Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts
2015-08-03
Dr. John Jernigan and Dr. D. Peter Drotman recall the 2001 anthrax attacks and rapid publication of the landmark paper reporting the initial cases of inhalational anthrax. Created: 8/3/2015 by National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). Date Released: 8/3/2015.
Screen-printed fluorescent sensors for rapid and sensitive anthrax biomarker detection
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Lee, Inkyu; Oh, Wan-Kyu; Jang, Jyongsik
2013-01-01
Highlights: •We fabricated flexible anthrax sensors with a simple screen-printing method. •The sensors selectively detected B. anthracis biomarker. •The sensors provide the visible alarm against anthrax attack. -- Abstract: Since the 2001 anthrax attacks, efforts have focused on the development of an anthrax detector with rapid response and high selectivity and sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate a fluorescence sensor for detecting anthrax biomarker with high sensitivity and selectivity using a screen-printing method. A lanthanide–ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid complex was printed on a flexible polyethersulfone film. Screen-printing deposition of fluorescent detecting moieties produced fluorescent patterns that acted as a visual alarm against anthrax
Facilitation of risk communication during the anthrax attacks of 2001: the organizational backstory.
Chess, Caron; Clarke, Lee
2007-09-01
The anthrax attacks of 2001 created risk communication problems that cannot be fully understood without appreciating the dynamics among organizations. Case studies of communication in New Jersey, consisting of interviews with a range of participants, found that existing organizational and professional networks facilitated trust among decisionmakers. This interpersonal trust improved communication among agencies and thereby risk communication with the public. For example, "white powder scares" were a problem even in places without contamination. Professionals' trust in each other was vital for responding productively. Conversely, organizational challenges, including conflict among agencies, hindered communication with key audiences. Although centralization and increased control are often seen as the remedy for communicative confusion, they also can quash the improvisational responses needed during crises.
Vaccines and bioterrorism: smallpox and anthrax.
Kimmel, Sanford R; Mahoney, Martin C; Zimmerman, Richard K
2003-01-01
Because of the success of vaccination and the ring strategy in eradicating smallpox from the world, smallpox vaccine has not been recommended for the United States civilian populations for decades. Given the low but possible threat of bioterrorism, smallpox vaccination is now recommended for those teams investigating potential smallpox cases and for selected personnel of acute-care hospitals who would be needed to care for victims in the event of a terrorist attack. Treatment and post-exposure prophylaxis for anthrax are ciprofloxacin or doxycycline. Anthrax vaccine alone is not effective for post-exposure prevention of anthrax; vaccination is accompanied by 60 days of antibiotic therapy. In addition to military use, anthrax vaccine is recommended for pre-exposure use in those persons whose work involves repeated exposure to Bacillus anthracis spores.
Defining Moments in MMWR History: CDC's Response to Intentional Release of Anthrax - 2001
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts
On October 4, 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, the Palm Beach County Health Department, the Florida State Department of Health, and CDC reported a case of anthrax in a 63-year-old man from Florida. This case was first reported in MMWR and marked the beginning of a series of anthrax cases that resulted from intentional delivery of Bacillus anthracis spores sent through the mail. In this podcast, Dr. Sherif Zaki recalls CDC's investigation and response to the anthrax attacks.
Kahan, Ernesto; Fogelman, Yacov; Kitai, Eliezer; Vinker, Shlomo
2003-08-01
The threat of bioterrorism consequent to the September 11, 2001 attack in the USA generated suggestions for improved medical response mainly through hospital preparedness. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of this period of tension on patients' first choice for care and for receiving relevant information, and on primary care doctors' feelings of responsibility in the eventuality of an anthrax attack. During October 11-31, 2001, 500 patients from 30 clinics throughout Israel were asked to complete a questionnaire on their awareness of the anthrax threat, measures taken to prepare for it, and preferred sources of care and information. Their 30 physicians, and an additional 20, completed a questionnaire on knowledge about anthrax and anthrax-related patient behaviours and clinic visits. The outstanding finding was the low rate (30%) of patients who chose the hospital emergency department as their first choice for care or information if they were worried about an anthrax attack or the media communicated that an attack was in progress. The other two-thirds preferred their family doctor or the health authorities. Most of the physicians (89%) felt it was their responsibility to treat anthrax-infected patients and that they should therefore be supplied with appropriate guidelines. This study suggests that in Israel, a country with a high degree of awareness of civil defence aspects, both patients and primary care doctors believe that family physicians should have a major role in the case of bioterrorist attacks. This must be seriously considered during formulation of relevant health services programmes.
Non-Replicating Adenovirus-Vectored Anthrax Vaccine
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Van Kampen, K. R.; Zhang, J.; Jex, E.; Tang, D. C.
2007-01-01
As bioterrorism is emerging as a national threat, it is urgent to develop a new generation of anthrax vaccines that can be rapidly produced and mass administered in an emergency setting. We have demonstrated that protective immunity against anthrax spores could be elicited in mice by intranasal administration of a non-replicating human adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5)-derived vector encoding Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA) in a single-dose regimen. The potency of an Ad5 vector encoding PA was remarkably enhanced by codon optimization of the PA gene to match the tRNA pool found in human cells. This nasal vaccine can be mass-administered by non-medical personnel during a bioterrorist attack. In addition, replication-competent adenovirus (RCA)-free Ad5-vectored anthrax vaccines can be mass produced in PER.C6 cells in serum-free wave bioreactors and purified by column chromatography to meet a surge in demand. The non-replicating nature of this new generation of anthrax vaccine ensures an excellent safety profile for vaccines and the environment.(author)
D'Amelio, Enrico; Gentile, Bernardina; Lista, Florigio; D'Amelio, Raffaele
2015-12-01
Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis, which can naturally infect livestock, wildlife and occupationally exposed humans. However, for its resistance due to spore formation, ease of dissemination, persistence in the environment and high virulence, B. anthracis has been considered the most serious bioterrorism agent for a long time. During the last century anthrax evolved from limited natural disease to potentially global threat if used as bioweapon. Several factors may mitigate the consequences of an anthrax attack, including 1. the capability to promptly recognize and manage the illness and its public health consequences; 2. the limitation of secondary contamination risk through an appropriate decontamination; and 3. the evolution of genotyping methods (for microbes characterization at high resolution level) that can influence the course and/or focus of investigations, impacting the response of the government to an attack. A PubMed search has been done using the key words “bioterrorism anthrax”. Over one thousand papers have been screened and the most significant examined to present a comprehensive literature review in order to discuss the current knowledge and strategies in preparedness for a possible deliberate release of B. anthracis spores and to indicate the most current and complete documents in which to deepen. The comprehensive analysis of the two most relevant unnatural anthrax release events, Sverdlovsk in the former Soviet Union (1979) and the contaminated letters in the USA (2001), shows that inhalational anthrax may easily and cheaply be spread resulting in serious consequences. The damage caused by an anthrax attack can be limited if public health organization, first responders, researchers and investigators will be able to promptly manage anthrax cases and use new technologies for decontamination methods and in forensic microbiology.
Defining Moments in MMWR History: CDCâs Response to Intentional Release of Anthrax - 2001
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts
2017-10-12
On October 4, 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, the Palm Beach County Health Department, the Florida State Department of Health, and CDC reported a case of anthrax in a 63-year-old man from Florida. This case was first reported in MMWR and marked the beginning of a series of anthrax cases that resulted from intentional delivery of Bacillus anthracis spores sent through the mail. In this podcast, Dr. Sherif Zaki recalls CDCâs investigation and response to the anthrax attacks. Created: 10/12/2017 by MMWR. Date Released: 10/12/2017.
Planning guidance for emergency response to a hypothetical nuclear attack on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Shubayr, Nasser Ali M.
The threat of nuclear attack will remain imminent in an ever-advancing society. Saudi Arabia is not immune to this threat. This dissertation establishes planning guidance for response to a nuclear attack on Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, based on a hypothetical scenario of a nuclear detonation. A case scenario of a one-megaton thermonuclear bomb detonated at ground level over Riyadh is used to support the thesis. Previous nuclear tests and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings have been used to present possible effects on Riyadh. US planning guidance and lessons learned from the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plants accidents have been used to develop the emergency response guidance. The planning guidance outlines a rapid response to the nuclear detonation. Four damage zones have been identified; severe damage zone, moderate damage zone, light damage zone and dangerous fallout zone. Actions that are recommended, and those that should be avoided, have been determined for each zone. Shelter/ evacuation evaluation for blast-affected and fallout-affected areas is the basis for the recommendation that shelter in place is the best decision for the first hours to days after the attack. Guidelines for medical care response and population monitoring and decontamination are included to reduce the early and long-term effects of the attack. Recommendations to the Saudi Arabian authorities have been made to facilitate suitable preparedness and response for such an event.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Aber Robert C
2005-01-01
Full Text Available Abstract Background Inappropriate use of antibiotics by individuals worried about biological agent exposures during bioterrorism events is an important public health concern. However, little is documented about the extent to which individuals with self-identified risk of anthrax exposure approached physicians for antimicrobial prophylaxis during the 2001 bioterrorism attacks in the United States. Methods We conducted a telephone survey of randomly selected members of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians to assess patients' request for and emergency physicians' prescription of antimicrobial agents during the 2001 anthrax attacks. Results Ninety-seven physicians completed the survey. Sixty-four (66% respondents had received requests from patients for anthrax prophylaxis; 16 (25% of these physicians prescribed antibiotics to a total of 23 patients. Ten physicians prescribed ciprofloxacin while 8 physicians prescribed doxycycline. Conclusion During the 2001 bioterrorist attacks, the majority of the emergency physicians we surveyed encountered patients who requested anthrax prophylaxis. Public fears may lead to a high demand for antibiotic prophylaxis during bioterrorism events. Elucidation of the relationship between public health response to outbreaks and outcomes would yield insights to ease burden on frontline clinicians and guide strategies to control inappropriate antibiotic allocation during bioterrorist events.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Stein, Steven L.; Lesperance, Ann M.; Upton, Jaki F.
2010-02-01
On October 9, 2008, federal, state and local policy makers, emergency managers, and medical and public health officials convened in Seattle, Washington, for a workshop on Addressing the Federal-State-Local Interface Issues During a Catastrophic Event Such as an Anthrax Attack. The day-long symposium was aimed at generating a dialogue about recovery and restoration through a discussion of the associated challenges that impact entire communities, including people, infrastructure, and critical systems. The Principal Federal Official (PFO) provided an overview of the role of the PFO in a catastrophic event. A high-level summary of an anthrax scenario was presented. The remainder of the day was focused on interactive discussions among federal, state and local emergency management experts in the areas of: • Decision-making, prioritization, and command and control • Public health/medical services • Community resiliency and continuity of government. Key topics and issues that resulted from discussions included: • Local representation in the Joint Field Office (JFO) • JFO transition to the Long-Term Recovery Office • Process for prioritization of needs • Process for regional coordination • Prioritization - process and federal/military intervention • Allocation of limited resources • Re-entry decision and consistency • Importance of maintaining a healthy hospital system • Need for a process to establish a consensus on when it is safe to re-enter. This needs to be across all jurisdictions including the military. • Insurance coverage for both private businesses and individuals • Interaction between the government and industry. The symposium was sponsored by the Interagency Biological Restoration Demonstration, a collaborative regional program jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Defense. To aid the program’s efforts and inform the development of blueprint for recovery from a biological incident
2017-06-30
capsule and toxins. Hemorrhagic edema and necrosis of mediastinal lymph nodes ensue. Alveoli show a hemorrhagic exudate and only rarely bacilli...follow cutaneous anthrax and, almost invariably, accompanies inhalational and gastrointestinal anthrax. Vascular injury may result from the proliferation
Anthrax serology test; Antibody test for anthrax; Serologic test for B. anthracis ... This test may be performed when the health care provider suspects you have anthrax infection. The bacteria that cause ...
Anthrax in America: A Chronology and Analysis of the Fall 2001 Attacks
2002-11-01
Glenville, CT, 55 miles west of Oxford. • Officials confirm that the anthrax spores in a letter received by Santiago, Chile pediatrician Antonio Barfi were...process of opening the Leahy letter after two weeks of planning and rehearsals. In charge is John Ezzell , a man described by the Weekend Australian as
The anthrax vaccine and research: reactions from postal workers and public health professionals.
Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Thomas, Tammy; Kumar, Supriya
2008-12-01
During the 2001 anthrax attacks, public health agencies faced operational and communication decisions about the use of antibiotic prophylaxis and the anthrax vaccine with affected groups, including postal workers. This communication occurred within an evolving situation with incomplete and uncertain data. Guidelines for prophylactic antibiotics changed several times, contributing to confusion and mistrust. At the end of 60 days of taking antibiotics, people were offered an additional 40 days' supply of antibiotics, with or without the anthrax vaccine, the former constituting an investigational new drug protocol. Using data from interviews and focus groups with 65 postal workers in 3 sites and structured interviews with 16 public health professionals, this article examines the challenges for public health professionals who were responsible for communication with postal workers about the vaccine. Multiple factors affected the response, including a lack of trust, risk perception, disagreement about the recommendation, and the controversy over the military's use of the vaccine. Some postal workers reacted with suspicion to the vaccine offer, believing that they were the subjects of research, and some African American workers specifically drew an analogy to the Tuskegee syphilis study. The consent forms required for the protocol heightened mistrust. Postal workers also had complex and ambivalent responses to additional research on their health. The anthrax attacks present us with an opportunity to understand the challenges of communication in the context of uncertain science and suggest key strategies that may improve communications about vaccines and other drugs authorized for experimental use in future public health emergencies.
Recombinant protective antigen 102 (rPA102): profile of a second-generation anthrax vaccine.
Keitel, Wendy A
2006-08-01
Recent terrorist attacks involving the use of Bacillus anthracis spores have stimulated interest in the development of new vaccines for anthrax prevention. Studies of the pathogenesis of anthrax and of the immune responses following infection and immunization underscore the pivotal role that antibodies to the protective antigen play in protection. The most promising vaccine candidates contain purified recombinant protective antigen. Clinical trials of one of these, recombinant protective antigen (rPA)102, are underway. Initial results suggest that rPA102 is well tolerated and immunogenic. Additional trials are necessary to identify optimal formulations and immunization regimens for pre- and postexposure prophylaxis. Future licensure of these and other candidate vaccines will depend on their safety and immunogenicity profiles in humans, and their ability to confer protection in animal models of inhalational anthrax.
... Diagnosis Language: English (US) Español (Spanish) Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir Doctors in the United States rarely see a patient with anthrax. CDC Guidance and case definitions are available to help doctors diagnose anthrax, take ...
False alarms, real challenges--one university's communication response to the 2001 anthrax crisis.
Clarke, Christopher E; Chess, Caron
2006-01-01
Considerable research exists on how government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels communicated during the fall 2001 anthrax attacks. However, there is little research on how other institutions handled this crisis, in terms of their response to potential anthrax contamination (aka "white powder scares") and their approach to disseminating important health and safety information. In this article, we investigate a major university's communication response to the anthrax crisis. First, we describe its communication experiences relating to a large white powder scare that occurred in October 2001. Second, we describe the university's broader communication efforts in terms of several important elements of risk communication research, including influence of source attributes, key messages, preferred channels, responses to information requests, and organizational influences. This study underlines that an institution does not have to be directly affected by a crisis to find itself on the communication "front lines." Moreover, other institutions may find it useful to learn from the experiences of this university, so that they may communicate more effectively during future crises.
Radiologic findings of the anthrax: focus on alimentary anthrax
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Kim, Sung Woo; Kim, Won Ho; Yang, Geun Seok; Kim, Tae Hun; Kang, Duk Sik
1995-01-01
To evaluate the radiologic findings of alimentary anthrax. 19 patients with alimentary anthrax, which was caused by ingestion of contaminated beef, were included in this study. The diagnosis was made by demonstration of Bacillus anthracis in smear and culture of the contaminated meat. We evaluated the clinical manifestations and the findings of thoracic, abdominal radiographs, cervical, abdominal ultrasonograms and abdominal CT scans. Out of the 19 patients with the alimentary infection, 9 had oropharyngeal form, 18 had abdominal form and 8 had combination of oropharyngeal and abdominal form. The patients had general symptoms and signs such as fever, chill, myalgia. Clinical symptoms and signs were sore throat, throat injection, throat ulcer and patch in oropharyngeal form, and nausea, vomiting abdominal pain, diarrhea, and gross GI bleeding in abdominal form. Radiologic findings included enlarged cervical lymph nodes (36%) in oropharyngeal form, and paralytic ileus (26%), ascites (26%), hepatomegaly (21%), enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes (26%), small bowel wall thickening (5%) in abdominal form. In two patients, late complications occurred as intestinal obstruction due to ileal stricture with perforation, and inflammatory changes of pelvic cavity due to ileovesical fistula. Radiologic findings of alimentary anthrax are difficult in differentiation from those of other inflammatory bowel disease, but those radiologic findings with clinical manifestations may be helpful in diagnosis and evaluation of disease process in patients with alimentary anthrax
Human anthrax as a re-emerging disease.
Doganay, Mehmet; Demiraslan, Hayati
2015-01-01
Anthrax is primarily a disease of herbivores and the etiological agent is B. anthracis which is a gram-positive, aerobic, spore-forming, and rod shaped bacterium. Bacillus anthracis spores are highly resistant to heat, pressure, ultraviolet and ionizing radiation, chemical agents and disinfectants. For these reasons, B. anthracis spores are an attractive choice as biological agents for the use of bioweapon and/or bioterrorism. Soil is the main reservoir for the infectious agent. The disease most commonly affects wild and domestic mammals. Human are secondarily infected by contact with infected animals and contaminated animal products or directly expose to B. anthracis spores. Anthrax occurs worldwide. This infection is still endemic or hyperendemic in both animals and humans in some part of areas of the world; particularly in Middle East, West Africa, Central Asia, some part of India, South America. However, some countries are claiming free of anthrax, and anthrax has become a re-emerging disease in western countries with the intentional outbreak. Currently, anthrax is classified according to its setting as (1) naturally occurring anthrax, (2) bioterrorism-related anthrax. Vast majority of human anthrax are occurring as naturally occurring anthrax in the world. It is also a threaten disease for western countries. The aim of this paper is to review the relevant patents, short historical perspective, microbiological and epidemiological features, clinical presentations and treatment.
... it's most commonly seen in grazing animals like sheep, pigs, cattle, horses, and goats, anthrax also can ... at first, but it rapidly turns into severe pneumonia and requires hospitalization. It usually takes fewer than ...
... site may get infected. Exams and Tests The health care provider will perform a physical examination. The tests to diagnose anthrax depend on the type of disease that is suspected. A culture of the skin, and sometimes a biopsy , are ...
[Anthrax due to deliberate infection
Dissel, J.T. van; Kullberg, B.J.; Berg, P.C. van den; Steenbergen, J.E. van
2001-01-01
Anthrax is a zoonosis which is particularly prevalent in cattle, goats and sheep and is caused by Bacillus anthracis, a Gram-positive spore forming aerobic microorganism. The endospores can survive outside of the body for many decades. The natural form of anthrax has a cutaneous, pulmonary and
Meningoencephalitis due to anthrax: CT and MR findings
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Yildirim, Hanefi; Koc, Mustafa; Murat, Ayse [Firat University, Department of Radiology, Elazig (Turkey); Kabakus, Nimet; Incekoey Girgin, Feyza [Firat University, Department of Paediatric Neurology, Elazig (Turkey)
2006-11-15
Anthrax is primarily a disease of herbivores, but it also causes cutaneous, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in humans. Bacillus anthracis is an uncommon cause of meningitis and generally produces a haemorrhagic meningoencephalitis. We present the CT and MR findings of anthrax meningoencephalitis due to the cutaneous form of anthrax in a 12-year-old boy. They showed focal intracerebral haemorrhage with leptomeningeal enhancement. (orig.)
Anthrax in Vintage Animal-hair Shaving Brushes
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts
2017-08-08
Dr. Kate Hendricks, a CDC anthrax expert, discusses anthrax in vintage shaving brushes. Created: 8/8/2017 by National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). Date Released: 8/8/2017.
Anthrax Meningitis - Report Of An Autopsied Case
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Mahadevan A
1999-01-01
Full Text Available Anthrax is a rare cause of hemorrhagic meningitis in man. This report illustrates the characteristic hemorrhagic manifestations in the brain of a patient dying of anthrax meningitis secondary to overwhelming bacteremia. Gross examination of the brain revealed a thick dense subarachnoid hemorrhage with numerous petechial hemorrhages in the cortex. Histologically, meningoencephalitis with vascular necrosis, edema, perivascular cortical hemorrhages and clumps of Gram positive bacilli in the vascular lumen and invading vessel wall were the salient features. The anthrax bacillus was isolated from CSF and brain tissue and further its pathogenecity was confirmed by animal inoculation.
Serology and anthrax in humans, livestock and Etosha National Park wildlife.
Turnbull, P C; Doganay, M; Lindeque, P M; Aygen, B; McLaughlin, J
1992-04-01
Results are presented from a number of epidemiological studies using enzyme immunoassays (EIA) based on the purified anthrax toxin antigens, protective antigen, lethal factor and oedema factor. Studies on sera from a group of 62 human anthrax patients in Turkey and from cattle in Britain following two unrelated outbreaks of anthrax show that EIA using protective antigen can be a useful diagnostic aid and will detect subclinical infections in appropriate circumstances. A serological survey on wildlife in the Etosha National Park, Namibia, where anthrax is endemic, showed that naturally acquired anthrax-specific antibodies are rare in herbivores but common in carnivores; in carnivores, titres appear to reflect the prevalence of anthrax in their ranges. Problems, as yet unresolved, were encountered in studies on sera from pigs following an outbreak of anthrax on a farm in Wales. Clinical details, including treatment, of the human and one of the bovine outbreaks are summarized and discussed in relation to the serological findings.
Estimating the location and spatial extent of a covert anthrax release.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Judith Legrand
2009-01-01
Full Text Available Rapidly identifying the features of a covert release of an agent such as anthrax could help to inform the planning of public health mitigation strategies. Previous studies have sought to estimate the time and size of a bioterror attack based on the symptomatic onset dates of early cases. We extend the scope of these methods by proposing a method for characterizing the time, strength, and also the location of an aerosolized pathogen release. A back-calculation method is developed allowing the characterization of the release based on the data on the first few observed cases of the subsequent outbreak, meteorological data, population densities, and data on population travel patterns. We evaluate this method on small simulated anthrax outbreaks (about 25-35 cases and show that it could date and localize a release after a few cases have been observed, although misspecifications of the spore dispersion model, or the within-host dynamics model, on which the method relies can bias the estimates. Our method could also provide an estimate of the outbreak's geographical extent and, as a consequence, could help to identify populations at risk and, therefore, requiring prophylactic treatment. Our analysis demonstrates that while estimates based on the first ten or 15 observed cases were more accurate and less sensitive to model misspecifications than those based on five cases, overall mortality is minimized by targeting prophylactic treatment early on the basis of estimates made using data on the first five cases. The method we propose could provide early estimates of the time, strength, and location of an aerosolized anthrax release and the geographical extent of the subsequent outbreak. In addition, estimates of release features could be used to parameterize more detailed models allowing the simulation of control strategies and intervention logistics.
Mapping the Distribution of Anthrax in Mainland China, 2005-2013.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Wan-Jun Chen
2016-04-01
Full Text Available Anthrax, a global re-emerging zoonotic disease in recent years is enzootic in mainland China. Despite its significance to the public health, spatiotemporal distributions of the disease in human and livestock and its potential driving factors remain poorly understood.Using the national surveillance data of human and livestock anthrax from 2005 to 2013, we conducted a retrospective epidemiological study and risk assessment of anthrax in mainland China. The potential determinants for the temporal and spatial distributions of human anthrax were also explored. We found that the majority of human anthrax cases were located in six provinces in western and northeastern China, and five clustering areas with higher incidences were identified. The disease mostly peaked in July or August, and males aged 30-49 years had higher incidence than other subgroups. Monthly incidence of human anthrax was positively correlated with monthly average temperature, relative humidity and monthly accumulative rainfall with lags of 0-2 months. A boosted regression trees (BRT model at the county level reveals that densities of cattle, sheep and human, coverage of meadow, coverage of typical grassland, elevation, coverage of topsoil with pH > 6.1, concentration of organic carbon in topsoil, and the meteorological factors have contributed substantially to the spatial distribution of the disease. The model-predicted probability of occurrence of human cases in mainland China was mapped at the county level.Anthrax in China was characterized by significant seasonality and spatial clustering. The spatial distribution of human anthrax was largely driven by livestock husbandry, human density, land cover, elevation, topsoil features and climate. Enhanced surveillance and intervention for livestock and human anthrax in the high-risk regions, particularly on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, is the key to the prevention of human infections.
The pattern of anthrax cases on livestock in West Nusa Tenggara Province
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Enymartindah
1998-03-01
Full Text Available A retrospective study on anthrax in endemic area was carried out from 1984 to 1994 in West Nusa Tenggara Province (NTB to uncover the occurrence of anthrax and the pattern of the disease in livestock. Data of anthrax incidence had been compiled for the 11 years from Animal Health Section and Type B Laboratory of the Livestock Service Office, NTB Province in Mataram. This was done to get the information about locations and times when the cases occurred, and the vaccination status of livestock in the anthrax area. The pattern of anthrax in livestock was analyzed by using time series analysis, and the long term trend was then illustrated by linier regression . During the years, anthrax cases in livestock were reported high in Sumbawa island, while the cases in Lombok island were relatively low. There were no anthrax cases reported from East Lombok District . The long term trend of anthrax occurrence in livestock from 1984 to 1994 tended to decrease (Y= 6,04 - 0,0162 X.
The anthrax letters: a medical detective story
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Cole, Leonard A
2003-01-01
.... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cole, Leonard A., 1933The anthrax letters : a medical detective story / Leonard A. Cole. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-309-08881-X - ISBN 0-309-52584-5 (PDF) 1. Bioterrorism- United States. 2. Anthrax- United States. 3. Postal service- United States. 4. Victims of...
Ecological suitability modeling for anthrax in the Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Pieter Johan Steenkamp
Full Text Available The spores of the soil-borne bacterium, Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax are highly resistant to adverse environmental conditions. Under ideal conditions, anthrax spores can survive for many years in the soil. Anthrax is known to be endemic in the northern part of Kruger National Park (KNP in South Africa (SA, with occasional epidemics spreading southward. The aim of this study was to identify and map areas that are ecologically suitable for the harboring of B. anthracis spores within the KNP. Anthrax surveillance data and selected environmental variables were used as inputs to the maximum entropy (Maxent species distribution modeling method. Anthrax positive carcasses from 1988-2011 in KNP (n = 597 and a total of 40 environmental variables were used to predict and evaluate their relative contribution to suitability for anthrax occurrence in KNP. The environmental variables that contributed the most to the occurrence of anthrax were soil type, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI and precipitation. Apart from the endemic Pafuri region, several other areas within KNP were classified as ecologically suitable. The outputs of this study could guide future surveillance efforts to focus on predicted suitable areas for anthrax, since the KNP currently uses passive surveillance to detect anthrax outbreaks.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jayedul Hassan
2015-06-01
Full Text Available Anthrax, caused by Bacillus anthracis is an acute, febrile disease of warm blooded animals including humans. Social norms and poverty in addition to climatic factors such as soil conditions, seasons of year, ambient temperature and rainfall influence the persistence of the B. anthracis and anthrax outbreaks. The present study was designed to reveal the factors influencing the repeated outbreak of anthrax in Bangladesh. Considering the previous outbreaks of anthrax, Sirajganj, Bogra, Kushtia, Tangail and Mymensingh districts of Bangladesh were selected for this study. To elucidate the factors, qualitative data relating to the animal management, knowledge and behavior of the people; and quantitative data relating to soil conditions, ambient temperature and rainfall were acquired, and analyzed critically. Based on the outbreak histories, a year was divided into two seasons, anthrax prone season (May-November and anthrax dry season (December-April. Anthrax spores could be isolated from 11.67% (n=14/120 of the soil samples collected from the study areas. The present study revealed that poor knowledge, lack of awareness, improper carcass disposal, inadequate vaccination, high Ca content and moisture in the soil along with high ambient temperature and rainfall during the anthrax prone season were the possible influencing factors of repeated outbreaks of anthrax in the study areas. Intensive propaganda to create public awareness of anthrax together with proper vaccination may reduce anthrax outbreaks in Bangladesh.
Amraoui, A.; Tabbara, K. F.; Zaghloul, K.
1992-01-01
Anthrax is a disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. The disease affects primarily herbivores including sheep, cattle, horses, and other domestic animals. Humans may rarely be affected. We examined one male and two female patients with a localised itchy erythematous papule of the eyelid. A necrotising ulcer formed in each of the three cases resulting in a black lesion. Scraping in each case showed Gram positive rods and culture grew Bacillus anthracis. All three patients responded to the intravenous administration of penicillin G, and the lesion resolved leaving scars in two cases. Anthrax is a rare disease but should be considered in the differential diagnosis of ulcers or pustules of the eyelids. Images PMID:1486081
Tumor Targeting and Drug Delivery by Anthrax Toxin
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Christopher Bachran
2016-07-01
Full Text Available Anthrax toxin is a potent tripartite protein toxin from Bacillus anthracis. It is one of the two virulence factors and causes the disease anthrax. The receptor-binding component of the toxin, protective antigen, needs to be cleaved by furin-like proteases to be activated and to deliver the enzymatic moieties lethal factor and edema factor to the cytosol of cells. Alteration of the protease cleavage site allows the activation of the toxin selectively in response to the presence of tumor-associated proteases. This initial idea of re-targeting anthrax toxin to tumor cells was further elaborated in recent years and resulted in the design of many modifications of anthrax toxin, which resulted in successful tumor therapy in animal models. These modifications include the combination of different toxin variants that require activation by two different tumor-associated proteases for increased specificity of toxin activation. The anthrax toxin system has proved to be a versatile system for drug delivery of several enzymatic moieties into cells. This highly efficient delivery system has recently been further modified by introducing ubiquitin as a cytosolic cleavage site into lethal factor fusion proteins. This review article describes the latest developments in this field of tumor targeting and drug delivery.
Tumor Targeting and Drug Delivery by Anthrax Toxin.
Bachran, Christopher; Leppla, Stephen H
2016-07-01
Anthrax toxin is a potent tripartite protein toxin from Bacillus anthracis. It is one of the two virulence factors and causes the disease anthrax. The receptor-binding component of the toxin, protective antigen, needs to be cleaved by furin-like proteases to be activated and to deliver the enzymatic moieties lethal factor and edema factor to the cytosol of cells. Alteration of the protease cleavage site allows the activation of the toxin selectively in response to the presence of tumor-associated proteases. This initial idea of re-targeting anthrax toxin to tumor cells was further elaborated in recent years and resulted in the design of many modifications of anthrax toxin, which resulted in successful tumor therapy in animal models. These modifications include the combination of different toxin variants that require activation by two different tumor-associated proteases for increased specificity of toxin activation. The anthrax toxin system has proved to be a versatile system for drug delivery of several enzymatic moieties into cells. This highly efficient delivery system has recently been further modified by introducing ubiquitin as a cytosolic cleavage site into lethal factor fusion proteins. This review article describes the latest developments in this field of tumor targeting and drug delivery.
Treatment of Anthrax Disease Frequently Asked Questions
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Judd, Kathleen S.; Young, Joan E.; Lesperance, Ann M.; Malone, John D.
2010-05-14
This document provides a summary of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the treatment of anthrax disease caused by a wide-area release of Bacillus anthracis spores as an act bioterrorism. These FAQs are intended to provide the public health and medical community, as well as others, with guidance and communications to support the response and long-term recovery from an anthrax event.
Human and animal anthrax in Ethiopia: A retrospective record ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
26,737 animal anthrax cases (human to animal ratio 1:5) were reported from 2009 to 2013 ... respectively) This data analysis revealed that less number of human anthrax cases ..... quality to reach to strong conclusions and recommendations.
2014 Anthrax epidemic in Koubia prefecture, Guinea-Conakry.
Sow, M S; Boushab, M B; Balde, H; Camara, A; Sako, F B; Traoré, F A; Diallo, M O S; Diallo, M D; Keita, M; Sylla, A O; Tounkara, T M; Cissé, M
2016-11-01
Anthrax disease is an anthropozoonosis caused by a Gram-positive bacterium, Bacillus anthracis. Our objective was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic features of the 2014 epidemic in Koubia prefecture. This retrospective study examined all of the anthrax cases reported in Fafaya, Koubia Prefecture. In March and April 2014, there were 39 cases of human anthrax reported, for an incidence of 1.135%. The mean age was 20.9 (± 18.3) with a sex ratio of 2.54 (28/11) in favor of men. Seventy-six percent (23/39) were single. More than one half were students (53.8%). The main clinical signs were fever in 71, 8% (n = 28 /), papules 59% (n = 23), vesicles of 59% (n = 23) Digestive and cutaneous signs represented 35.9 % and 64.1% respectively; 35% had ingested contaminated meat and 17.95% were in direct contact with a sick animal. We didn't find any correlation between the mode of infection and onset of signs. The fatality rate was 28.21%. The 2014 epidemic of anthrax disease in the Koubia prefecture was marked by a high incidence and lethality. Clinical manifestations were cutaneaous and digestive. These results may serve further interventions to fight against anthrax disease. They should mainly focus on an awareness of peasants, surveillance and vaccination of cattle. Other studies seem to be necessary.
Evaluation of the house fly Musca domestica as a mechanical vector for an anthrax.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Antonio Fasanella
Full Text Available Anthrax is a disease of human beings and animals caused by the encapsulated, spore-forming, Bacillus anthracis. The potential role of insects in the spread of B. anthracis to humans and domestic animals during an anthrax outbreak has been confirmed by many studies. Among insect vectors, the house fly Musca domestica is considered a potential agent for disease transmission. In this study, laboratory-bred specimens of Musca domestica were infected by feeding on anthrax-infected rabbit carcass or anthrax contaminated blood, and the presence of anthrax spores in their spots (faeces and vomitus was microbiologically monitored. It was also evaluated if the anthrax spores were able to germinate and replicate in the gut content of insects. These results confirmed the role of insects in spreading anthrax infection. This role, although not major, given the huge size of fly populations often associated with anthrax epidemics in domestic animals, cannot be neglected from an epidemiological point of view and suggest that fly control should be considered as part of anthrax control programs.
Effective antiprotease-antibiotic treatment of experimental anthrax
Popov, Serguei G; Popova, Taissia G; Hopkins, Svetlana; Weinstein, Raymond S; MacAfee, Rebecca; Fryxell, Karl J; Chandhoke, Vikas; Bailey, Charles; Alibek, Ken
2005-01-01
Abstract Background Inhalation anthrax is characterized by a systemic spread of the challenge agent, Bacillus anthracis. It causes severe damage, including multiple hemorrhagic lesions, to host tissues and organs. It is widely believed that anthrax lethal toxin secreted by proliferating bacteria is a major cause of death, however, the pathology of intoxication in experimental animals is drastically different from that found during the infectious process. In order to close a gap between our un...
[Anthrax meningoencephalitis: a case report and review of Turkish literature].
Metan, Gökhan; Uysal, Burcu; Coşkun, Ramazan; Perçin, Duygu; Doğanay, Mehmet
2009-10-01
The incidence of anthrax is decreasing in Turkey, however, it is still endemic in some regions of the country. Although central nervous system involvement is rare in cases with anthrax, high mortality rates are significant. Here, we report a 46-years old woman who was anthrax meningoencephalitis. The patient was from Yozgat located in Central Anatolia, Turkey. Her history revealed that following peeling the skin of sheeps and consuming their meat a week ago, a lesion developed in her left forearm and she had been treated with penicilin G with the diagnosis of cutaneous anthrax in a local health center. The patient was admitted to the emergency room of our hospital due to increased headache and loss of conciousness and diagnosed as anthrax meningitis. Crytallized penicilin G (24 MU/day IV) and vancomycin (2 g/day IV) were initiated. The macroscopy of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample was haemorrhagic, white blood cell count was 40/mm3 (80% of neutrophil) and Gram staining of CSF yielded abundant gram-positive bacilli. The diagnosis was confirmed by the isolation of Bacillus anthracis from CSF culture. Although the isolate was susceptible to penicillin and dexamethasone was added to the treatment, the patient died. Review of the Turkish literature revealed seven cases of anthrax with central nervous system involvement between 1980-2008. One of the patients was an 11-years old boy and the others were adults aged between 19 and 64 years. The source of the infection was skin in four patients and inhalation in one patient. The most common findings in all of the patients were inhabitance in rural area, haemorrhagic CSF and loss of all patients despite appropriate antibiotic therapy. In conclusion, anthrax meningitis and meningoencephalitis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of haemorrhagic meningitis in areas where anthrax is endemic and high rate of mortality despite appropriate therapy should always be kept in mind.
Two anthrax cases with soft tissue infection, severe oedema and sepsis in Danish heroin users
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Russell, Lene; Pedersen, Michael; Jensen, Andreas V
2013-01-01
Anthrax had become extremely rare in Europe, but in 2010 an outbreak of anthrax among heroin users in Scotland increased awareness of contaminated heroin as a source of anthrax. We present the first two Danish cases of injectional anthrax and discuss the clinical presentations, which included both...
First Autochthonous Coinfected Anthrax in an Immunocompetent Patient
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Parvaneh Afshar
2015-01-01
Full Text Available Cutaneous anthrax has a mortality rate of 20% if no antibacterial treatment is applied. The clinical manifestations of cutaneous anthrax are obviously striking, but coinfection may produce atypical lesions and mask the clinical manifestations and proper laboratory diagnosis. Anthrax is known to be more common in the Middle East and Iran is one of the countries in which the zoonotic form of anthrax may still be encountered. We report a case of a 19-years-old male who used to apply Venetian ceruse on his skin. Venetian ceruse (also known as Spirits of Saturn is an old cosmetic product used for skin whitening traditionally made from sheep’s spinal cord. The patient referred to the Referral Laboratory, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran, with atypical dermatosis, pronounced pain, and oedema of the affected tissue. It was confirmed by both conventional and molecular analysis that culture was a mixture of Bacillus anthracis and Trichophyton interdigitale. The patient was initially treated with ceftriaxone (1000 mg/day for two weeks, gentamicin (1.5–2 mg/kg/day, terbinafine (200 mg/week for one month, and 1% clotrimazole cream (5 weeks two times per day which resulted in gradual improvement. No relapse could be detected after one-year follow-up. Anthrax infection might present a broader spectrum of symptoms than expected by clinicians. These unfamiliar characteristics may lead to delayed diagnosis, inadequate treatment, and higher mortality rate. Clinicians need to be aware of this issue in order to have successful management over this infection.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Mostafa, Salwa [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK); Lee, Ida [ORNL; Islam, Syed K [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK); Eliza, Sazia A. [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK); Shekhawat, Gajendra [Northwestern University, Evanston; Dravid, Vinayak [Northwestern University, Evanston; Tulip, Fahmida S [ORNL
2011-01-01
In this work, MOSFET-embedded cantilevers are configured as microbial sensors for detection of anthrax simulants, Bacillus thuringiensis. Anthrax simulants attached to the chemically treated gold-coated cantilever cause changes in the MOSFET drain current due to the bending of the cantilever which indicates the detection of anthrax simulant. Electrical properties of the anthrax simulant are also responsible for the change in the drain current. The test results suggest a detection range of 10 L of stimulant test solution (a suspension population of 1.3 107 colony-forming units/mL diluted in 40% ethanol and 60% deionized water) with a linear response of 31 A/ L.
Modeling the Ecological Niche of Bacillus anthracis to Map Anthrax Risk in Kyrgyzstan.
Blackburn, Jason K; Matakarimov, Saitbek; Kozhokeeva, Sabira; Tagaeva, Zhyldyz; Bell, Lindsay K; Kracalik, Ian T; Zhunushov, Asankadyr
2017-03-01
AbstractAnthrax, caused by the environmental bacterium Bacillus anthracis , is an important zoonosis nearly worldwide. In Central Asia, anthrax represents a major veterinary and public health concern. In the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, ongoing anthrax outbreaks have been reported in humans associated with handling infected livestock and contaminated animal by-products such as meat or hides. The current anthrax situation has prompted calls for improved insights into the epidemiology, ecology, and spatial distribution of the disease in Kyrgyzstan to better inform control and surveillance. Disease control for both humans and livestock relies on annual livestock vaccination ahead of outbreaks. Toward this, we used a historic database of livestock anthrax reported from 1932 to 2006 mapped at high resolution to develop an ecological niche model-based prediction of B. anthracis across Kyrgyzstan and identified spatial clusters of livestock anthrax using a cluster morphology statistic. We also defined the seasonality of outbreaks in livestock. Cattle were the most frequently reported across the time period, with the greatest number of cases in late summer months. Our niche models defined four areas as suitable to support pathogen persistence, the plateaus near Talas and Bishkek, the valleys of western Kyrgyzstan along the Fergana Valley, and the low-lying areas along the shore of Lake Isyk-Kul. These areas should be considered "at risk" for livestock anthrax and subsequent human cases. Areas defined by the niche models can be used to prioritize anthrax surveillance and inform efforts to target livestock vaccination campaigns.
Potent antitumor activity of a urokinase-activated engineered anthrax toxin
Liu, Shihui; Aaronson, Hannah; Mitola, David J.; Leppla, Stephen H.; Bugge, Thomas H.
2003-01-01
The acquisition of cell-surface urokinase plasminogen activator activity is a hallmark of malignancy. We generated an engineered anthrax toxin that is activated by cell-surface urokinase in vivo and displays limited toxicity to normal tissue but broad and potent tumoricidal activity. Native anthrax toxin protective antigen, when administered with a chimeric anthrax toxin lethal factor, Pseudomonas exotoxin fusion protein, was extremely toxic to mice, causing rapid and fatal organ damage. Replacing the furin activation sequence in anthrax toxin protective antigen with an artificial peptide sequence efficiently activated by urokinase greatly attenuated toxicity to mice. In addition, the mutation conferred cell-surface urokinase-dependent toxin activation in vivo, as determined by using a panel of plasminogen, plasminogen activator, plasminogen activator receptor, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-deficient mice. Surprisingly, toxin activation critically depended on both urokinase plasminogen activator receptor and plasminogen in vivo, showing that both proteins are essential cofactors for the generation of cell-surface urokinase. The engineered toxin displayed potent tumor cell cytotoxicity to a spectrum of transplanted tumors of diverse origin and could eradicate established solid tumors. This tumoricidal activity depended strictly on tumor cell-surface plasminogen activation. The data show that a simple change of protease activation specificity converts anthrax toxin from a highly lethal to a potent tumoricidal agent.
DUST-BATHING BEHAVIORS OF AFRICAN HERBIVORES AND THE POTENTIAL RISK OF INHALATIONAL ANTHRAX.
Barandongo, Zoe R; Mfune, John K E; Turner, Wendy C
2018-01-01
: Anthrax in herbivorous wildlife and livestock is generally assumed to be transmitted via ingestion or inhalation of Bacillus anthracis spores. Although recent studies have highlighted the importance of the ingestion route for anthrax transmission, little is known about the inhalational route in natural systems. Dust bathing could aerosolize soilborne pathogens such as B. anthracis, exposing dust-bathing individuals to inhalational infections. We investigated the potential role of dust bathing in the transmission of inhalational anthrax to herbivorous wildlife in Etosha National Park, Namibia, an area with endemic seasonal anthrax outbreaks. We 1) cultured soils from dust-bathing sites for the presence and concentration of B. anthracis spores, 2) monitored anthrax carcass sites, the locations with the highest B. anthracis concentrations, for evidence of dust bathing, including a site where a zebra died of anthrax on a large dust bath, and 3) characterized the ecology and seasonality of dust bathing in plains zebra ( Equus quagga), blue wildebeest ( Connochaetes taurinus), and African savanna elephant ( Loxodonta africana) using a combination of motion-sensing camera traps and direct observations. Only two out of 83 dust-bath soils were positive for B. anthracis, both with low spore concentrations (≤20 colony-forming units per gram). We also detected no evidence of dust baths occurring at anthrax carcass sites, perhaps due to carcass-induced changes in soil composition that may deter dust bathing. Finally, despite observing some seasonal variation in dust bathing, preliminary evidence suggests that the seasonality of dust bathing and anthrax mortalities are not correlated. Thus, although dust bathing creates a dramatic cloud of aerosolized soil around an individual, our microbiologic, ecologic, and behavioral results in concert demonstrate that dust bathing is highly unlikely to transmit inhalational anthrax infections.
Military Hospitalizations among Deployed US Service Members Following Anthrax Vaccination, 1998-2001
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Wells, Timothy S; Sato, Paul A; Smith, Tyler C; Wang, Linda Z; Reed, Robert J; Kappel Ryan, Margaret A
2006-01-01
.... To determine if anthrax vaccination was associated with an increased risk of hospitalization, a historical cohort study utilizing pre- and post-anthrax-vaccination hospitalizations was undertaken...
Anthrax, People and Dead Hippos
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts
2017-11-07
Epidemiologist, Dr. Melissa Marx, discuses anthrax deaths in people who ate dead hippos. Created: 11/7/2017 by National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). Date Released: 11/7/2017.
