seamlessly link the rock physics modeling and the calculation for frequency-dependent reflection coefficients based on propagator matrix method. The improved AVO modeling method is implemented in frequency-wavenumber domain, and can accurately considers dispersion and attenuation that described by complex and frequency-dependent elastic properties predicted by rock physic models. Therefore, the improved method avoids errors resulting from truncating imaginary parts of the elastic properties as adopted by the conventional Zoeppritz-equation-based method. Moreover, the proposed method considers the intrinsic contribution of the layered structure to frequency-dependence of AVO responses, which has been ignored by current conventional methods. In addition, the method provides an efficient way to calculate seismograms for a dispersive and attenuated layered model. Finally, modeling results show the applicability of the improved method for the interpretation of complex frequency-dependent abnormalities, and indicate the potential for fluid detection in a layered reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent developments in medium-voltage (MV) silicon and silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductor devices are challenging state-of-the-art converter and auxiliary power supply (APS) designs. The APS is an important converter component, which energizes the gate-drive units and, therefore, has an influence on the overall reliability and efficiency of the converter system. There has, however, been comparably little research on how the APS of high-power converter submodules can be realized, in particular, for high-voltage applications. New, or improved, solutions may build on state-of-the-art topologies in the near future, but utilize MV SiC technology in the APS circuit itself to enable improved efficiency, reliability, simplicity, and compactness. Externally-fed APS concepts could provide several further advantages. Their various benefits on converter and system level may enable them to be a competitive solution for future APS concepts. Especially, light-based power supply systems are considered most useful since they offer extreme voltage isolation capability and immunity to electromagnetic interference. This article presents a review of the wide range of solutions for APSs, possible implementation options, and the most important design considerations. The different solutions are evaluated in a qualitative fashion, providing an overview of available APS concepts with regard to the requirements for high-power converter applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the importance of having full knowledge of certification and accreditation trends by businesses to keep clients' data secure, citing the need for business enterprises and individuals to deal with complex, changing and sometimes contradictory governmental requirements in the use and development of information technology. Key steps for dealing with the changes include breaking down the barriers between agencies and security, educating stakeholders to ensure they understand requirements and ensuring that the metrics used in governance are fair and accurate.

There is a disconnect between the assumptions and practices within the IT and operational technology communities. This article highlights the disparities in the context of the security and safety of industrial control systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wide-bandgap and silicon power semiconductor devices require advanced pulsewidth gate-driver capability to successfully convert power for high-performance operation. In this article, a simplified forward isolated resonant converter structure with an integrated planar transformer is proposed, a cost-effective solution which eliminates the need of an output filter inductor while rearranging the clamp circuit for reduced component ratings and voltage stress. The first design option uses a simple back-to-back Zener diode voltage clamp circuit for low-power dc–dc isolated power supply applications. The second design employs a lossless voltage-clamped converter with auxiliary energy-recovering winding with an application example for an isolated gate-driver power supply. Through analysis of the converter, the switching frequency has been selected in relationship to the transformer inductance and the equivalent circuit capacitance for the benefit of soft-switching power device transitions. The proposed resonant converter structure features an integrated planar transformer designed with a specific layer disposition to ensure low interwinding capacitance. The converter offers isolated supplies for a gate-driver power devices pair, such as half-bridge SiC devices. The simulation and experimental results are obtained from a gate-driver application platform to demonstrate the validity of the proposed isolated dc–dc converter design and integrated planar transformer with a total conversion efficiency of 87.7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This communication presents a framework for cosimulating receiving antenna arrays and receivers using circuit simulators. This framework is based on a recently introduced 2M-port electrical model of an M-element antenna array with M physically accessible ports and M “free-space” ports. Based on this framework, we describe analytical and simulator-based approaches to determine receiving-array performance metrics, such as isotropic noise response, beam-equivalent system and receiver noise temperatures, and noise-matching efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses supply-chain risk management from the perspective of cybersecurity and highlights some of the current practices and challenges of addressing supply-chain security. Based on their years of industry and government experience, the authors provide insight on how to improve supply-chain risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Arterial wall deformation, stiffness, and luminal pressure