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Social network services (SNSs) have become one of the core Internet-based application services in recent years. Through SNSs, diverse kinds of private data are shared with users' friends and SNS plug-in applications. However, these data can be exposed via abnormal private data access. For example, the addition of fake friends to a user's account is one approach to gain access to a private user's data. Private user data can be protected from being accessed by using an automated method to assess information. This paper proposes a method that evaluates private data accesses for social network security. By defining normal private data access patterns in advance, abnormal private data access patterns can be exposed. Normal private data access patterns are generated by analyzing all of the consecutive private data accesses of users based on Bayesian probability. We have proven the effectiveness of our approach by conducting experiments where the private data access signals of Twitter accounts were collected and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to several surveys studied by both cloud computing providers and security solution providers, security concerns, in particular data security, are the main reasons for people's reluctance to employ cloud computing. In this paper, we address the concern of data security by introducing SECRESO, a SEcure storage model for Cloud data based on REed-SOlomon code. In our proposed model, we enhance Reed-Solomon code with an extra security layer in which a password is always required to reconstruct data from its encoded blocks in the storage. In this way, without a correct password, unauthorized users cannot see the data, and hence the data is secure. Additionally, to support fault tolerance, we also introduce a log based data recovery scheme that allows data recovery without knowing the password. In this way, even though the recovered data can be incorrect, as soon as the password is provided, information from the log can be used to correct the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional procedures to ensure authorized data access by using access control policies are not suitable for cloud storage systems as these procedures can reveal valid access parameters to a cloud service provider. In this paper, we have proposed oblivious access control policy evaluation (O-ACE); a data sharing system, which obliviously evaluates access control policy on a cloud server and provisions access to the outsourced data. O-ACE reveals no useful information about the access control policy neither to the cloud service provider nor to the unauthorized users. Through the security analysis of O-ACE it has been observed that computational complexity to compromise privacy of the outsourced data is same as reverting asymmetric encryption without valid key pair. We have realized O-ACE for Google Cloud. Our evaluation results show the fact that O-ACE CPU utilization cost is 0.01-0.30 dollar per 1,000 requests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an institutional study of academic integrity based on two different sources: reporting of incidents over a six-year period (2001-2006) and a campus-wide survey administered in 2008. Findings are that academic dishonesty is widespread and increasing, yet 40% of the academic staff responding admitted they had taken no steps regarding a suspected incident of cheating due to insufficient proof. Among college students, freshmen and sophomores are more frequently reported for cheating than juniors and seniors, and international students are over represented compared with domestic students. The proportion of integrity charges against females was less than their proportion of student enrollment, and there exists a perception gap between students and academic staff in the seriousness of a number of actions. The most frequent offence was students working with peers when asked for individual work. This may be indicative of a change of the value systems of young people compared to older generations, and former strategies to promote integrity may be less valid today. More emphasis needs to be put on structural approaches to reduce or eliminate opportunities to cheat, and the educational aspect of dishonest actions should be further strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests that criminality in leaders might best be understood by ethicists as a matter of degree. Leaders may take without legitimate claim a variety of tangible or intangible goods including ideas and personal health. The extent to which any such act should be disfavoured is subject to debate. Moreover, both theft and control may be understood as continuous phenomena. Kleptocratic regimes within workplace or family may foster in people a habit of accepting similar treatment from economic and political leaders at all levels. Forms of governance may be arranged on a continuum from those that serve to those that exploit their subjects. Responses to kleptocratic regimes range from acceptance through unconscious and conscious resistance to violent revolt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports that revelations about the unauthorized transfer of tissue samples by U.S. neuroscientist Trey Sunderland are adding to the challenges faced by researchers in the establishment of tissue banks. Sunderland is accused of shipping more than 3,000 samples of human spinal fluid to pharmaceutical firm Pfizer without the approval of Sunderland's employers, the National Institute of Mental Health.