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Nath, Samuel; Dere, Ashlee
2016-01-01
Bacillus anthracis is the pathogenic bacterium that causes anthrax, which dwells in soils as highly resilient endospores. B. anthracis spore viability in soil is dependent upon environmental conditions, but the soil properties necessary for spore survival are unclear. In this study we used a range of soil geochemical and physical parameters to predict the spatial distribution of B. anthracis in northwest Minnesota, where 64 cases of anthrax in livestock were reported from 2000 to 2013. Two modeling approaches at different spatial scales were used to identify the soil conditions most correlated to known anthrax cases using both statewide and locally collected soil data. Ecological niche models were constructed using the Maximum Entropy (Maxent) approach and included 11 soil parameters as environmental inputs and recorded anthrax cases as known presences. One ecological niche model used soil data and anthrax presences for the entire state while a second model used locally sampled soil data (n = 125) and a subset of anthrax presences, providing a test of spatial scale. In addition, simple logistic regression models using the localized soil data served as an independent measure of variable importance. Maxent model results indicate that at a statewide level, soil calcium and magnesium concentrations, soil pH, and sand content are the most important properties for predicting soil suitability for B. anthracis while at the local level, clay and sand content along with phosphorous and strontium concentrations are most important. These results also show that the spatial scale of analysis is important when considering soil parameters most important for B. anthracis spores. For example, at a broad scale, B. anthracis spores may require Ca-rich soils and an alkaline pH, but may also concentrate in microenvironments with high Sr concentrations. The study is also one of the first ecological niche models that demonstrates the major importance of soil texture for defining
Orbito-Maxillofacial Cutaneous Anthrax
African Journals Online (AJOL)
and development of a black eschar were reviewed. Occupational history, falls and/or contact with animal meat was ... and oral ciprofloxacin (500mg BD for 21 days). The culture results isolated Bacillus anthracis highly ... The clinical evolution of cutaneous anthrax is typical with the initial development of minute red macules.
Tumor Targeting and Drug Delivery by Anthrax Toxin
Bachran, Christopher; Leppla, Stephen H.
2016-01-01
Anthrax toxin is a potent tripartite protein toxin from Bacillus anthracis. It is one of the two virulence factors and causes the disease anthrax. The receptor-binding component of the toxin, protective antigen, needs to be cleaved by furin-like proteases to be activated and to deliver the enzymatic moieties lethal factor and edema factor to the cytosol of cells. Alteration of the protease cleavage site allows the activation of the toxin selectively in response to the presence of tumor-associ...
Growth medium for the rapid isolation and identification of anthrax
Kiel, Johnathan L.; Parker, Jill E.; Grubbs, Teri R.; Alls, John L.
2000-07-01
Anthrax has been recognized as a highly likely biological warfare or terrorist agent. The purpose of this work was to design a culture technique to rapidly isolate and identify `live' anthrax. In liquid or solid media form, 3AT medium (3-amino-L-tyrosine, the main ingredient) accelerated germination and growth of anthrax spores in 5 to 6 hours to a point expected at 18 to 24 hours with ordinary medium. During accelerated growth, standard definitive diagnostic tests such as sensitivity to lysis by penicillin or bacteriophage can be run. During this time, the bacteria synthesized a fluorescent and thermochemiluminescent polymer. Bacteria captured by specific antibody are, therefore, already labeled. Because living bacteria are required to generate the polymer, the test converts immunoassays for anthrax into viability assays. Furthermore, the polymer formation leads to the death of the vegetative form and non-viability of the spores produced in the medium. By altering the formulation of the medium, other microbes and even animal and human cells can be grown in it and labeled (including viruses grown in the animal or human cells).
Monte Carlo N-particle simulation of neutron-based sterilisation of anthrax contamination.
Liu, B; Xu, J; Liu, T; Ouyang, X
2012-10-01
To simulate the neutron-based sterilisation of anthrax contamination by Monte Carlo N-particle (MCNP) 4C code. Neutrons are elementary particles that have no charge. They are 20 times more effective than electrons or γ-rays in killing anthrax spores on surfaces and inside closed containers. Neutrons emitted from a (252)Cf neutron source are in the 100 keV to 2 MeV energy range. A 2.5 MeV D-D neutron generator can create neutrons at up to 10(13) n s(-1) with current technology. All these enable an effective and low-cost method of killing anthrax spores. There is no effect on neutron energy deposition on the anthrax sample when using a reflector that is thicker than its saturation thickness. Among all three reflecting materials tested in the MCNP simulation, paraffin is the best because it has the thinnest saturation thickness and is easy to machine. The MCNP radiation dose and fluence simulation calculation also showed that the MCNP-simulated neutron fluence that is needed to kill the anthrax spores agrees with previous analytical estimations very well. The MCNP simulation indicates that a 10 min neutron irradiation from a 0.5 g (252)Cf neutron source or a 1 min neutron irradiation from a 2.5 MeV D-D neutron generator may kill all anthrax spores in a sample. This is a promising result because a 2.5 MeV D-D neutron generator output >10(13) n s(-1) should be attainable in the near future. This indicates that we could use a D-D neutron generator to sterilise anthrax contamination within several seconds.
About a hypothetical terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
2001-10-01
After the terrorism attack on the World Trade Center, a record number ( two thirds) of US citizens favour the use of nuclear energy and consider nuclear plants to be safe. At the same time 59% definitely support building more nuclear plants, less than in March during the Californian crisis, but more than earlier., Most american citizens ( 84%) continue to support licence renewal for nuclear plants and 72 % agree with keeping the option open to build new nuclear plants in the future. The strongest supporters are those who have visited a nuclear plant or information centre. (N.C.)
A 2011 Risk/Benefit Analysis of the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program
2011-06-10
filled with botulinum toxin, 10 with anthrax, and 2 with aflatoxin.‖18 In 1992, Ken Alibek, a senior Russian bioweapons program manager defected...William K. Honner, Rosha A. Loach , Cynthia A. Moore, and J. David Erickson. ―Birth Defects Among Infants Born to Women Who Received Anthrax Vaccine In
Persistent anthrax as a major driver of wildlife mortality in a tropical rainforest.
Hoffmann, Constanze; Zimmermann, Fee; Biek, Roman; Kuehl, Hjalmar; Nowak, Kathrin; Mundry, Roger; Agbor, Anthony; Angedakin, Samuel; Arandjelovic, Mimi; Blankenburg, Anja; Brazolla, Gregory; Corogenes, Katherine; Couacy-Hymann, Emmanuel; Deschner, Tobias; Dieguez, Paula; Dierks, Karsten; Düx, Ariane; Dupke, Susann; Eshuis, Henk; Formenty, Pierre; Yuh, Yisa Ginath; Goedmakers, Annemarie; Gogarten, Jan F; Granjon, Anne-Céline; McGraw, Scott; Grunow, Roland; Hart, John; Jones, Sorrel; Junker, Jessica; Kiang, John; Langergraber, Kevin; Lapuente, Juan; Lee, Kevin; Leendertz, Siv Aina; Léguillon, Floraine; Leinert, Vera; Löhrich, Therese; Marrocoli, Sergio; Mätz-Rensing, Kerstin; Meier, Amelia; Merkel, Kevin; Metzger, Sonja; Murai, Mizuki; Niedorf, Svenja; De Nys, Hélène; Sachse, Andreas; van Schijndel, Joost; Thiesen, Ulla; Ton, Els; Wu, Doris; Wieler, Lothar H; Boesch, Christophe; Klee, Silke R; Wittig, Roman M; Calvignac-Spencer, Sébastien; Leendertz, Fabian H
2017-08-02
Anthrax is a globally important animal disease and zoonosis. Despite this, our current knowledge of anthrax ecology is largely limited to arid ecosystems, where outbreaks are most commonly reported. Here we show that the dynamics of an anthrax-causing agent, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis, in a tropical rainforest have severe consequences for local wildlife communities. Using data and samples collected over three decades, we show that rainforest anthrax is a persistent and widespread cause of death for a broad range of mammalian hosts. We predict that this pathogen will accelerate the decline and possibly result in the extirpation of local chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) populations. We present the epidemiology of a cryptic pathogen and show that its presence has important implications for conservation.
Persistent anthrax as a major driver of wildlife mortality in a tropical rainforest
Hoffmann, Constanze; Zimmermann, Fee; Biek, Roman; Kuehl, Hjalmar; Nowak, Kathrin; Mundry, Roger; Agbor, Anthony; Angedakin, Samuel; Arandjelovic, Mimi; Blankenburg, Anja; Brazolla, Gregory; Corogenes, Katherine; Couacy-Hymann, Emmanuel; Deschner, Tobias; Dieguez, Paula; Dierks, Karsten; Düx, Ariane; Dupke, Susann; Eshuis, Henk; Formenty, Pierre; Yuh, Yisa Ginath; Goedmakers, Annemarie; Gogarten, Jan F.; Granjon, Anne-Céline; McGraw, Scott; Grunow, Roland; Hart, John; Jones, Sorrel; Junker, Jessica; Kiang, John; Langergraber, Kevin; Lapuente, Juan; Lee, Kevin; Leendertz, Siv Aina; Léguillon, Floraine; Leinert, Vera; Löhrich, Therese; Marrocoli, Sergio; Mätz-Rensing, Kerstin; Meier, Amelia; Merkel, Kevin; Metzger, Sonja; Murai, Mizuki; Niedorf, Svenja; de Nys, Hélène; Sachse, Andreas; van Schijndel, Joost; Thiesen, Ulla; Ton, Els; Wu, Doris; Wieler, Lothar H.; Boesch, Christophe; Klee, Silke R.; Wittig, Roman M.; Calvignac-Spencer, Sébastien; Leendertz, Fabian H.
2017-08-01
Anthrax is a globally important animal disease and zoonosis. Despite this, our current knowledge of anthrax ecology is largely limited to arid ecosystems, where outbreaks are most commonly reported. Here we show that the dynamics of an anthrax-causing agent, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis, in a tropical rainforest have severe consequences for local wildlife communities. Using data and samples collected over three decades, we show that rainforest anthrax is a persistent and widespread cause of death for a broad range of mammalian hosts. We predict that this pathogen will accelerate the decline and possibly result in the extirpation of local chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) populations. We present the epidemiology of a cryptic pathogen and show that its presence has important implications for conservation.
Progress and novel strategies in vaccine development and treatment of anthrax.
Chitlaru, Theodor; Altboum, Zeev; Reuveny, Shaul; Shafferman, Avigdor
2011-01-01
The lethal anthrax disease is caused by spores of the gram-positive Bacillus anthracis, a member of the cereus group of bacilli. Although the disease is very rare in the Western world, development of anthrax countermeasures gains increasing attention due to the potential use of B. anthracis spores as a bio-terror weapon. Protective antigen (PA), the non-toxic subunit of the bacterial secreted exotoxin, fulfills the role of recognizing a specific receptor and mediating the entry of the toxin into the host target cells. PA elicits a protective immune response and represents the basis for all current anthrax vaccines. Anti-PA neutralizing antibodies are useful correlates for protection and for vaccine efficacy evaluation. Post exposure anti-toxemic and anti-bacteremic prophylactic treatment of anthrax requires prolonged antibiotic administration. Shorter efficient postexposure treatments may require active or passive immunization, in addition to antibiotics. Although anthrax is acknowledged as a toxinogenic disease, additional factors, other than the bacterial toxin, may be involved in the virulence of B. anthracis and may be needed for the long-lasting protection conferred by PA immunization. The search for such novel factors is the focus of several high throughput genomic and proteomic studies that are already leading to identification of novel targets for therapeutics, for vaccine candidates, as well as biomarkers for detection and diagnosis. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Anthrax Toxin Receptor 2–Dependent Lethal Toxin Killing In Vivo
Scobie, Heather M; Wigelsworth, Darran J; Marlett, John M; Thomas, Diane; Rainey, G. Jonah A; Lacy, D. Borden; Manchester, Marianne; Collier, R. John; Young, John A. T
2006-01-01
Anthrax toxin receptors 1 and 2 (ANTXR1 and ANTXR2) have a related integrin-like inserted (I) domain which interacts with a metal cation that is coordinated by residue D683 of the protective antigen (PA) subunit of anthrax toxin. The receptor-bound metal ion and PA residue D683 are critical for ANTXR1-PA binding. Since PA can bind to ANTXR2 with reduced affinity in the absence of metal ions, we reasoned that D683 mutant forms of PA might specifically interact with ANTXR2. We show here that this is the case. The differential ability of ANTXR1 and ANTXR2 to bind D683 mutant PA proteins was mapped to nonconserved receptor residues at the binding interface with PA domain 2. Moreover, a D683K mutant form of PA that bound specifically to human and rat ANTXR2 mediated killing of rats by anthrax lethal toxin, providing strong evidence for the physiological importance of ANTXR2 in anthrax disease pathogenesis. PMID:17054395
Micromotors to capture and destroy anthrax simulant spores.
Orozco, Jahir; Pan, Guoqing; Sattayasamitsathit, Sirilak; Galarnyk, Michael; Wang, Joseph
2015-03-07
Towards addressing the need for detecting and eliminating biothreats, we describe a micromotor-based approach for screening, capturing, isolating and destroying anthrax simulant spores in a simple and rapid manner with minimal sample processing. The B. globilli antibody-functionalized micromotors can recognize, capture and transport B. globigii spores in environmental matrices, while showing non-interactions with excess of non-target bacteria. Efficient destruction of the anthrax simulant spores is demonstrated via the micromotor-induced mixing of a mild oxidizing solution. The new micromotor-based approach paves a way to dynamic multifunctional systems that rapidly recognize, isolate, capture and destroy biological threats.
Detailed Safety Review of Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
2001-01-01
To date, 18 human studies have assessed the safety of anthrax vaccination. These studies, some stretching back almost 50 years, reported adverse events after vaccination in varying degrees of detail...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Paul Keim
2015-11-01
Lay Person Interpretation: Injectional anthrax has been plaguing heroin drug users across Europe for more than 10 years. In order to better understand this outbreak, we assessed genomic relationships of all available injectional anthrax strains from four countries spanning a >12 year period. Very few differences were identified using genome-based analysis, but these differentiated the isolates into two distinct clusters. This strongly supports a hypothesis of at least two separate anthrax spore contamination events perhaps during the drug production processes. Identification of two events would not have been possible from standard epidemiological analysis. These comprehensive data will be invaluable for classifying future injectional anthrax isolates and for future geographic attribution.
Kracalik, Ian T; Kenu, Ernest; Ayamdooh, Evans Nsoh; Allegye-Cudjoe, Emmanuel; Polkuu, Paul Nokuma; Frimpong, Joseph Asamoah; Nyarko, Kofi Mensah; Bower, William A; Traxler, Rita; Blackburn, Jason K
2017-10-01
Anthrax is hyper-endemic in West Africa. Despite the effectiveness of livestock vaccines in controlling anthrax, underreporting, logistics, and limited resources makes implementing vaccination campaigns difficult. To better understand the geographic limits of anthrax, elucidate environmental factors related to its occurrence, and identify human and livestock populations at risk, we developed predictive models of the environmental suitability of anthrax in Ghana. We obtained data on the location and date of livestock anthrax from veterinary and outbreak response records in Ghana during 2005-2016, as well as livestock vaccination registers and population estimates of characteristically high-risk groups. To predict the environmental suitability of anthrax, we used an ensemble of random forest (RF) models built using a combination of climatic and environmental factors. From 2005 through the first six months of 2016, there were 67 anthrax outbreaks (851 cases) in livestock; outbreaks showed a seasonal peak during February through April and primarily involved cattle. There was a median of 19,709 vaccine doses [range: 0-175 thousand] administered annually. Results from the RF model suggest a marked ecological divide separating the broad areas of environmental suitability in northern Ghana from the southern part of the country. Increasing alkaline soil pH was associated with a higher probability of anthrax occurrence. We estimated 2.2 (95% CI: 2.0, 2.5) million livestock and 805 (95% CI: 519, 890) thousand low income rural livestock keepers were located in anthrax risk areas. Based on our estimates, the current anthrax vaccination efforts in Ghana cover a fraction of the livestock potentially at risk, thus control efforts should be focused on improving vaccine coverage among high risk groups.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ian T Kracalik
2017-10-01
Full Text Available Anthrax is hyper-endemic in West Africa. Despite the effectiveness of livestock vaccines in controlling anthrax, underreporting, logistics, and limited resources makes implementing vaccination campaigns difficult. To better understand the geographic limits of anthrax, elucidate environmental factors related to its occurrence, and identify human and livestock populations at risk, we developed predictive models of the environmental suitability of anthrax in Ghana. We obtained data on the location and date of livestock anthrax from veterinary and outbreak response records in Ghana during 2005-2016, as well as livestock vaccination registers and population estimates of characteristically high-risk groups. To predict the environmental suitability of anthrax, we used an ensemble of random forest (RF models built using a combination of climatic and environmental factors. From 2005 through the first six months of 2016, there were 67 anthrax outbreaks (851 cases in livestock; outbreaks showed a seasonal peak during February through April and primarily involved cattle. There was a median of 19,709 vaccine doses [range: 0-175 thousand] administered annually. Results from the RF model suggest a marked ecological divide separating the broad areas of environmental suitability in northern Ghana from the southern part of the country. Increasing alkaline soil pH was associated with a higher probability of anthrax occurrence. We estimated 2.2 (95% CI: 2.0, 2.5 million livestock and 805 (95% CI: 519, 890 thousand low income rural livestock keepers were located in anthrax risk areas. Based on our estimates, the current anthrax vaccination efforts in Ghana cover a fraction of the livestock potentially at risk, thus control efforts should be focused on improving vaccine coverage among high risk groups.
Effective antiprotease-antibiotic treatment of experimental anthrax
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
MacAfee Rebecca
2005-04-01
Full Text Available Abstract Background Inhalation anthrax is characterized by a systemic spread of the challenge agent, Bacillus anthracis. It causes severe damage, including multiple hemorrhagic lesions, to host tissues and organs. It is widely believed that anthrax lethal toxin secreted by proliferating bacteria is a major cause of death, however, the pathology of intoxication in experimental animals is drastically different from that found during the infectious process. In order to close a gap between our understanding of anthrax molecular pathology and the most prominent clinical features of the infectious process we undertook bioinformatic and experimental analyses of potential proteolytic virulence factors of B. anthracis distinct from lethal toxin. Methods Secreted proteins (other than lethal and edema toxins produced by B. anthracis were tested for tissue-damaging activity and toxicity in mice. Chemical protease inhibitors and rabbit immune sera raised against B. anthracis proteases were used to treat mice challenged with B. anthracis (Sterne spores. Results B. anthracis strain delta Ames (pXO1-, pXO2- producing no lethal and edema toxins secrets a number of metalloprotease virulence factors upon cultivation under aerobic conditions, including those with hemorrhagic, caseinolytic and collagenolytic activities, belonging to M4 and M9 thermolysin and bacterial collagenase families, respectively. These factors are directly toxic to DBA/2 mice upon intratracheal administration at 0.5 mg/kg and higher doses. Chemical protease inhibitors (phosphoramidon and 1, 10-phenanthroline, as well as immune sera against M4 and M9 proteases of B. anthracis, were used to treat mice challenged with B. anthracis (Sterne spores. These substances demonstrate a substantial protective efficacy in combination with ciprofloxacin therapy initiated as late as 48 h post spore challenge, compared to the antibiotic alone. Conclusion Secreted proteolytic enzymes are important pathogenic
Cutaneous anthrax in the northeast of Iran: A case report and review of the literature
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Mohsen Karbalaei Zadeh Babaki
2018-02-01
Full Text Available Bacillus anthracis is an aerobic, gram-positive, and spore-forming Bacillus species. The most common form of anthrax infection is the cutaneous form. The infection usually develops several days after exposure to products of infected animals and manifest as black sore with severe swelling on the skin.A 52-year-old female with a black and swollen lesion on her index finger presented to Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, in October 2015. Biopsy and swab culture were performed immediately. Cutaneous anthrax was characterized by microscopic examination of B. anthracis spore using Gram staining. The patient was then treated with antibiotics after diagnosis.According to the reports of Provincial Health Center of Khorasan Razavi, northeast of Iran, no cases of anthrax have been reported in humans since 2013. There were neither occupational risk factors, nor any routine predisposing factors for acquiring anthrax in this woman. Although this patient is the first case reported with cutaneous anthrax since the past three years, two cases of sheep anthrax have been reported in Khorasan Razavi Province during 2013-2015. This patient had a history of contact with the skull of a slaughtered sheep. The patient was treated after making correct and rapid diagnosis and sufficient antibiotic therapy.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ian Kracalik
2014-07-01
Full Text Available We assessed spatial and temporal changes in the occurrence of human anthrax in Azerbaijan during 1984 through 2010. Data on livestock outbreaks, vaccination efforts, and human anthrax incidence during Soviet governance, post-Soviet governance, preemptive livestock vaccination were analyzed. To evaluate changes in the spatio-temporal distribution of anthrax, we used a combination of spatial analysis, cluster detection, and weighted least squares segmented regression. Results indicated an annual percent change in incidence of (+11.95% from 1984 to 1995 followed by declining rate of -35.24% after the initiation of livestock vaccination in 1996. Our findings also revealed geographic variation in the spatial distribution of reporting; cases were primarily concentrated in the west early in the study period and shifted eastward as time progressed. Over twenty years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the distribution of human anthrax in Azerbaijan has undergone marked changes. Despite decreases in the incidence of human anthrax, continued control measures in livestock are needed to mitigate its occurrence. The shifting patterns of human anthrax highlight the need for an integrated "One Health" approach that takes into account the changing geographic distribution of the disease.
Evaluation of cutaneous anthrax cases during an outbreak in the east region of Turkey.
Kural Ünüvar, Esra; Akgün Karapınar, Deniz Bahar; Dizen Namdar, Nazlı
2016-11-17
Anthrax is a zoonotic infection caused by Bacillus anthracis. We aimed to retrospectively evaluate cutaneous anthrax cases that occurred during an outbreak in eastern Turkey (Hakkari-Yüksekova), where people mostly earn their living from animal husbandry. Forty-six cutaneous anthrax patients that were admitted to the hospital during a very short duration of 3 months (June-August 2011) were evaluated. Out of 46 patients, 27 (52%) were women and 19 (48%) were men. The mean age was 37 ± 13 years. The distribution of occupations was 1 butcher, 1 cook, 5 farmers, 27 housewives, 11 shepherds, and 1 teacher. Multiple lesions were seen in 7 patients (15%) and the rest of the patients had only 1 lesion. We observed significant clinical differences among the cases and noted which particular symptoms were associated with the various skin lesions. We treated our patients with intramuscular procaine penicillin or oral ciprofloxacin/doxycycline. Anthrax is an important health problem that can cause lethal outbreaks. Therefore, one should think about anthrax when faced with a patient with history of animal contact that has a painless ulcer with edema and/or vesicles, especially in endemic countries like Turkey.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Doreen Chilolo Sitali
2017-05-01
Full Text Available In Zambia, human anthrax cases often occur following cases of animal anthrax. Human behaviour has been implicated in this transmission. The objective of the study was to explore human behavioural patterns that may contribute to outbreaks of anthrax among affected communities.A mixed methods study was conducted in four districts of Zambia from November 2015 to February 2016. A cross sectional survey involving 1,127 respondents, six focus group discussions and seven key informant interviews with professional staff were conducted. Descriptive statistics on socio-demographic characteristics, awareness of anthrax, attitudes towards cattle vaccination and risk factors for anthrax and vaccination practices were run using STATA 12 for analysis.Overall, 88% of respondents heard about anthrax, 85.1% were aware that anthrax is transmitted by eating infected meat and 64.2% knew that animals and humans can be infected with anthrax. However, qualitative data suggested that awareness of anthrax varied across communities. Qualitative findings also indicated that, in Western and Muchinga provinces, human anthrax was transmitted by eating infected beef and hippo (Hippopotamus amphibious meat, respectively. Although survey data indicated that 62.2% of respondents vaccinated their animals, qualitative interviews and annual vaccination reports indicated low vaccination rates, which were attributed to inadequate veterinary service provision and logistical challenges. While 82% of respondents indicated that they reported animal deaths to veterinary officers, only 13.5% of respondents buried infected carcasses. Majority (78.1% of respondents either ate, sold or shared meat from dead animals with other community members. Poverty, lack of access to meat protein and economic reasons were cited as drivers for consuming infected meat.Health education campaigns must be intensified to reduce the risk of human exposure. Veterinary extension services should be strengthened and
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Peters, Diane E.; Hoover, Benjamin; Cloud, Loretta Grey; Liu, Shihui; Molinolo, Alfredo A.; Leppla, Stephen H.; Bugge, Thomas H.
2014-01-01
We have previously designed and characterized versions of anthrax lethal toxin that are selectively cytotoxic in the tumor microenvironment and which display broad and potent anti-tumor activities in vivo. Here, we have performed the first direct comparison of the safety and efficacy of three engineered anthrax lethal toxin variants requiring activation by either matrix-metalloproteinases (MMPs), urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) or co-localized MMP/uPA activities. C57BL/6J mice were challenged with six doses of engineered toxins via intraperitoneal (I.P.) or intravenous (I.V.) dose routes to determine the maximum tolerated dose for six administrations (MTD6) and dose-limiting toxicities. Efficacy was evaluated using the B16-BL6 syngraft model of melanoma; mice bearing established tumors were treated with six I.P. doses of toxin and tumor measurements and immunohistochemistry, paired with terminal blood work, were used to elaborate upon the anti-tumor mechanism and relative efficacy of each variant. We found that MMP-, uPA- and dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxins exhibited the same dose-limiting toxicity; dose-dependent GI toxicity. In terms of efficacy, all three toxins significantly reduced primary B16-BL6 tumor burden, ranging from 32% to 87% reduction, and they also delayed disease progression as evidenced by dose-dependent normalization of blood work values. While target organ toxicity and effective doses were similar amongst the variants, the dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxin exhibited the highest I.P. MTD6 and was 1.5–3-fold better tolerated than the single MMP- and uPA-activated toxins. Overall, we demonstrate that this dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxin can be administered safely and is highly effective in a preclinical model of melanoma. This modified bacterial cytotoxin is thus a promising candidate for further clinical development and evaluation for use in treating human cancers. - Highlights: • Toxicity and anti
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Peters, Diane E. [Proteases and Tissue Remodeling Section, Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States); Program of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (United States); Hoover, Benjamin [Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States); Cloud, Loretta Grey [Proteases and Tissue Remodeling Section, Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States); Liu, Shihui [Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States); Molinolo, Alfredo A. [Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States); Leppla, Stephen H. [Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States); Bugge, Thomas H., E-mail: thomas.bugge@nih.go [Proteases and Tissue Remodeling Section, Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States)
2014-09-01
We have previously designed and characterized versions of anthrax lethal toxin that are selectively cytotoxic in the tumor microenvironment and which display broad and potent anti-tumor activities in vivo. Here, we have performed the first direct comparison of the safety and efficacy of three engineered anthrax lethal toxin variants requiring activation by either matrix-metalloproteinases (MMPs), urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) or co-localized MMP/uPA activities. C57BL/6J mice were challenged with six doses of engineered toxins via intraperitoneal (I.P.) or intravenous (I.V.) dose routes to determine the maximum tolerated dose for six administrations (MTD6) and dose-limiting toxicities. Efficacy was evaluated using the B16-BL6 syngraft model of melanoma; mice bearing established tumors were treated with six I.P. doses of toxin and tumor measurements and immunohistochemistry, paired with terminal blood work, were used to elaborate upon the anti-tumor mechanism and relative efficacy of each variant. We found that MMP-, uPA- and dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxins exhibited the same dose-limiting toxicity; dose-dependent GI toxicity. In terms of efficacy, all three toxins significantly reduced primary B16-BL6 tumor burden, ranging from 32% to 87% reduction, and they also delayed disease progression as evidenced by dose-dependent normalization of blood work values. While target organ toxicity and effective doses were similar amongst the variants, the dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxin exhibited the highest I.P. MTD6 and was 1.5–3-fold better tolerated than the single MMP- and uPA-activated toxins. Overall, we demonstrate that this dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxin can be administered safely and is highly effective in a preclinical model of melanoma. This modified bacterial cytotoxin is thus a promising candidate for further clinical development and evaluation for use in treating human cancers. - Highlights: • Toxicity and anti
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
I. V. Shestakova
2017-01-01
Full Text Available For the first time in a long time period the sources of actual information about anthrax in Russia and in the world are systematized. The essence of the problem, features of epidemiology and clinical manifestations of the current forms of anthrax disease are analyzed. The upgraded classification of anthrax is presented, the clinical manifestations of oro-oropharyngeal varieties of intestinal form and injectable form of anthrax are described, according to extensive literature data and international guidelines and recommendations. The recommendations for clinical management of patients and diagnosis of disease are given. The need for strict compliance to the vaccination requirements of anthrax among animals and persons from risk groups is proven.
Naturally acquired anthrax antibodies in a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in Botswana.
Good, Kyle M; Houser, Annmarie; Arntzen, Lorraine; Turnbull, Peter C B
2008-07-01
An outbreak of anthrax in the Jwana Game Reserve in Jwaneng, Botswana, was first observed when three cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) died of the disease in November 2004. In the aftermath of this event, banked serum samples collected from 23 wild-caught cheetahs were examined, by the inhibition enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA), for antibodies to the protective antigen (PA) of Bacillus anthracis. Of the 23 cheetahs, 16 regularly accessed the reserve. Antibodies to PA were detected in one cheetah collected in May 2004, indicating the disease was occurring well before it was first noticed. This appears to be the first demonstration of naturally acquired anthrax antibodies in cheetahs. The finding of one antibody-positive animal amongst at least 16 potentially exposed individuals is consistent with existing reports that it is uncommon for cheetahs to develop natural immunity to anthrax.
Cizauskas, Carrie A; Bellan, Steven E; Turner, Wendy C; Vance, Russell E; Getz, Wayne M
2014-09-01
Few studies have examined host-pathogen interactions in wildlife from an immunological perspective, particularly in the context of seasonal and longitudinal dynamics. In addition, though most ecological immunology studies employ serological antibody assays, endpoint titre determination is usually based on subjective criteria and needs to be made more objective. Despite the fact that anthrax is an ancient and emerging zoonotic infectious disease found world-wide, its natural ecology is not well understood. In particular, little is known about the adaptive immune responses of wild herbivore hosts against Bacillus anthracis. Working in the natural anthrax system of Etosha National Park, Namibia, we collected 154 serum samples from plains zebra (Equus quagga), 21 from springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) and 45 from African elephants (Loxodonta africana) over 2-3 years, resampling individuals when possible for seasonal and longitudinal comparisons. We used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to measure anti-anthrax antibody titres and developed three increasingly conservative models to determine endpoint titres with more rigourous, objective mensuration. Between 52 and 87% of zebra, 0-15% of springbok and 3-52% of elephants had measurable anti-anthrax antibody titres, depending on the model used. While the ability of elephants and springbok to mount anti-anthrax adaptive immune responses is still equivocal, our results indicate that zebra in ENP often survive sublethal anthrax infections, encounter most B. anthracis in the wet season and can partially booster their immunity to B. anthracis. Thus, rather than being solely a lethal disease, anthrax often occurs as a sublethal infection in some susceptible hosts. Though we found that adaptive immunity to anthrax wanes rapidly, subsequent and frequent sublethal B. anthracis infections cause maturation of anti-anthrax immunity. By triggering host immune responses, these common sublethal infections may act as
Trial of risk assessment of a hypothetical nuclear facility
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Terao, Norichika; Suzuki, Mitsutoshi
2013-01-01
An equation for risk assessment in physical protection is shown by a probability of an adversary attack during a period time, P A , a probability of system effectiveness, P E , and consequence value, C. In addition, P E is shown as the multiplication of a probability of interruption of the facility, P I , by a probability of neutralization by response force, P N . In this study, it is assumed that an adversary assaults a hypothetical nuclear facility. The new quantification method about P A and P I in risk evaluation formula is devised, and risk assessment is attempted. In case of P A , the possibility of assaults against a nuclear facility is discussed by using terrorism data written in the open source database of terrorism, Global Terrorism Database (GTD), summarized by University of Maryland. In addition, it is discussed about P I by using the way of thinking of a risk assessment tool, EASI, developed by the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). In the hypothetical nuclear facility, the performance of response force, sensors, and communication is expressed quantitatively by probability distribution based on some assumptions. (author)
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Pedro Jacquez
Full Text Available Anthrax toxin receptors act as molecular clamps or switches that control anthrax toxin entry, pH-dependent pore formation, and translocation of enzymatic moieties across the endosomal membranes. We previously reported that reduction of the disulfide bonds in the immunoglobulin-like (Ig domain of the anthrax toxin receptor 2 (ANTXR2 inhibited the function of the protective antigen (PA pore. In the present study, the disulfide linkage in the Ig domain was identified as Cys255-Cys279 and Cys230-Cys315. Specific disulfide bond deletion mutants were achieved by replacing Cys residues with Ala residues. Deletion of the disulfide bond C255-C279, but not C230-C315, inhibited the PA pore-induced release of the fluorescence dyes from the liposomes, suggesting that C255-C279 is essential for PA pore function. Furthermore, we found that deletion of C255-C279 did not affect PA prepore-to-pore conversion, but inhibited PA pore membrane insertion by trapping the PA membrane-inserting loops in proteinaceous hydrophobic pockets. Fluorescence spectra of Trp59, a residue adjacent to the PA-binding motif in von Willebrand factor A (VWA domain of ANTXR2, showed that deletion of C255-C279 resulted in a significant conformational change on the receptor ectodomain. The disulfide deletion-induced conformational change on the VWA domain was further confirmed by single-particle 3D reconstruction of the negatively stained PA-receptor heptameric complexes. Together, the biochemical and structural data obtained in this study provides a mechanistic insight into the role of the receptor disulfide bond C255-C279 in anthrax toxin action. Manipulation of the redox states of the receptor, specifically targeting to C255-C279, may become a novel strategy to treat anthrax.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Lemaster, Michelle Nicole; Gay, David M. (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Ehlen, Mark Andrew (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Boggs, Paul T.; Ray, Jaideep
2009-10-01
Staggered bioterrorist attacks with aerosolized pathogens on population centers present a formidable challenge to resource allocation and response planning. The response and planning will commence immediately after the detection of the first attack and with no or little information of the second attack. In this report, we outline a method by which resource allocation may be performed. It involves probabilistic reconstruction of the bioterrorist attack from partial observations of the outbreak, followed by an optimization-under-uncertainty approach to perform resource allocations. We consider both single-site and time-staggered multi-site attacks (i.e., a reload scenario) under conditions when resources (personnel and equipment which are difficult to gather and transport) are insufficient. Both communicable (plague) and non-communicable diseases (anthrax) are addressed, and we also consider cases when the data, the time-series of people reporting with symptoms, are confounded with a reporting delay. We demonstrate how our approach develops allocations profiles that have the potential to reduce the probability of an extremely adverse outcome in exchange for a more certain, but less adverse outcome. We explore the effect of placing limits on daily allocations. Further, since our method is data-driven, the resource allocation progressively improves as more data becomes available.
Anthrax and the Geochemistry of Soils in the Contiguous United States
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Dale W. Griffin
2014-08-01
Full Text Available Soil geochemical data from sample sites in counties that reported occurrences of anthrax in wildlife and livestock since 2000 were evaluated against counties within the same states (MN, MT, ND, NV, OR, SD and TX that did not report occurrences. These data identified the elements, calcium (Ca, manganese (Mn, phosphorus (P and strontium (Sr, as having statistically significant differences in concentrations between county type (anthrax occurrence versus no occurrence. Tentative threshold values of the lowest concentrations of each of these elements (Ca = 0.43 wt %, Mn = 142 mg/kg, P = 180 mg/kg and Sr = 51 mg/kg and average concentrations (Ca = 1.3 wt %, Mn = 463 mg/kg, P = 580 mg/kg and Sr = 170 mg/kg were identified from anthrax-positive counties as prospective investigative tools in determining whether an outbreak had “potential” or was “likely” at any given geographic location in the contiguous United States.
Survival of the relocated population of the U. S. after a nuclear attack. Final report
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Haaland, C.M.; Chester, C.V.; Wigner, E.P.
1976-06-01
The feasibility of continued survival after a hypothetical nuclear attack is evaluated for people relocated from high-risk areas during the crisis period before the attack. The attack consists of 6559 MT, of which 5951 MT are ground bursts on military, industrial, and urban targets. Relocated people are assumed to be adequately protected from fallout radiation by shelters of various kinds. The major problems in the postattack situation will be the control of exposure to fallout radiation, and prevention of severe food shortages to several tens of millions of people.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Chenguang Cai
Full Text Available Anthrax toxin is the major virulence factor produced by Bacillus anthracis. The toxin consists of three protein subunits: protective antigen (PA, lethal factor, and edema factor. Inhibition of PA binding to its receptors, tumor endothelium marker-8 (TEM8 and capillary morphogenesis protein-2 (CMG2 can effectively block anthrax intoxication, which is particularly valuable when the toxin has already been overproduced at the late stage of anthrax infection, thus rendering antibiotics ineffectual. Receptor-like agonists, such as the mammalian cell-expressed von Willebrand factor type A (vWA domain of CMG2 (sCMG2, have demonstrated potency against the anthrax toxin. However, the soluble vWA domain of TEM8 (sTEM8 was ruled out as an anthrax toxin inhibitor candidate due to its inferior affinity to PA. In the present study, we report that L56A, a PA-binding-affinity-elevated mutant of sTEM8, could inhibit anthrax intoxication as effectively as sCMG2 in Fisher 344 rats. Additionally, pharmacokinetics showed that L56A and sTEM8 exhibit advantages over sCMG2 with better lung-targeting and longer plasma retention time, which may contribute to their enhanced protective ability in vivo. Our results suggest that receptor decoys based on TEM8 are promising anthrax toxin inhibitors and, together with the pharmacokinetic studies in this report, may contribute to the development of novel anthrax drugs.
Small molecule inhibitors of anthrax edema factor.
Jiao, Guan-Sheng; Kim, Seongjin; Moayeri, Mahtab; Thai, April; Cregar-Hernandez, Lynne; McKasson, Linda; O'Malley, Sean; Leppla, Stephen H; Johnson, Alan T
2018-01-15
Anthrax is a highly lethal disease caused by the Gram-(+) bacteria Bacillus anthracis. Edema toxin (ET) is a major contributor to the pathogenesis of disease in humans exposed to B. anthracis. ET is a bipartite toxin composed of two proteins secreted by the vegetative bacteria, edema factor (EF) and protective antigen (PA). Our work towards identifying a small molecule inhibitor of anthrax edema factor is the subject of this letter. First we demonstrate that the small molecule probe 5'-Fluorosulfonylbenzoyl 5'-adenosine (FSBA) reacts irreversibly with EF and blocks enzymatic activity. We then show that the adenosine portion of FSBA can be replaced to provide more drug-like molecules which are up to 1000-fold more potent against EF relative to FSBA, display low cross reactivity when tested against a panel of kinases, and are nanomolar inhibitors of EF in a cell-based assay of cAMP production. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Kandadi, Machender R; Yu, Xuejun; Frankel, Arthur E; Ren, Jun
2012-01-01
Abstract Background Lethal and edema toxins secreted by Bacillus anthracis during anthrax infection were found to incite serious cardiovascular complications. However, the underlying mechanisms in anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiac anomalies remain unknown. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of antioxidant enzyme catalase in anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte contractile dysfunction. Methods Wild type (WT) and cardiac-specific catalase overexpression mice were challenged...
The anthrax vaccine: is it safe? does it work?
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Committee to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of the Anthrax Vaccine, Medical Follow-Up Agency
2002-01-01
...), was licensed in 1970. It was initially used to protect people who might be exposed to anthrax where they worked, such as veterinarians and textile plant workers who process animal hair. When the U...
Dendritic Cells Endocytose Bacillus Anthracis Spores: Implications for Anthrax Pathogenesis
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Brittingham, Katherine C; Ruthel, Gordon; Panchal, Rekha G; Fuller, Claudette L; Ribot, Wilson J
2005-01-01
Phagocytosis of inhaled Bacillus anthracis spores and subsequent trafficking to lymph nodes are decisive events in the progression of inhaled anthrax because they initiate germination and dissemination of spores...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Skinner Ric
2003-11-01
Full Text Available Abstract Background The investigation of potential exposure to anthrax spores in a Trenton, New Jersey, mail-processing facility required rapid assessment of informatics needs and adaptation of existing informatics tools to new physical and information-processing environments. Because the affected building and its computers were closed down, data to list potentially exposed persons and map building floor plans were unavailable from the primary source. Results Controlling the effects of anthrax contamination required identification and follow-up of potentially exposed persons. Risk of exposure had to be estimated from the geographic relationship between work history and environmental sample sites within the contaminated facility. To assist in establishing geographic relationships, floor plan maps of the postal facility were constructed in ArcView Geographic Information System (GIS software and linked to a database of personnel and visitors using Epi Info and Epi Map 2000. A repository for maintaining the latest versions of various documents was set up using Web page hyperlinks. Conclusions During public health emergencies, such as bioterrorist attacks and disease epidemics, computerized information systems for data management, analysis, and communication may be needed within hours of beginning the investigation. Available sources of data and output requirements of the system may be changed frequently during the course of the investigation. Integrating data from a variety of sources may require entering or importing data from a variety of digital and paper formats. Spatial representation of data is particularly valuable for assessing environmental exposure. Written documents, guidelines, and memos important to the epidemic were frequently revised. In this investigation, a database was operational on the second day and the GIS component during the second week of the investigation.
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare; More, Simon J.; Bøtner, Anette
2017-01-01
Anthrax has been assessed according to the criteria of the Animal Health Law (AHL), in particular criteria of Article 7 on disease profile and impacts, Article 5 on the eligibility of anthrax to be listed, Article 9 for the categorisation of anthrax according to disease prevention and control rul...... species to be listed for anthrax according to Article 8(3) are several species of mammals, birds and reptiles, and susceptible herbivores and pigs as reservoir....
[Properties of live antibiotics-resistant anthrax vaccine STI-PR after long-term storage].
Aksenova, L Iu; Buravtseva, N P; Kogotkova, O I; Eremenko, E I; Tsygankova, O I
2007-01-01
Study showed that cultural, morphologic, genetic, immunologic characteristics, and resistance to antibiotics of STI-PR anthrax vaccine did not change after storage during 20 years in lyophilized condition. It has been shown that medium for lyophilization plays important role in preservation of vitality of anthrax spores. Optimal preservative properties have been observed for thioureal and sucrose-gelatinous media for lyophilization. Obtained results give reasons for prolongation of shelf live of STI-PR vaccine from 2 - 3 to 5 - 8 years.
A Viral Nanoparticle with Dual Function as an Anthrax Antitoxin and Vaccine
Manayani, Darly J; Thomas, Diane; Dryden, Kelly A; Reddy, Vijay; Siladi, Marc E; Marlett, John M; Rainey, G. Jonah A; Pique, Michael E; Scobie, Heather M; Yeager, Mark; Young, John A. T; Manchester, Marianne; Schneemann, Anette
2007-01-01
The recent use of Bacillus anthracis as a bioweapon has stimulated the search for novel antitoxins and vaccines that act rapidly and with minimal adverse effects. B. anthracis produces an AB-type toxin composed of the receptor-binding moiety protective antigen (PA) and the enzymatic moieties edema factor and lethal factor. PA is a key target for both antitoxin and vaccine development. We used the icosahedral insect virus Flock House virus as a platform to display 180 copies of the high affinity, PA-binding von Willebrand A domain of the ANTXR2 cellular receptor. The chimeric virus-like particles (VLPs) correctly displayed the receptor von Willebrand A domain on their surface and inhibited lethal toxin action in in vitro and in vivo models of anthrax intoxication. Moreover, VLPs complexed with PA elicited a potent toxin-neutralizing antibody response that protected rats from anthrax lethal toxin challenge after a single immunization without adjuvant. This recombinant VLP platform represents a novel and highly effective, dually-acting reagent for treatment and protection against anthrax. PMID:17922572
Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of the vWA domain of human anthrax toxin receptor 1
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Cai, Chenguang; Zhao, Ying; Tong, Xiaohang; Fu, Sheng; Li, Yuanyuan; Wu, Yang; Li, Xumei; Lou, Zhiyong
2010-01-01
The vWA domain of human anthrax toxin receptor 1 was overexpressed in E. coli, purified and crystallized. Diffraction data were collected to 1.8 Å resolution. The Gram-positive spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax by secreting anthrax toxin, which consists of protective antigen (PA), lethal factor and oedema factor. Binding of PA to receptors triggers the multi-step process of anthrax toxin entry into target cells. Two distinct cellular receptors, ANTXR1 (also known as tumour endothelial marker 8; TEM8) and ANTXR2 (also known as capillary morphogenesis protein 2; CMG2), for anthrax toxin have been identified. Although the crystal structure of the extracellular von Willebrand factor A (vWA) domain of CMG2 has been reported, the difference between the vWA domains of TEM8 and CMG2 remains unclear because there are no structural data for the TEM8 vWA domain. In this report, the TEM8 vWA domain was expressed, purified and crystallized. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 1.8 Å resolution from a single crystal, which belonged to space group P1 with unit-cell parameters a = 65.9, b = 66.1, c = 74.4 Å, α = 63.7, β = 88.2, γ = 59.9°
Delayed Toxicity Associated with Soluble Anthrax Toxin Receptor Decoy-Ig Fusion Protein Treatment
Cote, Christopher; Welkos, Susan; Manchester, Marianne; Young, John A. T.