are well-recognized predictors of cardiovascular diseases but intertwined. Establishing a relationship among these three predictors is therefore important for comprehensive assessment of the circulatory system, but very few studies focused on this. Methods: In this study, we first derived a mathematical description for localized luminal pressure change (Δ p) as a function of arterial wall strains (ε) and shear modulus (οT) in the transverse plane; the arterial wall was modelled as a transversely isotropic and piecewise linearly-elastic material. Finite element simulations (FES) and in vitro fluid-driven inflation experiments were performed on arteries with both normal and abnormal geometries. ε and οT in the experimental study were estimated by an ultrasound elastographic imaging framework (UEIF). Results: FES results showed good accuracy (percent errors ≤ 6.42%) of the proposed method for all simulated artery models. Experimental results showed good repeatability and reproducibility. Estimated Δ ppp values (average peak-to-peak pressure change) compared with pressure meter measurements in two normal geometry phantoms and an excised aorta were 65.95 ± 4.29 mmHg vs. 66.45 ± 3.80 mmHg, 60.49 ± 1.82 mmHg vs. 59.92 ± 2.69, and 36.03 ± 1.90 mmHg vs. 38.8 ± 3.21 mmHg, respectively. For the artery with abnormal geometry mimicking a simple plaque shape, the feasibility of the proposed method for $\Delta {\boldsymbol{p}}$ estimation was also validated. Conclusion: Results demonstrated that UEIF with the proposed mathematical model, which lumped wall deformation, stiffness and luminal pressure, could estimate the localized dynamic luminal pressure change noninvasively and accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a cascaded gate drive power supply configuration to reduce the common mode (CM) current in phase-shifted full-bridge (PSFB) converters. In such converters, there are at least two $dV/dt$ sources generated at different floating points associated to the parasitic capacitances of the isolated barriers of the gate drivers (power supplies, and control signal isolation units), which can increase the conducted electromagnetic interference perturbations. This article is focused on the analysis of a new gate drive power supply configuration, which reduces the CM currents that circulate in the control part of the switching cells. This improvement is achieved by modifying the impedance network of CM current pathways. Experimental results are provided to prove the effectiveness of the new gate drive power supply configuration on a PSFB converter based on SiC-MOSFET devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the use of nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu) microfibrous meshes (MFMs) and Sorbothane and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) viscoelastic polymers to damp the dynamic response of a silicon micromachined vibration isolator (microisolator) for vibration reliability in mechanically harsh environments. The 9 × 9 mm2 microisolator is designed to house a small, packaged MEMS sensor to be isolated from the surrounding environment. Microisolators are fabricated from < 100 > silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers using standard lithography and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) procedures. The MFMs are attached to the microisolators post-fabrication via solder attachment. We then investigate the transmissibility of the undamped and damped vibration microisolators using laser Doppler vibrometry. The peak transmissibility of the microisolator is significantly reduced for all four cases of polymer or MFM damping. Experimental results are compared to the FEA simulated transmissibility and the analytically calculated transmissibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyber security has become crucial to any nation's security, economy, and overall well-being. While much has been written about India's rise as a global computing power, not much is known about its cyber security history. I seek to fill this gap through a comprehensive analysis of India's cyber security history and cyber security consciousness. To do this, I take a very wide view of cyber security––as the totality of security infrastructure that includes all technologies used for information collection, storage, and dissemination. My study also covers a very long period, starting from India's colonial times to the present. The long period of examination helps gain perspective on how India's security stances and security consciousness have evolved with time. Earlier colonial policies kept information and communications technologies (ICTs) strictly under government authority, to be wielded as tools of project power and control. These policies continued even after independence, with successive Indian governments retaining absolute monopoly over ICTs. I divide cyber security into internally-focused (i.e. censorship, surveillance, control of citizens) and externally-focused (i.e. defensive and offensive actions directed at malicious external and internal entities perceived as threats to the nation, its enterprises, and citizens) cyber security. My analysis shows that postindependent India granted its citizens freedom of expression and the freedom to elect and govern, but did not do away with the colonial vestiges of internally-focused control policies using ICTs. Nor has it been entirely successful in stitching together a comprehensive externally-focused cyber security policy, despite increasing threats from the outside. These are increasingly at odds with Indian citizens whose cyber security consciousness has grown and evolved over time. It is clear that the state and the citizens need to continuously and democratically negotiate cyber security, to balancing national security with the citizens' constitutionally protected rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we propose an optimized ${Y}$ -rotated cut of lithium niobate (LN) for multidirectional surface