2012-01-01
Soluble receptor decoy inhibitors, including receptor-immunogloubulin (Ig) fusion proteins, have shown promise as candidate anthrax toxin therapeutics. These agents act by binding to the receptor-interaction site on the protective antigen (PA) toxin subunit, thereby blocking toxin binding to cell surface receptors. Here we have made the surprising observation that co-administration of receptor decoy-Ig fusion proteins significantly delayed, but did not protect, rats challenged with anthrax lethal toxin. The delayed toxicity was associated with the in vivo assembly of a long-lived complex comprised of anthrax lethal toxin and the receptor decoy-Ig inhibitor. Intoxication in this system presumably results from the slow dissociation of the toxin complex from the inhibitor following their prolonged circulation. We conclude that while receptor decoy-Ig proteins represent promising candidates for the early treatment of B. anthracis infection, they may not be suitable for therapeutic use at later stages when fatal levels of toxin have already accumulated in the bloodstream. PMID:22511955
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kumaresan Nagarajan
2015-03-01
Full Text Available This article reports cases of nitrate poisoning in Indian indigenous cattle breeds comprising two Gir cows aging 4 years each, and one Barugur cow at 1.5 years of age. The cattle with case history of sudden death and oozing of partially clotted blood from the anal opening were brought to the Central University Laboratory (CUL, Center for Animal Health Studies (CAHS, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS for diagnostic investigation with a suspicion of anthrax. According to anamnesis, all the animals were clinically normal and did not reveal any abnormality on the previous day. The animals were fed with recently harvested sorghum leaves and stalks. Smears examined for anthrax were found negative. Biological test (mice inoculation for anthrax was also negative. Gross lesions on necropsy examination of the carcases were suggestive of nitrate intoxication. Finally, nitrate intoxication of these cattle was confirmed by chemical and toxicological analysis of fodder, rumen content, aqueous humor, liver, kidney and urine.
On resilience studies of system detection and recovery techniques against stealthy insider attacks
Wei, Sixiao; Zhang, Hanlin; Chen, Genshe; Shen, Dan; Yu, Wei; Pham, Khanh D.; Blasch, Erik P.; Cruz, Jose B.
2016-05-01
With the explosive growth of network technologies, insider attacks have become a major concern to business operations that largely rely on computer networks. To better detect insider attacks that marginally manipulate network traffic over time, and to recover the system from attacks, in this paper we implement a temporal-based detection scheme using the sequential hypothesis testing technique. Two hypothetical states are considered: the null hypothesis that the collected information is from benign historical traffic and the alternative hypothesis that the network is under attack. The objective of such a detection scheme is to recognize the change within the shortest time by comparing the two defined hypotheses. In addition, once the attack is detected, a server migration-based system recovery scheme can be triggered to recover the system to the state prior to the attack. To understand mitigation of insider attacks, a multi-functional web display of the detection analysis was developed for real-time analytic. Experiments using real-world traffic traces evaluate the effectiveness of Detection System and Recovery (DeSyAR) scheme. The evaluation data validates the detection scheme based on sequential hypothesis testing and the server migration-based system recovery scheme can perform well in effectively detecting insider attacks and recovering the system under attack.
A Biologically-Based Computational Approach to Drug Repurposing for Anthrax Infection
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jane P. F. Bai
2017-03-01
Full Text Available Developing drugs to treat the toxic effects of lethal toxin (LT and edema toxin (ET produced by B. anthracis is of global interest. We utilized a computational approach to score 474 drugs/compounds for their ability to reverse the toxic effects of anthrax toxins. For each toxin or drug/compound, we constructed an activity network by using its differentially expressed genes, molecular targets, and protein interactions. Gene expression profiles of drugs were obtained from the Connectivity Map and those of anthrax toxins in human alveolar macrophages were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus. Drug rankings were based on the ability of a drug/compound’s mode of action in the form of a signaling network to reverse the effects of anthrax toxins; literature reports were used to verify the top 10 and bottom 10 drugs/compounds identified. Simvastatin and bepridil with reported in vitro potency for protecting cells from LT and ET toxicities were computationally ranked fourth and eighth. The other top 10 drugs were fenofibrate, dihydroergotamine, cotinine, amantadine, mephenytoin, sotalol, ifosfamide, and mefloquine; literature mining revealed their potential protective effects from LT and ET toxicities. These drugs are worthy of investigation for their therapeutic benefits and might be used in combination with antibiotics for treating B. anthracis infection.
[Anthrax in the canton of Zurich between 1878 and 2005].
Brandes Ammann, A; Brandl, H
2007-07-01
Historical records reporting cases of animal anthrax in the canton of Zurich between 1878 and 2005 were analysed on the level of political communities regarding occurrence and number of cases, animals affected, and number of communities affected. Data were correlated with industrial activities (tanning, wool and horse hair processing) in a community and to the prevailing meteorological conditions. A total of 830 cases of animal anthrax has been recorded in 140 of 171 communities. Occurrence correlated with industrial activities in a community such as companies handling potentially contaminated materials (hides, fur, wool, hair, meat, or bone meal). The influence of wool processing companies (P = 0. 004) and tanneries (P = 0. 032) was significant whereas horse hair processing had no effect. However, a statistical relationship between the number of cases reported and meteorological data (rainfall, mean temperature) was not found.
Trimethyl Chitosan Nanoparticles Encapsulated Protective Antigen Protects the Mice Against Anthrax
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Anshu Malik
2018-03-01
Full Text Available Anthrax is an era old deadly disease against which there are only two currently available licensed vaccines named anthrax vaccine adsorbed and precipitated (AVP. Though they can provide a protective immunity, their multiple side-effects owing to their ill-defined composition and presence of toxic proteins (LF and EF of Bacillus anthracis, the causative organism of anthrax, in the vaccine formulation makes their widespread use objectionable. Hence, an anthrax vaccine that contains well-defined and controlled components would be highly desirable. In this context, we have evaluated the potential of various vaccine formulations comprising of protective antigen (PA encapsulated trimethyl-chitosan nanoparticles (TMC-PA in conjunction with either CpG-C ODN 2395 (CpG or Poly I:C. Each formulation was administered via three different routes, viz., subcutaneous (SC, intramuscular (IM, and intraperitoneal in female BALB/c mice. Irrespective of the route of immunization, CpG or Poly I:C adjuvanted TMC-PA nanoparticles induced a significantly higher humoral response (total serum IgG and its isotypes viz., IgG1, IgG2a, and IgG2b, compared to their CpG or Poly I:C PA counterparts. This clearly demonstrates the synergistic behavior of CpG and Poly I:C with TMC nanoparticles. The adjuvant potential of TMC nanoparticles could be observed in all the three routes as the TMC-PA nanoparticles by themselves induced IgG titers (1–1.5 × 105 significantly higher than both CpG PA and Poly I:C PA groups (2–8 × 104. The effect of formulations on T-helper (Th cell development was assessed by quantifying the Th1-dependant (TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-2, Th2-dependant (IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10, and Th17-type (IL-17A cytokines. Adjuvanation with CpG and Poly I:C, the TMC-PA nanoparticles triggered a Th1 skewed immune response, as suggested by an increase in the levels of total IgG2a along with IFN-γ cytokine production. Interestingly, the TMC-PA group showed a Th2-biased
Cizauskas, Carrie A; Turner, Wendy C; Wagner, Bettina; Küsters, Martina; Vance, Russell E; Getz, Wayne M
2014-11-12
Most vertebrates experience coinfections, and many pathogen-pathogen interactions occur indirectly through the host immune system. These interactions are particularly strong in mixed micro-macroparasite infections because of immunomodulatory effects of helminth parasites. While these trade-offs have been examined extensively in laboratory animals, few studies have examined them in natural systems. Additionally, many wildlife pathogens fluctuate seasonally, at least partly due to seasonal host immune changes. We therefore examined seasonality of immune resource allocation, pathogen abundance and exposure, and interactions between infections and immunity in plains zebra (Equus quagga) in Etosha National Park (ENP), Namibia, a system with strongly seasonal patterns of gastrointestinal (GI) helminth infection intensity and concurrent anthrax outbreaks. Both pathogens are environmentally transmitted, and helminth seasonality is driven by environmental pressures on free living life stages. The reasons behind anthrax seasonality are currently not understood, though anthrax is less likely directly driven by environmental factors. We measured a complex, interacting set of variables and found evidence that GI helminth infection intensities, eosinophil counts, IgE and IgGb antibody titers, and possibly IL-4 cytokine signaling were increased in wetter seasons, and that ectoparasite infestations and possibly IFN-γ cytokine signaling were increased in drier seasons. Monocyte counts and anti-anthrax antibody titers were negatively associated with wet season eosinophilia, and monocytes were negatively correlated with IgGb and IgE titers. Taken together, this supports the hypothesis that ENP wet seasons are characterized by immune resource allocation toward Th-2 type responses, while Th1-type immunity may prevail in drier seasons, and that hosts may experience Th1-Th2 trade-offs. We found evidence that this Th2-type resource allocation is likely driven by GI parasite infections
Kelly, Cassandra D; O'Loughlin, Chris; Gelder, Frank B; Peterson, Johnny W; Sower, Laurie E; Cirino, Nick M
2007-01-01
Background There is a clear need for vaccines and therapeutics for potential biological weapons of mass destruction and emerging diseases. Anthrax, caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, has been used as both a biological warfare agent and bioterrorist weapon previously. Although antibiotic therapy is effective in the early stages of anthrax infection, it does not have any effect once exposed individuals become symptomatic due to B. anthracis exotoxin accumulation. The bipartite exotoxin...
Rabies virus glycoprotein as a carrier for anthrax protective antigen
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Smith, Mary Ellen; Koser, Martin; Xiao Sa; Siler, Catherine; McGettigan, James P.; Calkins, Catherine; Pomerantz, Roger J.; Dietzschold, Bernhard; Schnell, Matthias J.
2006-01-01
Live viral vectors expressing foreign antigens have shown great promise as vaccines against viral diseases. However, safety concerns remain a major problem regarding the use of even highly attenuated viral vectors. Using the rabies virus (RV) envelope protein as a carrier molecule, we show here that inactivated RV particles can be utilized to present Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA) domain-4 in the viral membrane. In addition to the RV glycoprotein (G) transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains, a portion of the RV G ectodomain was required to express the chimeric RV G anthrax PA on the cell surface. The novel antigen was also efficiently incorporated into RV virions. Mice immunized with the inactivated recombinant RV virions exhibited seroconversion against both RV G and anthrax PA, and a second inoculation greatly increased these responses. These data demonstrate that a viral envelope protein can carry a bacterial protein and that a viral carrier can display whole polypeptides compared to the limited epitope presentation of previous viral systems
Gulseren, Duygu; Süzük-Yıldız, Serap; Çelebi, Bekir; Kılıç, Selçuk
2017-09-01
Anthrax, caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is one of the oldest documented infectious diseases in both livestock and humans. We aimed to evaluate clinical findings and risk factors of patients with cutaneous anthrax infection and report anti-lethal factor (LF) IgG and anti-protective antigen (PA) IgG titers in the serologic diagnosis of disease. In this study, serum samples of 18 cutaneous anthrax patients were collected and anti-LF IgG and anti-PA IgG titers were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Twelve (67%) males and 6 (33%) females, with a mean age of 36.06 ± 16.58 years were included in the study. Risk factors identified in the patient population studied were slaughtering (28%), flaying (56%), chopping meat (67%), burying diseased animal corpses (17%) and milking (6%) livestock. Black eschar formation (94%), pruritus (78%) and painful lymphadenopathy (61%) were first three common clinical signs and symptoms, respectively. Fourteen (78%) patients produced a positive IgG response against PA, 11 (61%) patients produced against LF. Three (17%) patients had no response to either antigen. A detailed history of contact with sick animals or animal products along with clinical findings should be taken at the first step for the diagnosis of cutaneous anthrax infection. Serologic detection of anti-LF IgG and anti-PA IgG with ELISA may be useful auxillary method for establishing the diagnosis.
Peters, Diane E; Hoover, Benjamin; Cloud, Loretta Grey; Liu, Shihui; Molinolo, Alfredo A; Leppla, Stephen H; Bugge, Thomas H
2014-09-01
We have previously designed and characterized versions of anthrax lethal toxin that are selectively cytotoxic in the tumor microenvironment and which display broad and potent anti-tumor activities in vivo. Here, we have performed the first direct comparison of the safety and efficacy of three engineered anthrax lethal toxin variants requiring activation by either matrix-metalloproteinases (MMPs), urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) or co-localized MMP/uPA activities. C57BL/6J mice were challenged with six doses of engineered toxins via intraperitoneal (I.P.) or intravenous (I.V.) dose routes to determine the maximum tolerated dose for six administrations (MTD6) and dose-limiting toxicities. Efficacy was evaluated using the B16-BL6 syngraft model of melanoma; mice bearing established tumors were treated with six I.P. doses of toxin and tumor measurements and immunohistochemistry, paired with terminal blood work, were used to elaborate upon the anti-tumor mechanism and relative efficacy of each variant. We found that MMP-, uPA- and dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxins exhibited the same dose-limiting toxicity; dose-dependent GI toxicity. In terms of efficacy, all three toxins significantly reduced primary B16-BL6 tumor burden, ranging from 32% to 87% reduction, and they also delayed disease progression as evidenced by dose-dependent normalization of blood work values. While target organ toxicity and effective doses were similar amongst the variants, the dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxin exhibited the highest I.P. MTD6 and was 1.5-3-fold better tolerated than the single MMP- and uPA-activated toxins. Overall, we demonstrate that this dual MMP/uPA-activated anthrax lethal toxin can be administered safely and is highly effective in a preclinical model of melanoma. This modified bacterial cytotoxin is thus a promising candidate for further clinical development and evaluation for use in treating human cancers. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Zhang, Xia; Amin, Elizabeth Ambrose
2016-01-01
Anthrax is a highly lethal, acute infectious disease caused by the rod-shaped, Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The anthrax toxin lethal factor (LF), a zinc metalloprotease secreted by the bacilli, plays a key role in anthrax pathogenesis and is chiefly responsible for anthrax-related toxemia and host death, partly via inactivation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MAPKK) enzymes and consequent disruption of key cellular signaling pathways. Antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones are capable of clearing the bacilli but have no effect on LF-mediated toxemia; LF itself therefore remains the preferred target for toxin inactivation. However, currently no LF inhibitor is available on the market as a therapeutic, partly due to the insufficiency of existing LF inhibitor scaffolds in terms of efficacy, selectivity, and toxicity. In the current work, we present novel support vector machine (SVM) models with high prediction accuracy that are designed to rapidly identify potential novel, structurally diverse LF inhibitor chemical matter from compound libraries. These SVM models were trained and validated using 508 compounds with published LF biological activity data and 847 inactive compounds deposited in the Pub Chem BioAssay database. One model, M1, demonstrated particularly favorable selectivity toward highly active compounds by correctly predicting 39 (95.12%) out of 41 nanomolar-level LF inhibitors, 46 (93.88%) out of 49 inactives, and 844 (99.65%) out of 847 Pub Chem inactives in external, unbiased test sets. These models are expected to facilitate the prediction of LF inhibitory activity for existing molecules, as well as identification of novel potential LF inhibitors from large datasets. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Lehman, Mark W; Craig, Allen S; Malama, Constantine; Kapina-Kany'anga, Muzala; Malenga, Philip; Munsaka, Fanny; Muwowo, Sergio; Shadomy, Sean; Marx, Melissa A
2017-09-01
In September 2011, a total of 511 human cases of anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) infection and 5 deaths were reported in a game management area in the district of Chama, Zambia, near where 85 hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibious) had recently died of suspected anthrax. The human infections generally responded to antibiotics. To clarify transmission, we conducted a cross-sectional, interviewer-administered household survey in villages where human anthrax cases and hippopotamuses deaths were reported. Among 284 respondents, 84% ate hippopotamus meat before the outbreak. Eating, carrying, and preparing meat were associated with anthrax infection. Despite the risk, 23% of respondents reported they would eat meat from hippopotamuses found dead again because of food shortage (73%), lack of meat (12%), hunger (7%), and protein shortage (5%). Chronic food insecurity can lead to consumption of unsafe foods, leaving communities susceptible to zoonotic infection. Interagency cooperation is necessary to prevent outbreaks by addressing the root cause of exposure, such as food insecurity.
MCCI study for Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor under hypothetical accident condition
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Verma, Vishnu; Mukhopadhyay, Deb; Chatterjee, B.; Singh, R.K.; Vaze, K.K.
2011-01-01
In case of severe core damage accident in Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), large amount of molten corium is expected to come out into the calandria vault due to failure of calandria vessel. Molten corium at high temperature is sufficient to decompose and ablate concrete. Such attack could fail CV by basement penetration. Since containment is ultimate barrier for activity release. The Molten Core Concrete Interaction (MCCI) of the resulting pool of debris with the concrete has been identified as an important part of the accident sequence. MCCI Analysis has been carried out for PHWR for a hypothetical accident condition where total core material is considered to be relocated in calandria vault. Concrete ablation rate in vertical and radial direction is evaluated for rectangular geometry using MEDICIS module of ASTEC Code. Amount of gases released during MCCI is also evaluated. (author)
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Siddiqui Muhammad
2012-08-01
Full Text Available Abstract Background Human cutaneous anthrax results from skin exposure to B. anthracis, primarily due to occupational exposure. Bangladesh has experienced a number of outbreaks of cutaneous anthrax in recent years. The last episode occurred from April to August, 2011 and created mass havoc due to its dreadful clinical outcome and socio-cultural consequences. We report here the clinico-demographic profile and treatment outcome of 15 cutaneous anthrax cases attended at the Dermatology Outpatient Department of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh between April and August, 2011 with an aim to create awareness for early case detection and management. Findings Anthrax was suspected primarily based on cutaneous manifestations of typical non-tender ulcer with black eschar, with or without oedema, and a history of butchering, or dressing/washing of cattle/goat or their meat. Diagnosis was established by demonstration of large gram-positive rods, typically resembling B. anthracis under light microscope where possible and also by ascertaining therapeutic success. The mean age of cases was 21.4 years (ranging from 3 to 46 years, 7 (46.7% being males and 8 (53.3% females. The majority of cases were from lower middle socioeconomic status. Types of exposures included butchering (20%, contact with raw meat (46.7%, and live animals (33.3%. Malignant pustule was present in upper extremity, both extremities, face, and trunk at frequencies of 11 (73.3%, 2 (13.3%, 1 (6.7% and 1 (6.7% respectively. Eight (53.3% patients presented with fever, 7 (46.7% had localized oedema and 5 (33.3% had regional lymphadenopathy. Anthrax was confirmed in 13 (86.7% cases by demonstration of gram-positive rods. All cases were cured with 2 months oral ciprofloxacin combined with flucoxacillin for 2 weeks. Conclusions We present the findings from this series of cases to reinforce the criteria for clinical diagnosis and to urge prompt therapeutic measures to treat
Efficacy of Oritavancin in a Murine Model of Bacillus anthracis Spore Inhalation Anthrax
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Heine, H. S; Bassett, J; Miller, L; Bassett, A; Ivins, B. E; Lehous, D; Arhin, F. F; Parr, Jr., T. R; Moeck, G
2008-01-01
The inhaled form of Bacillus anthracis infection may be fatal to humans. The current standard of care for inhalational anthrax postexposure prophylaxis is ciprofloxacin therapy twice daily for 60 days...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jyh-Hwa Kau
Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Photocatalysis of titanium dioxide (TiO(2 substrates is primarily induced by ultraviolet light irradiation. Anion-doped TiO(2 substrates were shown to exhibit photocatalytic activities under visible-light illumination, relative environmentally-friendly materials. Their anti-spore activity against Bacillus anthracis, however, remains to be investigated. We evaluated these visible-light activated photocatalysts on the reduction of anthrax spore-induced pathogenesis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Standard plating method was used to determine the inactivation of anthrax spore by visible light-induced photocatalysis. Mouse models were further employed to investigate the suppressive effects of the photocatalysis on anthrax toxin- and spore-mediated mortality. We found that anti-spore activities of visible light illuminated nitrogen- or carbon-doped titania thin films significantly reduced viability of anthrax spores. Even though the spore-killing efficiency is only approximately 25%, our data indicate that spores from photocatalyzed groups but not untreated groups have a less survival rate after macrophage clearance. In addition, the photocatalysis could directly inactivate lethal toxin, the major virulence factor of B. anthracis. In agreement with these results, we found that the photocatalyzed spores have tenfold less potency to induce mortality in mice. These data suggest that the photocatalysis might injury the spores through inactivating spore components. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Photocatalysis induced injuries of the spores might be more important than direct killing of spores to reduce pathogenicity in the host.
Popova, P Yu; Mikshis, N I
2016-01-01
Live genetic engineering anthrax vaccines on the platform of avirulent and probiotic micro-organisms are a safe and adequate alternative to preparations based on attenuated Bacillus anthracis strains. Mucosal application results in a direct contact of the vaccine preparations with mucous membranes in those organs arid tissues of the macro-organisms, that are exposed to the pathogen in the first place, resulting in a development of local and systemic immune response. Live recombinant anthrax vaccines could be used both separately as well as in a prime-boost immunization scheme. The review focuses on immunogenic and protective properties of experimental live genetic engineering prearations, created based on members of geni of Salmonella, Lactobacillus and adenoviruses.
A Bioterrorism Prevention Strategy for the 21st Century
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Lein, Brian
2003-01-01
.... The results of the anthrax attack and multiple wargames revealed that the United States is currently ill prepared to prevent or deter a bioterrorism attack against it's homeland and protect the citizens...
Pharmacophore Selection and Redesign of Non-nucleotide Inhibitors of Anthrax Edema Factor
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Maria Estrella Jimenez
2012-11-01
Full Text Available Antibiotic treatment may fail to protect individuals, if not started early enough, after infection with Bacillus anthracis, due to the continuing activity of toxins that the bacterium produces. Stable and easily stored inhibitors of the edema factor toxin (EF, an adenylyl cyclase, could save lives in the event of an outbreak, due to natural causes or a bioweapon attack. The toxin’s basic activity is to convert ATP to cAMP, and it is thus in principle a simple phosphatase, which means that many mammalian enzymes, including intracellular adenylcyclases, may have a similar activity. While nucleotide based inhibitors, similar to its natural substrate, ATP, were identified early, these compounds had low activity and specificity for EF. We used a combined structural and computational approach to choose small organic molecules in large, web-based compound libraries that would, based on docking scores, bind to residues within the substrate binding pocket of EF. A family of fluorenone-based inhibitors was identified that inhibited the release of cAMP from cells treated with EF. The lead inhibitor was also shown to inhibit the diarrhea caused by enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC in a murine model, perhaps by serving as a quorum sensor. These inhibitors are now being tested for their ability to inhibit Anthrax infection in animal models and may have use against other pathogens that produce toxins similar to EF, such as Bordetella pertussis or Vibrio cholera.
Pharmacophore selection and redesign of non-nucleotide inhibitors of anthrax edema factor.
Schein, Catherine H; Chen, Deliang; Ma, Lili; Kanalas, John J; Gao, Jian; Jimenez, Maria Estrella; Sower, Laurie E; Walter, Mary A; Gilbertson, Scott R; Peterson, Johnny W
2012-11-08
Antibiotic treatment may fail to protect individuals, if not started early enough, after infection with Bacillus anthracis, due to the continuing activity of toxins that the bacterium produces. Stable and easily stored inhibitors of the edema factor toxin (EF), an adenylyl cyclase, could save lives in the event of an outbreak, due to natural causes or a bioweapon attack. The toxin's basic activity is to convert ATP to cAMP, and it is thus in principle a simple phosphatase, which means that many mammalian enzymes, including intracellular adenylcyclases, may have a similar activity. While nucleotide based inhibitors, similar to its natural substrate, ATP, were identified early, these compounds had low activity and specificity for EF. We used a combined structural and computational approach to choose small organic molecules in large, web-based compound libraries that would, based on docking scores, bind to residues within the substrate binding pocket of EF. A family of fluorenone-based inhibitors was identified that inhibited the release of cAMP from cells treated with EF. The lead inhibitor was also shown to inhibit the diarrhea caused by enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) in a murine model, perhaps by serving as a quorum sensor. These inhibitors are now being tested for their ability to inhibit Anthrax infection in animal models and may have use against other pathogens that produce toxins similar to EF, such as Bordetella pertussis or Vibrio cholera.
[Anthrax meningoencephalitis: a case following a cutaneous lesion in Morocco].
Ziadi, A; Hachimi, A; Soraa, N; Tassi, N; Nejmi, H; Elkhayari, M; Samkaoui, M A
2014-05-01
Anthrax meningoencephalitis is very rare especially following skin location. We report a case of meningoencephalitis secondary to skin lesion. The diagnosis is based on clinical presentation and confirmed by microbiological tests. Its evolution remains fatal despite aggressive resuscitation. Copyright © 2014 Société française d’anesthésie et de réanimation (Sfar). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.
Bacillus anthracis infections – new possibilities of treatment
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Dorota Żakowska
2015-05-01
Recently, progress has been achieved in inhalation anthrax treatment. The most promising new possibilities include: new antibiotics, peptides and bacteriophages enzymes, monoclonal antibodies, antigen PA mutants, and inter alpha inhibitors applications. In the case of the possibility of bioterrorist attacks, the examination of inhalation anthrax treatment should be intensively continued.
Kandadi, Machender R; Yu, Xuejun; Frankel, Arthur E; Ren, Jun
2012-11-07
Lethal and edema toxins secreted by Bacillus anthracis during anthrax infection were found to incite serious cardiovascular complications. However, the underlying mechanisms in anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiac anomalies remain unknown. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of antioxidant enzyme catalase in anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte contractile dysfunction. Wild type (WT) and cardiac-specific catalase overexpression mice were challenged with lethal toxin (2 μg/g, intraperotineally (i.p.)). Cardiomyocyte contractile and intracellular Ca(2+) properties were assessed 18 h later using an IonOptix edge-detection system. Proteasome function was assessed using chymotrypsin-like and caspase-like activities. GFP-LC3 puncta and Western blot analysis were used to evaluate autophagy and protein ubiquitination. Lethal toxin exposure suppressed cardiomyocyte contractile function (suppressed peak shortening, maximal velocity of shortening/re-lengthening, prolonged duration of shortening/re-lengthening, and impaired intracellular Ca(2+) handling), the effects of which were alleviated by catalase. In addition, lethal toxin triggered autophagy, mitochondrial and ubiquitin-proteasome defects, the effects of which were mitigated by catalase. Pretreatment of cardiomyocytes from catalase mice with the autophagy inducer rapamycin significantly attenuated or ablated catalase-offered protection against lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte dysfunction. On the other hand, the autophagy inhibitor 3-MA ablated or significantly attenuated lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte contractile anomalies. Our results suggest that catalase is protective against anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte contractile and intracellular Ca(2+) anomalies, possibly through regulation of autophagy and mitochondrial function.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Silke R Klee
Full Text Available Anthrax is a fatal disease caused by strains of Bacillus anthracis. Members of this monophyletic species are non motile and are all characterized by the presence of four prophages and a nonsense mutation in the plcR regulator gene. Here we report the complete genome sequence of a Bacillus strain isolated from a chimpanzee that had died with clinical symptoms of anthrax. Unlike classic B. anthracis, this strain was motile and lacked the four prohages and the nonsense mutation. Four replicons were identified, a chromosome and three plasmids. Comparative genome analysis revealed that the chromosome resembles those of non-B. anthracis members of the Bacillus cereus group, whereas two plasmids were identical to the anthrax virulence plasmids pXO1 and pXO2. The function of the newly discovered third plasmid with a length of 14 kbp is unknown. A detailed comparison of genomic loci encoding key features confirmed a higher similarity to B. thuringiensis serovar konkukian strain 97-27 and B. cereus E33L than to B. anthracis strains. For the first time we describe the sequence of an anthrax causing bacterium possessing both anthrax plasmids that apparently does not belong to the monophyletic group of all so far known B. anthracis strains and that differs in important diagnostic features. The data suggest that this bacterium has evolved from a B. cereus strain independently from the classic B. anthracis strains and established a B. anthracis lifestyle. Therefore we suggest to designate this isolate as "B. cereus variety (var. anthracis".
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Michael S Rogers
Full Text Available Anti-angiogenic therapies are effective for the treatment of cancer, a variety of ocular diseases, and have potential benefits in cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and psoriasis. We have previously shown that anthrax protective antigen (PA, a non-pathogenic component of anthrax toxin, is an inhibitor of angiogenesis, apparently as a result of interaction with the cell surface receptors capillary morphogenesis gene 2 (CMG2 protein and tumor endothelial marker 8 (TEM8. Hence, molecules that bind the anthrax toxin receptors may be effective to slow or halt pathological vascular growth. Here we describe development and testing of an effective homogeneous steady-state fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET high throughput screening assay designed to identify molecules that inhibit binding of PA to CMG2. Molecules identified in the screen can serve as potential lead compounds for the development of anti-angiogenic and anti-anthrax therapies. The assay to screen for inhibitors of this protein-protein interaction is sensitive and robust, with observed Z' values as high as 0.92. Preliminary screens conducted with a library of known bioactive compounds identified tannic acid and cisplatin as inhibitors of the PA-CMG2 interaction. We have confirmed that tannic acid both binds CMG2 and has anti-endothelial properties. In contrast, cisplatin appears to inhibit PA-CMG2 interaction by binding both PA and CMG2, and observed cisplatin anti-angiogenic effects are not mediated by interaction with CMG2. This work represents the first reported high throughput screening assay targeting CMG2 to identify possible inhibitors of both angiogenesis and anthrax intoxication.
America’s Food: Does Anthrax Pose A Threat?
2002-04-01
a 1996 JAMA article, “Unexplained Severe Illness Possibly Associated with Consumption of Kombucha Tea - Iowa 1995.”13 For clarification, the... Kombucha “mush- room” is a “ symbiotic colony of several species of yeast and bacteria that are bound to- gether by a surrounding membrane.”14 Dr. Sadjadi...described an outbreak in Iran of cuta- 9 neous anthrax related to the Kombucha mushroom. In 1996 in a village on the outskirts of Tehran, 20 people
In Silico screening for functional candidates amongst hypothetical proteins
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Sanderhoff May
2009-09-01
Full Text Available Abstract Background The definition of a hypothetical protein is a protein that is predicted to be expressed from an open reading frame, but for which there is no experimental evidence of translation. Hypothetical proteins constitute a substantial fraction of proteomes of human as well as of other eukaryotes. With the general belief that the majority of hypothetical proteins are the product of pseudogenes, it is essential to have a tool with the ability of pinpointing the minority of hypothetical proteins with a high probability of being expressed. Results Here, we present an in silico selection strategy where eukaryotic hypothetical proteins are sorted according to two criteria that can be reliably identified in silico: the presence of subcellular targeting signals and presence of characterized protein domains. To validate the selection strategy we applied it on a database of human hypothetical proteins dating to 2006 and compared the proteins predicted to be expressed by our selecting strategy, with their status in 2008. For the comparison we focused on mitochondrial proteins, since considerable amounts of research have focused on this field in between 2006 and 2008. Therefore, many proteins, defined as hypothetical in 2006, have later been characterized as mitochondrial. Conclusion Among the total amount of human proteins hypothetical in 2006, 21% have later been experimentally characterized and 6% of those have been shown to have a role in a mitochondrial context. In contrast, among the selected hypothetical proteins from the 2006 dataset, predicted by our strategy to have a mitochondrial role, 53-62% have later been experimentally characterized, and 85% of these have actually been assigned a role in mitochondria by 2008. Therefore our in silico selection strategy can be used to select the most promising candidates for subsequent in vitro and in vivo analyses.
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Freeman, Bradley
2001-01-01
... press. This paper suggests that a more proactive educational program with a greater utilization of health risk communication techniques would have reduced much of the negative reaction to the anthrax vaccine...
Catastrophic Incident Recovery: Long-Term Recovery from an Anthrax Event Symposium
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Lesperance, Ann M.
2008-06-30
On March 19, 2008, policy makers, emergency managers, and medical and Public Health officials convened in Seattle, Washington, for a workshop on Catastrophic Incident Recovery: Long-Term Recovery from an Anthrax Event. The day-long symposium was aimed at generating a dialogue about restoration and recovery through a discussion of the associated challenges that impact entire communities, including people, infrastructure, and critical systems.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jianjun Sun
Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Cell-surface receptors play essential roles in anthrax toxin action by providing the toxin with a high-affinity anchor and self-assembly site on the plasma membrane, mediating the toxin entry into cells through endocytosis, and shifting the pH threshold for prepore-to-pore conversion of anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA to a more acidic pH, thereby inhibiting premature pore formation. Each of the two known anthrax toxin receptors, ANTXR1 and ANTXR2, has an ectodomain comprised of an N-terminal von Willebrand factor A domain (VWA, which binds PA, and an uncharacterized immunoglobulin-like domain (Ig that connects VWA to the membrane-spanning domain. Potential roles of the receptor Ig domain in anthrax toxin action have not been investigated heretofore. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We expressed and purified the ANTXR2 ectodomain (R2-VWA-Ig in E. coli and showed that it contains three disulfide bonds: one in R2-VWA and two in R2-Ig. Reduction of the ectodomain inhibited functioning of the pore, as measured by K(+ release from liposomes or Chinese hamster ovary cells or by PA-mediated translocation of a model substrate across the plasma membrane. However, reduction did not affect binding of the ectodomain to PA or the transition of ectodomain-bound PA prepore to the pore conformation. The inhibitory effect depended specifically on reduction of the disulfides within R2-Ig. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that disulfide integrity within R2-Ig is essential for proper functioning of receptor-bound PA pore. This finding provides a novel venue to investigate the mechanism of anthrax toxin action and suggests new strategies for inhibiting toxin action.
Bouleris, Sue; Collett, De Ette; Mauntler, Mike; Ray, Shirley
This paper discusses the importance of a school's having procedures in place to deal with possible biological terrorist threats. It begins with a discussion of biological terrorism. It then provides the symptoms of anthrax, treatment options for anthrax, and precautions to take when suspicious of an attack with a hazardous material. The paper goes…
FUE-SANG LIEN; HUA JI; EUGENE YEE; BILL KOURNIKAKIS
2010-01-01
Early experimental work, conducted at Defence R&D Canada–Suffield, measured and characterized the personal and environmental contamination associated with simulated anthrax-tainted letters under a number of different scenarios in order to obtain a better understanding of the physical and biological processes for detecting, assessing, and formulating potential mitigation strategies for managing the risks associated with opening an anthrax-tainted letter. These experimental investigations have ...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kandadi Machender R
2012-11-01
Full Text Available Abstract Background Lethal and edema toxins secreted by Bacillus anthracis during anthrax infection were found to incite serious cardiovascular complications. However, the underlying mechanisms in anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiac anomalies remain unknown. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of antioxidant enzyme catalase in anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte contractile dysfunction. Methods Wild type (WT and cardiac-specific catalase overexpression mice were challenged with lethal toxin (2 μg/g, intraperotineally (i.p.. Cardiomyocyte contractile and intracellular Ca2+ properties were assessed 18 h later using an IonOptix edge-detection system. Proteasome function was assessed using chymotrypsin-like and caspase-like activities. GFP-LC3 puncta and Western blot analysis were used to evaluate autophagy and protein ubiquitination. Results Lethal toxin exposure suppressed cardiomyocyte contractile function (suppressed peak shortening, maximal velocity of shortening/re-lengthening, prolonged duration of shortening/re-lengthening, and impaired intracellular Ca2+ handling, the effects of which were alleviated by catalase. In addition, lethal toxin triggered autophagy, mitochondrial and ubiquitin-proteasome defects, the effects of which were mitigated by catalase. Pretreatment of cardiomyocytes from catalase mice with the autophagy inducer rapamycin significantly attenuated or ablated catalase-offered protection against lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte dysfunction. On the other hand, the autophagy inhibitor 3-MA ablated or significantly attenuated lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte contractile anomalies. Conclusions Our results suggest that catalase is protective against anthrax lethal toxin-induced cardiomyocyte contractile and intracellular Ca2+ anomalies, possibly through regulation of autophagy and mitochondrial function.
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Spanggord, Ronald J; Sun, Meg; Lim, Peter; Ellis, William Y
2006-01-01
Specific lots of anthrax vaccine adsorbed administered to members of the U.S. Armed Forces have been alleged to contain squalene, a chemical purported to be associated with illnesses of Gulf War veterans...
Skowera, Anna; de Jong, Esther C.; Schuitemaker, Joost H. N.; Allen, Jennifer S.; Wessely, Simon C.; Griffiths, Gareth; Kapsenberg, Martien; Peakman, Mark
2005-01-01
The anti-biowarfare anthrax and plague vaccines require repeated dosing to achieve adequate protection. To test the hypothesis that this limited immunogenicity results from the nature of vaccine interactions with the host innate immune system, we investigated molecular and cellular interactions
Bacillus anthracis infections – new possibilities of treatment
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Dorota Żakowska
2015-05-01
Full Text Available [b]Introduction and objective[/b]. [i]Bacillus anthracis[/i] is one of biological agents which may be used in bioterrorism attacks. The aim of this study a review of the new treatment possibilities of anthrax, with particular emphasis on the treatment of pulmonary anthrax. [b]Abbreviated description of the state of knowledge[/b]. Pulmonary anthrax, as the most dangerous clinical form of the disease, is also extremely difficult to treat. Recently, considerable progress in finding new drugs and suitable therapy for anthrax has been achieved, for example, new antibiotics worth to mentioning, levofloxacin, daptomycin, gatifloxacin and dalbavancin. However, alternative therapeutic options should also be considered, among them the antimicrobial peptides, characterized by lack of inducible mechanisms of pathogen resistance. Very promising research considers bacteriophages lytic enzymes against selected bacteria species, including antibiotic-resistant strains. [b]Results[/b]. Interesting results were obtained using monoclonal antibodies: raxibacumab, cAb29 or cocktails of antibodies. The application of CpG oligodeoxynucleotides to boost the immune response elicited by Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed and CMG2 protein complexes, also produced satisfying therapy results. Furthermore, the IFN-α and IFN-β, PA-dominant negative mutant, human inter-alpha inhibitor proteins and LF inhibitors in combination with ciprofloxacin, also showed very promising results. [b]Conclusions[/b]. Recently, progress has been achieved in inhalation anthrax treatment. The most promising new possibilities include: new antibiotics, peptides and bacteriophages enzymes, monoclonal antibodies, antigen PA mutants, and inter alpha inhibitors applications. In the case of the possibility of bioterrorist attacks, the examination of inhalation anthrax treatment should be intensively continued.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Hatice Uce Özkol
2014-12-01
Full Text Available Background and Design: Despite a very uncommon disease in developed countries, cutaneous anthrax (CA is currently endemic in our countries. In this study, we aimed to bring out characteristic of anthrax of Turkey by comparing our results and the other CA reports in Turkey. Materials and Methods: Sixty three inpatients with CA between October 2009 and December 2012 were investigated retrospectively. All patients were diagnosed CA by clinical finding and/or microbiological examination. The demographic characteristics patient, routine tests, wound culture and gram staining results were recorded. Results were recorded on statistical program of SPSS 13.0 and were written using percent (%. Results: There were 63 inpatients (41 female (65.1%, 22 male (34.9%, mean age 35.9 years range10-83. Forty nine patients (77.8% had a history of contact with animals or animal product. Thirty-eight (60.3% and twenty-one (33.3% patients were found in the summer and fall season, respectively. Gram staining and culture were performed in 51 patients. Gram-positive bacilli were detected in 17 patients (33.3% by gram smear. Bacillus anthracis bacilli were produced in 11 patients (21.5% in cultures test. The lesions were mostly seen on the left hand (30.2%. Penicillin was most frequently preferred in treatment of CA (87.3%. Conclusion: CA is still endemic in Eastern Anatolia and continues to increase in recent years. Women living in the villages in which income is obtained from buying and selling of animals constitute the most important risk group. Preventive actions such as training of the risky society, vaccination of animals, and obstructing of illegal animal entries across the border, will reduce the incidence of CA.
Antibodies to Anthrax Toxin in Humans and Guinea Pigs and Their Relevance to Protective Immunity
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Turnbull, P
1988-01-01
... stimulation of more than just production of antibody to PA. Titers to the three components in sera of individuals with histories of clinically diagnosed anthrax as well as from human vaccinees are included in the report.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Elibariki R. Mwakapeje
2017-11-01
Full Text Available Background: Anthrax is an infectious fatal zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax outbreak was confirmed in samples of wild animals following rumors of the outbreak in wild animals, livestock, and humans in Selela ward, Monduli district of Northern Tanzania. Therefore, a multi-sectorial team was deployed for outbreak response in the affected areas. Objectives: The aim of the response was to manage the outbreak in a One Health approach and specifically: (i To determine the magnitude of anthrax outbreak in humans, livestock, and wild animals in Selela ward, (ii to assess the outbreak local response capacity, (iii to establish mechanisms for safe disposal of animal carcasses in the affected areas, and (iv to mount effective control and preventive strategies using One Health approach in the affected areas. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional field survey using: (i Active searching of suspected human cases at health facilities and community level, (ii physical counting and disposal of wild animal carcasses in the affected area, (iii collection of specimens from suspected human cases and animal carcasses for laboratory analysis, and (iv meetings with local animal and human health staff, political, and traditional leaders at local levels. We analyzed data by STATA software, and a map was created using Quantum GIS software. Results: A total of 21 humans were suspected, and most of them (62% being from Selela ward. The outbreak caused deaths of 10 cattle, 26 goats, and three sheep, and 131 wild animal carcasses were discarded the majority of them being wildebeest (83%. Based on laboratory results, three blood smears tested positive for anthrax using Giemsa staining while two wildebeest samples tested positive and five human blood samples tested negative for anthrax using quantitative polymerase chain reaction techniques. Clinical forms of anthrax were also observed in humans and livestock which suggest that wild animals may
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Chia-Wei eTsai
2015-12-01
Full Text Available On December 14, 2012, the FDA approved raxibacumab, the first product developed under Project BioShield to achieve this milestone, and the first biologic product to be approved through the FDA animal efficacy rule (or Animal Rule. Raxibacumab is approved for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with inhalational anthrax due to Bacillus anthracis in combination with appropriate antibiotic drugs and for prophylaxis of inhalational anthrax when alternative therapies are not available or are not appropriate. The approval of Raxibacumab illustrates many of the challenges that product developers may encounter when pursuing approval under the Animal Rule and highlights a number of important regulatory and policy issues.
Detection of anthrax lef with DNA-based photonic crystal sensors
Zhang, Bailin; Dallo, Shatha; Peterson, Ralph; Hussain, Syed; Weitao, Tao; Ye, Jing Yong
2011-12-01
Bacillus anthracis has posed a threat of becoming biological weapons of mass destruction due to its virulence factors encoded by the plasmid-borne genes, such as lef for lethal factor. We report the development of a fast and sensitive anthrax DNA biosensor based on a photonic crystal structure used in a total-internal-reflection configuration. For the detection of the lef gene, a single-stranded DNA lef probe was biotinylated and immobilized onto the sensor via biotin-streptavidin interactions. A positive control, lef-com, was the complementary strand of the probe, while a negative control was an unrelated single-stranded DNA fragment from the 16S rRNA gene of Acinetobacter baumannii. After addition of the biotinylated lef probe onto the sensor, significant changes in the resonance wavelength of the sensor were observed, resulting from binding of the probe to streptavidin on the sensor. The addition of lef-com led to another significant increase as a result of hybridization between the two DNA strands. The detection sensitivity for the target DNA reached as low as 0.1 nM. In contrast, adding the unrelated DNAs did not cause an obvious shift in the resonant wavelength. These results demonstrate that detection of the anthrax lef by the photonic crystal structure in a total-internal-reflection sensor is highly specific and sensitive.
Anthrax outbreak in a Swedish beef cattle herd - 1st case in 27 years: Case report
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Granberg Malin
2010-02-01
Full Text Available Abstract After 27 years with no detected cases, an outbreak of anthrax occurred in a beef cattle herd in the south of Sweden. The outbreak was unusual as it occurred in winter, in animals not exposed to meat-and-bone meal, in a non-endemic country. The affected herd consisted of 90 animals, including calves and young stock. The animals were kept in a barn on deep straw bedding and fed only roughage. Seven animals died during 10 days, with no typical previous clinical signs except fever. The carcasses were reportedly normal in appearance, particularly as regards rigor mortis, bleeding and coagulation of the blood. Subsequently, three more animals died and anthrax was suspected at necropsy and confirmed by culture and PCR on blood samples. The isolated strain was susceptible to tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and ampicillin. Subtyping by MLVA showed the strain to cluster with isolates in the A lineage of Bacillus anthracis. Environmental samples from the holding were all negative except for two soil samples taken from a spot where infected carcasses had been kept until they were picked up for transport. The most likely source of the infection was concluded to be contaminated roughage, although this could not be substantiated by laboratory analysis. The suspected feed was mixed with soil and dust and originated from fields where flooding occurred the previous year, followed by a dry summer with a very low water level in the river allowing for the harvesting on soil usually not exposed. In the early 1900s, animal carcasses are said to have been dumped in this river during anthrax outbreaks and it is most likely that some anthrax spores could remain in the area. The case indicates that untypical cases in non-endemic areas may be missed to a larger extent than previously thought. Field tests allowing a preliminary risk assessment of animal carcasses would be helpful for increased sensitivity of detection and prevention of further exposure to the causative
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Aino Ruggiero
2016-05-01
Full Text Available This paper aims at clarifying a timely topic of how communication strategy choices are made in evolving, complex crises, such as those caused by terrorism involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN agents. This is done by examining data gathered from a table-top discussion among crisis communication experts, focusing on a scenario of an anthrax attack and analysed qualitatively. The communication experts followed the evolving crisis situation by gathering inputs from various actors in the crisis management network, thereby creating situational understanding, and interpreted these inputs for decision-making on communication strategies. The underlying process of coping with complexity in evolving CBRN terrorism crises can be described as a continuous, dynamic process that can best be explained with a combination of traditional and more modern crisis communication approaches. Strategy-making in crisis situations by communication experts is still largely a black box. In this study, a novel approach of decomposing strategy-making by observing a table-top discussion is chosen to clarify the process. By identifying the core elements involved, a more detailed picture of communication strategy-making is created, thus promoting preparedness and professional resilience in the field.
Reducing hypothetical bias in choice experiments
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Ladenburg, Jacob; Olsen, Søren Bøye; Nielsen, Rasmus Christian Fejer
eliminate some of the hypothetical bias. The present paper tests an addition to Cheap Talk, an Opt-Out Reminder. The Opt-Out Reminder is an objective short script presented prior to the choice sets, prompting the respondent to choose the opt-out alternative, if he/she finds the proposed policy generated...... alternatives in a choice set too expensive. The results suggest that adding an Opt-Out Reminder to Cheap Talk can in fact reduce hypothetical bias even further and reduces some of the ineffectiveness of CT in relation to the survey bid range and experienced respondents....
The use of anthrax and orthopox therapeutic antibodies from human origin in biodefense
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Stienstra, S.
2009-01-01
It is impossible to protect whole nations from the effects of bioterrorism by preventive vaccination; there are too many possible agents, costs would be exorbitantly high, and the health risks associated with complex mass vaccination programs would be unacceptable. Adequate protection, however, could be provided via a combination of rapid detection and diagnosis and the treatment of those exposed with drugs which would be beneficial in all stages of disease. Monoclonal antibodies, preferably from human origin to prevent severe complications, which neutralize or block the pathological effects of biological agents, are the optimal candidates to be deployed in case of biological warfare or a bioterrorist event. The human body is one of the better and most suitably equipped places for the generation of monoclonal antibodies which are to be used effectively in humans for treatment. Such antibodies will be of optimal physiological specificity, affinity, and pharmacological properties. In addition, the chances on severe adverse effects and cross-reactivity with human tissues will be slim. Therefore the human immune response is used by the Dutch company IQ Therapeutics, a spin-off of the Groningen University, as a basis for selecting the antibodies. People, immunised against or infected with the agent in question, donate blood cells voluntarily, which are used to generate fully human monoclonal antibodies. In this way effective therapeutics against the protective antigen (PA) and lethal factor (LF) toxin components of Bacillus anthracis are developed and currently antibodies against orthopox viruses are generated as well from donors, which have been immunized with vaccinia. Other projects are the development of therapeutic antibodies for MRSA (antibiotics resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Enterococcus spp. Both human antibodies against the anthrax toxin components are efficacious in vitro and in pre- and post-exposure settings in mice and rabbits. The anti-LF antibody
BOLD responses in reward regions to hypothetical and imaginary monetary rewards.
Miyapuram, Krishna P; Tobler, Philippe N; Gregorios-Pippas, Lucy; Schultz, Wolfram
2012-01-16
Monetary rewards are uniquely human. Because money is easy to quantify and present visually, it is the reward of choice for most fMRI studies, even though it cannot be handed over to participants inside the scanner. A typical fMRI study requires hundreds of trials and thus small amounts of monetary rewards per trial (e.g. 5p) if all trials are to be treated equally. However, small payoffs can have detrimental effects on performance due to their limited buying power. Hypothetical monetary rewards can overcome the limitations of smaller monetary rewards but it is less well known whether predictors of hypothetical rewards activate reward regions. In two experiments, visual stimuli were associated with hypothetical monetary rewards. In Experiment 1, we used stimuli predicting either visually presented or imagined hypothetical monetary rewards, together with non-rewarding control pictures. Activations to reward predictive stimuli occurred in reward regions, namely the medial orbitofrontal cortex and midbrain. In Experiment 2, we parametrically varied the amount of visually presented hypothetical monetary reward keeping constant the amount of actually received reward. Graded activation in midbrain was observed to stimuli predicting increasing hypothetical rewards. The results demonstrate the efficacy of using hypothetical monetary rewards in fMRI studies. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Functions of phenylalanine residues within the beta-barrel stem of the anthrax toxin pore.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jie Wang
2009-07-01
Full Text Available A key step of anthrax toxin action involves the formation of a protein-translocating pore within the endosomal membrane by the Protective Antigen (PA moiety. Formation of this transmembrane pore by PA involves interaction of the seven 2beta2-2beta3 loops of the heptameric precursor to generate a 14-strand transmembrane beta barrel.We examined the effects on pore formation, protein translocation, and cytotoxicity, of mutating two phenylalanines, F313 and F314, that lie at the tip the beta barrel, and a third one, F324, that lies part way up the barrel.Our results show that the function of these phenylalanine residues is to mediate membrane insertion and formation of stable transmembrane channels. Unlike F427, a key luminal residue in the cap of the pore, F313, F314, and F324 do not directly affect protein translocation through the pore. Our findings add to our knowledge of structure-function relationships of a key virulence factor of the anthrax bacillus.
In Silico screening for functional candidates amongst hypothetical proteins
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Desler, Claus; Suravajhala, Prashanth; Sanderhoff, May
2009-01-01
eukaryotes. With the general belief that the majority of hypothetical proteins are the product of pseudogenes, it is essential to have a tool with the ability of pinpointing the minority of hypothetical proteins with a high probability of being expressed. RESULTS: Here, we present an in silico selection...
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Liu, Ziping; Su, Xingguang
2016-01-01
Herein, high quality DNA-CuInS 2 QDs are facilely synthesized through a one-pot hydrothermal method with fluorescence quantum yield as high as 23.4%, and the strongly fluorescent DNA-CuInS 2 QDs have been utilized as a novel fluorescent biosensor for label-free and ultrasensitive detection of anthrax lethal factor DNA. L-Cysteine (L-Cys) and a specific-sequence DNA are used as co-ligands to stabilize the CuInS 2 QDs. The specific-sequence DNA consists of two domains: phosphorothiolates domain (sulfur-containing variants of the usual phosphodiester backbone) controls the nanocrystal passivation and serves as a ligand, and the functional domain (non-phosphorothioates) controls the biorecognition. The as-prepared DNA-CuInS 2 QDs have high stability, good water-solubility and low toxicity. Under the optimized conditions, a linear correlation was established between the fluorescence intensity ratio I/I 0 (I 0 is the original fluorescence intensity of DNA-CuInS 2 QDs, and I is the fluorescence intensity of DNA-CuInS 2 QDs/GO with the addition of various concentrations of anthrax lethal factor DNA) and the concentration of anthrax lethal factor DNA in the range of 0.029–0.733 nmol L −1 with a detection limit of 0.013 nmol L −1 . The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of anthrax lethal factor DNA sequence in human serum samples with satisfactory results. Because of low toxicity and fine biocompatibility, DNA-CuInS 2 QDs also hold potential applications in bioimaging. - Highlights: • Strongly fluorescent DNA-QDs were successfully prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal method with quantum yield up to 23.4%. • A biosensor for label-free detection of anthrax lethal factor DNA was established based on the as-prepared DNA-QDs. • The DNA sensor took advantage of the feature that ssDNA binds to GO with significantly higher affinity than dsDNA. • Good sensitivity and selectivity were obtained. • This method was utilized to detect
Indirect Detection Of Bacillus Anthracis (Anthrax) Using Amplified Gamma Phage-Based Assays
2007-11-01
enter 26 Figure 3.0 Model of anthrax toxin entry into eukaryotic cells 27 the lungs and into the mucus membrane...extract from porcine and mixture meat and milk peptones, 2.0 g D(+) glucose, 5.0 g NaCl and 2.5 g disodium phosphate) and TSB (g/L: 17.0 pancreatic...are present in blood serum, lymph fluid, gastric secretions, milk , and saliva. Serum antibody concentrations are commonly determined using the
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Anita Verma
2018-02-01
Full Text Available Toxin neutralizing antibodies represent the major mode of protective immunity against a number of toxin-mediated bacterial diseases, including anthrax; however, the cellular mechanisms that lead to optimal neutralizing antibody responses remain ill defined. Here we show that the cellular binding pathway of anthrax protective antigen (PA, the binding component of anthrax toxin, determines the toxin neutralizing antibody response to this antigen. PA, which binds cellular receptors and efficiently enters antigen-presenting cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis, was found to elicit robust anti-PA IgG and toxin neutralizing antibody responses. In contrast, a receptor binding-deficient mutant of PA, which does not bind receptors and only inefficiently enters antigen-presenting cells by macropinocytosis, elicited very poor antibody responses. A chimeric protein consisting of the receptor binding-deficient PA mutant tethered to the binding subunit of cholera toxin, which efficiently enters cells using the cholera toxin receptor rather than the PA receptor, elicited an anti-PA IgG antibody response similar to that elicited by wild-type PA; however, the chimeric protein elicited a poor toxin neutralizing antibody response. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the antigen capture pathway can dictate the magnitudes of the total IgG and toxin neutralizing antibody responses to PA as well as the ratio of the two responses.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Elmira Mohammadi
2017-01-01
Full Text Available Background: Protective antigen of anthrax toxin, after touching the cell receptors, plays an important role in the pathogenesis of toxin. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of anthrax toxin protective antigen and four great combination propolis included caffeic acid, benzyl caffeate, cinnamic acid and kaempferol using the softwares and bioinformatics web servers. Methods: Three-dimensional structure of protective antigen (receptor obtains from Protein Data Bank (PDB. Four of the main components from propolis were selected as ligand and their 3D-structures were obtained from ChemSpider and ZINC compound database. The interaction of each ligand and receptor was assessed by SwissDock server (http://www.swissdock.ch/ and BSP-SLIM server (http://zhanglab.ccmb.med.umich.edu/BSP-SLIM. Docking results appears with Fullfitness numbers (in kcal/mol. Identification of amino acids involved in ligand and receptor interaction, was performed using the Chimera software; UCSF Chimera program (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/. Results: The results of interaction between propolis components and protective antigen by BSP-SLIM server showed that the most interaction was related with benzyl caffeate, caffeic acid, kaempferol and cinnamic acid, respectively. Results for the desired ligand Interaction with protective antigen genes using SwissDock server showed that the caffeic acid had ΔG equals -9.10 kcal/mol and FullFitness equal to -993.16 kcal/mol respectively. The analysis of interaction between ligands with amino-acids of protective antigen indicated that the interaction of Caffeic acid whit Glutamic acid 117 had energy -15.5429 kcal/mol. Conclusion: Finding strong and safe inhibitors for anthrax toxin is very useful method for inhibiting its toxicity to cell. In this study the binding ability of four flavonoids to protective antigen was studied. Glutamic acid 117 is very effective
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Marcellene A Gates-Hollingsworth
Full Text Available Inhalational anthrax is a serious biothreat. Effective antibiotic treatment of inhalational anthrax requires early diagnosis; the further the disease has progressed, the less the likelihood for cure. Current means for diagnosis such as blood culture require several days to a result and require advanced laboratory infrastructure. An alternative approach to diagnosis is detection of a Bacillus anthracis antigen that is shed into blood and can be detected by rapid immunoassay. The goal of the study was to evaluate detection of poly-γ-D-glutamic acid (PGA, the capsular antigen of B. anthracis, as a biomarker surrogate for blood culture in a rabbit model of inhalational anthrax. The mean time to a positive blood culture was 26 ± 5.7 h (mean ± standard deviation, whereas the mean time to a positive ELISA was 22 ± 4.2 h; P = 0.005 in comparison with blood culture. A lateral flow immunoassay was constructed for detection of PGA in plasma at concentrations of less than 1 ng PGA/ml. Use of the lateral flow immunoassay for detection of PGA in the rabbit model found that antigen was detected somewhat earlier than the earliest time point at which the blood culture became positive. The low cost, ease of use, and rapid time to result of the lateral flow immunoassay format make an immunoassay for PGA a viable surrogate for blood culture for detection of infection in individuals who have a likelihood of exposure to B. anthracis.
Willingness to pay for three hypothetical malaria vaccines in Nigeria.
Udezi, Waka Anthony; Usifoh, Cyril Odianose; Ihimekpen, Omoyeme Oluwatosin
2010-08-01
individuals aged > or =18 years of 500 who were approached agreed to participate in the study, giving a response rate of 71.8%. Most of the participants (216/359; 60.2%) were women, and 48 of them were pregnant. Most respondents (299/359; 83.3%) had at least one malaria attack within the last year, and 27.3% (98/359) were hospitalized for malaria. The mean WTP for vaccine A was $6.77 and that for vaccine B was $6.70. Vaccine C was the least well accepted with a mean WTP of $5.06. Respondents were willing to pay significantly more for vaccine A (95% CI, $5.96-$7.57); thus, the WTP was significantly different for the 3 hypothetical malaria vaccines (P pay significantly more for vaccines A and B, but less for C (P pay more for a vaccine that was well tolerated, even if its effectiveness and duration of protection against malaria were lower than those of a product that caused severe adverse effects. Interpretation of this study should be guided by the knowledge that differences exist between the study sample and the general population. 2010 Excerpta Medica Inc. All rights reserved.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Liu, Ziping; Su, Xingguang, E-mail: suxg@jlu.edu.cn
2016-10-26
Herein, high quality DNA-CuInS{sub 2} QDs are facilely synthesized through a one-pot hydrothermal method with fluorescence quantum yield as high as 23.4%, and the strongly fluorescent DNA-CuInS{sub 2} QDs have been utilized as a novel fluorescent biosensor for label-free and ultrasensitive detection of anthrax lethal factor DNA. L-Cysteine (L-Cys) and a specific-sequence DNA are used as co-ligands to stabilize the CuInS{sub 2} QDs. The specific-sequence DNA consists of two domains: phosphorothiolates domain (sulfur-containing variants of the usual phosphodiester backbone) controls the nanocrystal passivation and serves as a ligand, and the functional domain (non-phosphorothioates) controls the biorecognition. The as-prepared DNA-CuInS{sub 2} QDs have high stability, good water-solubility and low toxicity. Under the optimized conditions, a linear correlation was established between the fluorescence intensity ratio I/I{sub 0} (I{sub 0} is the original fluorescence intensity of DNA-CuInS{sub 2} QDs, and I is the fluorescence intensity of DNA-CuInS{sub 2} QDs/GO with the addition of various concentrations of anthrax lethal factor DNA) and the concentration of anthrax lethal factor DNA in the range of 0.029–0.733 nmol L{sup −1} with a detection limit of 0.013 nmol L{sup −1}. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of anthrax lethal factor DNA sequence in human serum samples with satisfactory results. Because of low toxicity and fine biocompatibility, DNA-CuInS{sub 2} QDs also hold potential applications in bioimaging. - Highlights: • Strongly fluorescent DNA-QDs were successfully prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal method with quantum yield up to 23.4%. • A biosensor for label-free detection of anthrax lethal factor DNA was established based on the as-prepared DNA-QDs. • The DNA sensor took advantage of the feature that ssDNA binds to GO with significantly higher affinity than dsDNA. • Good sensitivity and selectivity were
33 CFR Appendix B to Part 277 - Hypothetical Example of Cost Apportionment
2010-07-01
... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Hypothetical Example of Cost... APPORTIONMENT OF BRIDGE ALTERATIONS Pt. 277, App. B Appendix B to Part 277—Hypothetical Example of Cost... bridge was completed in 1908 and the superstructure completed in 1909. For this hypothetical example it...
Computational structural and functional analysis of hypothetical proteins of Staphylococcus aureus
Mohan, Ramadevi; Venugopal, Subhashree
2012-01-01
Genome sequencing projects has led to an explosion of large amount of gene products in which many are of hypothetical proteins with unknown function. Analyzing and annotating the functions of hypothetical proteins is important in Staphylococcus aureus which is a pathogenic bacterium that cause multiple types of diseases by infecting various sites in humans and animals. In this study, ten hypothetical proteins of Staphylococcus aureus were retrieved from NCBI and analyzed for their structural ...
47 CFR 69.608 - Carrier Common Line hypothetical net balance.
2010-10-01
... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Carrier Common Line hypothetical net balance. 69.608 Section 69.608 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER... net balance. The hypothetical net balance shall be equal to a Carrier Common Line revenue requirement...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
FUE-SANG LIEN
2010-09-01
Full Text Available Early experimental work, conducted at Defence R&D Canada–Suffield, measured and characterized the personal and environmental contamination associated with simulated anthrax-tainted letters under a number of different scenarios in order to obtain a better understanding of the physical and biological processes for detecting, assessing, and formulating potential mitigation strategies for managing the risks associated with opening an anthrax-tainted letter. These experimental investigations have been extended in the present study to simulate numerically the contamination from the opening of anthrax-tainted letters in an open office environment using computational fluid dynamics (CFD. A quantity of 0.1 g of Bacillus atropheus (formerly referred to as Bacillus subtilis var globigii (BG spores in dry powder form, which was used here as a surrogate species for Bacillus anthracis (anthrax, was released from an opened letter in the experiment. The accuracy of the model for prediction of the spatial distribution of BG spores in the office from the opened letter is assessed qualitatively (and to the extent possible, quantitatively by detailed comparison with measured BG concentrations obtained under a number of different scenarios, some involving people moving within the office. The observed discrepancy between the numerical predictions and experimental measurements of concentration was probably the result of a number of physical processes which were not accounted for in the numerical simulation. These include air flow leakage from cracks and crevices of the building shell; the dispersion of BG spores in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC system; and, the effect of deposition and re-suspension of BG spores from various surfaces in the office environment.
CARNSORE: Hypothetical reactor accident study
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Walmod-Larsen, O.; Jensen, N.O.; Kristensen, L.; Meide, A.; Nedergaard, K.L.; Nielsen, F.; Lundtang Petersen, E.; Petersen, T.; Thykier-Nielsen, S.
1984-06-01
Two types of design-basis accident and a series of hypothetical core-melt accidents to a 600 MWe reactor are described and their consequences assessed. The PLUCON 2 model was used to calculate the consequences which are presented in terms of individual and collective doses, as well as early and late health consequences. The site proposed for the nucelar power station is Carnsore Point, County Wexford, south-east Ireland. The release fractions for the accidents described are those given in WASH-1400. The analyses are based on the resident population as given in the 1979 census and on 20 years of data from the meteorological stations at Rosslare Harbour, 8.5 km north of the site. The consequences of one of the hypothetical core-melt accidents are described in detail in a meteorological parametric study. Likewise the consequences of the worst conceivable combination of situations are described. Finally, the release fraction in one accident is varied and the consequences of a proposed, more probable ''Class 9 accident'' are presented. (author)
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Shankar P Mondal
Full Text Available Anthrax, foot and mouth disease (FMD, haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS, peste des petits ruminants (PPR and rabies are considered to be endemic in Bangladesh. This retrospective study was conducted to understand the geographic and seasonal distribution of these major infectious diseases in livestock based on data collected through passive surveillance from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. Data analysis for this period revealed 5,937 cases of anthrax, 300,333 of FMD, 13,436 of HS, 247,783 of PPR and 14,085 cases of dog bite/rabies. While diseases were reported in almost every district of the country, the highest frequency of occurrence corresponded to the susceptible livestock population in the respective districts. There was no significant difference in the disease occurrences between districts bordering India/Myanmar and non-border districts (p>0.05. Significantly higher (p<0.01 numbers of anthrax (84.5%, FMD (88.3%, HS (84.9% and dog bite/rabies (64.3% cases were reported in cattle than any other species. PPR cases were reported mostly (94.8% in goats with only isolated cases (5.2% in sheep. The diseases occur throughout the year with peak numbers reported during June through September and lowest during December through April, with significant differences (p<0.01 between the months. The annual usages of vaccines for anthrax, FMD, HS and PPR were only 7.31%, 0.61%, 0.84% and 11.59% of the susceptible livestock population, respectively. Prophylactic vaccination against rabies was 21.16% of cases. There were significant differences (p<0.01 in the administration of anthrax, FMD and HS vaccines between border and non-border districts, but not PPR or rabies vaccines. We recommend that surveillance and reporting of these diseases need to be improved throughout the country. Furthermore, all suspected clinical cases should be confirmed by laboratory examination. The findings of this study can be used in the formulation of more effective disease
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Morefield, Garry L; Tammariello, Ralph F; Purcell, Bret K; Worsham, Patricia L; Chapman, Jennifer; Smith, Leonard A; Alarcon, Jason B; Mikszta, John A; Ulrich, Robert G
2008-01-01
... incompatible vaccine mixtures. Intradermally administered arrays of vaccines for protection from anthrax, botulism, plague, and staphylococcal toxic shock were biocompatible in vivo, retained potent antibody responses...
Calculating Adversarial Risk from Attack Trees: Control Strength and Probabilistic Attackers
Pieters, Wolter; Davarynejad, Mohsen
2015-01-01
Attack trees are a well-known formalism for quantitative analysis of cyber attacks consisting of multiple steps and alternative paths. It is possible to derive properties of the overall attacks from properties of individual steps, such as cost for the attacker and probability of success. However, in
2010-01-01
... have handled anthrax material is thorough cleansing of the hands and arms with liquid soap and running... Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGENCY ORGANIZATION AND... request to the Scientific Services, Meat and Poultry Inspection, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S...
Anthrax Sampling and Decontamination: Technology Trade-Offs
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Price, Phillip N.; Hamachi, Kristina; McWilliams, Jennifer; Sohn, Michael D.
2008-09-12
The goal of this project was to answer the following questions concerning response to a future anthrax release (or suspected release) in a building: 1. Based on past experience, what rules of thumb can be determined concerning: (a) the amount of sampling that may be needed to determine the extent of contamination within a given building; (b) what portions of a building should be sampled; (c) the cost per square foot to decontaminate a given type of building using a given method; (d) the time required to prepare for, and perform, decontamination; (e) the effectiveness of a given decontamination method in a given type of building? 2. Based on past experience, what resources will be spent on evaluating the extent of contamination, performing decontamination, and assessing the effectiveness of the decontamination in abuilding of a given type and size? 3. What are the trade-offs between cost, time, and effectiveness for the various sampling plans, sampling methods, and decontamination methods that have been used in the past?
2010-01-01
...; cleaning and disinfection of infected livestock pens and driveways. 309.7 Section 309.7 Animals and Animal... INSPECTION § 309.7 Livestock affected with anthrax; cleaning and disinfection of infected livestock pens and... followed immediately by a thorough disinfection of the exposed premises by soaking the ground, fences...
Anthrax Cases Associated with Animal-Hair Shaving Brushes.
Szablewski, Christine M; Hendricks, Kate; Bower, William A; Shadomy, Sean V; Hupert, Nathaniel
2017-05-01
During the First World War, anthrax cases in the United States and England increased greatly and seemed to be associated with use of new shaving brushes. Further investigation revealed that the source material and origin of shaving brushes had changed during the war. Cheap brushes of imported horsehair were being made to look like the preferred badger-hair brushes. Unfortunately, some of these brushes were not effectively disinfected and brought with them a nasty stowaway: Bacillus anthracis. A review of outbreak summaries, surveillance data, and case reports indicated that these cases originated from the use of ineffectively disinfected animal-hair shaving brushes. This historical information is relevant to current public health practice because renewed interest in vintage and animal-hair shaving brushes has been seen in popular culture. This information should help healthcare providers and public health officials answer questions on this topic.
Bluetooth security attacks comparative analysis, attacks, and countermeasures
Haataja, Keijo; Pasanen, Sanna; Toivanen, Pekka
2013-01-01
This overview of Bluetooth security examines network vulnerabilities and offers a comparative analysis of recent security attacks. It also examines related countermeasures and proposes a novel attack that works against all existing Bluetooth versions.
Responding to the Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction After September 11, 2001
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Lewy, Donald
2002-01-01
This paper addresses the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction as it is understood following the events of 11 September 2001 and the anthrax attacks directed at congressional and media offices...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jurriaan Huskens
2011-10-01
Full Text Available A supramolecular platform based on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs has been implemented in a microfluidic device. The system has been applied for the sensing of two different analyte types: biologically relevant phosphate anions and aromatic carboxylic acids, which are important for anthrax detection. A Eu(III-EDTA complex was bound to β-cyclodextrin monolayers via orthogonal supramolecular host-guest interactions. The self-assembly of the Eu(III-EDTA conjugate and naphthalene β-diketone as an antenna resulted in the formation of a highly luminescent lanthanide complex on the microchannel surface. Detection of different phosphate anions and aromatic carboxylic acids was demonstrated by monitoring the decrease in red emission following displacement of the antenna by the analyte. Among these analytes, adenosine triphosphate (ATP and pyrophosphate, as well as dipicolinic acid (DPA which is a biomarker for anthrax, showed a strong response. Parallel fabrication of five sensing SAMs in a single multichannel chip was performed, as a first demonstration of phosphate and carboxylic acid screening in a multiplexed format that allows a general detection platform for both analyte systems in a single test run with µM and nM detection sensitivity for ATP and DPA, respectively.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Chen Sun
Full Text Available A variety of intestinal pathogens have virulence factors that target mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK signaling pathways, including Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax lethal toxin (LT has specific proteolytic activity against the upstream regulators of MAPKs, the MAPK kinases (MKKs. Using a murine model of intoxication, we show that LT causes the dose-dependent disruption of intestinal epithelial integrity, characterized by mucosal erosion, ulceration, and bleeding. This pathology correlates with an LT-dependent blockade of intestinal crypt cell proliferation, accompanied by marked apoptosis in the villus tips. C57BL/6J mice treated with intravenous LT nearly uniformly develop systemic infections with commensal enteric organisms within 72 hours of administration. LT-dependent intestinal pathology depends upon its proteolytic activity and is partially attenuated by co-administration of broad spectrum antibiotics, indicating that it is both a cause and an effect of infection. These findings indicate that targeting of MAPK signaling pathways by anthrax LT compromises the structural integrity of the mucosal layer, serving to undermine the effectiveness of the intestinal barrier. Combined with the well-described immunosuppressive effects of LT, this disruption of the intestinal barrier provides a potential mechanism for host invasion via the enteric route, a common portal of entry during the natural infection cycle of Bacillus anthracis.
Temporal dynamics in microbial soil communities at anthrax carcass sites.
Valseth, Karoline; Nesbø, Camilla L; Easterday, W Ryan; Turner, Wendy C; Olsen, Jaran S; Stenseth, Nils Chr; Haverkamp, Thomas H A
2017-09-26
Anthrax is a globally distributed disease affecting primarily herbivorous mammals. It is caused by the soil-dwelling and spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The dormant B. anthracis spores become vegetative after ingestion by grazing mammals. After killing the host, B. anthracis cells return to the soil where they sporulate, completing the lifecycle of the bacterium. Here we present the first study describing temporal microbial soil community changes in Etosha National Park, Namibia, after decomposition of two plains zebra (Equus quagga) anthrax carcasses. To circumvent state-associated-challenges (i.e. vegetative cells/spores) we monitored B. anthracis throughout the period using cultivation, qPCR and shotgun metagenomic sequencing. The combined results suggest that abundance estimation of spore-forming bacteria in their natural habitat by DNA-based approaches alone is insufficient due to poor recovery of DNA from spores. However, our combined approached allowed us to follow B. anthracis population dynamics (vegetative cells and spores) in the soil, along with closely related organisms from the B. cereus group, despite their high sequence similarity. Vegetative B. anthracis abundance peaked early in the time-series and then dropped when cells either sporulated or died. The time-series revealed that after carcass deposition, the typical semi-arid soil community (e.g. Frankiales and Rhizobiales species) becomes temporarily dominated by the orders Bacillales and Pseudomonadales, known to contain plant growth-promoting species. Our work indicates that complementing DNA based approaches with cultivation may give a more complete picture of the ecology of spore forming pathogens. Furthermore, the results suggests that the increased vegetation biomass production found at carcass sites is due to both added nutrients and the proliferation of microbial taxa that can be beneficial for plant growth. Thus, future B. anthracis transmission events at carcass sites may be
Improving Local and State Agency Response to Terrorist Incidents Involving Biological Weapons
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
2003-01-01
.... Because of multiple terrorist acts such as the September II, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, as well as anthrax contaminated mail and the Oklahoma City bombing, there is a...
Reactions to Hypothetical, Jealousy Producing Events.
Hansen, Gary L.
1982-01-01
Asked subjects (N=220) how they would feel about their mates' behavior in eight hypothetical situations designed to measure jealousy. Responses indicated that jealousy is likely to be a major issue. Sex role orientation is most consistently related to jealousy with sex role traditional subjects being the most jealous. (Author)
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ian T. Kracalik
2012-11-01
Full Text Available We compared a local clustering and a cluster morphology statistic using anthrax outbreaks in large (cattle and small (sheep and goats domestic ruminants across Kazakhstan. The Getis-Ord (Gi* statistic and a multidirectional optimal ecotope algorithm (AMOEBA were compared using 1st, 2nd and 3rd order Rook contiguity matrices. Multivariate statistical tests were used to evaluate the environmental signatures between clusters and non-clusters from the AMOEBA and Gi* tests. A logistic regression was used to define a risk surface for anthrax outbreaks and to compare agreement between clustering methodologies. Tests revealed differences in the spatial distribution of clusters as well as the total number of clusters in large ruminants for AMOEBA (n = 149 and for small ruminants (n = 9. In contrast, Gi* revealed fewer large ruminant clusters (n = 122 and more small ruminant clusters (n = 61. Significant environmental differences were found between groups using the Kruskall-Wallis and Mann- Whitney U tests. Logistic regression was used to model the presence/absence of anthrax outbreaks and define a risk surface for large ruminants to compare with cluster analyses. The model predicted 32.2% of the landscape as high risk. Approximately 75% of AMOEBA clusters corresponded to predicted high risk, compared with ~64% of Gi* clusters. In general, AMOEBA predicted more irregularly shaped clusters of outbreaks in both livestock groups, while Gi* tended to predict larger, circular clusters. Here we provide an evaluation of both tests and a discussion of the use of each to detect environmental conditions associated with anthrax outbreak clusters in domestic livestock. These findings illustrate important differences in spatial statistical methods for defining local clusters and highlight the importance of selecting appropriate levels of data aggregation.
Pouwels, J Loes; Lansu, Tessa A M; Cillessen, Antonius H N
2017-07-01
This study examined how adolescents evaluate bullying at three levels of specificity: (a) the general concept of bullying, (b) hypothetical peers in different bullying participant roles, and (c) actual peers in different bullying participant roles. Participants were 163 predominantly ethnic majority adolescents in The Netherlands (58% girls; M age =16.34years, SD=0.79). For the hypothetical peers, we examined adolescents' explicit evaluations as well as their implicit evaluations. Adolescents evaluated the general concept of bullying negatively. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers in the bullying roles depended on their own role, but adolescents' implicit evaluations of hypothetical peers did not. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical peers and actual peers were different. Hypothetical bullies were evaluated negatively by all classmates, whereas hypothetical victims were evaluated relatively positively compared with the other roles. However, when adolescents evaluated their actual classmates, the differences between bullies and the other roles were smaller, whereas victims were evaluated the most negatively of all roles. Further research should take into account that adolescents' evaluations of hypothetical peers differ from their evaluations of actual peers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Distinguishing attack and second-preimage attack on encrypted message authentication codes (EMAC)
Ariwibowo, Sigit; Windarta, Susila
2016-02-01
In this paper we show that distinguisher on CBC-MAC can be applied to Encrypted Message Authentication Code (EMAC) scheme. EMAC scheme in general is vulnerable to distinguishing attack and second preimage attack. Distinguishing attack simulation on AES-EMAC using 225 message modifications, no collision have been found. According to second preimage attack simulation on AES-EMAC no collision found between EMAC value of S1 and S2, i.e. no second preimage found for messages that have been tested. Based on distinguishing attack simulation on truncated AES-EMAC we found collision in every message therefore we cannot distinguish truncated AES-EMAC with random function. Second-preimage attack is successfully performed on truncated AES-EMAC.
Wein, Alexander N; Liu, Shihui; Zhang, Yi; McKenzie, Andrew T; Leppla, Stephen H
2013-02-01
PA-U2, an engineered anthrax protective antigen that is activated by urokinase was combined with wildtype lethal factor in the treatment of Colo205 colon adenocarcinoma in vitro and B16-BL6 mouse melanoma in vitro and in vivo. This therapy was also tested in combination with the small molecule paclitaxel, based on prior reports suggesting synergy between ERK1/2 inhibition and chemotherapeutics. Colo205 was sensitive to PA-U2/LF while B16-BL6 was not. For the combination treatment of B16-BL6, paclitaxel showed a dose response in vitro, but cells remained resistant to PA-U2/LF even in the presence of paclitaxel. In vivo, each therapy slowed tumor progression, and an additive effect between the two was observed. Since LF targets tumor vasculature while paclitaxel is an antimitotic, it is possible the agents were acting against different cells in the stroma, precluding a synergistic effect. The engineered anthrax toxin PA-U2/LF warrants further development and testing, possibly in combination with an antiangiogenesis therapy such as sunitinib or sorafinib.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
T. Scott Devera
2015-06-01
Full Text Available Protective immunity against anthrax is inferred from measurement of vaccine antigen-specific neutralizing antibody titers in serum samples. In animal models, in vivo challenges with toxin and/or spores can also be performed. However, neither of these approaches considers toxin-induced damage to specific organ systems. It is therefore important to determine to what extent anthrax vaccines and existing or candidate adjuvants can provide organ-specific protection against intoxication. We therefore compared the ability of Alum, CpG DNA and the CD1d ligand α-galactosylceramide (αGC to enhance protective antigen-specific antibody titers, to protect mice against challenge with lethal toxin, and to block cardiotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. By measurement of serum cardiac Troponin I (cTnI, and hepatic alanine aminotransferase (ALT, and aspartate aminotransferase (AST, it was apparent that neither vaccine modality prevented hepatic intoxication, despite high Ab titers and ultimate survival of the subject. In contrast, cardiotoxicity was greatly diminished by prior immunization. This shows that a vaccine that confers survival following toxin exposure may still have an associated morbidity. We propose that organ-specific intoxication should be monitored routinely during research into new vaccine modalities.
Cooperating attackers in neural cryptography.
Shacham, Lanir N; Klein, Einat; Mislovaty, Rachel; Kanter, Ido; Kinzel, Wolfgang
2004-06-01
A successful attack strategy in neural cryptography is presented. The neural cryptosystem, based on synchronization of neural networks by mutual learning, has been recently shown to be secure under different attack strategies. The success of the advanced attacker presented here, called the "majority-flipping attacker," does not decay with the parameters of the model. This attacker's outstanding success is due to its using a group of attackers which cooperate throughout the synchronization process, unlike any other attack strategy known. An analytical description of this attack is also presented, and fits the results of simulations.
Differences in Behavior and Brain Activity during Hypothetical and Real Choices.
Camerer, Colin; Mobbs, Dean
2017-01-01
Real behaviors are binding consequential commitments to a course of action, such as harming another person, buying an Apple watch, or fleeing from danger. Cognitive scientists are generally interested in the psychological and neural processes that cause such real behavior. However, for practical reasons, many scientific studies measure behavior using only hypothetical or imagined stimuli. Generalizing from such studies to real behavior implicitly assumes that the processes underlying the two types of behavior are similar. We review evidence of similarity and differences in hypothetical and real mental processes. In many cases, hypothetical choice tasks give an incomplete picture of brain circuitry that is active during real choice. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Anthrax toxin: the long and winding road that leads to the kill.
Abrami, Laurence; Reig, Nuria; van der Goot, F Gisou
2005-02-01
The past five years have led to a tremendous increase in our molecular understanding of the mode of action of the anthrax toxin, one of the two main virulence factors produced by Bacillus anthracis. The structures of each of the three components of the toxin--lethal factor (LF), edema factor (EF) and protective antigen (PA)--have been solved not only in their monomeric forms but, depending on the subunit, in a heptameric form, bound to their substrate, co-factor or receptor. The endocytic route followed by the toxin has also been unraveled and the enzymatic mechanisms of EF and LF elucidated.
Crony Attack: Strategic Attack’s Silver Bullet
2006-11-01
physical assets or financial assets. The form of crony attack that most closely resembles classic strategic attack is to deny, degrade, or destroy a money...February 1951. Reprinted in Airpower Studies Coursebook , Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, AL, 2002, 152–58. Hirsch, Michael. “NATO’s Game of
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Simona Ramanauskaitė
2012-04-01
Full Text Available Preparation for potential threats is one of the most important phases ensuring system security. It allows evaluating possible losses, changes in the attack process, the effectiveness of used countermeasures, optimal system settings, etc. In cyber-attack cases, executing real experiments can be difficult for many reasons. However, mathematical or programming models can be used instead of conducting experiments in a real environment. This work proposes a composite denial of service attack model that combines bandwidth exhaustion, filtering and memory depletion models for a more real representation of similar cyber-attacks. On the basis of the introduced model, different experiments were done. They showed the main dependencies of the influence of attacker and victim’s properties on the success probability of denial of service attack. In the future, this model can be used for the denial of service attack or countermeasure optimization.
Evaluation of hypothetical (153)Gd source for use in brachytherapy.
Ghorbani, Mahdi; Behmadi, Marziyeh
2016-01-01
The purpose of this work is to evaluate the dosimetric parameters of a hypothetical (153)Gd source for use in brachytherapy and comparison of the dosimetric parameters with those of (192)Ir and (125)I sources. Dose rate constant, the radial dose function and the two dimensional (2D) anisotropy function data for the hypothetical (153)Gd source were obtained by simulation of the source using MCNPX code and then were compared with the corresponding data reported by Enger et al. A comprehensive comparison between this hypothetical source and a (192)Ir source with similar geometry and a (125)I source was performed as well. Excellent agreement was shown between the results of the two studies. Dose rate constant values for the hypothetical (153)Gd, (192)Ir, (125)I sources are 1.173 cGyh(-1) U(-1), 1.044 cGyh(-1) U(-1), 0.925 cGyh(-1) U(-1), respectively. Radial dose function for the hypothetical (153)Gd source has an increasing trend, while (192)Ir has more uniform and (125)I has more rapidly falling off radial dose functions. 2D anisotropy functions for these three sources indicate that, except at 0.5 cm distance, (192)Ir and (125)I have more isotropic trends as compared to the (153)Gd source. A more uniform radial dose function, and 2D anisotropy functions with more isotropy, a much higher specific activity are advantages of (192)Ir source over (153)Gd. However, a longer half-life of (153)Gd source compared to the other two sources, and lower energy of the source with respect to (192)Ir are advantages of using (153)Gd in brachytherapy versus (192)Ir source.
Assessing Hypothetical Gravity Control Propulsion
Millis, Marc G.
2006-01-01
Gauging the benefits of hypothetical gravity control propulsion is difficult, but addressable. The major challenge is that such breakthroughs are still only notional concepts rather than being specific methods from which performance can be rigorously quantified. A recent assessment by Tajmar and Bertolami used the rocket equation to correct naive misconceptions, but a more fundamental analysis requires the use of energy as the basis for comparison. The energy of a rocket is compared to an ide...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Peter Braun
Full Text Available During an anthrax outbreak at the Pollino National Park (Basilicata, Italy in 2004, diseased cattle were buried and from these anthrax-foci Bacillus anthracis endospores still diffuse to the surface resulting in local accumulations. Recent data suggest that B. anthracis multiplies in soil outside the animal-host body. This notion is supported by the frequent isolation of B. anthracis from soil lacking one or both virulence plasmids. Such strains represent an evolutionary dead end, as they are likely no longer able to successfully infect new hosts. This loss of virulence plasmids is explained most simply by postulating a soil-borne life cycle of the pathogen. To test this hypothesis we investigated possible microevolution at two natural anthrax foci from the 2004 outbreak. If valid, then genotypes of strains isolated from near the surface at these foci should be on a different evolutionary trajectory from those below residing in deeper-laying horizons close to the carcass. Thus, the genetic diversity of B. anthracis isolates was compared conducting Progressive Hierarchical Resolving Assays using Nucleic Acids (PHRANA and next generation Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS. PHRANA was not discriminatory enough to resolve the fine genetic relationships between the isolates. Conversely, WGS of nine isolates from near-surface and nine from near-carcass revealed five isolate specific SNPs, four of which were found only in different near-surface isolates. In support of our hypothesis, one surface-isolate lacked plasmid pXO1 and also harbored one of the unique SNPs. Taken together, our results suggest a limited soil-borne life cycle of B. anthracis.
... recommendations to make a full recovery. View an animation of a heart attack . Heart Attack Recovery Questions ... Support Network Popular Articles 1 Understanding Blood Pressure Readings 2 Sodium and Salt 3 Heart Attack Symptoms ...
Hypothetical Scenario Generator for Fault-Tolerant Diagnosis
James, Mark
2007-01-01
The Hypothetical Scenario Generator for Fault-tolerant Diagnostics (HSG) is an algorithm being developed in conjunction with other components of artificial- intelligence systems for automated diagnosis and prognosis of faults in spacecraft, aircraft, and other complex engineering systems. By incorporating prognostic capabilities along with advanced diagnostic capabilities, these developments hold promise to increase the safety and affordability of the affected engineering systems by making it possible to obtain timely and accurate information on the statuses of the systems and predicting impending failures well in advance. The HSG is a specific instance of a hypothetical- scenario generator that implements an innovative approach for performing diagnostic reasoning when data are missing. The special purpose served by the HSG is to (1) look for all possible ways in which the present state of the engineering system can be mapped with respect to a given model and (2) generate a prioritized set of future possible states and the scenarios of which they are parts.
Seven Deadliest Wireless Technologies Attacks
Haines, Brad
2010-01-01
How can an information security professional keep up with all of the hacks, attacks, and exploits? One way to find out what the worst of the worst are is to read the seven books in our Seven Deadliest Attacks Series. Not only do we let you in on the anatomy of these attacks but we also tell you how to get rid of them and how to defend against them in the future. Countermeasures are detailed so that you can fight against similar attacks as they evolve. Attacks featured in this book include:Bluetooth AttacksCredit Card, Access Card, and Passport AttacksBad Encryption
[Genodiagnosis and molecular typing of the pathogens for plague, cholera, and anthrax].
Kutyrev, V V; Smirnova, N I
2003-01-01
The paper contains a survey of published data about the use of DNA-diagnostics in indicating and identifying the causative agents of highly dangerous infections like plague, cholera and anthrax. A discussion of data about the genetic relationship between strains of the mentioned causative agents isolated from different sources by using the molecular-typing methods as well as about the evolution ties between strains of different origins is in the focus of attention. Results of comparative studies of nucleotide sequences of genomes or of individual genomes in different Yersinia pestis, Vibrio cholerae and Bacillus anthracis strains, which are indicative of the evolution of their pathogenicity, are also under discussion.
Blocking of Brute Force Attack
M.Venkata Krishna Reddy
2012-01-01
A common threat Web developers face is a password-guessing attack known as a brute-force attack. A brute-force attack is an attempt to discover a password by systematically trying every possible combination of letters, numbers, and symbols until you discover the one correct combination that works. If your Web site requires user authentication, you are a good target for a brute-force attack. An attacker can always discover a password through a brute-force attack, but the downside is that it co...
The future of the public's health in the 21st century
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century
The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation’s public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report...
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Meret, Susi; Goffredo, Sergio
2017-01-01
https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/susi-meret-sergio-goffredo/solidarity-under-attack......https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/susi-meret-sergio-goffredo/solidarity-under-attack...
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Gruschka, Nils; Jensen, Meiko
2010-01-01
The new paradigm of cloud computing poses severe security risks to its adopters. In order to cope with these risks, appropriate taxonomies and classification criteria for attacks on cloud computing are required. In this work-in-progress paper we present one such taxonomy based on the notion...... of attack surfaces of the cloud computing scenario participants....
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kittipong Rattanaporn
2011-08-01
Full Text Available Potential epidemics of infectious diseases and the constant threat of bioterrorism demand rapid, scalable, and cost-efficient manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Molecular farming of tobacco plants provides an alternative for the recombinant production of therapeutics. We have developed a transient production platform that uses Agrobacterium infiltration of Nicotiana benthamiana plants to express a novel anthrax receptor decoy protein (immunoadhesin, CMG2-Fc. This chimeric fusion protein, designed to protect against the deadly anthrax toxins, is composed of the von Willebrand factor A (VWA domain of human capillary morphogenesis 2 (CMG2, an effective anthrax toxin receptor, and the Fc region of human immunoglobulin G (IgG. We evaluated, in N. benthamiana intact plants and detached leaves, the expression of CMG2-Fc under the control of the constitutive CaMV 35S promoter, and the co-expression of CMG2-Fc with nine different viral suppressors of post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS: p1, p10, p19, p21, p24, p25, p38, 2b, and HCPro. Overall, transient CMG2-Fc expression was higher on intact plants than detached leaves. Maximum expression was observed with p1 co-expression at 3.5 days post-infiltration (DPI, with a level of 0.56 g CMG2-Fc per kg of leaf fresh weight and 1.5% of the total soluble protein, a ten-fold increase in expression when compared to absence of suppression. Co-expression with the p25 PTGS suppressor also significantly increased the CMG2-Fc expression level after just 3.5 DPI.