acoustic wave (SAW) propagation, simultaneously minimizing the anisotropic effects while maximizing the electromechanical properties of this cut of LN. The goal is to offer a piezoelectric material suitable for acoustofluidics applications that require greater flexibility in wave generation and propagation than the currently ubiquitous $128^{\circ }~{Y}$ -rotated ${X}$ -propagating cut. The 128YX LN cut is known to most effectively generate Rayleigh SAW along the ${x}$ -direction alone. Any SAW veering from this propagation direction is affected by beam steering and changes in resonance frequency and electromechanical coupling coefficients, consequently limiting the use of LN in various acoustofluidics applications, where more diverse configurations would be beneficial. The ${\mathcal {L}_{{2}}}$ -norm of these properties was evaluated under rotational transformation to produce a physical model with closed governing equations for 40-MHz surface wave propagation on the surface of a piezoelectric material. This was then utilized to obtain the surface wave velocity and coupling coefficient of the specific ${Y}$ -cut LN with respect to the propagating direction. Next, the averaged coupling coefficients of various ${Y}$ -cuts of LN in all propagating directions were calculated and integrated to simultaneously minimize anisotropy and maximize the electromechanical properties of the LN substrate. A $152^{\circ }~{Y}$ -rotated cut was found to be the optimal choice under these constraints, enabling multidirectional SAW propagation with greater coupling and lower variation in wave performance for SAW generated across the surface in any direction. Compared with the 128YX LN cut, this cut provides a 66.5% improvement in the in-plane isotropy and a 37.0% improvement in the average electromechanical coupling for in-plane SAW propagation. Experimental devices operating at the frequency of 40 MHz were designed, fabricated, and tested on the surface of this 500- $\mu \text{m}$ -thick specific cut of LN and served to verify the supporting analysis and the superior isotropic properties of the $152^{\circ }~{Y}$ -rotated cut in generating SAW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a 300-GHz-band 120-Gb/s wireless transceiver front-ends (TRX) using our in-house InP-based high-electron-mobility-transistor (InP-HEMT) technology for beyond-5G. The TRX is composed of the RF power amplifiers (PAs), mixers, and local oscillation (LO) PAs which are all packaged in individual waveguide (WG) modules by using a ridge coupler for low-loss WG-to-IC transition. RF PAs are designed using the low-impedance inter-stage-matching technique to reduce the inter-stage matching loss of the amplifier stages, and the back-side DC line (BDCL) technique is used to simplify the layout and to improve the gain of the PAs. The fabricated RF PAs show a high output 1-dB compression point of more than 6 dBm from 278 to 302 GHz. The mixers are used for both up- and down-conversion in the transmitter and receiver. These mixers are designed to have high conversion gain (CG) over the wideband even after packaging by enhancing the isolation between the RF and IF ports. The measured CG of mixer module is −15 dB, and the 3-dB IF-bandwidth is 32 GHz. The LO PAs are also designed using the BDCL technique so that they can supply the required LO power to the mixers. The TRX with these InP building blocks enables the data transmission of a 120 Gb/s 16QAM signal over a link distance of 9.8 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term ambulatory monitoring of the fetal heart rate (fHR) can greatly increase insight into fetal well-being and reduce pregnancy risks. Unfortunately, the existing solutions using wet or dry electrodes are unsuitable for long-term fHR monitoring due to the use of a gel or direct skin contact. Capacitive electrodes can measure an electrocardiographic (ECG) signal through clothes and, therefore, are perfectly suitable for long-term monitoring of the fHR. However, capacitive fetal ECG (fECG) measurements are challenging due to the high sensitivity of capacitive sensors to motion artifacts (MAs) and the low amplitude of the fECG. This article aims at investigating the feasibility of fECG measurements using capacitive electrodes with dedicated postprocessing algorithms for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement and MA reduction. To this end, a novel simulator of the full measurement chain is realized that generates multichannel capacitive fECG data with artificial MAs and system noise. A dedicated blind source separation (BSS) algorithm is then employed for MA removal and fECG extraction. The extracted fECG is evaluated by SNR calculation and R-peak detection. Our results show that the BSS algorithm may extract the fECG signal from noisy capacitive data. In addition, lower system noise or higher number of channels may lead to better fECG extraction. A maximum increase of 0.5 dB in the SNR and decrease of 80.7 % in the R-peak detection error are observed with increased electrode number from 8 to 20. Our findings provide useful insights for the hardware design of a capacitive fECG measurement system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertisement: IEEE Computer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Advertisement: IEEE Computer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the Rock Stars of Cybersecurity symposium by the IEEE Computer Society to be held on September 24, 2014 in Austin, Texas.

The article focuses on the Rock Stars of Cyber Security to be held on September 24, 2014 in Brazos Hall in Austin, Texas.

Advertisement: IEEE Computer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertisement: IEEE Computer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Advertisement: IEEE Computer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the above-named upcoming conference event. May include topics to be covered or calls for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]