Arzola, Lucas; Chen, Junxing; Rattanaporn, Kittipong; Maclean, James M; McDonald, Karen A
2011-01-01
Potential epidemics of infectious diseases and the constant threat of bioterrorism demand rapid, scalable, and cost-efficient manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Molecular farming of tobacco plants provides an alternative for the recombinant production of therapeutics. We have developed a transient production platform that uses Agrobacterium infiltration of Nicotiana benthamiana plants to express a novel anthrax receptor decoy protein (immunoadhesin), CMG2-Fc. This chimeric fusion protein, designed to protect against the deadly anthrax toxins, is composed of the von Willebrand factor A (VWA) domain of human capillary morphogenesis 2 (CMG2), an effective anthrax toxin receptor, and the Fc region of human immunoglobulin G (IgG). We evaluated, in N. benthamiana intact plants and detached leaves, the expression of CMG2-Fc under the control of the constitutive CaMV 35S promoter, and the co-expression of CMG2-Fc with nine different viral suppressors of post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS): p1, p10, p19, p21, p24, p25, p38, 2b, and HCPro. Overall, transient CMG2-Fc expression was higher on intact plants than detached leaves. Maximum expression was observed with p1 co-expression at 3.5 days post-infiltration (DPI), with a level of 0.56 g CMG2-Fc per kg of leaf fresh weight and 1.5% of the total soluble protein, a ten-fold increase in expression when compared to absence of suppression. Co-expression with the p25 PTGS suppressor also significantly increased the CMG2-Fc expression level after just 3.5 DPI.
Using respondent uncertainty to mitigate hypothetical bias in a stated choice experiment
Richard C. Ready; Patricia A. Champ; Jennifer L. Lawton
2010-01-01
In a choice experiment study, willingness to pay for a public good estimated from hypothetical choices was three times as large as willingness to pay estimated from choices requiring actual payment. This hypothetical bias was related to the stated level of certainty of respondents. We develop protocols to measure respondent certainty in the context of a choice...
2012-06-28
Lond.) 51, 372–385. Henderson, D. W., Peacock , S., and Belton, F. C. (1956). Observations on the prophylaxis of experimental pulmonary anthrax in...terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in other forums
Can a Repeated Opt-Out Reminder remove hypothetical bias in discrete choice experiments?
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Alemu, Mohammed Hussen; Olsen, Søren Bøye
hypothetical bias in stated DCE. The data originates from a field experiment concerning consumer preferences for a novel food product made from cricket flour. Utilizing a between-subject design with three treatments, we find significantly higher marginal willingness to pay values in hypothetical than...
Seven Deadliest Microsoft Attacks
Kraus, Rob; Borkin, Mike; Alpern, Naomi
2010-01-01
Do you need to keep up with the latest hacks, attacks, and exploits effecting Microsoft products? Then you need Seven Deadliest Microsoft Attacks. This book pinpoints the most dangerous hacks and exploits specific to Microsoft applications, laying out the anatomy of these attacks including how to make your system more secure. You will discover the best ways to defend against these vicious hacks with step-by-step instruction and learn techniques to make your computer and network impenetrable. Windows Operating System-Password AttacksActive Directory-Escalat
Bioterrorism in Canada: An Economic Assessment of Prevention and Postattack Response
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ronald St John
2001-01-01
Full Text Available The present paper calculates the human and economic consequences of a bioterrorist attack on Canadian soil using aerosolized Bacillus anthracis and Clostridium botulinum. The study assumed that 100,000 people in a Canadian suburban neighbourhood were exposed over a 2 h period to an infectious dose of one of the agents. Using an epidemic curve based on the epidemiology and management of anthrax and botulinum poisoning, the costs of intervention and treatment after an attack were compared with the costs of preparedness before a bioterrorist attack. The results show that an investment in planning and preparedness to manage the consequences of an attack can reduce morbidity, mortality and economic costs. The sooner that an intervention program is instituted, the more significant are the health and economic benefits. The greatest benefits were realized when postattack intervention was initiated before day 3 after the event. The economic impact of a bioterrorist attack in Canada could range from $6.4 billion/100,000 exposed to B anthracis to $8.6 billion/100,000 exposed in an attack using C botulinum. Without the benefit of an effective consequence management program, predicted deaths totalled 32,875 from anthrax and 30,000 from botulinum toxin. Rapid implementation of a postattack prophylaxis program that includes the stockpiling of antibiotics, vaccines and antitoxins; training of first responders in the diagnosis, handling and treatment of pathogens; and the general enhancement of Canada's response capability would reduce both human and economic losses.
Whispering through DDoS attack
Miralem Mehic; Jiri Slachta; Miroslav Voznak
2016-01-01
Denial of service (DoS) attack is an attempt of the attacker to disable victim's machine by depleting network or computing resources. If this attack is performed with more than one machine, it is called distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Covert channels are those channels which are used for information transmission even though they are neither designed nor intended to transfer information at all. In this article, we investigated the possibility of using of DDoS attack for purposes o...
Brown, Bruce K; Cox, Josephine; Gillis, Anita; VanCott, Thomas C; Marovich, Mary; Milazzo, Mark; Antonille, Tanya Santelli; Wieczorek, Lindsay; McKee, Kelly T; Metcalfe, Karen; Mallory, Raburn M; Birx, Deborah; Polonis, Victoria R; Robb, Merlin L
2010-11-05
The fatal disease caused by Bacillus anthracis is preventable with a prophylactic vaccine. The currently available anthrax vaccine requires a lengthy immunization schedule, and simpler and more immunogenic options for protection against anthrax are a priority for development. In this report we describe a phase I clinical trial testing the safety and immunogenicity of an anthrax vaccine using recombinant Escherichia coli-derived, B. anthracis protective antigen (rPA). A total of 73 healthy adults ages 18-40 were enrolled and 67 received 2 injections separated by 4 weeks of either buffered saline placebo, or rPA formulated with or without 704 µg/ml Alhydrogel® adjuvant in increasing doses (5, 25, 50, 100 µg) of rPA. Participants were followed for one year and safety and immunologic data were assessed. Tenderness and warmth were the most common post-injection site reactions. No serious adverse events related to the vaccine were observed. The most robust humoral immune responses were observed in subjects receiving 50 µg of rPA formulated with Alhydrogel® with a geometric mean concentration of anti-rPA IgG antibodies of 283 µg/ml and a toxin neutralizing geometric 50% reciprocal geometric mean titer of 1061. The highest lymphoproliferative peak cellular response (median Lymphocyte Stimulation Index of 29) was observed in the group receiving 25 µg Alhydrogel®-formulated rPA. The vaccine was safe, well tolerated and stimulated a robust humoral and cellular response after two doses. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00057525.
Protecting Cryptographic Memory against Tampering Attack
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Mukherjee, Pratyay
In this dissertation we investigate the question of protecting cryptographic devices from tampering attacks. Traditional theoretical analysis of cryptographic devices is based on black-box models which do not take into account the attacks on the implementations, known as physical attacks. In prac......In this dissertation we investigate the question of protecting cryptographic devices from tampering attacks. Traditional theoretical analysis of cryptographic devices is based on black-box models which do not take into account the attacks on the implementations, known as physical attacks....... In practice such attacks can be executed easily, e.g. by heating the device, as substantiated by numerous works in the past decade. Tampering attacks are a class of such physical attacks where the attacker can change the memory/computation, gains additional (non-black-box) knowledge by interacting...... with the faulty device and then tries to break the security. Prior works show that generically approaching such problem is notoriously difficult. So, in this dissertation we attempt to solve an easier question, known as memory-tampering, where the attacker is allowed tamper only with the memory of the device...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Apostolos P. Fournaris
2017-07-01
Full Text Available Cyber-Physical system devices nowadays constitute a mixture of Information Technology (IT and Operational Technology (OT systems that are meant to operate harmonically under a security critical framework. As security IT countermeasures are gradually been installed in many embedded system nodes, thus securing them from many well-know cyber attacks there is a lurking danger that is still overlooked. Apart from the software vulnerabilities that typical malicious programs use, there are some very interesting hardware vulnerabilities that can be exploited in order to mount devastating software or hardware attacks (typically undetected by software countermeasures capable of fully compromising any embedded system device. Real-time microarchitecture attacks such as the cache side-channel attacks are such case but also the newly discovered Rowhammer fault injection attack that can be mounted even remotely to gain full access to a device DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory. Under the light of the above dangers that are focused on the device hardware structure, in this paper, an overview of this attack field is provided including attacks, threat directives and countermeasures. The goal of this paper is not to exhaustively overview attacks and countermeasures but rather to survey the various, possible, existing attack directions and highlight the security risks that they can pose to security critical embedded systems as well as indicate their strength on compromising the Quality of Service (QoS such systems are designed to provide.
Anderson, Brian
2010-01-01
Do you need to keep up with the latest hacks, attacks, and exploits effecting USB technology? Then you need Seven Deadliest USB Attacks. This book pinpoints the most dangerous hacks and exploits specific to USB, laying out the anatomy of these attacks including how to make your system more secure. You will discover the best ways to defend against these vicious hacks with step-by-step instruction and learn techniques to make your computer and network impenetrable. Attacks detailed in this book include: USB Hacksaw USB Switchblade USB Based Virus/Malicous Code Launch USB Device Overflow RAMdum
Seven Deadliest Unified Communications Attacks
York, Dan
2010-01-01
Do you need to keep up with the latest hacks, attacks, and exploits effecting Unified Communications technology? Then you need Seven Deadliest Unified Communication Attacks. This book pinpoints the most dangerous hacks and exploits specific to Unified Communications, laying out the anatomy of these attacks including how to make your system more secure. You will discover the best ways to defend against these vicious hacks with step-by-step instruction and learn techniques to make your computer and network impenetrable. Attacks featured in this book include: UC Ecosystem Attacks Insecure Endpo
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Elias, Dwayne A.; Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila; Joachimiak, Marcin P.; Drury, Elliott C.; Redding, Alyssa M.; Yen, Huei-Che B.; Fields, Matthew W.; Hazen, Terry C.; Arkin, Adam P.; Keasling, Jay D.; Wall, Judy D.
2008-10-27
Hypothetical and conserved hypothetical genes account for>30percent of sequenced bacterial genomes. For the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough, 347 of the 3634 genes were annotated as conserved hypothetical (9.5percent) along with 887 hypothetical genes (24.4percent). Given the large fraction of the genome, it is plausible that some of these genes serve critical cellular roles. The study goals were to determine which genes were expressed and provide a more functionally based annotation. To accomplish this, expression profiles of 1234 hypothetical and conserved genes were used from transcriptomic datasets of 11 environmental stresses, complemented with shotgun LC-MS/MS and AMT tag proteomic data. Genes were divided into putatively polycistronic operons and those predicted to be monocistronic, then classified by basal expression levels and grouped according to changes in expression for one or multiple stresses. 1212 of these genes were transcribed with 786 producing detectable proteins. There was no evidence for expression of 17 predicted genes. Except for the latter, monocistronic gene annotation was expanded using the above criteria along with matching Clusters of Orthologous Groups. Polycistronic genes were annotated in the same manner with inferences from their proximity to more confidently annotated genes. Two targeted deletion mutants were used as test cases to determine the relevance of the inferred functional annotations.
Invisible Trojan-horse attack.
Sajeed, Shihan; Minshull, Carter; Jain, Nitin; Makarov, Vadim
2017-08-21
We demonstrate the experimental feasibility of a Trojan-horse attack that remains nearly invisible to the single-photon detectors employed in practical quantum key distribution (QKD) systems, such as Clavis2 from ID Quantique. We perform a detailed numerical comparison of the attack performance against Scarani-Ac´ın-Ribordy-Gisin (SARG04) QKD protocol at 1924 nm versus that at 1536 nm. The attack strategy was proposed earlier but found to be unsuccessful at the latter wavelength, as reported in N. Jain et al., New J. Phys. 16, 123030 (2014). However at 1924 nm, we show experimentally that the noise response of the detectors to bright pulses is greatly reduced, and show by modeling that the same attack will succeed. The invisible nature of the attack poses a threat to the security of practical QKD if proper countermeasures are not adopted.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kym S Antonation
2016-09-01
Full Text Available Through full genome analyses of four atypical Bacillus cereus isolates, designated B. cereus biovar anthracis, we describe a distinct clade within the B. cereus group that presents with anthrax-like disease, carrying virulence plasmids similar to those of classic Bacillus anthracis. We have isolated members of this clade from different mammals (wild chimpanzees, gorillas, an elephant and goats in West and Central Africa (Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. The isolates shared several phenotypic features of both B. anthracis and B. cereus, but differed amongst each other in motility and their resistance or sensitivity to penicillin. They all possessed the same mutation in the regulator gene plcR, different from the one found in B. anthracis, and in addition, carry genes which enable them to produce a second capsule composed of hyaluronic acid. Our findings show the existence of a discrete clade of the B. cereus group capable of causing anthrax-like disease, found in areas of high biodiversity, which are possibly also the origin of the worldwide distributed B. anthracis. Establishing the impact of these pathogenic bacteria on threatened wildlife species will require systematic investigation. Furthermore, the consumption of wildlife found dead by the local population and presence in a domestic animal reveal potential sources of exposure to humans.
Whispering through DDoS attack
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Miralem Mehic
2016-03-01
Full Text Available Denial of service (DoS attack is an attempt of the attacker to disable victim's machine by depleting network or computing resources. If this attack is performed with more than one machine, it is called distributed denial of service (DDoS attack. Covert channels are those channels which are used for information transmission even though they are neither designed nor intended to transfer information at all. In this article, we investigated the possibility of using of DDoS attack for purposes of hiding data or concealing the existing covert channel. In addition, in this paper we analyzed the possibility of detection of such covert communication with the well-known statistical method. Also, we proposed the coordination mechanisms of the attack which may be used. A lot of research has been done in order to describe and prevent DDoS attacks, yet research on steganography on this field is still scarce.
... and lifestyle Cholesterol - drug treatment Controlling your high blood pressure Deep vein thrombosis - discharge Dietary fats explained Fast food tips Heart attack - discharge Heart attack - what to ask your doctor Heart bypass ... pacemaker - discharge High blood pressure - what to ask your doctor How to read ...
Processing counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals: an fMRI investigation.
Kulakova, Eugenia; Aichhorn, Markus; Schurz, Matthias; Kronbichler, Martin; Perner, Josef
2013-05-15
Counterfactual thinking is ubiquitous in everyday life and an important aspect of cognition and emotion. Although counterfactual thought has been argued to differ from processing factual or hypothetical information, imaging data which elucidate these differences on a neural level are still scarce. We investigated the neural correlates of processing counterfactual sentences under visual and aural presentation. We compared conditionals in subjunctive mood which explicitly contradicted previously presented facts (i.e. counterfactuals) to conditionals framed in indicative mood which did not contradict factual world knowledge and thus conveyed a hypothetical supposition. Our results show activation in right occipital cortex (cuneus) and right basal ganglia (caudate nucleus) during counterfactual sentence processing. Importantly the occipital activation is not only present under visual presentation but also with purely auditory stimulus presentation, precluding a visual processing artifact. Thus our results can be interpreted as reflecting the fact that counterfactual conditionals pragmatically imply the relevance of keeping in mind both factual and supposed information whereas the hypothetical conditionals imply that real world information is irrelevant for processing the conditional and can be omitted. The need to sustain representations of factual and suppositional events during counterfactual sentence processing requires increased mental imagery and integration efforts. Our findings are compatible with predictions based on mental model theory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Identification of the conserved hypothetical protein BPSL0317 in Burkholderia pseudomallei K96243
Yusoff, Nur Syamimi; Damiri, Nadzirah; Firdaus-Raih, Mohd
2014-09-01
Burkholderia pseudomallei K96243 is the causative agent of melioidosis, a disease which is endemic in Northern Australia and Southeastern Asia. The genome encodes several essential proteins including those currently annotated as hypothetical proteins. We studied the conservation and the essentiality of expressed hypothetical proteins in normal and different stress conditions. Based on the comparative genomics, we identified a hypothetical protein, BPSL0317, a potential essential gene that is being expressed in all normal and stress conditions. BPSL0317 is also phylogenetically conserved in the Burkholderiales order suggesting that this protein is crucial for survival among the order's members. BPSL0317 therefore has a potential to be a candidate antimicrobial drug target for this group of bacteria.
Ligand-induced expansion of the S1' site in the anthrax toxin lethal factor
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Maize, Kimberly M.; Kurbanov, Elbek K.; Johnson, Rodney L.; Amin, Elizabeth Ambrose; Finzel, Barry C. (UMM)
2016-07-05
The Bacillus anthracis lethal factor (LF) is one component of a tripartite exotoxin partly responsible for persistent anthrax cytotoxicity after initial bacterial infection. Inhibitors of the zinc metalloproteinase have been investigated as potential therapeutic agents, but LF is a challenging target because inhibitors lack sufficient selectivity or possess poor pharmaceutical properties. These structural studies reveal an alternate conformation of the enzyme, induced upon binding of specific inhibitors, that opens a previously unobserved deep pocket termed S1'* which might afford new opportunities to design selective inhibitors that target this subsite.
Mondal, Shankar P.; Yamage, Mat
2014-01-01
Anthrax, foot and mouth disease (FMD), haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS), peste des petits ruminants (PPR) and rabies are considered to be endemic in Bangladesh. This retrospective study was conducted to understand the geographic and seasonal distribution of these major infectious diseases in livestock based on data collected through passive surveillance from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. Data analysis for this period revealed 5,937 cases of anthrax, 300,333 of FMD, 13,436 of HS, 247,783 of PPR and 14,085 cases of dog bite/rabies. While diseases were reported in almost every district of the country, the highest frequency of occurrence corresponded to the susceptible livestock population in the respective districts. There was no significant difference in the disease occurrences between districts bordering India/Myanmar and non-border districts (p>0.05). Significantly higher (pBangladesh. PMID:25101836
Attack Trees for Practical Security Assessment: Ranking of Attack Scenarios with ADTool 2.0
Gadyatskaya, Olga; Jhawar, Ravi; Kordy, P.T.; Lounis, Karim; Mauw, Sjouke; Trujillo-Rasua, Rolando
2016-01-01
In this tool demonstration paper we present the ADTool2.0: an open-source software tool for design, manipulation and analysis of attack trees. The tool supports ranking of attack scenarios based on quantitative attributes entered by the user; it is scriptable; and it incorporates attack trees with
The work-averse cyber attacker model : theory and evidence from two million attack signatures
Allodi, L.; Massacci, F.; Williams, J.
The typical cyber attacker is assumed to be all powerful and to exploit all possible vulnerabilities. In this paper we present, and empirically validate, a novel and more realistic attacker model. The intuition of our model is that an attacker will optimally choose whether to act and weaponize a new
Mižišin, Michal
2013-01-01
Web server attack analyzer - Abstract The goal of this work was to create prototype of analyzer of injection flaws attacks on web server. Proposed solution combines capabilities of web application firewall and web server log analyzer. Analysis is based on configurable signatures defined by regular expressions. This paper begins with summary of web attacks, followed by detection techniques analysis on web servers, description and justification of selected implementation. In the end are charact...
Wang, Qi-Xian; Xue, Shi-Fan; Chen, Zi-Han; Ma, Shi-Hui; Zhang, Shengqiang; Shi, Guoyue; Zhang, Min
2017-08-15
In this work, a novel time-resolved ratiometric fluorescent probe based on dual lanthanide (Tb: terbium, and Eu: europium)-doped complexes (Tb/DPA@SiO 2 -Eu/GMP) has been designed for detecting anthrax biomarker (dipicolinic acid, DPA), a unique and major component of anthrax spores. In such complexes-based probe, Tb/DPA@SiO 2 can serve as a stable reference signal with green fluorescence and Eu/GMP act as a sensitive response signal with red fluorescence for ratiometric fluorescent sensing DPA. Additionally, the probe exhibits long fluorescence lifetime, which can significantly reduce the autofluorescence interferences from biological samples by using time-resolved fluorescence measurement. More significantly, a paper-based visual sensor for DPA has been devised by using filter paper embedded with Tb/DPA@SiO 2 -Eu/GMP, and we have proved its utility for fluorescent detection of DPA, in which only a handheld UV lamp is used. In the presence of DPA, the paper-based visual sensor, illuminated by a handheld UV lamp, would result in an obvious fluorescence color change from green to red, which can be easily observed with naked eyes. The paper-based visual sensor is stable, portable, disposable, cost-effective and easy-to-use. The feasibility of using a smartphone with easy-to-access color-scanning APP as the detection platform for quantitative scanometric assays has been also demonstrated by coupled with our proposed paper-based visual sensor. This work unveils an effective method for accurate, sensitive and selective monitoring anthrax biomarker with backgroud-free and self-calibrating properties. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Network Protection Against DDoS Attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Petr Dzurenda
2015-03-01
Full Text Available The paper deals with possibilities of the network protection against Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS. The basic types of DDoS attacks and their impact on the protected network are presented here. Furthermore, we present basic detection and defense techniques thanks to which it is possible to increase resistance of the protected network or device against DDoS attacks. Moreover, we tested the ability of current commercial Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS, especially Radware DefensePro 6.10.00 product against the most common types of DDoS attacks. We create five scenarios that are varied in type and strength of the DDoS attacks. The attacks intensity was much greater than the normal intensity of the current DDoS attacks.
Attack Tree Generation by Policy Invalidation
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Ivanova, Marieta Georgieva; Probst, Christian W.; Hansen, Rene Rydhof
2015-01-01
through brainstorming of experts. In this work we formalize attack tree generation including human factors; based on recent advances in system models we develop a technique to identify possible attacks analytically, including technical and human factors. Our systematic attack generation is based......Attacks on systems and organisations increasingly exploit human actors, for example through social engineering, complicating their formal treatment and automatic identification. Formalisation of human behaviour is difficult at best, and attacks on socio-technical systems are still mostly identified...... on invalidating policies in the system model by identifying possible sequences of actions that lead to an attack. The generated attacks are precise enough to illustrate the threat, and they are general enough to hide the details of individual steps....
Terrorists and Suicide Attacks
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Cronin, Audrey K
2003-01-01
Suicide attacks by terrorist organizations have become more prevalent globally, and assessing the threat of suicide attacks against the United States and its interests at home and abroad has therefore...
Stochastic Model of TCP SYN Attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Simona Ramanauskaitė
2011-08-01
Full Text Available A great proportion of essential services are moving into internet space making the threat of DoS attacks even more actual. To estimate the real risk of some kind of denial of service (DoS attack in real world is difficult, but mathematical and software models make this task easier. In this paper we overview the ways of implementing DoS attack models and offer a stochastic model of SYN flooding attack. It allows evaluating the potential threat of SYN flooding attacks, taking into account both the legitimate system flow as well as the possible attack power. At the same time we can assess the effect of such parameters as buffer capacity, open connection storage in the buffer or filtering efficiency on the success of different SYN flooding attacks. This model can be used for other type of memory depletion denial of service attacks.Article in Lithuanian
Attack Trees with Sequential Conjunction
Jhawar, Ravi; Kordy, Barbara; Mauw, Sjouke; Radomirović, Sasa; Trujillo-Rasua, Rolando
2015-01-01
We provide the first formal foundation of SAND attack trees which are a popular extension of the well-known attack trees. The SAND at- tack tree formalism increases the expressivity of attack trees by intro- ducing the sequential conjunctive operator SAND. This operator enables the modeling of
Structural and Functional Annotation of Hypothetical Proteins of O139
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Md. Saiful Islam
2015-06-01
Full Text Available In developing countries threat of cholera is a significant health concern whenever water purification and sewage disposal systems are inadequate. Vibrio cholerae is one of the responsible bacteria involved in cholera disease. The complete genome sequence of V. cholerae deciphers the presence of various genes and hypothetical proteins whose function are not yet understood. Hence analyzing and annotating the structure and function of hypothetical proteins is important for understanding the V. cholerae. V. cholerae O139 is the most common and pathogenic bacterial strain among various V. cholerae strains. In this study sequence of six hypothetical proteins of V. cholerae O139 has been annotated from NCBI. Various computational tools and databases have been used to determine domain family, protein-protein interaction, solubility of protein, ligand binding sites etc. The three dimensional structure of two proteins were modeled and their ligand binding sites were identified. We have found domains and families of only one protein. The analysis revealed that these proteins might have antibiotic resistance activity, DNA breaking-rejoining activity, integrase enzyme activity, restriction endonuclease, etc. Structural prediction of these proteins and detection of binding sites from this study would indicate a potential target aiding docking studies for therapeutic designing against cholera.
First aid - heart attack; First aid - cardiopulmonary arrest; First aid - cardiac arrest ... A heart attack occurs when the blood flow that carries oxygen to the heart is blocked. The heart muscle ...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Sárkány Zoltán
2016-03-01
Full Text Available Introduction: The objective of this study was to investigate with the help of a computerized simulation model whether the treatment of an acute asthma attack can be individualized based on the severity of the attack and the characteristics of the patient. Material and Method: A stochastic lung model was used to simulate the deposition of 1 nm - 10 μm particles during a mild and a moderate asthma attack. Breathing parameters were varied to maximize deposition, and simulation results were compared with those obtained in the case of a severe asthma attack. In order to investigate the effect of height on the deposition of inhaled particles, another series of simulations was carried out with identical breathing parameters, comparing patient heights of 155 cm, 175 cm and 195 cm. Results: The optimization process yielded an increase in the maximum deposition values of around 6-7% for each type of investigated asthma attack, and the difference between attacks of different degree of severity was around 5% for both the initial and the optimized values, a higher degree of obstruction increasing the amount of deposited particles. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the individualization of asthma attack treatment cannot be based on particles of different size, as the highest deposited fraction in all three types of attacks can be obtained using 0.01 μm particles. The use of a specific set of breathing parameters yields a difference between a mild and a moderate, as well as a moderate and a severe asthma attack of around 5%.
Analytical Characterization of Internet Security Attacks
Sellke, Sarah H.
2010-01-01
Internet security attacks have drawn significant attention due to their enormously adverse impact. These attacks includes Malware (Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horse), Denial of Service, Packet Sniffer, and Password Attacks. There is an increasing need to provide adequate defense mechanisms against these attacks. My thesis proposal deals with analytical…
Amlung, Michael; MacKillop, James
2015-04-01
Alcohol purchase tasks (APTs) are increasingly being used to assess behavioral economic demand for alcohol. Prior studies utilizing APTs have typically assessed demand for hypothetical outcomes, making the extent to which these hypothetical measures reflect preferences when actual rewards are at stake an important empirical question. This study examined alcohol demand across hypothetical and incentivized APTs. Nineteen male heavy drinkers completed two APTs - one for hypothetical alcohol and another in which one randomly-selected outcome was provided. Participants were given an opportunity to consume the alcohol associated with their choice on the incentivized APT during a self-administration period in a simulated bar environment. Results indicated generally close correspondence between APT versions, though participants were more sensitive to increases in price and tended to consume more at low prices on the incentivized version. Estimated consumption on the incentivized APT was highly correlated with the amount of alcohol consumed in the laboratory (r=.87, pdecision-making when rewards are hypothetical vs. actually available. Implications for behavioral economic approaches to addictive behavior and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The Effects of Anthrax Lethal Toxin on Host Barrier Function
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
David M. Frucht
2011-06-01
Full Text Available The pathological actions of anthrax toxin require the activities of its edema factor (EF and lethal factor (LF enzyme components, which gain intracellular access via its receptor-binding component, protective antigen (PA. LF is a metalloproteinase with specificity for selected mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases (MKKs, but its activity is not directly lethal to many types of primary and transformed cells in vitro. Nevertheless, in vivo treatment of several animal species with the combination of LF and PA (termed lethal toxin or LT leads to morbidity and mortality, suggesting that LT-dependent toxicity is mediated by cellular interactions between host cells. Decades of research have revealed that a central hallmark of this toxicity is the disruption of key cellular barriers required to maintain homeostasis. This review will focus on the current understanding of the effects of LT on barrier function, highlighting recent progress in establishing the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects.
Anger attacks in obsessive compulsive disorder
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Nitesh Prakash Painuly
2011-01-01
Full Text Available Background: Research on anger attacks has been mostly limited to depression, and only a few studies have focused on anger attacks in obsessive compulsive disorder. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study all new obsessive compulsive disorder patients aged 20-60 years attending an outpatient clinic were assessed using the anger attack questionnaire, irritability, depression and anxiety scale (for the direction of the aggressive behavior and quality of life (QOL. Results: The sample consisted of 42 consecutive subjects with obsessive compulsive disorder, out of which 21 (50% had anger attacks. The obsessive compulsive disorder subjects with and without anger attacks did not show significant differences in terms of sociodemographic variables, duration of illness, treatment, and family history. However, subjects with anger attacks had significantly higher prevalence of panic attacks and comorbid depression. Significantly more subjects with anger attacks exhibited aggressive acts toward spouse, parents, children, and other relatives in the form of yelling and threatening to hurt, trying to hurt, and threatening to leave. However, the two groups did not differ significantly in terms of QOL, except for the psychological domain being worse in the subjects with anger attacks. Conclusion: Anger attacks are present in half of the patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, and they correlate with the presence of comorbid depression.
Gao, Nan; Zhang, Yunfang; Huang, Pengcheng; Xiang, Zhehao; Wu, Fang-Ying; Mao, Lanqun
2018-06-05
Lanthanide-based luminescent sensors have been widely used for the detection of the anthrax biomarker dipicolinic acid (DPA). However, mainly based on DPA sensitization to the lanthanide core, most of them failed to realize robust detection of DPA in bacterial spores. We proposed a new strategy for reliable detection of DPA by perturbing a tandem energy transfer in heterobinuclear lanthanide coordination polymer nanoparticles simply constructed by two kinds of lanthanide ions, Tb 3+ and Eu 3+ , and guanosine 5'-monophosphate. This smart luminescent probe was demonstrated to exhibit highly sensitive and selective visual luminescence color change upon exposure to DPA, enabling accurate detection of DPA in complex biosystems such as bacterial spores. DPA release from bacterial spores on physiological germination was also successfully monitored in real time by confocal imaging. This probe is thus expected to be a powerful tool for efficient detection of bacterial spores in responding to anthrax threats.
Seven Deadliest Social Network Attacks
Timm, Carl
2010-01-01
Do you need to keep up with the latest hacks, attacks, and exploits effecting social networks? Then you need Seven Deadliest Social Network Attacks. This book pinpoints the most dangerous hacks and exploits specific to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, laying out the anatomy of these attacks including how to make your system more secure. You will discover the best ways to defend against these vicious hacks with step-by-step instruction and learn techniques to make your computer and network impenetrable. Attacks detailed in this book include: Social Networking Infrastruct
Pericarditis - after heart attack
... include: A previous heart attack Open heart surgery Chest trauma A heart attack that has affected the thickness of your heart muscle Symptoms Symptoms include: Anxiety Chest pain from the swollen pericardium rubbing on the ...
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Mayer, J.
2013-04-12
Attacks on humans by wild pigs (Sus scrofa) have been documented since ancient times. However, studies characterizing these incidents are lacking. In an effort to better understand this phenomenon, information was collected from 412 wild pig attacks on humans. Similar to studies of large predator attacks on humans, data came from a variety of sources. The various attacks compiled occurred in seven zoogeographic realms. Most attacks occurred within the species native range, and specifically in rural areas. The occurrence was highest during the winter months and daylight hours. Most happened under non-hunting circumstances and appeared to be unprovoked. Wounded animals were the chief cause of these attacks in hunting situations. The animals involved were typically solitary, male and large in size. The fate of the wild pigs involved in these attacks varied depending upon the circumstances, however, most escaped uninjured. Most human victims were adult males traveling on foot and alone. The most frequent outcome for these victims was physical contact/mauling. The severity of resulting injuries ranged from minor to fatal. Most of the mauled victims had injuries to only one part of their bodies, with legs/feet being the most frequent body part injured. Injuries were primarily in the form of lacerations and punctures. Fatalities were typically due to blood loss. In some cases, serious infections or toxemia resulted from the injuries. Other species (i.e., pets and livestock) were also accompanying some of the humans during these attacks. The fates of these animals varied from escaping uninjured to being killed. Frequency data on both non-hunting and hunting incidents of wild pig attacks on humans at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, showed quantitatively that such incidents are rare.
Cache timing attacks on recent microarchitectures
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Andreou, Alexandres; Bogdanov, Andrey; Tischhauser, Elmar Wolfgang
2017-01-01
Cache timing attacks have been known for a long time, however since the rise of cloud computing and shared hardware resources, such attacks found new potentially devastating applications. One prominent example is S$A (presented by Irazoqui et al at S&P 2015) which is a cache timing attack against...... AES or similar algorithms in virtualized environments. This paper applies variants of this cache timing attack to Intel's latest generation of microprocessors. It enables a spy-process to recover cryptographic keys, interacting with the victim processes only over TCP. The threat model is a logically...... separated but CPU co-located attacker with root privileges. We report successful and practically verified applications of this attack against a wide range of microarchitectures, from a two-core Nehalem processor (i5-650) to two-core Haswell (i7-4600M) and four-core Skylake processors (i7-6700). The attack...
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Suravajhala, Prashanth; Burri, Harsha Vardhan Reddy; Heiskanen, Arto
2014-01-01
We present the potential role of aptamers in elucidating the function of hypothetical proteins, as well as the possibilities provided by bioinformatics for establishing a benchmark for aptamer-protein prediction methods. With these future perspectives, the role of hypothetical proteins as target ...... molecules for diagnostics and therapies could prove to be very useful in development of medical technology....
Demand curves for hypothetical cocaine in cocaine-dependent individuals.
Bruner, Natalie R; Johnson, Matthew W
2014-03-01
Drug purchasing tasks have been successfully used to examine demand for hypothetical consumption of abused drugs including heroin, nicotine, and alcohol. In these tasks, drug users make hypothetical choices whether to buy drugs, and if so, at what quantity, at various potential prices. These tasks allow for behavioral economic assessment of that drug's intensity of demand (preferred level of consumption at extremely low prices) and demand elasticity (sensitivity of consumption to price), among other metrics. However, a purchasing task for cocaine in cocaine-dependent individuals has not been investigated. This study examined a novel Cocaine Purchasing Task and the relation between resulting demand metrics and self-reported cocaine use data. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing hypothetical purchases of cocaine units at prices ranging from $0.01 to $1,000. Demand curves were generated from responses on the Cocaine Purchasing Task. Correlations compared metrics from the demand curve to measures of real-world cocaine use. Group and individual data were well modeled by a demand curve function. The validity of the Cocaine Purchasing Task was supported by a significant correlation between the demand curve metrics of demand intensity and O max (determined from Cocaine Purchasing Task data) and self-reported measures of cocaine use. Partial correlations revealed that after controlling for demand intensity, demand elasticity and the related measure, P max, were significantly correlated with real-world cocaine use. Results indicate that the Cocaine Purchasing Task produces orderly demand curve data, and that these data relate to real-world measures of cocaine use.
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Vigo, Roberto
2012-01-01
The world of Cyber-Physical Systems ranges from industrial to national interest applications. Even though these systems are pervading our everyday life, we are still far from fully understanding their security properties. Devising a suitable attacker model is a crucial element when studying...... the security properties of CPSs, as a system cannot be secured without defining the threats it is subject to. In this work an attacker scenario is presented which addresses the peculiarities of a cyber-physical adversary, and we discuss how this scenario relates to other attacker models popular in the security...
Forensics Investigation of Web Application Security Attacks
Amor Lazzez; Thabet Slimani
2015-01-01
Nowadays, web applications are popular targets for security attackers. Using specific security mechanisms, we can prevent or detect a security attack on a web application, but we cannot find out the criminal who has carried out the security attack. Being unable to trace back an attack, encourages hackers to launch new attacks on the same system. Web application forensics aims to trace back and attribute a web application security attack to its originator. This may significantly reduce the sec...
Adaptive cyber-attack modeling system
Gonsalves, Paul G.; Dougherty, Edward T.
2006-05-01
The pervasiveness of software and networked information systems is evident across a broad spectrum of business and government sectors. Such reliance provides an ample opportunity not only for the nefarious exploits of lone wolf computer hackers, but for more systematic software attacks from organized entities. Much effort and focus has been placed on preventing and ameliorating network and OS attacks, a concomitant emphasis is required to address protection of mission critical software. Typical software protection technique and methodology evaluation and verification and validation (V&V) involves the use of a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) to mimic potential attackers or hackers. This manpower intensive, time-consuming, and potentially cost-prohibitive approach is not amenable to performing the necessary multiple non-subjective analyses required to support quantifying software protection levels. To facilitate the evaluation and V&V of software protection solutions, we have designed and developed a prototype adaptive cyber attack modeling system. Our approach integrates an off-line mechanism for rapid construction of Bayesian belief network (BN) attack models with an on-line model instantiation, adaptation and knowledge acquisition scheme. Off-line model construction is supported via a knowledge elicitation approach for identifying key domain requirements and a process for translating these requirements into a library of BN-based cyber-attack models. On-line attack modeling and knowledge acquisition is supported via BN evidence propagation and model parameter learning.
Predicting Factors of Zone 4 Attack in Volleyball.
Costa, Gustavo C; Castro, Henrique O; Evangelista, Breno F; Malheiros, Laura M; Greco, Pablo J; Ugrinowitsch, Herbert
2017-06-01
This study examined 142 volleyball games of the Men's Super League 2014/2015 seasons in Brazil from which we analyzed 24-26 games of each participating team, identifying 5,267 Zone 4 attacks for further analysis. Within these Zone 4 attacks, we analyzed the association between the effect of the attack carried out and the separate effects of serve reception, tempo and type of attack. We found that the reception, tempo of attack, second tempo of attack, and power of diagonal attack were predictors of the attack effect in Zone 4. Moreover, placed attacks showed a tendency to not yield a score. In conclusion, winning points in high-level men's volleyball requires excellent receptions, a fast attack tempo and powerfully executed of attacks.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ines Goicoechea-Telleria
2018-01-01
Full Text Available The use of biometrics keeps growing. Every day, we use biometric recognition to unlock our phones or to have access to places such as the gym or the office, so we rely on the security manufacturers offer when protecting our privileges and private life. It is well known that it is possible to hack into a fingerprint sensor using fake fingers made of Play-Doh and other easy-to-obtain materials but to what extent? Is this true for all users or only for specialists with a deep knowledge on biometrics? Are smartphone fingerprint sensors as reliable as desktop sensors? To answer these questions, we performed 3 separate evaluations. First, we evaluated 4 desktop fingerprint sensors of different technologies by attacking them with 7 different fake finger materials. All of them were successfully attacked by an experienced attacker. Secondly, we carried out a similar test on 5 smartphones with embedded sensors using the most successful materials, which also hacked the 5 sensors. Lastly, we gathered 15 simulated attackers with no background in biometrics to create fake fingers of several materials, and they had one week to attack the fingerprint sensors of the same 5 smartphones, with the starting point of a short video with the techniques to create them. All 5 smartphones were successfully attacked by an inexperienced attacker. This paper will provide the results achieved, as well as an analysis on the attack potential of every case. All results are given following the metrics of the standard ISO/IEC 30107-3.
Chim, Harvey; Yew, Woon Si; Song, Colin
2007-01-01
Terror attacks in Southeast Asia were almost nonexistent until the 2002 Bali bomb blast, considered the deadliest attack in Indonesian history. Further attacks in 2003 (Jakarta), 2004 (Jakarta), and 2005 (Bali) have turned terrorist attacks into an ever-present reality. The authors reviewed medical charts of victims evacuated to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) Burns Centre during three suicide attacks involving Bali (2002 and 2005) and the Jakarta Marriott hotel (2003). Problems faced, lessons learnt, and costs incurred are discussed. A burns disaster plan drawing on lessons learnt from these attacks is presented. Thirty-one patients were treated at the SGH Burns Centre in three attacks (2002 Bali attack [n = 15], 2003 Jakarta attack [n = 14], and 2005 Bali attack [n = 2]). For the 2002 Bali attack, median age was 29 years (range 20 to 50 years), median percentage of total burn surface area (TBSA) was 29% (range 5% to 55%), and median abbreviated burn severity index (ABSI) was 6 (range 3 to 10). Eight of 15 patients were admitted to the intensive care unit. For the 2003 Jakarta attack, median age was 35 years (range 24 to 56 years), median percentage of TBSA was 10% (range 2% to 46%), and median ABSI was 4 (range 3 to 9). A large number of patients had other injuries. Problems faced included manpower issues, lack of bed space, shortage of blood products, and lack of cadaver skin. The changing nature of terror attacks mandates continued vigilance and disaster preparedness. The multidimensional burns patient, complicated by other injuries, is likely to become increasingly common. A burns disaster plan with emphasis on effective command, control, and communication as well as organisation of health care personnel following a 'team concept' will do much to ensure that the sudden onset of a crisis situation at an unexpected time does not overwhelm hospital manpower and resources.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Željko Gavrić
2018-01-01
Full Text Available Wireless sensor networks are now used in various fields. The information transmitted in the wireless sensor networks is very sensitive, so the security issue is very important. DOS (denial of service attacks are a fundamental threat to the functioning of wireless sensor networks. This paper describes some of the most common DOS attacks and potential methods of protection against them. The case study shows one of the most frequent attacks on wireless sensor networks – the interference attack. In the introduction of this paper authors assume that the attack interference can cause significant obstruction of wireless sensor networks. This assumption has been proved in the case study through simulation scenario and simulation results.
Securing internet by eliminating DDOS attacks
Niranchana, R.; Gayathri Devi, N.; Santhi, H.; Gayathri, P.
2017-11-01
The major threat caused to the authorised usage of Internet is Distributed Denial of Service attack. The mechanisms used to prevent the DDoS attacks are said to overcome the attack’s ability in spoofing the IP packets source addresses. By utilising Internet Protocol spoofing, the attackers cause a consequential load over the networks destination for policing attack packets. To overcome the IP Spoofing level on the Internet, We propose an Inter domain Packet Filter (IPF) architecture. The proposed scheme is not based on global routing information. The packets with reliable source addresses are not rejected, the IPF frame work works in such a manner. The spoofing capability of attackers is confined by IPF, and also the filter identifies the source of an attack packet by minimal number of candidate network.
Ponzio, C.A.M.
2016-01-01
Though immobile, plants are members of complex environments, and are under constant threat from a wide range of attackers, which includes organisms such as insect herbivores or plant pathogens. Plants have developed sophisticated defenses against these attackers, and include chemical responses
New attacks on Wi-Fi Protected Setup
Hamed Mohtadi; Alireza Rahimi
2015-01-01
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is a network security standard that is used to secure networks in home and office, introduced in 2006 by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It provides easier configuration setup and is used in almost all recent Wi-Fi devices. In this paper we propose two attacks on this standard. The first attack is an offline brute force attack that uses imbalance on registration protocol. This attack needs user action, but it is more efficient than previous attacks. The second attack uses weak...
A Game Theoretic Approach to Cyber Attack Prediction
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Peng Liu
2005-11-28
The area investigated by this project is cyber attack prediction. With a focus on correlation-based prediction, current attack prediction methodologies overlook the strategic nature of cyber attack-defense scenarios. As a result, current cyber attack prediction methodologies are very limited in predicting strategic behaviors of attackers in enforcing nontrivial cyber attacks such as DDoS attacks, and may result in low accuracy in correlation-based predictions. This project develops a game theoretic framework for cyber attack prediction, where an automatic game-theory-based attack prediction method is proposed. Being able to quantitatively predict the likelihood of (sequences of) attack actions, our attack prediction methodology can predict fine-grained strategic behaviors of attackers and may greatly improve the accuracy of correlation-based prediction. To our best knowledge, this project develops the first comprehensive framework for incentive-based modeling and inference of attack intent, objectives, and strategies; and this project develops the first method that can predict fine-grained strategic behaviors of attackers. The significance of this research and the benefit to the public can be demonstrated to certain extent by (a) the severe threat of cyber attacks to the critical infrastructures of the nation, including many infrastructures overseen by the Department of Energy, (b) the importance of cyber security to critical infrastructure protection, and (c) the importance of cyber attack prediction to achieving cyber security.
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Sajeed, Shihan; Minshull, Carter; Jain, Nitin
2017-01-01
We demonstrate the experimental feasibility of a Trojan-horse attack that remains nearly invisible to the single-photon detectors employed in practical quantum key distribution (QKD) systems, such as Clavis2 from ID Quantique. We perform a detailed numerical comparison of the attack performance...
Radiological attacks and accidents. Medical consequences
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Sakuta, Hidenari
2007-01-01
Probability of the occurrence of radiological attacks appears to be elevated after the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11 in 2001. There are a lot of scenarios of radiological attack: simple radiological device, radiological disperse device (RDD or dirty bomb), attacks against nuclear reactor, improvised nuclear device, and nuclear weapons. Of these, RDD attack is the most probable scenario, because it can be easily made and can generate enormous psychological and economic damages. Radiological incidents are occurring to and fro in the world, including several cases of theft to nuclear facilities and unsuccessful terrorist attacks against them. Recently, a former Russian spy has allegedly been killed using polonium-210. In addition, serious radiological accidents have occurred in Chernobyl, Goiania, and Tokai-mura. Planning, preparation, education, and training exercise appear to be essential factors to cope with radiological attacks and accidents effectively without feeling much anxiety. Triage and psychological first aid are prerequisite to manage and provide effective medial care for mass casualties without inducing panic. (author)
Script-viruses Attacks on UNIX OS
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
D. M. Mikhaylov
2010-06-01
Full Text Available In this article attacks on UNIX OS are considered. Currently antivirus developers are concentrated on protecting systems from viruses that are most common and attack popular operating systems. If the system or its components are not often attacked then the antivirus products are not protecting these components as it is not profitable. The same situation is with script-viruses for UNIX OS as most experts consider that it is impossible for such viruses to get enough rights to attack. Nevertheless the main conclusion of this article is the fact that such viruses can be very powerful and can attack systems and get enough rights.
Naik, Subhashchandra; Brock, Susan; Akkaladevi, Narahari; Tally, Jon; McGinn-Straub, Wesley; Zhang, Na; Gao, Phillip; Gogol, E P; Pentelute, B L; Collier, R John; Fisher, Mark T
2013-09-17
Domain 2 of the anthrax protective antigen (PA) prepore heptamer unfolds and refolds during endosome acidification to generate an extended 100 Å β barrel pore that inserts into the endosomal membrane. The PA pore facilitates the pH-dependent unfolding and translocation of bound toxin enzymic components, lethal factor (LF) and/or edema factor, from the endosome to the cytoplasm. We constructed immobilized complexes of the prepore with the PA-binding domain of LF (LFN) to monitor the real-time prepore to pore kinetic transition using surface plasmon resonance and biolayer interferometry (BLI). The kinetics of this transition increased as the solution pH was decreased from 7.5 to 5.0, mirroring acidification of the endosome. Once it had undergone the transition, the LFN-PA pore complex was removed from the BLI biosensor tip and deposited onto electron microscopy grids, where PA pore formation was confirmed by negative stain electron microscopy. When the soluble receptor domain (ANTRX2/CMG2) binds the immobilized PA prepore, the transition to the pore state was observed only after the pH was lowered to early (pH 5.5) or late (pH 5.0) endosomal pH conditions. Once the pore formed, the soluble receptor readily dissociated from the PA pore. Separate binding experiments with immobilized PA pores and the soluble receptor indicate that the receptor has a weakened propensity to bind to the transitioned pore. This immobilized anthrax toxin platform can be used to identify or validate potential antimicrobial lead compounds capable of regulating and/or inhibiting anthrax toxin complex formation or pore transitions.
Naik, Subhashchandra; Brock, Susan; Akkaladevi, Narahari; Tally, Jon; Mcginn-Straub, Wesley; Zhang, Na; Gao, Phillip; Gogol, E. P.; Pentelute, B. L.; Collier, R. John; Fisher, Mark T.
2013-01-01
Domain 2 of the anthrax protective antigen (PA) prepore heptamer unfolds and refolds during endosome acidification to generate an extended 100 Å beta barrel pore that inserts into the endosomal membrane. The PA pore facilitates the pH dependent unfolding and translocation of bound toxin enzymic components, lethal factor (LF) and/or edema factor (EF), from the endosome into the cytoplasm. We constructed immobilized complexes of the prepore with the PA-binding domain of LF (LFN) to monitor the real-time prepore to pore kinetic transition using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and bio-layer interferometry (BLI). The kinetics of this transition increased as the solution pH was decreased from pH 7.5 to pH 5.0, mirroring acidification of the endosome. Once transitioned, the LFN-PA pore complex was removed from the BLI biosensor tip and deposited onto EM grids, where the PA pore formation was confirmed by negative stain electron microscopy. When the soluble receptor domain (ANTRX2/CMG2) binds the immobilized PA prepore, the transition to the pore state was observed only after the pH was lowered to early or late endosomal pH conditions (5.5 to 5.0 respectively). Once the pore formed, the soluble receptor readily dissociated from the PA pore. Separate binding experiments with immobilized PA pores and soluble receptor indicate that the receptor has a weakened propensity to bind to the transitioned pore. This immobilized anthrax toxin platform can be used to identify or validate potential antimicrobial lead compounds capable of regulating and/or inhibiting anthrax toxin complex formation or pore transitions. PMID:23964683
Icek Ajzen; Thomas C. Brown; Franklin Carvajal
2004-01-01
An experiment was designed to account for intention-behavior discrepancies by applying the theory of planned behavior to contingent valuation. College students (N = 160) voted in hypothetical and real payment referenda to contribute $8 to a scholarship fund. Overestimates of willingness to pay in the hypothetical referendum could not be attributed to moderately...
Hybrid attacks on model-based social recommender systems
Yu, Junliang; Gao, Min; Rong, Wenge; Li, Wentao; Xiong, Qingyu; Wen, Junhao
2017-10-01
With the growing popularity of the online social platform, the social network based approaches to recommendation emerged. However, because of the open nature of rating systems and social networks, the social recommender systems are susceptible to malicious attacks. In this paper, we present a certain novel attack, which inherits characteristics of the rating attack and the relation attack, and term it hybrid attack. Furtherly, we explore the impact of the hybrid attack on model-based social recommender systems in multiple aspects. The experimental results show that, the hybrid attack is more destructive than the rating attack in most cases. In addition, users and items with fewer ratings will be influenced more when attacked. Last but not the least, the findings suggest that spammers do not depend on the feedback links from normal users to become more powerful, the unilateral links can make the hybrid attack effective enough. Since unilateral links are much cheaper, the hybrid attack will be a great threat to model-based social recommender systems.
Wein, Alexander N.; Liu, Shihui; Zhang, Yi; McKenzie, Andrew T.; Leppla, Stephen H.
2012-01-01
PA-U2, an engineered anthrax protective antigen that is activated by urokinase was combined with wild-type lethal factor in the treatment of Colo205 colon adenocarcinoma in vitro and B16-BL6 mouse melanoma in vitro and in vivo. This therapy was also tested in combination with the small molecule paclitaxel, based on prior reports suggesting synergy between ERK1/2 inhibition and chemotherapeutics. Colo205 was sensitive to PA-U2/LF while B16-BL6 was not. For the combination treatment of B16-BL6,...
Temte, Jonathan L; Anderson, Anna Lisa
2004-01-01
Early detection of bioterrorism requires assessment of diagnoses assigned to cases of rare diseases with which clinicians have little experience. In this study, we evaluated the process of defining the differential diagnosis for inhalational anthrax using electronic communication within a practice-based research network (PBRN) and compared the results with those obtained from a nationwide random sample of family physicians with a mailed instrument. We distributed survey instruments by e-mail to 55 physician members of the Wisconsin Research Network (WReN), a regional PBRN. The instruments consisted of 3 case vignettes randomly drawn from a set describing 11 patients with inhalational anthrax, 2 with influenza A, and 1 with Legionella pneumonia. Physicians provided their most likely nonanthrax diagnosis, along with their responses to 4 yes-or-no management questions for each case. Physicians who had not responded at 1 week received a second e-mail with the survey instrument. The comparison group consisted of the nationwide sample of physicians who completed mailed survey instruments. Primary outcome measures were response rate, median response time, and frequencies of diagnostic categories assigned to cases of inhalational anthrax. The PBRN response rate compared favorably with that of the national sample (47.3% vs 37.0%; P = not significant). The median response time for the PBRN was significantly shorter than that for the national sample (2 vs 28 days; P < .001). No significant differences were found between the PBRN and the Midwest subset of the national sample in the frequencies of major diagnostic categories or in case management. Electronic means of creating differential diagnoses for rare infectious diseases of national significance is feasible within PBRNs. Information is much more rapidly acquired and is consistent with that obtained by conventional methods.
Genome-wide screens for expressed hypothetical proteins
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Madsen, Claus Desler; Durhuus, Jon Ambæk; Rasmussen, Lene Juel
2012-01-01
A hypothetical protein (HP) is defined as a protein that is predicted to be expressed from an open reading frame, but for which there is no experimental evidence of translation. HPs constitute a substantial fraction of proteomes of human as well as of other organisms. With the general belief that...... that the majority of HPs are the product of pseudogenes, it is essential to have a tool with the ability of pinpointing the minority of HPs with a high probability of being expressed....
An Analysis of Attacks on Blockchain Consensus
Bissias, George; Levine, Brian Neil; Ozisik, A. Pinar; Andresen, Gavin
2016-01-01
We present and validate a novel mathematical model of the blockchain mining process and use it to conduct an economic evaluation of the double-spend attack, which is fundamental to all blockchain systems. Our analysis focuses on the value of transactions that can be secured under a conventional double-spend attack, both with and without a concurrent eclipse attack. Our model quantifies the importance of several factors that determine the attack's success, including confirmation depth, attacke...
Sverdlovsk Anthrax Outbreak: An Educational Case Study
Steele, S. J.; van der Vink, G.
2002-05-01
In April and May of 1979 an Anthrax epidemic broke out in the city of Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) in the former Soviet Union. Sixty-four people were reported to have died from the outbreak, although there is still debate concerning the actual number of victims. While Soviet officials initially attributed this outbreak to contaminated meat, the US Government maintained that the outbreak was due to a leakage from a biological weapons facility. We have created and implemented an undergraduate educational exercise based on the forensic analysis of this event. Students were provided case data of the victims, area satellite images and meteorological data. One goal of the exercise was for students to reconstruct the most probable scenario of events through valid inference based on the limited information and uncertainties associated with the data set. Another goal was to make students sensitive to issues of biological weapons and bioterrorism. The exercise was highly rated by students even before the events of September 11. There is a clear need to educate students, particularly in the sciences, to be aware of the signatures of terrorist activities. Evidence of terrorist activities is more likely to appear from unintended discoveries than from active intelligence gathering. We believe our national security can be enhanced by sensitizing those that monitor the natural environment to the signatures of terrorist activities through the types of educational exercises that we have developed.
Automated classification of computer network attacks
CSIR Research Space (South Africa)
Van Heerden, R
2013-11-01
Full Text Available according to the relevant types of attack scenarios depicted in the ontology. The two network attack instances are the Distributed Denial of Service attack on SpamHaus in 2013 and the theft of 42 million Rand ($6.7 million) from South African Postbank...
Analysis of hypothetical LMFBR whole-core accidents in the USA
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Ferguson, D.R.; Deitrich, L.W.; Brown, N.W.; Waltar, A.E.
1978-01-01
Methods used for analysis of material behaviour, accident phenomenology and integrated accident calculations are reviewed. Applications of these methods to hypothetical LOF and TOP accidents are discussed. Recent results obtained from applications to FFTF and CRBRP are presented. (author)
Cyber Attacks and Combat Behavior
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Carataș Maria Alina
2017-01-01
Full Text Available Cyber terrorism is an intangible danger, a real over the corner threat in the life of individuals,organizations, and governments and is getting harder to deal with its damages. The motivations forthe cyber-attacks are different, depending on the terrorist group, from cybercrime to hacktivism,attacks over the authorities’ servers. Organizations constantly need to find new ways ofstrengthening protection against cyber-attacks, assess their cyber readiness, expand the resiliencecapacity and adopts international security regulations.
Attacks on public telephone networks: technologies and challenges
Kosloff, T.; Moore, Tyler; Keller, J.; Manes, Gavin W.; Shenoi, Sujeet
2003-09-01
Signaling System 7 (SS7) is vital to signaling and control in America's public telephone networks. This paper describes a class of attacks on SS7 networks involving the insertion of malicious signaling messages via compromised SS7 network components. Three attacks are discussed in detail: IAM flood attacks, redirection attacks and point code spoofing attacks. Depending on their scale of execution, these attacks can produce effects ranging from network congestion to service disruption. Methods for detecting these denial-of-service attacks and mitigating their effects are also presented.
Defense and attack of complex and dependent systems
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Hausken, Kjell
2010-01-01
A framework is constructed for how to analyze the strategic defense of an infrastructure subject to attack by a strategic attacker. Merging operations research, reliability theory, and game theory for optimal analytical impact, the optimization program for the defender and attacker is specified. Targets can be in parallel, series, combined series-parallel, complex, k-out-of-n redundancy, independent, interdependent, and dependent. The defender and attacker determine how much to invest in defending versus attacking each of multiple targets. A target can have economic, human, and symbolic values, subjectively assessed by the defender and attacker. A contest success function determines the probability of a successful attack on each target, dependent on the investments by the defender and attacker into each target, and on characteristics of the contest. The defender minimizes the expected damage plus the defense costs. The attacker maximizes the expected damage minus the attack costs. Each agent is concerned about how his investments vary across the targets, and the impact on his utilities. Interdependent systems are analyzed where the defense and attack on one target impacts all targets. Dependent systems are analyzed applying Markov analysis and repeated games where a successful attack on one target in the first period impacts the unit costs of defense and attack, and the contest intensity, for the other target in the second period.
Defense and attack of complex and dependent systems
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Hausken, Kjell, E-mail: kjell.hausken@uis.n [Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stavanger, N-4036 Stavanger (Norway)
2010-01-15
A framework is constructed for how to analyze the strategic defense of an infrastructure subject to attack by a strategic attacker. Merging operations research, reliability theory, and game theory for optimal analytical impact, the optimization program for the defender and attacker is specified. Targets can be in parallel, series, combined series-parallel, complex, k-out-of-n redundancy, independent, interdependent, and dependent. The defender and attacker determine how much to invest in defending versus attacking each of multiple targets. A target can have economic, human, and symbolic values, subjectively assessed by the defender and attacker. A contest success function determines the probability of a successful attack on each target, dependent on the investments by the defender and attacker into each target, and on characteristics of the contest. The defender minimizes the expected damage plus the defense costs. The attacker maximizes the expected damage minus the attack costs. Each agent is concerned about how his investments vary across the targets, and the impact on his utilities. Interdependent systems are analyzed where the defense and attack on one target impacts all targets. Dependent systems are analyzed applying Markov analysis and repeated games where a successful attack on one target in the first period impacts the unit costs of defense and attack, and the contest intensity, for the other target in the second period.
Automated Generation of Attack Trees
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Vigo, Roberto; Nielson, Flemming; Nielson, Hanne Riis
2014-01-01
Attack trees are widely used to represent threat scenarios in a succinct and intuitive manner, suitable for conveying security information to non-experts. The manual construction of such objects relies on the creativity and experience of specialists, and therefore it is error-prone and impractica......Attack trees are widely used to represent threat scenarios in a succinct and intuitive manner, suitable for conveying security information to non-experts. The manual construction of such objects relies on the creativity and experience of specialists, and therefore it is error......-prone and impracticable for large systems. Nonetheless, the automated generation of attack trees has only been explored in connection to computer networks and levering rich models, whose analysis typically leads to an exponential blow-up of the state space. We propose a static analysis approach where attack trees...... are automatically inferred from a process algebraic specification in a syntax-directed fashion, encompassing a great many application domains and avoiding incurring systematically an exponential explosion. Moreover, we show how the standard propositional denotation of an attack tree can be used to phrase...
Pareto Efficient Solutions of Attack-Defence Trees
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming
2015-01-01
Attack-defence trees are a promising approach for representing threat scenarios and possible countermeasures in a concise and intuitive manner. An attack-defence tree describes the interaction between an attacker and a defender, and is evaluated by assigning parameters to the nodes, such as proba......Attack-defence trees are a promising approach for representing threat scenarios and possible countermeasures in a concise and intuitive manner. An attack-defence tree describes the interaction between an attacker and a defender, and is evaluated by assigning parameters to the nodes......, such as probability or cost of attacks and defences. In case of multiple parameters most analytical methods optimise one parameter at a time, e.g., minimise cost or maximise probability of an attack. Such methods may lead to sub-optimal solutions when optimising conflicting parameters, e.g., minimising cost while...... maximising probability. In order to tackle this challenge, we devise automated techniques that optimise all parameters at once. Moreover, in the case of conflicting parameters our techniques compute the set of all optimal solutions, defined in terms of Pareto efficiency. The developments are carried out...
The Relationship Between Personality and Schadenfreude in Hypothetical Versus Live Situations.
Greenier, Keegan D
2018-06-01
This study sought to investigate how individual differences are related to schadenfreude (pleasure derived from another's misfortune) by replicating past findings and extending them to additional personality traits. Because most past research on schadenfreude has relied heavily on the use of reactions to hypothetical scenarios, an attempt was made to demonstrate external validity by also including a reaction to a live event (confederate misfortune). For the scenarios, schadenfreude was positively correlated with the Dark Triad and just world beliefs; negatively correlated with empathy and agreeableness; and uncorrelated with dispositional envy, self-esteem, or the remaining Big Five traits. For the live event, no personality traits were correlated with schadenfreude, suggesting responses to hypothetical situations may not be representative of real-life schadenfreude events.
Restricted Predicates for Hypothetical Datalog
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Fernando Sáenz-Pérez
2015-12-01
Full Text Available Hypothetical Datalog is based on an intuitionistic semantics rather than on a classical logic semantics, and embedded implications are allowed in rule bodies. While the usual implication (i.e., the neck of a Horn clause stands for inferring facts, an embedded implication plays the role of assuming its premise for deriving its consequence. A former work introduced both a formal framework and a goal-oriented tabled implementation, allowing negation in rule bodies. While in that work positive assumptions for both facts and rules can occur in the premise, negative assumptions are not allowed. In this work, we cover this subject by introducing a new concept: a restricted predicate, which allows negative assumptions by pruning the usual semantics of a predicate. This new setting has been implemented in the deductive system DES.
Testing QCD with Hypothetical Tau Leptons
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Brodsky, Stanley J.
1998-10-21
We construct new tests of perturbative QCD by considering a hypothetical {tau} lepton of arbitrary mass, which decays hadronically through the electromagnetic current. We can explicitly compute its hadronic width ratio directly as an integral over the e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation cross section ratio, R{sub e{sup +}e{sup -}}. Furthermore, we can design a set of commensurate scale relations and perturbative QCD tests by varying the weight function away from the form associated with the V-A decay of the physical {tau}. This method allows the wide range of the R{sub e{sup +}e{sup -}} data to be used as a probe of perturbative QCD.
Cross-site scripting attacks procedure and Prevention Strategies
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Wang Xijun
2016-01-01
Full Text Available Cross-site scripting attacks and defense has been the site of attack and defense is an important issue, this paper, the definition of cross-site scripting attacks, according to the current understanding of the chaos on the cross-site scripting, analyzes the causes and harm cross-site scripting attacks formation of attacks XXS complete process XSS attacks made a comprehensive analysis, and then for the web program includes Mobility there are cross-site scripting filter laxity given from ordinary users browse the web and web application developers two the defense cross-site scripting attacks effective strategy.
Heart Attack Symptoms in Women
... fat, cholesterol and other substances (plaque). Watch an animation of a heart attack . Many women think the ... Support Network Popular Articles 1 Understanding Blood Pressure Readings 2 Sodium and Salt 3 Heart Attack Symptoms ...
On the anatomy of social engineering attacks : A literature-based dissection of successful attacks
Bullee, Jan-Willem; Montoya, L.; Pieters, Wolter; Junger, Marianne; Hartel, Pieter H.
The aim of this studywas to explore the extent towhich persuasion principles are used in successful social engineering attacks. Seventy-four scenarioswere extracted from 4 books on social engineering (written by social engineers) and analysed. Each scenariowas split into attack steps, containing
DDOS ATTACK DETECTION SIMULATION AND HANDLING MECHANISM
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ahmad Sanmorino
2013-11-01
Full Text Available In this study we discuss how to handle DDoS attack that coming from the attacker by using detection method and handling mechanism. Detection perform by comparing number of packets and number of flow. Whereas handling mechanism perform by limiting or drop the packets that detected as a DDoS attack. The study begins with simulation on real network, which aims to get the real traffic data. Then, dump traffic data obtained from the simulation used for detection method on our prototype system called DASHM (DDoS Attack Simulation and Handling Mechanism. From the result of experiment that has been conducted, the proposed method successfully detect DDoS attack and handle the incoming packet sent by attacker.
Model checking exact cost for attack scenarios
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming
2017-01-01
Attack trees constitute a powerful tool for modelling security threats. Many security analyses of attack trees can be seamlessly expressed as model checking of Markov Decision Processes obtained from the attack trees, thus reaping the benefits of a coherent framework and a mature tool support....... However, current model checking does not encompass the exact cost analysis of an attack, which is standard for attack trees. Our first contribution is the logic erPCTL with cost-related operators. The extended logic allows to analyse the probability of an event satisfying given cost bounds and to compute...... the exact cost of an event. Our second contribution is the model checking algorithm for erPCTL. Finally, we apply our framework to the analysis of attack trees....
NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS. ARP POISONING CASE STUDY
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Luminiţa DEFTA
2010-12-01
Full Text Available Arp poisoning is one of the most common attacks in a switched network. A switch is a network device that limits the ability of attackers that use a packet sniffer to gain access to information from internal network traffic. However, using ARP poisoning the traffic between two computers can be intercepted even in a network that uses switches. This method is known as man in the middle attack. With this type of attack the affected stations from a network will have invalid entries in the ARP table. Thus, it will contain only the correspondence between the IP addresses of the stations from the same network and a single MAC address (the station that initiated the attack. In this paper we present step by step the initiation of such an attack in a network with three computers. We will intercept the traffic between two stations using the third one (the attacker.
Hu, Lei; Joshi, Sangeeta B.; Andra, Kiran K.; Thakkar, Santosh V.; Volkin, David B.; Bann, James G.; Middaugh, C. Russell
2012-01-01
Protective antigen (PA) is the primary protein antigenic component of both the currently used anthrax vaccine and related recombinant vaccines under development. An analogue of recombinant PA (2-FHis rPA) has been recently shown to block the key steps of pore formation in the process of inducing cytotoxicity in cells, and thus can potentially be used as an antitoxin or a vaccine. This rPA analogue was produced by fermentation to incorporate the unnatural amino acid 2-fluorohistidine (2-FHis)....
Understanding How Components of Organisations Contribute to Attacks
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Gu, Min; Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Probst, Christian W.
2016-01-01
Attacks on organisations today explore many different layers, including buildings infrastructure, IT infrastructure, and human factor – the physical, virtual, and social layer. Identifying possible attacks, understanding their impact, and attributing their origin and contributing factors is diffi......Attacks on organisations today explore many different layers, including buildings infrastructure, IT infrastructure, and human factor – the physical, virtual, and social layer. Identifying possible attacks, understanding their impact, and attributing their origin and contributing factors...... is difficult. Recently, system models have been used for automatically identifying possible attacks on the modelled organisation. The generated attacks consider all three layers, making the contribution of building infrastructure, computer infrastructure, and humans (insiders and outsiders) explicit. However......, this contribution is only visible in the attack trees as part of the performed steps; it cannot be mapped back to the model directly since the actions usually involve several elements (attacker and targeted actor or asset). Especially for large attack trees, understanding the relations between several model...
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
2001-07-01
Full Text Available This piece presents the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the United States of America concerning the use of aluminum hydroxide adsorbed cell-free anthrax vaccine (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed, or AVA and the use of chemoprophylaxis against Bacillus anthracis in the United States. The recommended vaccination schedule consists of three subcutaneous injections, at 0, 2, and 4 weeks, and three booster vaccinations, at 6, 12, and 18 months. To maintain immunity, an annual booster injection is recommended. Approximately 95% of vaccinees seroconvert, with a fourfold rise in anti-PA (protective antigen IgG titers after three doses. Analysis of data from the United States' Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System has documented no pattern of serious adverse events clearly associated with the vaccine, except injection-site reactions. Vaccination is contraindicated in the case of a previous history of anthrax infection or anaphylactic reaction following a previous dose of AVA or any of the vaccine components. In addition, vaccination should be postponed in the case of moderate or severe acute illness. Pregnant women should be vaccinated against anthrax only if the potential benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks to the fetus. Vaccination during breast-feeding is not medically contraindicated. Routine preexposure vaccination with AVA is indicated for persons engaged in: a work involving production quantities or concentrations of B. anthracis cultures or b activities with a high potential for aerosol production. For the military and other select populations or for groups for which a calculable risk can be assessed, preexposure vaccination may be indicated. Following confirmed or suspected exposure to B. anthracis, postexposure antibiotic prophylaxis should be administered with ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, doxycycline, penicillin VK, or amoxicillin. If the vaccine is available, prophylaxis should continue for 4 weeks
Attack Graph Construction for Security Events Analysis
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Andrey Alexeevich Chechulin
2014-09-01
Full Text Available The paper is devoted to investigation of the attack graphs construction and analysis task for a network security evaluation and real-time security event processing. Main object of this research is the attack modeling process. The paper contains the description of attack graphs building, modifying and analysis technique as well as overview of implemented prototype for network security analysis based on attack graph approach.
Reducing therapeutic misconception: A randomized intervention trial in hypothetical clinical trials.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Paul P Christopher
Full Text Available Participants in clinical trials frequently fail to appreciate key differences between research and clinical care. This phenomenon, known as therapeutic misconception, undermines informed consent to clinical research, but to date there have been no effective interventions to reduce it and concerns have been expressed that to do so might impede recruitment. We determined whether a scientific reframing intervention reduces therapeutic misconception without significantly reducing willingness to participate in hypothetical clinical trials.This prospective randomized trial was conducted from 2015 to 2016 to test the efficacy of an informed consent intervention based on scientific reframing compared to a traditional informed consent procedure (control in reducing therapeutic misconception among patients considering enrollment in hypothetical clinical trials modeled on real-world studies for one of five disease categories. Patients with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, head/neck cancer, breast cancer, and major depression were recruited from medical clinics and a clinical research volunteer database. The primary outcomes were therapeutic misconception, as measured by a validated, ten-item Therapeutic Misconception Scale (range = 10-50, and willingness to participate in the clinical trial.154 participants completed the study (age range, 23-87 years; 92.3% white, 56.5% female; 74 (48.1% had been randomized to receive the experimental intervention. Therapeutic misconception was significantly lower (p = 0.004 in the scientific reframing group (26.4, 95% CI [23.7 to 29.1] compared to the control group (30.9, 95% CI [28.4 to 33.5], and remained so after controlling for education (p = 0.017. Willingness to participate in the hypothetical trial was not significantly different (p = 0.603 between intervention (52.1%, 95% CI [40.2% to 62.4%] and control (56.3%, 95% CI [45.3% to 66.6%] groups.An enhanced educational intervention augmenting
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Russell, Anna Christine [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
2014-09-01
Throughout my HS-STEM internship, I worked on two different projects with a systems analysis group at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California (SNLCA). The first, and primary, project entailed building a conceptual model of health surveillance detection of a bioterror attack. The second project was much smaller in scope and looked at cost tradeoffs between volumetric and surface decontamination after the release of anthrax in a city. Both projects helped me to understand the challenges of planning for a bioterror attack and the importance of preparedness in the public health sector.
Automated Discovery of Mimicry Attacks
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Giffin, Jonathon T; Jha, Somesh; Miller, Barton P
2006-01-01
.... These systems are useful only if they detect actual attacks. Previous research developed manually-constructed mimicry and evasion attacks that avoided detection by hiding a malicious series of system calls within a valid sequence allowed by the model...
Analyses of hypothetical FCI's in a fast reactor
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Padilla, A. Jr.; Martin, F.J.; Niccoli, L.G.
1981-01-01
Parametric analyses using the SIMMER code were performed to evaluate the potential for a severe recriticality from a pressure-driven recompaction caused by an energetic FCI during the transition phase of a hypothetical accident in a fast reactor. For realistic and reasonable estimates for the assumed accident conditions, a severe recriticality was not predicted. The conditions under which a severe recriticality would be obtained or averted were identified. 10 figures, 2 tables
Transforming Graphical System Models to Graphical Attack Models
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Ivanova, Marieta Georgieva; Probst, Christian W.; Hansen, Rene Rydhof
2016-01-01
Manually identifying possible attacks on an organisation is a complex undertaking; many different factors must be considered, and the resulting attack scenarios can be complex and hard to maintain as the organisation changes. System models provide a systematic representation of organisations...... approach to transforming graphical system models to graphical attack models in the form of attack trees. Based on an asset in the model, our transformations result in an attack tree that represents attacks by all possible actors in the model, after which the actor in question has obtained the asset....
When Sinuses Attack! (For Kids)
... First Aid & Safety Doctors & Hospitals Videos Recipes for Kids Kids site Sitio para niños How the Body Works ... Search English Español When Sinuses Attack! KidsHealth / For Kids / When Sinuses Attack! What's in this article? What ...
Yamini, Goli; Kalu, Nnanya; Nestorovich, Ekaterina M
2016-11-15
Nearly all the cationic molecules tested so far have been shown to reversibly block K⁺ current through the cation-selective PA 63 channels of anthrax toxin in a wide nM-mM range of effective concentrations. A significant increase in channel-blocking activity of the cationic compounds was achieved when multiple copies of positively charged ligands were covalently linked to multivalent scaffolds, such as cyclodextrins and dendrimers. Even though multivalent binding can be strong when the individual bonds are relatively weak, for drug discovery purposes we often strive to design multivalent compounds with high individual functional group affinity toward the respective binding site on a multivalent target. Keeping this requirement in mind, here we perform a single-channel/single-molecule study to investigate kinetic parameters of anthrax toxin PA 63 channel blockage by second-generation (G2) poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers functionalized with different surface ligands, including G2-NH₂, G2-OH, G2-succinamate, and G2-COONa. We found that the previously reported difference in IC 50 values of the G2-OH/PA 63 and G2-NH₂/PA 63 binding was determined by both on- and off-rates of the reversible dendrimer/channel binding reaction. In 1 M KCl, we observed a decrease of about three folds in k o n and a decrease of only about ten times in t r e s with G2-OH compared to G2-NH₂. At the same time for both blockers, k o n and t r e s increased dramatically with transmembrane voltage increase. PAMAM dendrimers functionalized with negatively charged succinamate, but not carboxyl surface groups, still had some residual activity in inhibiting the anthrax toxin channels. At 100 mV, the on-rate of the G2-succinamate binding was comparable with that of G2-OH but showed weaker voltage dependence when compared to G2-OH and G2-NH₂. The residence time of G2-succinamate in the channel exhibited opposite voltage dependence compared to G2-OH and G2-NH₂, increasing with the cis
... properly causes your body's blood sugar levels to rise, increasing your risk of heart attack. Metabolic syndrome. This occurs when you have obesity, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. Having metabolic ...
Software-based Microarchitectural Attacks
Gruss, Daniel
2017-01-01
Modern processors are highly optimized systems where every single cycle of computation time matters. Many optimizations depend on the data that is being processed. Software-based microarchitectural attacks exploit effects of these optimizations. Microarchitectural side-channel attacks leak secrets from cryptographic computations, from general purpose computations, or from the kernel. This leakage even persists across all common isolation boundaries, such as processes, containers, and virtual ...
Integrating cyber attacks within fault trees
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Nai Fovino, Igor; Masera, Marcelo; De Cian, Alessio
2009-01-01
In this paper, a new method for quantitative security risk assessment of complex systems is presented, combining fault-tree analysis, traditionally used in reliability analysis, with the recently introduced Attack-tree analysis, proposed for the study of malicious attack patterns. The combined use of fault trees and attack trees helps the analyst to effectively face the security challenges posed by the introduction of modern ICT technologies in the control systems of critical infrastructures. The proposed approach allows considering the interaction of malicious deliberate acts with random failures. Formal definitions of fault tree and attack tree are provided and a mathematical model for the calculation of system fault probabilities is presented.
Integrating cyber attacks within fault trees
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Nai Fovino, Igor [Joint Research Centre - EC, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Ispra, VA (Italy)], E-mail: igor.nai@jrc.it; Masera, Marcelo [Joint Research Centre - EC, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Ispra, VA (Italy); De Cian, Alessio [Department of Electrical Engineering, University di Genova, Genoa (Italy)
2009-09-15
In this paper, a new method for quantitative security risk assessment of complex systems is presented, combining fault-tree analysis, traditionally used in reliability analysis, with the recently introduced Attack-tree analysis, proposed for the study of malicious attack patterns. The combined use of fault trees and attack trees helps the analyst to effectively face the security challenges posed by the introduction of modern ICT technologies in the control systems of critical infrastructures. The proposed approach allows considering the interaction of malicious deliberate acts with random failures. Formal definitions of fault tree and attack tree are provided and a mathematical model for the calculation of system fault probabilities is presented.
Attack and Vulnerability Penetration Testing: FreeBSD
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Abdul Hanan Abdullah
2013-07-01
Full Text Available Computer system security has become a major concern over the past few years. Attacks, threasts or intrusions, against computer system and network have become commonplace events. However, there are some system devices and other tools that are available to overcome the threat of these attacks. Currently, cyber attack is a major research and inevitable. This paper presents some steps of penetration in FreeBSD operating system, some tools and new steps to attack used in this experiment, probes for reconnaissance, guessing password via brute force, gaining privilege access and flooding victim machine to decrease availability. All these attacks were executed and infiltrate within the environment of Intrusion Threat Detection Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (ITD UTM data set. This work is expected to be a reference for practitioners to prepare their systems from Internet attacks.
Superposition Attacks on Cryptographic Protocols
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Damgård, Ivan Bjerre; Funder, Jakob Løvstad; Nielsen, Jesper Buus
2011-01-01
of information. In this paper, we introduce a fundamentally new model of quantum attacks on classical cryptographic protocols, where the adversary is allowed to ask several classical queries in quantum superposition. This is a strictly stronger attack than the standard one, and we consider the security......Attacks on classical cryptographic protocols are usually modeled by allowing an adversary to ask queries from an oracle. Security is then defined by requiring that as long as the queries satisfy some constraint, there is some problem the adversary cannot solve, such as compute a certain piece...... of several primitives in this model. We show that a secret-sharing scheme that is secure with threshold $t$ in the standard model is secure against superposition attacks if and only if the threshold is lowered to $t/2$. We use this result to give zero-knowledge proofs for all of NP in the common reference...
Recurrent spontaneous attacks of dizziness.
Lempert, Thomas
2012-10-01
This article describes the common causes of recurrent vertigo and dizziness that can be diagnosed largely on the basis of history. Ninety percent of spontaneous recurrent vertigo and dizziness can be explained by six disorders: (1) Ménière disease is characterized by vertigo attacks, lasting 20 minutes to several hours, with concomitant hearing loss, tinnitus, and aural fullness. Aural symptoms become permanent during the course of the disease. (2) Attacks of vestibular migraine may last anywhere from minutes to days. Most patients have a previous history of migraine headaches, and many experience migraine symptoms during the attack. (3) Vertebrobasilar TIAs affect older adults with vascular risk factors. Most attacks last less than 1 hour and are accompanied by other symptoms from the posterior circulation territory. (4) Vestibular paroxysmia is caused by vascular compression of the eighth cranial nerve. It manifests itself with brief attacks of vertigo that recur many times per day, sometimes with concomitant cochlear symptoms. (5) Orthostatic hypotension causes brief episodes of dizziness lasting seconds to a few minutes after standing up and is relieved by sitting or lying down. In older adults, it may be accompanied by supine hypertension. (6) Panic attacks usually last minutes, occur in specific situations, and are accompanied by choking, palpitations, tremor, heat, and anxiety. Less common causes of spontaneous recurrent vertigo and dizziness include perilymph fistula, superior canal dehiscence, autoimmune inner ear disease, otosclerosis, cardiac arrhythmia, and medication side effects. Neurologists need to venture into otolaryngology, internal medicine, and psychiatry to master the differential diagnosis of recurrent dizziness.
Shark Attack Project - Marine Attack at Towed Hydrophone Arrays
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Kalmijn, Adrianus J
2005-01-01
The original objective of the SIO Marine Attack project was to identify the electric and magnetic fields causing sharks to inflict serious damage upon the towed hydrophone arrays of US Navy submarines...
Novel Method For Low-Rate Ddos Attack Detection
Chistokhodova, A. A.; Sidorov, I. D.
2018-05-01
The relevance of the work is associated with an increasing number of advanced types of DDoS attacks, in particular, low-rate HTTP-flood. Last year, the power and complexity of such attacks increased significantly. The article is devoted to the analysis of DDoS attacks detecting methods and their modifications with the purpose of increasing the accuracy of DDoS attack detection. The article details low-rate attacks features in comparison with conventional DDoS attacks. During the analysis, significant shortcomings of the available method for detecting low-rate DDoS attacks were found. Thus, the result of the study is an informal description of a new method for detecting low-rate denial-of-service attacks. The architecture of the stand for approbation of the method is developed. At the current stage of the study, it is possible to improve the efficiency of an already existing method by using a classifier with memory, as well as additional information.
Turnbull, P C B; Tindall, B W; Coetzee, J D; Conradie, C M; Bull, R L; Lindeque, P M; Huebschle, O J B
2004-09-03
Institution of a policy of vaccination in endangered species with a vaccine not previously administered to it cannot be undertaken lightly. This applies even more in the case of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) with their unusually monomorphic gene pool and the potential restrictions this places on their immune responses. However, the recently observed mortalities from anthrax in these animals in the Etosha National Park, Namibia, made it imperative to evaluate vaccination. Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), another endangered species in the park, have been vaccinated for over three decades but the effectiveness of this has never been evaluated. Passive protection tests in A/J mice using sera from 12 cheetahs together with enzyme immunoassay indicated that cheetah are able to mount seemingly normal primary and secondary humoral immune responses to the Sterne 34F2 live spore livestock vaccine. Overall protection rates in mice injected with the sera rose and fell in concert with rises and declines in antibody titres, although fine analysis showed that the correlation between titre and protection was complex. Once a high level of protection (96% of mice 1 month after a second booster in the cheetahs) had been achieved, the duration of substantial protection appeared good (60% of the mice 5 months after the second booster). Protection conferred on mice by sera from three of four vaccinated rhino was almost complete, but, obscurely, none of the mice receiving serum from the fourth rhino were protected. Sera from three park lions with naturally acquired high antibody titres, included as controls, also conferred high levels of protection. For the purposes of wildlife management, the conclusions were that vaccination of cheetah with the standard animal anthrax vaccine causes no observable ill effect in the animals and does appear to confer protective immunity. At least one well-separated booster does appear to be desirable. Vaccination of rhino also appears to be justified
... family history of heart attack race – African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and native Hawaiians are at ... Your doctor will prescribe the medicines that are right for you. If you have had a heart ...
Automatic Classification of Attacks on IP Telephony
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jakub Safarik
2013-01-01
Full Text Available This article proposes an algorithm for automatic analysis of attack data in IP telephony network with a neural network. Data for the analysis is gathered from variable monitoring application running in the network. These monitoring systems are a typical part of nowadays network. Information from them is usually used after attack. It is possible to use an automatic classification of IP telephony attacks for nearly real-time classification and counter attack or mitigation of potential attacks. The classification use proposed neural network, and the article covers design of a neural network and its practical implementation. It contains also methods for neural network learning and data gathering functions from honeypot application.
Further attacks on Yeung-Mintzer fragile watermarking scheme
Fridrich, Jessica; Goljan, Miroslav; Memon, Nasir D.
2000-05-01
In this paper, we describe new and improved attacks on the authentication scheme previously proposed by Yeung and Mintzer. Previous attacks assumed that the binary watermark logo inserted in an image for the purposes of authentication was known. Here we remove that assumption and show how the scheme is still vulnerable, even if the binary logo is not known but the attacker has access to multiple images that have been watermarked with the same secret key and contain the same (but unknown) logo. We present two attacks. The first attack infers the secret watermark insertion function and the binary logo, given multiple images authenticated with the same key and containing the same logo. We show that a very good approximation to the logo and watermark insertion function can be constructed using as few as two images. With color images, one needs many more images, nevertheless the attack is still feasible. The second attack we present, which we call the 'collage-attack' is a variation of the Holliman-Memon counterfeiting attack. The proposed variation does not require knowledge of the watermark logo and produces counterfeits of superior quality by means of a suitable dithering process that we develop.
Pareto Efficient Solution of Attack-Defence Trees
Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming
Attack-defence trees are a promising approach for representing threat scenarios and possible countermeasures in a concise and intuitive manner. An attack-defence tree describes the interaction between an attacker and a defender, and is evaluated by assigning parameters to the nodes, such as
What we say and what we do: the relationship between real and hypothetical moral choices.
FeldmanHall, Oriel; Mobbs, Dean; Evans, Davy; Hiscox, Lucy; Navrady, Lauren; Dalgleish, Tim
2012-06-01
Moral ideals are strongly ingrained within society and individuals alike, but actual moral choices are profoundly influenced by tangible rewards and consequences. Across two studies we show that real moral decisions can dramatically contradict moral choices made in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1). However, by systematically enhancing the contextual information available to subjects when addressing a hypothetical moral problem-thereby reducing the opportunity for mental simulation-we were able to incrementally bring subjects' responses in line with their moral behaviour in real situations (Study 2). These results imply that previous work relying mainly on decontextualized hypothetical scenarios may not accurately reflect moral decisions in everyday life. The findings also shed light on contextual factors that can alter how moral decisions are made, such as the salience of a personal gain. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Genetic attack on neural cryptography.
Ruttor, Andreas; Kinzel, Wolfgang; Naeh, Rivka; Kanter, Ido
2006-03-01
Different scaling properties for the complexity of bidirectional synchronization and unidirectional learning are essential for the security of neural cryptography. Incrementing the synaptic depth of the networks increases the synchronization time only polynomially, but the success of the geometric attack is reduced exponentially and it clearly fails in the limit of infinite synaptic depth. This method is improved by adding a genetic algorithm, which selects the fittest neural networks. The probability of a successful genetic attack is calculated for different model parameters using numerical simulations. The results show that scaling laws observed in the case of other attacks hold for the improved algorithm, too. The number of networks needed for an effective attack grows exponentially with increasing synaptic depth. In addition, finite-size effects caused by Hebbian and anti-Hebbian learning are analyzed. These learning rules converge to the random walk rule if the synaptic depth is small compared to the square root of the system size.
Genetic attack on neural cryptography
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Ruttor, Andreas; Kinzel, Wolfgang; Naeh, Rivka; Kanter, Ido
2006-01-01
Different scaling properties for the complexity of bidirectional synchronization and unidirectional learning are essential for the security of neural cryptography. Incrementing the synaptic depth of the networks increases the synchronization time only polynomially, but the success of the geometric attack is reduced exponentially and it clearly fails in the limit of infinite synaptic depth. This method is improved by adding a genetic algorithm, which selects the fittest neural networks. The probability of a successful genetic attack is calculated for different model parameters using numerical simulations. The results show that scaling laws observed in the case of other attacks hold for the improved algorithm, too. The number of networks needed for an effective attack grows exponentially with increasing synaptic depth. In addition, finite-size effects caused by Hebbian and anti-Hebbian learning are analyzed. These learning rules converge to the random walk rule if the synaptic depth is small compared to the square root of the system size
Genetic attack on neural cryptography
Ruttor, Andreas; Kinzel, Wolfgang; Naeh, Rivka; Kanter, Ido
2006-03-01
Different scaling properties for the complexity of bidirectional synchronization and unidirectional learning are essential for the security of neural cryptography. Incrementing the synaptic depth of the networks increases the synchronization time only polynomially, but the success of the geometric attack is reduced exponentially and it clearly fails in the limit of infinite synaptic depth. This method is improved by adding a genetic algorithm, which selects the fittest neural networks. The probability of a successful genetic attack is calculated for different model parameters using numerical simulations. The results show that scaling laws observed in the case of other attacks hold for the improved algorithm, too. The number of networks needed for an effective attack grows exponentially with increasing synaptic depth. In addition, finite-size effects caused by Hebbian and anti-Hebbian learning are analyzed. These learning rules converge to the random walk rule if the synaptic depth is small compared to the square root of the system size.
Attacks on the AJPS Mersenne-based cryptosystem
K. de Boer (Koen); L. Ducas (Léo); S. Jeffery (Stacey); R. M. de Wolf (Ronald)
2018-01-01
textabstractAggarwal, Joux, Prakash and Santha recently introduced a new potentially quantum-safe public-key cryptosystem, and suggested that a brute-force attack is essentially optimal against it. They consider but then dismiss both Meet-in-the-Middle attacks and LLL-based attacks. Very soon after
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Palma Peña-Jiménez, Ph.D.
2011-01-01
Full Text Available During election campaigns the political spot has a clear objective: to win votes. This message is communicated to the electorate through television and Internet, and usually presents a negative approach, which includes a direct critical message against the opponent, rather than an exposition of proposals. This article is focused on the analysis of the campaign attack video ad purposely created to encourage the disapproval of the political opponent among voters. These ads focus on discrediting the opponent, many times, through the transmission of ad hominem messages, instead of disseminating the potential of the political party and the virtues and manifesto of its candidate. The article reviews the development of the attack ad since its first appearance, which in Spain dates back to 1996, when the famous Doberman ad was broadcast, and examines the most memorable campaign attack ads.
Robust Detection of Stepping-Stone Attacks
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
He, Ting; Tong, Lang
2006-01-01
The detection of encrypted stepping-stone attack is considered. Besides encryption and padding, the attacker is capable of inserting chaff packets and perturbing packet timing and transmission order...
Paridari, Kaveh; O'Mahony, Niamh; Mady, Alie El-Din; Chabukswar, Rohan; Boubekeur, Menouer; Sandberg, Henrik
2017-01-01
Most existing industrial control systems (ICSs), such as building energy management systems (EMSs), were installed when potential security threats were only physical. With advances in connectivity, ICSs are now, typically, connected to communications networks and, as a result, can be accessed remotely. This extends the attack surface to include the potential for sophisticated cyber attacks, which can adversely impact ICS operation, resulting in service interruption, equipment damage, safety c...
An Adaptive Approach for Defending against DDoS Attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Muhai Li
2010-01-01
Full Text Available In various network attacks, the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS attack is a severe threat. In order to deal with this kind of attack in time, it is necessary to establish a special type of defense system to change strategy dynamically against attacks. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive approach, which is used for defending against DDoS attacks, based on normal traffic analysis. The approach can check DDoS attacks and adaptively adjust its configurations according to the network condition and attack severity. In order to insure the common users to visit the victim server that is being attacked, we provide a nonlinear traffic control formula for the system. Our simulation test indicates that the nonlinear control approach can prevent the malicious attack packets effectively while making legitimate traffic flows arrive at the victim.
Radiological consequences of a hypothetical ''roof breakdown'' accident of the Chernobyl sarcophagus
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Pretzsch, G.
1997-01-01
On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety GRS performed investigations with the aim to improve the safety of the Chernobyl Unit 4 shelter in close connection with the Ministry for Environment and Nuclear Safety of the Ukraina from 1992 to 1995. One of the tasks of the working programme was concerned with the analysis of hypothetical accidents of the present shelter, which comprises the newly built Sarcophagus and the remaining ruins of Unit 4. In close collaboration with Ukrainian and Russian experts the maximum hypothetical accident was defined to be the breakdown of the roof of the Sarcophagus and subsequent release of the radioactive dust which is mainly located in the destroyed reactor hall and the neighboring rooms
Countermeasures for unintentional and intentional video watermarking attacks
Deguillaume, Frederic; Csurka, Gabriela; Pun, Thierry
2000-05-01
These last years, the rapidly growing digital multimedia market has revealed an urgent need for effective copyright protection mechanisms. Therefore, digital audio, image and video watermarking has recently become a very active area of research, as a solution to this problem. Many important issues have been pointed out, one of them being the robustness to non-intentional and intentional attacks. This paper studies some attacks and proposes countermeasures applied to videos. General attacks are lossy copying/transcoding such as MPEG compression and digital/analog (D/A) conversion, changes of frame-rate, changes of display format, and geometrical distortions. More specific attacks are sequence edition, and statistical attacks such as averaging or collusion. Averaging attack consists of averaging locally consecutive frames to cancel the watermark. This attack works well for schemes which embed random independent marks into frames. In the collusion attack the watermark is estimated from single frames (based on image denoising), and averaged over different scenes for better accuracy. The estimated watermark is then subtracted from each frame. Collusion requires that the same mark is embedded into all frames. The proposed countermeasures first ensures robustness to general attacks by spread spectrum encoding in the frequency domain and by the use of an additional template. Secondly, a Bayesian criterion, evaluating the probability of a correctly decoded watermark, is used for rejection of outliers, and to implement an algorithm against statistical attacks. The idea is to embed randomly chosen marks among a finite set of marks, into subsequences of videos which are long enough to resist averaging attacks, but short enough to avoid collusion attacks. The Bayesian criterion is needed to select the correct mark at the decoding step. Finally, the paper presents experimental results showing the robustness of the proposed method.
Link-layer Jamming Attacks on S-MAC
Law, Y.W.; Hartel, Pieter H.; den Hartog, Jeremy; Havinga, Paul J.M.
2004-01-01
We argue that among denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, link-layer jamming is a more attractive option to attackers than radio jamming is. By exploiting the semantics of the link-layer protocol (aka MAC protocol), an attacker can achieve better efficiency than blindly jamming the radio signals alone.
Link-layer jamming attacks on S-MAC
Law, Y.W.; Hartel, Pieter H.; den Hartog, Jeremy; Havinga, Paul J.M.
We argue that among denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, link-layer jamming is a more attractive option to attackers than radio jamming is. By exploiting the semantics of the link-layer protocol (aka MAC protocol), an attacker can achieve better efficiency than blindly jamming the radio signals alone.
A computer network attack taxonomy and ontology
CSIR Research Space (South Africa)
Van Heerden, RP
2012-01-01
Full Text Available of the attack that occur after the attack goal has been achieved, and occurs because the attacker loses control of some systems. For example, after the launch of a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, zombie computers may still connect to the target...-scrap- value-of-a-hacked-pc-revisited/ . Lancor, L., & Workman, R. (2007). Using Google Hacking to Enhance Defense Strategies. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 39 (1), 491-495. Lau, F., Rubin, S. H., Smith, M. H., & Trajkovic, L. (2000). Distributed Denial of Service...
Unified communications forensics anatomy of common UC attacks
Grant, Nicholas Mr
2013-01-01
Unified Communications Forensics: Anatomy of Common UC Attacks is the first book to explain the issues and vulnerabilities and demonstrate the attacks, forensic artifacts, and countermeasures required to establish a secure (UC) environment. This book is written by leading UC experts Nicholas Grant and Joseph W. Shaw II and provides material never before found on the market, including: analysis of forensic artifacts in common UC attacks an in-depth look at established UC technologies and attack exploits hands-on understanding of UC attack vectors and associated countermeasures
Attacks and countermeasures on AES and ECC
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Tange, Henrik; Andersen, Birger
2013-01-01
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is widely used in LTE and Wi-Fi communication systems. AES has recently been exposed to new attacks which have questioned the overall security of AES. The newest attack is a so called biclique attack, which is using the fact that the content of the state array...
Classifying network attack scenarios using an ontology
CSIR Research Space (South Africa)
Van Heerden, RP
2012-03-01
Full Text Available ) or to the target?s reputation. The Residue sub-phase refers to damage or artefacts of the attack that occur after the attack goal has been achieved, and occurs because the attacker loses control of some systems. For example after the launch of a DDOS..., A. (1995). Hacking theft of $10 million from citibank revealed. Retrieved 10/10, 2011, from http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-19/business/fi-36656_1_citibank-system Hurley, E. (2004). SCO site succumbs to DDoS attack. Retrieved 10/10, 2011, from...
Modelling Social-Technical Attacks with Timed Automata
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
David, Nicolas; David, Alexandre; Hansen, Rene Rydhof
2015-01-01
. In this paper we develop an approach towards modelling socio-technical systems in general and socio-technical attacks in particular, using timed automata and illustrate its application by a complex case study. Thanks to automated model checking and automata theory, we can automatically generate possible attacks...... in our model and perform analysis and simulation of both model and attack, revealing details about the specific interaction between attacker and victim. Using timed automata also allows for intuitive modelling of systems, in which quantities like time and cost can be easily added and analysed....
Quantitative Verification and Synthesis of Attack-Defence Scenarios
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming; Parker, David
2016-01-01
analysis of quantitative properties of complex attack-defence scenarios, using an extension of attack-defence trees which models temporal ordering of actions and allows explicit dependencies in the strategies adopted by attackers and defenders. We adopt a game-theoretic approach, translating attack...... which guarantee or optimise some quantitative property, such as the probability of a successful attack, the expected cost incurred, or some multi-objective trade-off between the two. We implement our approach, building upon the PRISM-games model checker, and apply it to a case study of an RFID goods...
Situational awareness of a coordinated cyber attack
Sudit, Moises; Stotz, Adam; Holender, Michael
2005-03-01
As technology continues to advance, services and capabilities become computerized, and an ever increasing amount of business is conducted electronically the threat of cyber attacks gets compounded by the complexity of such attacks and the criticality of the information which must be secured. A new age of virtual warfare has dawned in which seconds can differentiate between the protection of vital information and/or services and a malicious attacker attaining their goal. In this paper we present a novel approach in the real-time detection of multistage coordinated cyber attacks and the promising initial testing results we have obtained. We introduce INFERD (INformation Fusion Engine for Real-time Decision-making), an adaptable information fusion engine which performs fusion at levels zero, one, and two to provide real-time situational assessment and its application to the cyber domain in the ECCARS (Event Correlation for Cyber Attack Recognition System) system. The advantages to our approach are fourfold: (1) The complexity of the attacks which we consider, (2) the level of abstraction in which the analyst interacts with the attack scenarios, (3) the speed at which the information fusion is presented and performed, and (4) our disregard for ad-hoc rules or a priori parameters.
Anti-discrimination Analysis Using Privacy Attack Strategies
Ruggieri, Salvatore
2014-09-15
Social discrimination discovery from data is an important task to identify illegal and unethical discriminatory patterns towards protected-by-law groups, e.g., ethnic minorities. We deploy privacy attack strategies as tools for discrimination discovery under hard assumptions which have rarely tackled in the literature: indirect discrimination discovery, privacy-aware discrimination discovery, and discrimination data recovery. The intuition comes from the intriguing parallel between the role of the anti-discrimination authority in the three scenarios above and the role of an attacker in private data publishing. We design strategies and algorithms inspired/based on Frèchet bounds attacks, attribute inference attacks, and minimality attacks to the purpose of unveiling hidden discriminatory practices. Experimental results show that they can be effective tools in the hands of anti-discrimination authorities.
Cyberprints: Identifying Cyber Attackers by Feature Analysis
Blakely, Benjamin A.
2012-01-01
The problem of attributing cyber attacks is one of increasing importance. Without a solid method of demonstrating the origin of a cyber attack, any attempts to deter would-be cyber attackers are wasted. Existing methods of attribution make unfounded assumptions about the environment in which they will operate: omniscience (the ability to gather,…
Simulation of Attacks for Security in Wireless Sensor Network.
Diaz, Alvaro; Sanchez, Pablo
2016-11-18
The increasing complexity and low-power constraints of current Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) require efficient methodologies for network simulation and embedded software performance analysis of nodes. In addition, security is also a very important feature that has to be addressed in most WSNs, since they may work with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments. In this paper, a methodology for security analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks is presented. The methodology allows designing attack-aware embedded software/firmware or attack countermeasures to provide security in WSNs. The proposed methodology includes attacker modeling and attack simulation with performance analysis (node's software execution time and power consumption estimation). After an analysis of different WSN attack types, an attacker model is proposed. This model defines three different types of attackers that can emulate most WSN attacks. In addition, this paper presents a virtual platform that is able to model the node hardware, embedded software and basic wireless channel features. This virtual simulation analyzes the embedded software behavior and node power consumption while it takes into account the network deployment and topology. Additionally, this simulator integrates the previously mentioned attacker model. Thus, the impact of attacks on power consumption and software behavior/execution-time can be analyzed. This provides developers with essential information about the effects that one or multiple attacks could have on the network, helping them to develop more secure WSN systems. This WSN attack simulator is an essential element of the attack-aware embedded software development methodology that is also introduced in this work.
Simulation of Attacks for Security in Wireless Sensor Network
Diaz, Alvaro; Sanchez, Pablo
2016-01-01
The increasing complexity and low-power constraints of current Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) require efficient methodologies for network simulation and embedded software performance analysis of nodes. In addition, security is also a very important feature that has to be addressed in most WSNs, since they may work with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments. In this paper, a methodology for security analysis of Wireless Sensor Networks is presented. The methodology allows designing attack-aware embedded software/firmware or attack countermeasures to provide security in WSNs. The proposed methodology includes attacker modeling and attack simulation with performance analysis (node’s software execution time and power consumption estimation). After an analysis of different WSN attack types, an attacker model is proposed. This model defines three different types of attackers that can emulate most WSN attacks. In addition, this paper presents a virtual platform that is able to model the node hardware, embedded software and basic wireless channel features. This virtual simulation analyzes the embedded software behavior and node power consumption while it takes into account the network deployment and topology. Additionally, this simulator integrates the previously mentioned attacker model. Thus, the impact of attacks on power consumption and software behavior/execution-time can be analyzed. This provides developers with essential information about the effects that one or multiple attacks could have on the network, helping them to develop more secure WSN systems. This WSN attack simulator is an essential element of the attack-aware embedded software development methodology that is also introduced in this work. PMID:27869710
Hypothetical conflict situations with friends and peers
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Petrović Danijela S.
2012-01-01
Full Text Available This paper deals with age and sex differences in preferred strategies of conflict resolution in friendship and peer relationships. The study was conducted on the sample of 286 adolescents. Conflict resolution strategies have been investigated by the method of hypothetical conflict situations. For the purposes of this research, we have created an instrument consisting of 20 hypothetical situations, with the following subjects of conflict: breaking the agreement, non-compliance with opinion differences, provocations, dishonesty and stubbornness. Conflict resolution strategies we examined were giving in, withdrawal, competition and problem solving. The results have shown that problem solving is the dominant strategy of adolescents in conflict with friends, while in peer conflicts they more often opt for competition. Age differences are reflected in the fact that older adolescents are more likely to choose problem solving than younger, whereas younger adolescents are more likely to choose a retreat (withdrawal strategy than older. Girls are more prone to choosing problem solving than boys, who, on the other hand, tend to withdraw more than girls. Also, gender of the other person in the conflict is proved to be important - in conflict with male peers, adolescents choose competition to a greater extent and withdraw to a minor extent, compared to when they are in conflict with female peers. The results have practical implications as well. In programs for teaching constructive conflict resolution that are designed for younger adolescents there should be more emphasis on empowerment and training for assertive behaviour. In addition, when teaching about constructive conflict resolution strategies, it is important to consider the gender of adolescents as well as the gender of the person with whom they are in conflict.
Consequences of a hypothetical incident for different sectors
Bertinelli, F; Garion, C; Jimenez, J M; Parma, V; Perin, A; Schmidt, R; Tavian, L; Tock, J P; van Weelderen, R
2011-01-01
During the 2009 long shutdown, the LHC machine has been partially consolidated by adding safety relief devices in order to better protect the cryostats against large helium release and consequently to mitigate the risks of collateral damages. After recalling the present relief valve implementation and other mitigations related to the collateral damages, this paper describes the damage process of a hypothetical incident, presents its consequences for the different sectors and for beam energies up to 5 TeV with emphasis on the induced downtime.
Using agility to combat cyber attacks.
Anderson, Kerry
2017-06-01
Some incident response practitioners feel that they have been locked in a battle with cyber criminals since the popular adoption of the internet. Initially, organisations made great inroads in preventing and containing cyber attacks. In the last few years, however, cyber criminals have become adept at eluding defence security technologies and rapidly modifying their exploit strategies for financial or political gains. Similar to changes in military combat tactics, cyber criminals utilise distributed attack cells, real-time communications, and rapidly mutating exploits to minimise the potential for detection. Cyber criminals have changed their attack paradigm. This paper describes a new incident response paradigm aimed at combating the new model of cyber attacks with an emphasis on agility to increase the organisation's ability to respond rapidly to these new challenges.
Bioinformatics and structural characterization of a hypothetical protein from Streptococcus mutans
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Nan, Jie; Brostromer, Erik; Liu, Xiang-Yu
2009-01-01
. From the interlinking structural and bioinformatics studies, we have concluded that SMU.440 could be involved in polyketide-like antibiotic resistance, providing a better understanding of this hypothetical protein. Besides, the combination of multiple methods in this study can be used as a general...
Women's Heart Disease: Heart Attack Symptoms
... of this page please turn JavaScript on. Feature: Women's Heart Disease Heart Attack Symptoms Past Issues / Winter ... most common heart attack symptom in men and women is chest pain or discomfort. However, women also ...
A novel proposed network security management approach for cyber attacks
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Ahmed, Z.; Nazir, B.; Zafar, M.F.; Anwar, M.M.; Azam, K.; Asar, A.U.
2007-01-01
Network security is a discipline that focuses on securing networks from unauthorized access. Given the Escalating threats of malicious cyber attacks, modern enterprises employ multiple lines of defense. A comprehensive defense strategy against such attacks should include (I) an attack detection component that deter- mines the fact that a program is compromised, (2) an attack identification and prevention component that identifies attack packets so that one can block such packets in the future and prevents the attack from further propagation. Over the last decade, a significant amount of research has been vested in the systems that can detect cyber attacks either statically at compile time or dynamically at run time, However, not much effort is spent on automated attack packet identification or attack prevention. In this paper we present a unified solution to the problems mentioned above. We implemented this solution after the forward engineering of Open Source Security Information Management (OSSIM) system called Preventive Information Security management (PrISM) system that correlates input from different sensors so that the resulting product can automatically detect any cyber attack against it and prevents by identifying the actual attack packet(s). The PrISM was always able to detect the attacks, identify the attack packets and most often prevent by blocking the attacker's IP address to continue normal execution. There is no additional run-time performance overhead for attack prevention. (author)
Adaptive optimisation-offline cyber attack on remote state estimator
Huang, Xin; Dong, Jiuxiang
2017-10-01
Security issues of cyber-physical systems have received increasing attentions in recent years. In this paper, deception attacks on the remote state estimator equipped with the chi-squared failure detector are considered, and it is assumed that the attacker can monitor and modify all the sensor data. A novel adaptive optimisation-offline cyber attack strategy is proposed, where using the current and previous sensor data, the attack can yield the largest estimation error covariance while ensuring to be undetected by the chi-squared monitor. From the attacker's perspective, the attack is better than the existing linear deception attacks to degrade the system performance. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to demonstrate theoretical results.
Cyber-physical attacks a growing invisible threat
Loukas, George
2015-01-01
Cyber-Physical Attacks: A Growing Invisible Threat presents the growing list of harmful uses of computers and their ability to disable cameras, turn off a building's lights, make a car veer off the road, or a drone land in enemy hands. In essence, it details the ways cyber-physical attacks are replacing physical attacks in crime, warfare, and terrorism. The book explores how attacks using computers affect the physical world in ways that were previously only possible through physical means. Perpetrators can now cause damage without the same risk, and without the political, social, or moral
Use of Attack Graphs in Security Systems
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Vivek Shandilya
2014-01-01
Full Text Available Attack graphs have been used to model the vulnerabilities of the systems and their potential exploits. The successful exploits leading to the partial/total failure of the systems are subject of keen security interest. Considerable effort has been expended in exhaustive modeling, analyses, detection, and mitigation of attacks. One prominent methodology involves constructing attack graphs of the pertinent system for analysis and response strategies. This not only gives the simplified representation of the system, but also allows prioritizing the security properties whose violations are of greater concern, for both detection and repair. We present a survey and critical study of state-of-the-art technologies in attack graph generation and use in security system. Based on our research, we identify the potential, challenges, and direction of the current research in using attack graphs.
Hejna, Petr; Zátopková, Lenka; Safr, Miroslav
2012-01-01
A rare case of an elephant attack is presented. A 44-year-old man working as an elephant keeper was attacked by a cow elephant when he tripped over a foot chain while the animal was being medically treated. The man fell down and was consequently repeatedly attacked with elephant tusks. The man sustained multiple stab injuries to both groin regions, a penetrating injury to the abdominal wall with traumatic prolapse of the loops of the small bowel, multiple defects of the mesentery, and incomplete laceration of the abdominal aorta with massive bleeding into the abdominal cavity. In addition to the penetrating injuries, the man sustained multiple rib fractures with contusion of both lungs and laceration of the right lobe of the liver, and comminuted fractures of the pelvic arch and left femoral body. The man died shortly after he had been received at the hospital. The cause of death was attributed to traumatic shock. © 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Cyber Attacks, Information Attacks, and Postmodern Warfare
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Valuch Jozef
2017-06-01
Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to evaluate and differentiate between the phenomena of cyberwarfare and information warfare, as manifestations of what we perceive as postmodern warfare. We describe and analyse the current examples of the use the postmodern warfare and the reactions of states and international bodies to these phenomena. The subject matter of this paper is the relationship between new types of postmodern conflicts and the law of armed conflicts (law of war. Based on ICJ case law, it is clear that under current legal rules of international law of war, cyber attacks as well as information attacks (often performed in the cyberspace as well can only be perceived as “war” if executed in addition to classical kinetic warfare, which is often not the case. In most cases perceived “only” as a non-linear warfare (postmodern conflict, this practice nevertheless must be condemned as conduct contrary to the principles of international law and (possibly a crime under national laws, unless this type of conduct will be recognized by the international community as a “war” proper, in its new, postmodern sense.
False Positive and False Negative Effects on Network Attacks
Shang, Yilun
2018-01-01
Robustness against attacks serves as evidence for complex network structures and failure mechanisms that lie behind them. Most often, due to detection capability limitation or good disguises, attacks on networks are subject to false positives and false negatives, meaning that functional nodes may be falsely regarded as compromised by the attacker and vice versa. In this work, we initiate a study of false positive/negative effects on network robustness against three fundamental types of attack strategies, namely, random attacks (RA), localized attacks (LA), and targeted attack (TA). By developing a general mathematical framework based upon the percolation model, we investigate analytically and by numerical simulations of attack robustness with false positive/negative rate (FPR/FNR) on three benchmark models including Erdős-Rényi (ER) networks, random regular (RR) networks, and scale-free (SF) networks. We show that ER networks are equivalently robust against RA and LA only when FPR equals zero or the initial network is intact. We find several interesting crossovers in RR and SF networks when FPR is taken into consideration. By defining the cost of attack, we observe diminishing marginal attack efficiency for RA, LA, and TA. Our finding highlights the potential risk of underestimating or ignoring FPR in understanding attack robustness. The results may provide insights into ways of enhancing robustness of network architecture and improve the level of protection of critical infrastructures.
Machine Learning Methods for Attack Detection in the Smart Grid.
Ozay, Mete; Esnaola, Inaki; Yarman Vural, Fatos Tunay; Kulkarni, Sanjeev R; Poor, H Vincent
2016-08-01
Attack detection problems in the smart grid are posed as statistical learning problems for different attack scenarios in which the measurements are observed in batch or online settings. In this approach, machine learning algorithms are used to classify measurements as being either secure or attacked. An attack detection framework is provided to exploit any available prior knowledge about the system and surmount constraints arising from the sparse structure of the problem in the proposed approach. Well-known batch and online learning algorithms (supervised and semisupervised) are employed with decision- and feature-level fusion to model the attack detection problem. The relationships between statistical and geometric properties of attack vectors employed in the attack scenarios and learning algorithms are analyzed to detect unobservable attacks using statistical learning methods. The proposed algorithms are examined on various IEEE test systems. Experimental analyses show that machine learning algorithms can detect attacks with performances higher than attack detection algorithms that employ state vector estimation methods in the proposed attack detection framework.
Full Text Available ... stroke symptoms. Popular Topics TIA Cardiac Catheter Cholesterol Heart Attack Stent © 2018, American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited. ...
Application distribution model and related security attacks in VANET
Nikaein, Navid; Kanti Datta, Soumya; Marecar, Irshad; Bonnet, Christian
2013-03-01
In this paper, we present a model for application distribution and related security attacks in dense vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) and sparse VANET which forms a delay tolerant network (DTN). We study the vulnerabilities of VANET to evaluate the attack scenarios and introduce a new attacker`s model as an extension to the work done in [6]. Then a VANET model has been proposed that supports the application distribution through proxy app stores on top of mobile platforms installed in vehicles. The steps of application distribution have been studied in detail. We have identified key attacks (e.g. malware, spamming and phishing, software attack and threat to location privacy) for dense VANET and two attack scenarios for sparse VANET. It has been shown that attacks can be launched by distributing malicious applications and injecting malicious codes to On Board Unit (OBU) by exploiting OBU software security holes. Consequences of such security attacks have been described. Finally, countermeasures including the concepts of sandbox have also been presented in depth.
Nonepileptic attack disorder among married women.
Dhanaraj, M; Rangaraj, R; Arulmozhi, T; Vengatesan, A
2005-06-01
To study the clinical features, precipitating stressful life events and prognosis of nonepileptic attack disorder (NEAD) among married women. Prospective cohort study with 1-year follow-up. A tertiary care teaching hospital. Of the 1020 patients with epilepsy referred to the epilepsy clinic during 2002-2003, 30 were married women with NEAD. The diagnostic criteria for NEAD included normal EEG during ictal and post-ictal phase of the generalized 'attack.' The data collected included clinical characteristics, semiology of the attacks, precipitating stressful events, and co-morbid psychiatric disorders. The control group included 30 age-matched married women with generalized tonic-clonic seizures. The long-term outcome and factors influencing the outcomes were analyzed. The mean duration of illness was 18 months, and the pattern of the attack was 'fall and lying still' in 53% and 'fall with generalized motor movements' in 47%. The frequency was one or more per week in 57% and occasionally in 43%. The important stressful events were matrimonial discord following illegal relationship of the husband with another woman (chi2 = 9.02, P = 0.003) and constant quarrel with other family members (chi2 = 5.19, P = 0.02). The prevalence of sexual abuse was low (7%). Co-morbid psychiatric disorder was observed in 70%. At the end of 1 year, 39% were free from the attack. Resolution of the stressful life events (chi2 = 4.52, P = 0.03) and lower frequency of attack at the time of reporting (chi2 = 3.88, P = 0.05) correlated with good outcomes. Among patients with NEAD in India, the major precipitating factors were matrimonial discord following illegal relationship of the husband with another woman and constant quarrel with other family members and not sexual abuse. Women with low frequency of attack at the time of reporting and the remission of the stressful events had better outcomes.
Subclinical endophthalmitis following a rooster attack.
Lekse Kovach, Jaclyn; Maguluri, Srilakshmi; Recchia, Franco M
2006-12-01
Ocular injury resulting from rooster attacks is rarely reported in the literature. Sadly, the target of these attacks is most often children younger than 3 years old, whose naiveté of the aggressive, territorial behavior of birds can place them at risk. Acute sequelae of these attacks can result in a lifetime of visual impairment. The possibility of a subacute or occult infection is an unusual occurrence that must always be considered. In an effort to prevent future attacks and ocular casualties, we present a case of a 12-month-old boy who suffered an open globe following a rooster attack. The open globe was emergently repaired. One week later, a white cataract was noticed on examination in the absence of systemic or ocular signs of inflammation. Traumatic endophthalmitis and lenticular abscess were suspected during examination under anesthesia. Vitrectomy, lensectomy, and injection of intravitreal antibiotics were performed. Culture of lenticular and vitreous aspirates grew alpha-streptococcus. Alpha-streptococcal endophthalmitis can result from ocular injuries caused by rooster pecking. The infection may present insidiously and without typical ocular or systemic symptoms or signs. Management is challenging and may require surgery.
Yamamoto, Brent J.; Shadiack, Annette M.; Carpenter, Sarah; Sanford, Daniel; Henning, Lisa N.; Gonzales, Nestor; O'Connor, Edward; Casey, Leslie S.
2016-01-01
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend adjunctive antitoxins when systemic anthrax is suspected. Obiltoxaximab, a monoclonal antibody against protective antigen (PA), is approved for treatment of inhalational anthrax in combination with antibiotics and for prophylaxis when alternative therapies are not available. The impact of toxin neutralization with obiltoxaximab during pre- and postexposure prophylaxis was explored, and efficacy results that supported the prophylaxis indication are presented here. New Zealand White rabbits and cynomolgus macaques received obiltoxaximab as a single intramuscular or intravenous dose of 2 to 16 mg/kg of body weight at various times relative to Bacillus anthracis aerosol spore challenge. The primary endpoint was survival, and effect of treatment timing was explored. In rabbits, obiltoxaximab administration 9 h postchallenge singly or combined with a 5-day levofloxacin regimen protected 89% to 100% of animals compared to 33% with levofloxacin monotherapy. In cynomolgus macaques, a single intramuscular dose of 16 mg/kg obiltoxaximab led to 100% survival when given 1 to 3 days preexposure and 83% to 100% survival when given 18 to 24 h postexposure and prior to systemic bacteremia onset. Obiltoxaximab administration after bacteremia onset resulted in lower (25% to 50%) survival rates reflective of treatment setting. Prophylactic administration of obiltoxaximab before spore challenge or to spore-challenged animals before systemic bacterial dissemination is efficacious in promoting survival, ameliorating toxemia, and inhibiting bacterial spread to the periphery. PMID:27431219
Robustness analysis of interdependent networks under multiple-attacking strategies
Gao, Yan-Li; Chen, Shi-Ming; Nie, Sen; Ma, Fei; Guan, Jun-Jie
2018-04-01
The robustness of complex networks under attacks largely depends on the structure of a network and the nature of the attacks. Previous research on interdependent networks has focused on two types of initial attack: random attack and degree-based targeted attack. In this paper, a deliberate attack function is proposed, where six kinds of deliberate attacking strategies can be derived by adjusting the tunable parameters. Moreover, the robustness of four types of interdependent networks (BA-BA, ER-ER, BA-ER and ER-BA) with different coupling modes (random, positive and negative correlation) is evaluated under different attacking strategies. Interesting conclusions could be obtained. It can be found that the positive coupling mode can make the vulnerability of the interdependent network to be absolutely dependent on the most vulnerable sub-network under deliberate attacks, whereas random and negative coupling modes make the vulnerability of interdependent network to be mainly dependent on the being attacked sub-network. The robustness of interdependent network will be enhanced with the degree-degree correlation coefficient varying from positive to negative. Therefore, The negative coupling mode is relatively more optimal than others, which can substantially improve the robustness of the ER-ER network and ER-BA network. In terms of the attacking strategies on interdependent networks, the degree information of node is more valuable than the betweenness. In addition, we found a more efficient attacking strategy for each coupled interdependent network and proposed the corresponding protection strategy for suppressing cascading failure. Our results can be very useful for safety design and protection of interdependent networks.
Fuel assembly loads during a hypothetical blowdown event in a PWR
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Stabel, J.; Bosanyi, B.; Kim, J.D.
1991-01-01
As a consequence of a hypothetical sudden break of the main coolant pipe of a PWR, RPV-internals and fuel assemblies (FA's) are undergoing horizontal and vertical motions. FA's may impact against each other, against core shroud or against lower core support. The corresponding impact loads must be absorbed by the FA spacer grids and guide thimbles. In this paper FA-loads are calculated with and without consideration of Fluid-Structure-Interaction (FSI) effects for assumed different break sizes of the main coolant pipe. The analysis has been performed for a hypothetical cold leg break of a typical SIEMENS-4 loop plant. For this purpose the codes DAPSY/DAISY (GRS, Germany) were coupled with the structural code KWUSTOSS (SIEMENS). It is shown that the FA loads obtained in calculations with consideration of FSI effects are by a factor of 2-4 lower than those obtained in the corresponding calculations without consideration of FSI. (author)
Dymond, Simon; Molet, Mikael; Davies, Lynette
2017-08-01
Evaluative learning comprises changes in preferences after co-occurrences between conditioned stimuli (CSs) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) of affective value. Co-occurrences may involve relational responding. Two experiments examined the impact of arbitrary relational responding on evaluative preferences for hypothetical money and shock outcomes. In Experiment 1, participants were trained to make arbitrary relational responses by placing CSs of the same size but different colours into boxes and were then instructed that these CSs represented different intensities of hypothetical USs (money or shock). Liking ratings of the CSs were altered in accordance with the underlying bigger/smaller than relations. A reversal of preference was also observed: the CS associated with the smallest hypothetical shock was rated more positively than the CS associated with the smallest amount of hypothetical money. In Experiment 2, procedures from Relational Frame Theory (RFT) established a relational network of more than/less than relations consisting of five CSs (A-B-C-D-E). Overall, evaluative preferences were altered, but not reversed, depending on (a) how stimuli had been related to one another during the learning phase and (b) whether those stimuli referred to money or shocks. The contribution of RFT to evaluative learning research is discussed.
Optimizing power system investments and resilience against attacks
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Fang, Yiping; Sansavini, Giovanni
2017-01-01
This paper studies the combination of capacity expansion and switch installation in electric systems that ensures optimum performance under nominal operations and attacks. The planner–attacker–defender model is adopted to develop decisions that minimize investment and operating costs, and functionality loss after attacks. The model bridges long-term system planning for transmission expansion and short-term switching operations in reaction to attacks. The mixed-integer optimization is solved by decomposition via two-layer cutting plane algorithm. Numerical results on an IEEE system shows that small investments in transmission line switching enhance resilience by responding to disruptions via system reconfiguration. Sensitivity analyses show that transmission planning under the assumption of small-scale attacks provides the most robust strategy, i.e. the minimum-regret planning, if many constraints and limited investment budget affect the planning. On the other hand, the assumption of large-scale attacks provides the most robust strategy if the planning process involves large flexibility and budget. - Highlights: • Investment optimization in power systems under attacks is presented. • Capacity expansion and switch installation for system reconfiguration are combined. • The problem is solved by decomposition via two-layer cutting plane algorithm. • Small investments in switch installation enhance resilience by response to attacks. • Sensitivity analyses identify robust planning against different attack scenarios.
Attacker Modelling in Ubiquitous Computing Systems
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Papini, Davide
in with our everyday life. This future is visible to everyone nowadays: terms like smartphone, cloud, sensor, network etc. are widely known and used in our everyday life. But what about the security of such systems. Ubiquitous computing devices can be limited in terms of energy, computing power and memory...... attacker remain somehow undened and still under extensive investigation. This Thesis explores the nature of the ubiquitous attacker with a focus on how she interacts with the physical world and it denes a model that captures the abilities of the attacker. Furthermore a quantitative implementation...
Peacetime Use of Computer Network Attack
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Busby, Daniel
2000-01-01
.... PDD-63 alerts the nation to prepare for impending cyber attacks. This paper examines the nature, scale, and likelihood of cyber attacks posited in PDD-63 and finds that the country does not face an imminent "electronic Pearl Harbor...
Denial of Service Attack Techniques: Analysis, Implementation and Comparison
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Khaled Elleithy
2005-02-01
Full Text Available A denial of service attack (DOS is any type of attack on a networking structure to disable a server from servicing its clients. Attacks range from sending millions of requests to a server in an attempt to slow it down, flooding a server with large packets of invalid data, to sending requests with an invalid or spoofed IP address. In this paper we show the implementation and analysis of three main types of attack: Ping of Death, TCP SYN Flood, and Distributed DOS. The Ping of Death attack will be simulated against a Microsoft Windows 95 computer. The TCP SYN Flood attack will be simulated against a Microsoft Windows 2000 IIS FTP Server. Distributed DOS will be demonstrated by simulating a distribution zombie program that will carry the Ping of Death attack. This paper will demonstrate the potential damage from DOS attacks and analyze the ramifications of the damage.
Attacks on IEEE 802.11 wireless networks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Dejan Milan Tepšić
2013-06-01
Full Text Available Security of wireless computer networks was initially secured with the WEP security protocol, which relies on the RC4 encryption algorithm and the CRC algorithm to check the integrity. The basic problems of the WEP are a short initialization vector, unsafe data integrity checking, using a common key, the lack of mechanisms for management and exchange of keys, the lack of protection from the endless insertion of the same package into the network, the lack of authentication of access points and the like. The consequences of these failures are easy attacks against the WEP network, namely their complete insecurity. Therefore, the work began on the IEEE 802.11i protocol, which should radically improve the security of wireless networks. Since the development of a protocol lasted, the WPA standard was released to offset the security gap caused by the WEP. The WPA also relies on RC4 and CRC algorithms, but brings temporary keys and the MIC algorithm for data integrity. The 802.1X authentication was introduced and common keys are no longer needed, since it is possible to use an authentication server. The length of the initialization vector was increased and the vector is obtained based on the packet serial number, in order to prevent the insertion of the same packet into the network. The weakness of the WPA security mechanism is the use of a common key. WPA2 (802.11i later appeared. Unlike the WPA mechanism that worked on old devices with the replacement of software, WPA2 requires new network devices that can perform AES encryption. AES replaces the RC4 algorithm and delivers much greater security. Data integrity is protected by encryption. Despite progress, there are still weaknesses in wireless networks. Attacks for denial of service are possible as well as spoofing package headers attacks. For now, it is not advisable to use wireless networks in environments where unreliability and unavailability are not tolerated. Introduction In the entire history of
Temporal Cyber Attack Detection.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Ingram, Joey Burton [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Draelos, Timothy J. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Galiardi, Meghan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Doak, Justin E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2017-11-01
Rigorous characterization of the performance and generalization ability of cyber defense systems is extremely difficult, making it hard to gauge uncertainty, and thus, confidence. This difficulty largely stems from a lack of labeled attack data that fully explores the potential adversarial space. Currently, performance of cyber defense systems is typically evaluated in a qualitative manner by manually inspecting the results of the system on live data and adjusting as needed. Additionally, machine learning has shown promise in deriving models that automatically learn indicators of compromise that are more robust than analyst-derived detectors. However, to generate these models, most algorithms require large amounts of labeled data (i.e., examples of attacks). Algorithms that do not require annotated data to derive models are similarly at a disadvantage, because labeled data is still necessary when evaluating performance. In this work, we explore the use of temporal generative models to learn cyber attack graph representations and automatically generate data for experimentation and evaluation. Training and evaluating cyber systems and machine learning models requires significant, annotated data, which is typically collected and labeled by hand for one-off experiments. Automatically generating such data helps derive/evaluate detection models and ensures reproducibility of results. Experimentally, we demonstrate the efficacy of generative sequence analysis techniques on learning the structure of attack graphs, based on a realistic example. These derived models can then be used to generate more data. Additionally, we provide a roadmap for future research efforts in this area.
12 CFR 263.17 - Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding.
2010-01-01
... 12 Banks and Banking 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding... Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding. If an interlocutory appeal or collateral attack is brought in... shall be excused based on the pendency before any court of any interlocutory appeal or collateral attack. ...
12 CFR 509.17 - Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding.
2010-01-01
... 12 Banks and Banking 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding....17 Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding. If an interlocutory appeal or collateral attack is... shall be excused based on the pendency before any court of any interlocutory appeal or collateral attack. ...
Detection of complex cyber attacks
Gregorio-de Souza, Ian; Berk, Vincent H.; Giani, Annarita; Bakos, George; Bates, Marion; Cybenko, George; Madory, Doug
2006-05-01
One significant drawback to currently available security products is their inabilty to correlate diverse sensor input. For instance, by only using network intrusion detection data, a root kit installed through a weak username-password combination may go unnoticed. Similarly, an administrator may never make the link between deteriorating response times from the database server and an attacker exfiltrating trusted data, if these facts aren't presented together. Current Security Information Management Systems (SIMS) can collect and represent diverse data but lack sufficient correlation algorithms. By using a Process Query System, we were able to quickly bring together data flowing from many sources, including NIDS, HIDS, server logs, CPU load and memory usage, etc. We constructed PQS models that describe dynamic behavior of complicated attacks and failures, allowing us to detect and differentiate simultaneous sophisticated attacks on a target network. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of implementing such a multistage cyber attack detection system using PQS. We focus on how data from multiple sources can be combined and used to detect and track comprehensive network security events that go unnoticed using conventional tools.
Vulnerability Assessment by Learning Attack Specifications in Graphs
Nunes Leal Franqueira, V.; Lopes, Raul H.C.
This paper presents an evolutionary approach for learning attack specifications that describe attack scenarios. The objective is to find vulnerabilities in computer networks which minimise the cost of an attack with maximum impact. Although we focus on Insider Threat, the proposed approach applies
Sensitivity Analysis of Evacuation Speed in Hypothetical NPP Accident by Earthquake
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Kim, Sung-yeop; Lim, Ho-Gon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)
2016-10-15
Effective emergency response in emergency situation of nuclear power plant (NPP) can make consequences be different therefore it is regarded important when establishing an emergency response plan and assessing the risk of hypothetical NPP accident. Situation of emergency response can be totally changed when NPP accident caused by earthquake or tsunami is considered due to the failure of roads and buildings by the disaster. In this study evacuation speed has been focused among above various factors and reasonable evacuation speed in earthquake scenario has been investigated. Finally, sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Evacuation scenario can be entirely different in the situation of seismic hazard and the sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Various references were investigated and earthquake evacuation model has been developed considering that evacuees may convert their evacuation method from using a vehicle to walking when they face the difficulty of using a vehicle due to intense traffic jam, failure of buildings and roads, and etc. The population dose within 5 km / 30 km have been found to be increased in earthquake situation due to decreased evacuation speed and become 1.5 - 2 times in the severest earthquake evacuation scenario set up in this study. It is not agreed that using same emergency response model which is used for normal evacuation situations when performing level 3 probabilistic safety assessment for earthquake and tsunami event. Investigation of data and sensitivity analysis for constructing differentiated emergency response model in the event of seismic hazard has been carried out in this study.
Sensitivity Analysis of Evacuation Speed in Hypothetical NPP Accident by Earthquake
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Kim, Sung-yeop; Lim, Ho-Gon
2016-01-01
Effective emergency response in emergency situation of nuclear power plant (NPP) can make consequences be different therefore it is regarded important when establishing an emergency response plan and assessing the risk of hypothetical NPP accident. Situation of emergency response can be totally changed when NPP accident caused by earthquake or tsunami is considered due to the failure of roads and buildings by the disaster. In this study evacuation speed has been focused among above various factors and reasonable evacuation speed in earthquake scenario has been investigated. Finally, sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Evacuation scenario can be entirely different in the situation of seismic hazard and the sensitivity analysis of evacuation speed in hypothetical NPP accident by earthquake has been performed in this study. Various references were investigated and earthquake evacuation model has been developed considering that evacuees may convert their evacuation method from using a vehicle to walking when they face the difficulty of using a vehicle due to intense traffic jam, failure of buildings and roads, and etc. The population dose within 5 km / 30 km have been found to be increased in earthquake situation due to decreased evacuation speed and become 1.5 - 2 times in the severest earthquake evacuation scenario set up in this study. It is not agreed that using same emergency response model which is used for normal evacuation situations when performing level 3 probabilistic safety assessment for earthquake and tsunami event. Investigation of data and sensitivity analysis for constructing differentiated emergency response model in the event of seismic hazard has been carried out in this study
Design of monodisperse and well-defined polypeptide-based polyvalent inhibitors of anthrax toxin.
Patke, Sanket; Boggara, Mohan; Maheshwari, Ronak; Srivastava, Sunit K; Arha, Manish; Douaisi, Marc; Martin, Jacob T; Harvey, Ian B; Brier, Matthew; Rosen, Tania; Mogridge, Jeremy; Kane, Ravi S
2014-07-28
The design of polyvalent molecules, presenting multiple copies of a specific ligand, represents a promising strategy to inhibit pathogens and toxins. The ability to control independently the valency and the spacing between ligands would be valuable for elucidating structure-activity relationships and for designing potent polyvalent molecules. To that end, we designed monodisperse polypeptide-based polyvalent inhibitors of anthrax toxin in which multiple copies of an inhibitory toxin-binding peptide were separated by flexible peptide linkers. By tuning the valency and linker length, we designed polyvalent inhibitors that were over four orders of magnitude more potent than the corresponding monovalent ligands. This strategy for the rational design of monodisperse polyvalent molecules may not only be broadly applicable for the inhibition of toxins and pathogens, but also for controlling the nanoscale organization of cellular receptors to regulate signaling and the fate of stem cells. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
Attack Tree Generation by Policy Invalidation
Ivanova, Marieta Georgieva; Probst, Christian W.; Hansen, René Rydhof; Kammüller, Florian; Naeem Akram, R.; Jajodia, S.
2015-01-01
Attacks on systems and organisations increasingly exploit human actors, for example through social engineering, complicating their formal treatment and automatic identication. Formalisation of human behaviour is difficult at best, and attacks on socio-technical systems are still mostly identied
Neural network classifier of attacks in IP telephony
Safarik, Jakub; Voznak, Miroslav; Mehic, Miralem; Partila, Pavol; Mikulec, Martin
2014-05-01
Various types of monitoring mechanism allow us to detect and monitor behavior of attackers in VoIP networks. Analysis of detected malicious traffic is crucial for further investigation and hardening the network. This analysis is typically based on statistical methods and the article brings a solution based on neural network. The proposed algorithm is used as a classifier of attacks in a distributed monitoring network of independent honeypot probes. Information about attacks on these honeypots is collected on a centralized server and then classified. This classification is based on different mechanisms. One of them is based on the multilayer perceptron neural network. The article describes inner structure of used neural network and also information about implementation of this network. The learning set for this neural network is based on real attack data collected from IP telephony honeypot called Dionaea. We prepare the learning set from real attack data after collecting, cleaning and aggregation of this information. After proper learning is the neural network capable to classify 6 types of most commonly used VoIP attacks. Using neural network classifier brings more accurate attack classification in a distributed system of honeypots. With this approach is possible to detect malicious behavior in a different part of networks, which are logically or geographically divided and use the information from one network to harden security in other networks. Centralized server for distributed set of nodes serves not only as a collector and classifier of attack data, but also as a mechanism for generating a precaution steps against attacks.
SCADA system vulnerabilities to cyber attack
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Shaw, W. T. [Cyber Security Consulting (Canada)
2004-10-01
The susceptibility to terrorist attacks of computer-based supervisory control (SCADA) systems that are used to monitor and control water distribution systems, oil and gas pipelines and the electrical grid, is discussed. The discussion includes ways in which SCADA systems may be attacked and remedial actions that may be taken to reduce or eliminate the possibility of such attacks. Attacks may take the form of causing the system to generate false data to divert attention from impending system disasters, or commandeer the system to seriously disable it, or cause damage to the process or equipment being controlled by sending improper control commands. SCADA systems are also vulnerable to internal threats, either from an accidental action that results in damage, or an intentional action, as for example by a disgruntled employee, or ex-employee, usually by way of reprogramming an RTU or PLC by accessing the polling/communications circuit. Recent SCADA systems are much more susceptible to concerted cyber attacks because of the adoption of IT technologies and standards into the design of such systems. (Older systems are more likely to be unique designs, hence less susceptible to attack). As far as protection of SCADA systems is concerned, there are no technologies that would prevent a technologically sophisticated terrorist or disgruntled employee from doing major damage to the system, however, the IT world has developed a range of technologies for the protection of IT assets, and many of these same technologies can also be used to safeguard modern SCADA systems.
Combating Memory Corruption Attacks On Scada Devices
Bellettini, Carlo; Rrushi, Julian
Memory corruption attacks on SCADA devices can cause significant disruptions to control systems and the industrial processes they operate. However, despite the presence of numerous memory corruption vulnerabilities, few, if any, techniques have been proposed for addressing the vulnerabilities or for combating memory corruption attacks. This paper describes a technique for defending against memory corruption attacks by enforcing logical boundaries between potentially hostile data and safe data in protected processes. The technique encrypts all input data using random keys; the encrypted data is stored in main memory and is decrypted according to the principle of least privilege just before it is processed by the CPU. The defensive technique affects the precision with which attackers can corrupt control data and pure data, protecting against code injection and arc injection attacks, and alleviating problems posed by the incomparability of mitigation techniques. An experimental evaluation involving the popular Modbus protocol demonstrates the feasibility and efficiency of the defensive technique.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Bri Rolston
2005-06-01
Threat characterization is a key component in evaluating the threat faced by control systems. Without a thorough understanding of the threat faced by critical infrastructure networks, adequate resources cannot be allocated or directed effectively to the defense of these systems. Traditional methods of threat analysis focus on identifying the capabilities and motivations of a specific attacker, assessing the value the adversary would place on targeted systems, and deploying defenses according to the threat posed by the potential adversary. Too many effective exploits and tools exist and are easily accessible to anyone with access to an Internet connection, minimal technical skills, and a significantly reduced motivational threshold to be able to narrow the field of potential adversaries effectively. Understanding how hackers evaluate new IT security research and incorporate significant new ideas into their own tools provides a means of anticipating how IT systems are most likely to be attacked in the future. This research, Attack Methodology Analysis (AMA), could supply pertinent information on how to detect and stop new types of attacks. Since the exploit methodologies and attack vectors developed in the general Information Technology (IT) arena can be converted for use against control system environments, assessing areas in which cutting edge exploit development and remediation techniques are occurring can provide significance intelligence for control system network exploitation, defense, and a means of assessing threat without identifying specific capabilities of individual opponents. Attack Methodology Analysis begins with the study of what exploit technology and attack methodologies are being developed in the Information Technology (IT) security research community within the black and white hat community. Once a solid understanding of the cutting edge security research is established, emerging trends in attack methodology can be identified and the gap between
Trace Attack against Biometric Mobile Applications
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Sanaa Ghouzali
2016-01-01
Full Text Available With the exponential increase in the dependence on mobile devices in everyday life, there is a growing concern related to privacy and security issues in the Gulf countries; therefore, it is imperative that security threats should be analyzed in detail. Mobile devices store enormous amounts of personal and financial information, unfortunately without any security. In order to secure mobile devices against different threats, biometrics has been applied and shown to be effective. However, biometric mobile applications are also vulnerable to several types of attacks that can decrease their security. Biometric information itself is considered sensitive data; for example, fingerprints can leave traces in touched objects and facial images can be captured everywhere or accessed by the attacker if the facial image is stored in the mobile device (lost or stolen. Hence, an attacker can easily forge the identity of a legitimate user and access data on a device. In this paper, the effects of a trace attack on the sensitivity of biometric mobile applications are investigated in terms of security and user privacy. Experimental results carried out on facial and fingerprint mobile authentication applications using different databases have shown that these mobile applications are vulnerable to the proposed attack, which poses a serious threat to the overall system security and user privacy.
Capture of Aerosols by Iodinated Fiber Media
2004-09-15
fibrous media if provided with 70-80% relative humidity and atmospheric dust (Maus et al., 2000). Spore -forming bacteria such as Bacillus anthracis are...States. The anthrax spores sent out during these attacks were classified as being highly concentrated and processed to be disseminated and inhaled...media, and produce more undesirable bioaerosols. This phenomenon has been reported in many studies in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning ( HVAC
Limit Asthma Attacks Caused by Colds or Flu
Asthma: Limit asthma attacks caused by colds or flu A cold or the flu can trigger an asthma attack. Here's why — and how to keep your sneeze ... plan. If you notice warning signs of an asthma attack — such as coughing, wheezing, chest tightness or shortness ...
Quantitative Attack Tree Analysis via Priced Timed Automata
Kumar, Rajesh; Ruijters, Enno Jozef Johannes; Stoelinga, Mariëlle Ida Antoinette; Sankaranarayanan, Sriram; Vicario, Enrico
The success of a security attack crucially depends on the resources available to an attacker: time, budget, skill level, and risk appetite. Insight in these dependencies and the most vulnerable system parts is key to providing effective counter measures. This paper considers attack trees, one of the
Finite Energy and Bounded Actuator Attacks on Cyber-Physical Systems
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Djouadi, Seddik M [ORNL; Melin, Alexander M [ORNL; Ferragut, Erik M [ORNL; Laska, Jason A [ORNL; Dong, Jin [ORNL; Drira, Anis [ORNL
2015-01-01
As control system networks are being connected to enterprise level networks for remote monitoring, operation, and system-wide performance optimization, these same connections are providing vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious actors for attack, financial gain, and theft of intellectual property. Much effort in cyber-physical system (CPS) protection has focused on protecting the borders of the system through traditional information security techniques. Less effort has been applied to the protection of cyber-physical systems from intelligent attacks launched after an attacker has defeated the information security protections to gain access to the control system. In this paper, attacks on actuator signals are analyzed from a system theoretic context. The threat surface is classified into finite energy and bounded attacks. These two broad classes encompass a large range of potential attacks. The effect of theses attacks on a linear quadratic (LQ) control are analyzed, and the optimal actuator attacks for both finite and infinite horizon LQ control are derived, therefore the worst case attack signals are obtained. The closed-loop system under the optimal attack signals is given and a numerical example illustrating the effect of an optimal bounded attack is provided.
Irradiation applications for homeland security
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Desrosiers, Marc F.
2004-01-01
In October 2001, first-class mail laced with anthrax was sent to political and media targets resulting in several deaths, illnesses, significant mail-service disruption, and economic loss. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy established a technical task force on mail decontamination that included three key agencies: National Institute of Standards and Technology with responsibility for radiation dosimetry and coordinating and performing experiments at industrial accelerator facilities; the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute with responsibility for radiobiology; and the US Postal Service with responsibility for radiation-processing quality assurance and quality control. An overview of the anthrax attack decontamination events will be presented as well as expectations for growth in this area and the prospects of other homeland security areas where irradiation technology can be applied
Modeling attacker-defender interactions in information networks.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Collins, Michael Joseph
2010-09-01
The simplest conceptual model of cybersecurity implicitly views attackers and defenders as acting in isolation from one another: an attacker seeks to penetrate or disrupt a system that has been protected to a given level, while a defender attempts to thwart particular attacks. Such a model also views all non-malicious parties as having the same goal of preventing all attacks. But in fact, attackers and defenders are interacting parts of the same system, and different defenders have their own individual interests: defenders may be willing to accept some risk of successful attack if the cost of defense is too high. We have used game theory to develop models of how non-cooperative but non-malicious players in a network interact when there is a substantial cost associated with effective defensive measures. Although game theory has been applied in this area before, we have introduced some novel aspects of player behavior in our work, including: (1) A model of how players attempt to avoid the costs of defense and force others to assume these costs; (2) A model of how players interact when the cost of defending one node can be shared by other nodes; and (3) A model of the incentives for a defender to choose less expensive, but less effective, defensive actions.
Activity Modelling and Comparative Evaluation of WSN MAC Security Attacks
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Pawar, Pranav M.; Nielsen, Rasmus Hjorth; Prasad, Neeli R.
2012-01-01
and initiate security attacks that disturb the normal functioning of the network in a severe manner. Such attacks affect the performance of the network by increasing the energy consumption, by reducing throughput and by inducing long delays. Of all existing WSN attacks, MAC layer attacks are considered...... the most harmful as they directly affect the available resources and thus the nodes’ energy consumption. The first endeavour of this paper is to model the activities of MAC layer security attacks to understand the flow of activities taking place when mounting the attack and when actually executing it....... The second aim of the paper is to simulate these attacks on hybrid MAC mechanisms, which shows the performance degradation of aWSN under the considered attacks. The modelling and implementation of the security attacks give an actual view of the network which can be useful in further investigating secure...
Algebraic Side-Channel Attack on Twofish
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Chujiao Ma
2017-05-01
Full Text Available While algebraic side-channel attack (ASCA has been successful in breaking simple cryptographic algorithms, it has never been done on larger or more complex algorithms such as Twofish. Compared to other algorithms that ASCA has been used on, Twofish is more difficult to attack due to the key-dependent S-boxes as well as the complex key scheduling. In this paper, we propose the first algebraic side-channel attack on Twofish, and examine the importance of side-channel information in getting past the key-dependent S-boxes and the complex key scheduling. The cryptographic algorithm and side-channel information are both expressed as boolean equations and a SAT solver is used to recover the key. While algebraic attack by itself is not sufficient to break the algorithm, with the help of side-channel information such as Hamming weights, we are able to correctly solve for 96 bits of the 128 bits key in under 2 hours with known plaintext/ciphertext.
On localization attacks against cloud infrastructure
Ge, Linqiang; Yu, Wei; Sistani, Mohammad Ali
2013-05-01
One of the key characteristics of cloud computing is the device and location independence that enables the user to access systems regardless of their location. Because cloud computing is heavily based on sharing resource, it is vulnerable to cyber attacks. In this paper, we investigate a localization attack that enables the adversary to leverage central processing unit (CPU) resources to localize the physical location of server used by victims. By increasing and reducing CPU usage through the malicious virtual machine (VM), the response time from the victim VM will increase and decrease correspondingly. In this way, by embedding the probing signal into the CPU usage and correlating the same pattern in the response time from the victim VM, the adversary can find the location of victim VM. To determine attack accuracy, we investigate features in both the time and frequency domains. We conduct both theoretical and experimental study to demonstrate the effectiveness of such an attack.
Network attacks and defenses a hands-on approach
Trabelsi, Zouheir; Al Braiki, Arwa; Mathew, Sujith Samuel
2012-01-01
The attacks on computers and business networks are growing daily, and the need for security professionals who understand how malfeasants perform attacks and compromise networks is a growing requirement to counter the threat. Network security education generally lacks appropriate textbooks with detailed, hands-on exercises that include both offensive and defensive techniques. Using step-by-step processes to build and generate attacks using offensive techniques, Network Attacks and Defenses: A Hands-on Approach enables students to implement appropriate network security solutions within a laborat
SDN-Based Double Hopping Communication against Sniffer Attack
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Zheng Zhao
2016-01-01
Full Text Available Sniffer attack has been a severe threat to network communication security. Traditional network usually uses static network configuration, which provides convenience to sniffer attack. In this paper, an SDN-based double hopping communication (DHC approach is proposed to solve this problem. In DHC, ends in communication packets as well as the routing paths are changed dynamically. Therefore, the traffic will be distributed to multiple flows and transmitted along different paths. Moreover, the data from multiple users will be mixed, bringing difficulty for attackers in obtaining and recovering the communication data, so that sniffer attack will be prevented effectively. It is concluded that DHC is able to increase the overhead of sniffer attack, as well as the difficulty of communication data recovery.
Attacks on Bluetooth Security Architecture and Its Countermeasures
Iqbal, Mian Muhammad Waseem; Kausar, Firdous; Wahla, Muhammad Arif
WPANs compliment the traditional IEEE 802.11 wireless networks by facilitating the clients with flexibility in network topologies, higher mobility and relaxed configuration/hardware requirements. Bluetooth, a WPAN technology, is an open standard for short-range radio frequency (RF) communication. However, it is also susceptible to typical security threats found in wireless LANs. This paper discuses some of the attack scenarios against the bluetooth network such as hostile intrusion, active Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack using unit key and various forms of denial of service (DoS) attacks. These threats and attacks compromise the confidentiality and availability of bluetooth data and services. This paper proposes an improved security architecture for bluetooth device which provides protection against the above mentioned attacks.
An SDN-Based Fingerprint Hopping Method to Prevent Fingerprinting Attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Zheng Zhao
2017-01-01
Full Text Available Fingerprinting attacks are one of the most severe threats to the security of networks. Fingerprinting attack aims to obtain the operating system information of target hosts to make preparations for future attacks. In this paper, a fingerprint hopping method (FPH is proposed based on software-defined networks to defend against fingerprinting attacks. FPH introduces the idea of moving target defense to show a hopping fingerprint toward the fingerprinting attackers. The interaction of the fingerprinting attack and its defense is modeled as a signal game, and the equilibriums of the game are analyzed to develop an optimal defense strategy. Experiments show that FPH can resist fingerprinting attacks effectively.
Data-plane Defenses against Routing Attacks on Tor
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Tan Henry
2016-10-01
Full Text Available Tor is susceptible to traffic correlation attacks in which an adversary who observes flows entering and leaving the anonymity network can apply statistical techniques to correlate flows and de-anonymize their endpoints. While an adversary may not be naturally positioned to conduct such attacks, a recent study shows that the Internet’s control-plane can be manipulated to increase an adversary’s view of the network, and consequently, improve its ability to perform traffic correlation. This paper explores, in-depth, the effects of control-plane attacks on the security of the Tor network. Using accurate models of the live Tor network, we quantify Tor’s susceptibility to these attacks by measuring the fraction of the Tor network that is vulnerable and the advantage to the adversary of performing the attacks. We further propose defense mechanisms that protect Tor users from manipulations at the control-plane. Perhaps surprisingly, we show that by leveraging existing trust anchors in Tor, defenses deployed only in the data-plane are sufficient to detect most control-plane attacks. Our defenses do not assume the active participation of Internet Service Providers, and require only very small changes to Tor. We show that our defenses result in a more than tenfold decrease in the effectiveness of certain control-plane attacks.
Rotational Rebound Attacks on Reduced Skein
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Khovratovich, Dmitry; Nikolic, Ivica; Rechberger, Christian
2010-01-01
In this paper we combine a recent rotational cryptanalysis with the rebound attack, which results in the best cryptanalysis of Skein, a candidate for the SHA-3 competition. The rebound attack approach was so far only applied to AES-like constructions. For the first time, we show that this approach...
Matusiewicz, Alexis K; Carter, Anne E; Landes, Reid D; Yi, Richard
2013-11-01
Delay discounting (DD) and probability discounting (PD) refer to the reduction in the subjective value of outcomes as a function of delay and uncertainty, respectively. Elevated measures of discounting are associated with a variety of maladaptive behaviors, and confidence in the validity of these measures is imperative. The present research examined (1) the statistical equivalence of discounting measures when rewards were hypothetical or real, and (2) their 1-week reliability. While previous research has partially explored these issues using the low threshold of nonsignificant difference, the present study fully addressed this issue using the more-compelling threshold of statistical equivalence. DD and PD measures were collected from 28 healthy adults using real and hypothetical $50 rewards during each of two experimental sessions, one week apart. Analyses using area-under-the-curve measures revealed a general pattern of statistical equivalence, indicating equivalence of real/hypothetical conditions as well as 1-week reliability. Exceptions are identified and discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Step to improve neural cryptography against flipping attacks.
Zhou, Jiantao; Xu, Qinzhen; Pei, Wenjiang; He, Zhenya; Szu, Harold
2004-12-01
Synchronization of neural networks by mutual learning has been demonstrated to be possible for constructing key exchange protocol over public channel. However, the neural cryptography schemes presented so far are not the securest under regular flipping attack (RFA) and are completely insecure under majority flipping attack (MFA). We propose a scheme by splitting the mutual information and the training process to improve the security of neural cryptosystem against flipping attacks. Both analytical and simulation results show that the success probability of RFA on the proposed scheme can be decreased to the level of brute force attack (BFA) and the success probability of MFA still decays exponentially with the weights' level L. The synchronization time of the parties also remains polynomial with L. Moreover, we analyze the security under an advanced flipping attack.
Improved Impossible Differential Attacks on Large-Block Rijndael
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Wang, Qingju; Gu, Dawu; Rijmen, Vincent
2012-01-01
. The improvement can lead to 10-round attack on Rijndael-256 as well. With 2198.1 chosen plaintexts, an attack is demonstrated on 9-round Rijndael-224 with 2 195.2 encryptions and 2140.4 bytes memory. Increasing the data complexity to 2216 plaintexts, the time complexity can be reduced to 2130 encryptions...... and the memory requirements to 2 93.6 bytes. For 9-round Rijndael-256, we provide an attack requiring 2229.3 chosen plaintexts, 2194 encryptions, and 2 139.6 bytes memory. Alternatively, with 2245.3 plaintexts, an attack with a reduced time of 2127.1 encryptions and a memory complexity of 290.9 bytes can...... be mounted. With 2244.2 chosen plaintexts, we can attack 10-round Rijndael-256 with 2253.9 encryptions and 2186.8 bytes of memory....
RAPTOR: Ransomware Attack PredicTOR
Quinkert, Florian; Holz, Thorsten; Hossain, KSM Tozammel; Ferrara, Emilio; Lerman, Kristina
2018-01-01
Ransomware, a type of malicious software that encrypts a victim's files and only releases the cryptographic key once a ransom is paid, has emerged as a potentially devastating class of cybercrimes in the past few years. In this paper, we present RAPTOR, a promising line of defense against ransomware attacks. RAPTOR fingerprints attackers' operations to forecast ransomware activity. More specifically, our method learns features of malicious domains by looking at examples of domains involved in...
Shark attack-related injuries: Epidemiology and implications for plastic surgeons.
Ricci, Joseph A; Vargas, Christina R; Singhal, Dhruv; Lee, Bernard T
2016-01-01
The increased media attention to shark attacks has led to a heightened fear and public awareness. Although few sharks are considered dangerous, attacks on humans can result in large soft tissue defects necessitating the intervention of reconstructive surgeons. This study aims to evaluate and describe the characteristics of shark-related injuries in order to improve treatment. The Global Shark Accident File, maintained by the Shark Research Institute (Princeton, NJ, USA), is a compilation of all known worldwide shark attacks. Database records since the 1900s were reviewed to identify differences between fatal and nonfatal attacks, including: geography, injury pattern, shark species, and victim activity. Since the 1900s, there have been 5034 reported shark attacks, of which 1205 (22.7%) were fatal. Although the incidence of attacks per decade has increased, the percentage of fatalities has decreased. Characteristics of fatal attacks included swimming (p = 0.001), boating (p = 0.001), three or more bite sites (p = 0.03), limb loss (p = 0.001), or tiger shark attack (p = 0.002). The most common attacks were bites to the legs (41.8%) or arms (18.4%), with limb loss occurring in 7% of attacks. Geographically, the majority of attacks occurred in North America (36.7%) and Australia (26.5%). Most attacks in the USA occurred in Florida (49.1%) and California (13.6%). Although rare, shark attacks result in devastating injuries to patients. As these injuries often involve multiple sites and limb loss, this creates a significant challenge for reconstructive surgeons. Proper identification of the characteristics of the attack can aid in providing optimal care for those affected. Copyright © 2015 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Privacy Leaks through Data Hijacking Attack on Mobile Systems
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Zhang Daojuan
2017-01-01
Full Text Available To persistently eavesdrop on the mobile devices, attackers may obtain the elevated privilege and inject malicious modules into the user devices. Unfortunately, the attackers may not be able to obtain the privilege for a long period of time since the exploitable vulnerabilities may be fixed or the malware may be removed. In this paper, we propose a new data hijacking attack for the mobile apps. By employing the proposed method, the attackers are only required to obtain the root privilege of the user devices once, and they can persistently eavesdrop without any change to the original device. Specifically, we design a new approach to construct a shadow system by hijacking user data files. In the shadow system, attackers possess the identical abilities to the victims. For instance, if a victim has logged into the email app, the attacker can also access the email server in the shadow system without authentication in a long period of time. Without reauthentication of the app, it is difficult for victims to notice the intrusion since the whole eavesdropping is performed on other devices (rather than the user devices. In our experiments, we evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed attack and the result demonstrates that even the Android apps released by the top developers cannot resist this attack. Finally, we discuss some approaches to defend the proposed attack.
What Can We Learn?--The Algonquin Bear Attack.
Strickland, Dan
1992-01-01
Describes a bear attack in Algonquin Park in Lake Opeongo (Canada) in which a man and woman were killed. Hypothesizes that the bear deliberately preyed on its victims and concludes that the bear was physically normal. Despite this isolated attack, the chance of being attacked by a black bear when camping is virtually nonexistent. (KS)
Combined Heuristic Attack Strategy on Complex Networks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Marek Šimon
2017-01-01
Full Text Available Usually, the existence of a complex network is considered an advantage feature and efforts are made to increase its robustness against an attack. However, there exist also harmful and/or malicious networks, from social ones like spreading hoax, corruption, phishing, extremist ideology, and terrorist support up to computer networks spreading computer viruses or DDoS attack software or even biological networks of carriers or transport centers spreading disease among the population. New attack strategy can be therefore used against malicious networks, as well as in a worst-case scenario test for robustness of a useful network. A common measure of robustness of networks is their disintegration level after removal of a fraction of nodes. This robustness can be calculated as a ratio of the number of nodes of the greatest remaining network component against the number of nodes in the original network. Our paper presents a combination of heuristics optimized for an attack on a complex network to achieve its greatest disintegration. Nodes are deleted sequentially based on a heuristic criterion. Efficiency of classical attack approaches is compared to the proposed approach on Barabási-Albert, scale-free with tunable power-law exponent, and Erdős-Rényi models of complex networks and on real-world networks. Our attack strategy results in a faster disintegration, which is counterbalanced by its slightly increased computational demands.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Marzouk, Youssef; Fast P. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA); Kraus, M. (Peterson AFB, CO); Ray, J. P.
2006-01-01
Terrorist attacks using an aerosolized pathogen preparation have gained credibility as a national security concern after the anthrax attacks of 2001. The ability to characterize such attacks, i.e., to estimate the number of people infected, the time of infection, and the average dose received, is important when planning a medical response. We address this question of characterization by formulating a Bayesian inverse problem predicated on a short time-series of diagnosed patients exhibiting symptoms. To be of relevance to response planning, we limit ourselves to 3-5 days of data. In tests performed with anthrax as the pathogen, we find that these data are usually sufficient, especially if the model of the outbreak used in the inverse problem is an accurate one. In some cases the scarcity of data may initially support outbreak characterizations at odds with the true one, but with sufficient data the correct inferences are recovered; in other words, the inverse problem posed and its solution methodology are consistent. We also explore the effect of model error-situations for which the model used in the inverse problem is only a partially accurate representation of the outbreak; here, the model predictions and the observations differ by more than a random noise. We find that while there is a consistent discrepancy between the inferred and the true characterizations, they are also close enough to be of relevance when planning a response.
The medicinal chemistry of botulinum, ricin and anthrax toxins.
Hicks, Rickey P; Hartell, Mark G; Nichols, Daniel A; Bhattacharjee, Apurba K; van Hamont, John E; Skillman, Donald R
2005-01-01
The potential use of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological or chemical) by terrorist organizations represents a major threat to world peace and safety. Only a limited number of vaccines are available to protect the general population from the medical consequences of these weapons. In addition there are major health concerns associated with a pre-exposure mass vaccination of the general population. To reduce or eliminate the impact of these terrible threats, new drugs must be developed to safely treat individuals exposed to these agents. A review of all therapeutic agents under development for the treatment of the illnesses and injuries that result from exposure to nuclear, biological or chemical warfare agents is beyond the scope of any single article. The intent here is to provide a focused review for medicinal and organic chemists of three widely discussed and easily deployed biological warfare agents, botulinum neurotoxin and ricin toxins and the bacteria Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax will be addressed because of its similarity in both structure and mechanism of catalytic activity with botulinum toxin. The common feature of these three agents is that they exhibit their biological activity via toxin enzymatic hydrolysis of a specific bond in their respective substrate molecules. A brief introduction to the history of each of the biological warfare agents is presented followed by a discussion on the mechanisms of action of each at the molecular level, and a review of current potential inhibitors under investigation.
Studies on sulfate attack: Mechanisms, test methods, and modeling
Santhanam, Manu
The objective of this research study was to investigate various issues pertaining to the mechanism, testing methods, and modeling of sulfate attack in concrete. The study was divided into the following segments: (1) effect of gypsum formation on the expansion of mortars, (2) attack by the magnesium ion, (3) sulfate attack in the presence of chloride ions---differentiating seawater and groundwater attack, (4) use of admixtures to mitigate sulfate attack---entrained air, sodium citrate, silica fume, and metakaolin, (5) effects of temperature and concentration of the attack solution, (6) development of new test methods using concrete specimens, and (7) modeling of the sulfate attack phenomenon. Mortar specimens using portland cement (PC) and tricalcium silicate (C 3S), with or without mineral admixtures, were prepared and immersed in different sulfate solutions. In addition to this, portland cement concrete specimens were also prepared and subjected to complete and partial immersion in sulfate solutions. Physical measurements, chemical analyses and microstructural studies were performed periodically on the specimens. Gypsum formation was seen to cause expansion of the C3S mortar specimens. Statistical analyses of the data also indicated that the quantity of gypsum was the most significant factor controlling the expansion of mortar bars. The attack by magnesium ion was found to drive the reaction towards the formation of brucite. Decalcification of the C-S-H and its subsequent conversion to the non-cementitious M-S-H was identified as the mechanism of destruction in magnesium sulfate attack. Mineral admixtures were beneficial in combating sodium sulfate attack, while reducing the resistance to magnesium sulfate attack. Air entrainment did not change the measured physical properties, but reduced the visible distress of the mortars. Sodium citrate caused a substantial reduction in the rate of damage of the mortars due to its retarding effect. Temperature and
Impact of Cyber Attacks on High Voltage DC Transmission Damping Control
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Rui Fan
2018-04-01
Full Text Available Hybrid AC/HVDC (AC-HVDC grids have evolved to become huge cyber-physical systems that are vulnerable to cyber attacks because of the wide attack surface and increasing dependence on intelligent electronic devices, computing resources and communication networks. This paper, for the first time, studies the impact of cyber attacks on HVDC transmission oscillation damping control.Three kinds of cyber attack models are considered: timing attack, replay attack and false data injection attack. Followed by a brief introduction of the HVDC model and conventional oscillation damping control method, the design of three attack models is described in the paper. These attacks are tested on a modified IEEE New England 39-Bus AC-HVDC system. Simulation results have shown that all three kinds of attacks are capable of driving the AC-HVDC system into large oscillations or even unstable conditions.
Computer codes developed in FRG to analyse hypothetical meltdown accidents
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Hassmann, K.; Hosemann, J.P.; Koerber, H.; Reineke, H.
1978-01-01
It is the purpose of this paper to give the status of all significant computer codes developed in the core melt-down project which is incorporated in the light water reactor safety research program of the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology. For standard pressurized water reactors, results of some computer codes will be presented, describing the course and the duration of the hypothetical core meltdown accident. (author)
Abrams, Barbara; Coyle, Jeremy; Cohen, Alison K; Headen, Irene; Hubbard, Alan; Ritchie, Lorrene; Rehkopf, David H
2017-09-01
To model the hypothetical impact of preventing excessive gestational weight gain on midlife obesity and compare the estimated reduction with the US Healthy People 2020 goal of a 10% reduction of obesity prevalence in adults. We analyzed 3917 women with 1 to 3 pregnancies in the prospective US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, from 1979 to 2012. We compared the estimated obesity prevalence between 2 scenarios: gestational weight gain as reported and under the scenario of a hypothetical intervention that all women with excessive gestational weight gain instead gained as recommended by the Institute of Medicine (2009). A hypothetical intervention was associated with a significantly reduced estimated prevalence of obesity for first (3.3 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0, 5.6) and second (3.0 percentage points; 95% CI = 0.7, 5.2) births, and twice as high in Black as in White mothers, but not significant in Hispanics. The population attributable fraction was 10.7% (95% CI = 3.3%, 18.1%) in first and 9.3% (95% CI = 2.2%, 16.5%) in second births. Development of effective weight-management interventions for childbearing women could lead to meaningful reductions in long-term obesity.
OPERATION COBRA. Deliberate Attack, Exploitation
1984-05-25
to attack Sens, then continue to Troyes , on the Seine River. CCA was in the north, crossing the Loing River at Souppes against light resistance and...advanced from Troyes and prepared positions close to Sens. Under strong artillery support, a task force from CCA (TF Oden) attacked the enemy frontally...movement towards the Seine River on 24 August with an advance toward Troyes . Facing the combat command were what remained of the 51st SS Brigade, light
Robustness of non-interdependent and interdependent networks against dependent and adaptive attacks
Tyra, Adam; Li, Jingtao; Shang, Yilun; Jiang, Shuo; Zhao, Yanjun; Xu, Shouhuai
2017-09-01
Robustness of complex networks has been extensively studied via the notion of site percolation, which typically models independent and non-adaptive attacks (or disruptions). However, real-life attacks are often dependent and/or adaptive. This motivates us to characterize the robustness of complex networks, including non-interdependent and interdependent ones, against dependent and adaptive attacks. For this purpose, dependent attacks are accommodated by L-hop percolation where the nodes within some L-hop (L ≥ 0) distance of a chosen node are all deleted during one attack (with L = 0 degenerating to site percolation). Whereas, adaptive attacks are launched by attackers who can make node-selection decisions based on the network state in the beginning of each attack. The resulting characterization enriches the body of knowledge with new insights, such as: (i) the Achilles' Heel phenomenon is only valid for independent attacks, but not for dependent attacks; (ii) powerful attack strategies (e.g., targeted attacks and dependent attacks, dependent attacks and adaptive attacks) are not compatible and cannot help the attacker when used collectively. Our results shed some light on the design of robust complex networks.
Mark Morrison; Thomas C. Brown
2009-01-01
Stated preference methods such as contingent valuation and choice modeling are subject to various biases that may lead to differences between actual and hypothetical willingness to pay. Cheap talk, follow-up certainty scales, and dissonance minimization are three techniques for reducing this hypothetical bias. Cheap talk and certainty scales have received considerable...
Command Disaggregation Attack and Mitigation in Industrial Internet of Things
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Peng Xun
2017-10-01
Full Text Available A cyber-physical attack in the industrial Internet of Things can cause severe damage to physical system. In this paper, we focus on the command disaggregation attack, wherein attackers modify disaggregated commands by intruding command aggregators like programmable logic controllers, and then maliciously manipulate the physical process. It is necessary to investigate these attacks, analyze their impact on the physical process, and seek effective detection mechanisms. We depict two different types of command disaggregation attack modes: (1 the command sequence is disordered and (2 disaggregated sub-commands are allocated to wrong actuators. We describe three attack models to implement these modes with going undetected by existing detection methods. A novel and effective framework is provided to detect command disaggregation attacks. The framework utilizes the correlations among two-tier command sequences, including commands from the output of central controller and sub-commands from the input of actuators, to detect attacks before disruptions occur. We have designed components of the framework and explain how to mine and use these correlations to detect attacks. We present two case studies to validate different levels of impact from various attack models and the effectiveness of the detection framework. Finally, we discuss how to enhance the detection framework.
Command Disaggregation Attack and Mitigation in Industrial Internet of Things.
Xun, Peng; Zhu, Pei-Dong; Hu, Yi-Fan; Cui, Peng-Shuai; Zhang, Yan
2017-10-21
A cyber-physical attack in the industrial Internet of Things can cause severe damage to physical system. In this paper, we focus on the command disaggregation attack, wherein attackers modify disaggregated commands by intruding command aggregators like programmable logic controllers, and then maliciously manipulate the physical process. It is necessary to investigate these attacks, analyze their impact on the physical process, and seek effective detection mechanisms. We depict two different types of command disaggregation attack modes: (1) the command sequence is disordered and (2) disaggregated sub-commands are allocated to wrong actuators. We describe three attack models to implement these modes with going undetected by existing detection methods. A novel and effective framework is provided to detect command disaggregation attacks. The framework utilizes the correlations among two-tier command sequences, including commands from the output of central controller and sub-commands from the input of actuators, to detect attacks before disruptions occur. We have designed components of the framework and explain how to mine and use these correlations to detect attacks. We present two case studies to validate different levels of impact from various attack models and the effectiveness of the detection framework. Finally, we discuss how to enhance the detection framework.
study and analysis of asa river hypothetical dam break using hec-ras
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Impounded reservoirs provide beneficial functions such as flood control, recreation, hydropower and water supply but they also carry potential risks. Spontaneous dam break phenomenon can occur and the resultant flooding may cause substantial loss of life and property damage downstream of the dam. A hypothetical dam ...
Counteracting Power Analysis Attacks by Masking
Oswald, Elisabeth; Mangard, Stefan
The publication of power analysis attacks [12] has triggered a lot of research activities. On the one hand these activities have been dedicated toward the development of secure and efficient countermeasures. On the other hand also new and improved attacks have been developed. In fact, there has been a continuous arms race between designers of countermeasures and attackers. This chapter provides a brief overview of the state-of-the art in the arms race in the context of a countermeasure called masking. Masking is a popular countermeasure that has been extensively discussed in the scientific community. Numerous articles have been published that explain different types of masking and that analyze weaknesses of this countermeasure.
Metrics for Assessment of Smart Grid Data Integrity Attacks
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Annarita Giani; Miles McQueen; Russell Bent; Kameshwar Poolla; Mark Hinrichs
2012-07-01
There is an emerging consensus that the nation’s electricity grid is vulnerable to cyber attacks. This vulnerability arises from the increasing reliance on using remote measurements, transmitting them over legacy data networks to system operators who make critical decisions based on available data. Data integrity attacks are a class of cyber attacks that involve a compromise of information that is processed by the grid operator. This information can include meter readings of injected power at remote generators, power flows on transmission lines, and relay states. These data integrity attacks have consequences only when the system operator responds to compromised data by redispatching generation under normal or contingency protocols. These consequences include (a) financial losses from sub-optimal economic dispatch to service loads, (b) robustness/resiliency losses from placing the grid at operating points that are at greater risk from contingencies, and (c) systemic losses resulting from cascading failures induced by poor operational choices. This paper is focused on understanding the connections between grid operational procedures and cyber attacks. We first offer two examples to illustrate how data integrity attacks can cause economic and physical damage by misleading operators into taking inappropriate decisions. We then focus on unobservable data integrity attacks involving power meter data. These are coordinated attacks where the compromised data are consistent with the physics of power flow, and are therefore passed by any bad data detection algorithm. We develop metrics to assess the economic impact of these attacks under re-dispatch decisions using optimal power flow methods. These metrics can be use to prioritize the adoption of appropriate countermeasures including PMU placement, encryption, hardware upgrades, and advance attack detection algorithms.
A taxonomy of distributed denial of service attacks
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
De Donno, Michele; Giaretta, Alberto; Dragoni, Nicola
2017-01-01
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks which are now even more powerful and easier to achieve than the past. Understanding how these attacks work, in all their different forms, represents a first crucial step to tackle this urgent issue. To this end, in this paper we propose a new up-to-date taxonomy...... and a comprehensive classification of current DDoS attacks....
Evaluation of Nuclide Release Scenarios for a Hypothetical LILW Repository
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Lee, Youn Myoung; Jeong, Jong Tae
2010-11-01
A program for the safety assessment and performance evaluation of a low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) repository system has been developed. Utilizing GoldSim (GoldSim, 2006), the program evaluates nuclide release and transport into the geosphere and biosphere under various disruptive natural and manmade events and scenarios that can occur after a waste package failure. We envisaged and illustrated these events and scenarios as occurring after the closure of a hypothetical LILW repository, and they included the degradation of various manmade barriers, pumping well drilling, and natural disruptions such as the sudden formation of a preferential flow pathway in the far-field area of the repository. Possible enhancement of nuclide transport facilitated by colloids or chelating agents is also dealt with. We used the newly-developed GoldSim template program, which is capable of various nuclide release scenarios and is greatly suited for simulating a potential repository given the geological circumstances in Korea, to create the detailed source term and near-field release scheme, various nuclide transport modes in the far-field geosphere area, and the biosphere transfer. Even though all parameter values applied to the hypothetical repository were assumed, the illustrative results, particularly the probabilistic calculations and sensitivity studies, may be informative under various scenarios
An Explanation of Nakamoto's Analysis of Double-spend Attacks
Ozisik, A. Pinar; Levine, Brian Neil
2017-01-01
The fundamental attack against blockchain systems is the double-spend attack. In this tutorial, we provide a very detailed explanation of just one section of Satoshi Nakamoto's original paper where the attack's probability of success is stated. We show the derivation of the mathematics relied upon by Nakamoto to create a model of the attack. We also validate the model with a Monte Carlo simulation, and we determine which model component is not perfect.
Modeling and Analysis of Information Attack in Computer Networks
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Pepyne, David
2003-01-01
... (as opposed to physical and other forms of attack) . Information based attacks are attacks that can be carried out from anywhere in the world, while sipping cappuccino at an Internet cafe' or while enjoying the comfort of a living room armchair...
Using an ontology for network attack planning
CSIR Research Space (South Africa)
Van Heerden, R
2016-09-01
Full Text Available The modern complexity of network attacks and their counter-measures (cyber operations) requires detailed planning. This paper presents a Network Attack Planning ontology which is aimed at providing support for planning such network operations within...
Protecting infrastructure networks from cost-based attacks
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Wang Xingang; Guan Shuguang; Lai, Choy Heng
2009-01-01
It is well known that heterogeneous networks are vulnerable to the intentional removal of a small fraction of highly connected or loaded nodes, implying that to protect the network effectively, the important nodes should be allocated more defense resource than the others. However, if too much resource is allocated to the few important nodes, the numerous less-important nodes will be less protected, which if attacked together can still lead to devastating damage. A natural question is therefore how to efficiently distribute the limited defense resource among the network nodes such that the network damage is minimized against any attack strategy. In this paper, taking into account the factor of attack cost, the problem of network security is reconsidered in terms of efficient network defense against cost-based attacks. The results show that, for a general complex network, there exists an optimal distribution of the defense resource with which the network is best protected from cost-based attacks. Furthermore, it is found that the configuration of the optimal defense is dependent on the network parameters. Specifically, networks of larger size, sparser connection and more heterogeneous structure will more likely benefit from the defense optimization.
Constructing APT Attack Scenarios Based on Intrusion Kill Chain and Fuzzy Clustering
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ru Zhang
2017-01-01
Full Text Available The APT attack on the Internet is becoming more serious, and most of intrusion detection systems can only generate alarms to some steps of APT attack and cannot identify the pattern of the APT attack. To detect APT attack, many researchers established attack models and then correlated IDS logs with the attack models. However, the accuracy of detection deeply relied on the integrity of models. In this paper, we propose a new method to construct APT attack scenarios by mining IDS security logs. These APT attack scenarios can be further used for the APT detection. First, we classify all the attack events by purpose of phase of the intrusion kill chain. Then we add the attack event dimension to fuzzy clustering, correlate IDS alarm logs with fuzzy clustering, and generate the attack sequence set. Next, we delete the bug attack sequences to clean the set. Finally, we use the nonaftereffect property of probability transfer matrix to construct attack scenarios by mining the attack sequence set. Experiments show that the proposed method can construct the APT attack scenarios by mining IDS alarm logs, and the constructed scenarios match the actual situation so that they can be used for APT attack detection.
On node replication attack in wireless sensor networks
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Qabulio, M.; Malkani, Y.A.
2015-01-01
WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks) comprise a large number of small, inexpensive, low power and memory constrained sensing devices (called sensor nodes) that are densely deployed to measure a given physical phenomenon. Since WSNs are commonly deployed in a hostile and unattended environment, it is easy for an adversary to physically capture one or more legitimate sensor nodes, re-program and redeploy them in the network. As a result, the adversary becomes able to deploy several identical copies of physically captured nodes in the network in order to perform illegitimate activities. This type of attack is referred to as Node Replication Attack or Clone Node Attack. By launching node replication attack, an adversary can easily get control on the network which consequently is the biggest threat to confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and services. Thus, detection and prevention of node replication attack in WSNs has become an active area of research and to date more than two dozen schemes have been proposed, which address this issue. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review, classification and comparative analysis of twenty five of these schemes which help to detect and/or prevent node replication attack in WSNs. (author)
On Node Replication Attack in Wireless Sensor Networks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Mumtaz Qabulio
2016-04-01
Full Text Available WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks comprise a large number of small, inexpensive, low power and memory constrained sensing devices (called sensor nodes that are densely deployed to measure a given physical phenomenon. Since WSNs are commonly deployed in a hostile and unattended environment, it is easy for an adversary to physically capture one or more legitimate sensor nodes, re-program and redeploy them in the network. As a result, the adversary becomes able to deploy several identical copies of physically captured nodes in the network in order to perform illegitimate activities. This type of attack is referred to as Node Replication Attack or Clone Node Attack. By launching node replication attack, an adversary can easily get control on the network which consequently is the biggest threat to confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and services. Thus, detection and prevention of node replication attack in WSNs has become an active area of research and to date more than two dozen schemes have been proposed, which address this issue. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review, classification and comparative analysis of twenty five of these schemes which help to detect and/or prevent node replication attack in WSNs
Attacker-defender game from a network science perspective
Li, Ya-Peng; Tan, Suo-Yi; Deng, Ye; Wu, Jun
2018-05-01
Dealing with the protection of critical infrastructures, many game-theoretic methods have been developed to study the strategic interactions between defenders and attackers. However, most game models ignore the interrelationship between different components within a certain system. In this paper, we propose a simultaneous-move attacker-defender game model, which is a two-player zero-sum static game with complete information. The strategies and payoffs of this game are defined on the basis of the topology structure of the infrastructure system, which is represented by a complex network. Due to the complexity of strategies, the attack and defense strategies are confined by two typical strategies, namely, targeted strategy and random strategy. The simulation results indicate that in a scale-free network, the attacker virtually always attacks randomly in the Nash equilibrium. With a small cost-sensitive parameter, representing the degree to which costs increase with the importance of a target, the defender protects the hub targets with large degrees preferentially. When the cost-sensitive parameter exceeds a threshold, the defender switches to protecting nodes randomly. Our work provides a new theoretical framework to analyze the confrontations between the attacker and the defender on critical infrastructures and deserves further study.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Gonzalo J. Arias
2017-06-01
Full Text Available The latest US-led coalition’s attacks against ISIS in Syria raised the question whether states can use defensive force against non-state actors. Two critical incidents had previously triggered the discussion on the importance and consequences of cyber-attacks as a new form armed attacks. The first one occurred in Estonia in 2007, when the country experienced extensive computer hacking attacks that lasted several weeks. The second incident happened in 2008, during the Georgia–Russia conflict over South Ossetia, when Georgia experienced cyber-attacks similar to those suffered by Estonia in the previous year. Furthermore, on June 21, 2016, the central banks of Indonesia and South Korea were hit by cyber-attacks on their public websites since activist hacking group Anonymous pledged last month to target banks across the world. The previous incidents have created, once again, public questioning if the rules on the use of force and the right of self-defense established in the United Nations Charter are sufficient and efficient to address these new forms of attacks.
After-gate attack on a quantum cryptosystem
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Wiechers, C; Wittmann, C; Elser, D; Marquardt, Ch; Leuchs, G; Lydersen, L; Skaar, J; Makarov, V
2011-01-01
We present a method to control the detection events in quantum key distribution systems that use gated single-photon detectors. We employ bright pulses as faked states, timed to arrive at the avalanche photodiodes outside the activation time. The attack can remain unnoticed, since the faked states do not increase the error rate per se. This allows for an intercept-resend attack, where an eavesdropper transfers her detection events to the legitimate receiver without causing any errors. As a side effect, afterpulses, originating from accumulated charge carriers in the detectors, increase the error rate. We have experimentally tested detectors of the system id3110 (Clavis2) from ID Quantique. We identify the parameter regime in which the attack is feasible despite the side effect. Furthermore, we outline how simple modifications in the implementation can make the device immune to this attack.
Compiling symbolic attacks to protocol implementation tests
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Michael Rusinowitch
2013-07-01
Full Text Available Recently efficient model-checking tools have been developed to find flaws in security protocols specifications. These flaws can be interpreted as potential attacks scenarios but the feasability of these scenarios need to be confirmed at the implementation level. However, bridging the gap between an abstract attack scenario derived from a specification and a penetration test on real implementations of a protocol is still an open issue. This work investigates an architecture for automatically generating abstract attacks and converting them to concrete tests on protocol implementations. In particular we aim to improve previously proposed blackbox testing methods in order to discover automatically new attacks and vulnerabilities. As a proof of concept we have experimented our proposed architecture to detect a renegotiation vulnerability on some implementations of SSL/TLS, a protocol widely used for securing electronic transactions.
World at Risk: The Report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism
2008-12-01
disgruntled with the amount of money he was paid and eventually quit. To con- tinue the anthrax work, al Qaeda then hired a Malaysian terrorist, Yazid...and by not stopping Chinese entities from supporting Pakistan’s strategic programs. At present, all three are expanding their nuclear arsenals with no...attack occur. Serious consideration should be given to harnessing the existing distribution networks of large retail stores and forging effective
An Analysis of Cyber-Attack on NPP Considering Physical Impact
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Lee, In Hyo; Kang, Hyun Gook [KAIST, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Son, Han Seong [Joonbu University, Geumsan (Korea, Republic of)
2016-05-15
Some research teams performed related works on cyber-physical system which is a system that cyber-attack can lead to serious consequences including product loss, damage, injury and death when it is attacked. They investigated the physical impact on cyber-physical system due to the cyber-attack. But it is hard to find the research about NPP cyber security considering the physical impact or safety. In this paper, to investigate the relationship between physical impact and cyber-attack, level 1 PSA results are utilized in chapter 2 and cyber-attack analysis is performed in chapter 3. The cyber security issue on NPP is inevitable issue. Unlike general cyber security, cyber-physical system like NPP can induce serious consequences such as core damage by cyber-attack. So in this paper, to find how hacker can attack the NPP, (1) PSA results were utilized to find the relationship between physical system and cyber-attack and (2) vulnerabilities on digital control systems were investigated to find how hacker can implement the possible attack. It is expected that these steps are utilized when establishing penetration test plans or cyber security drill plans.
An Analysis of Cyber-Attack on NPP Considering Physical Impact
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Lee, In Hyo; Kang, Hyun Gook; Son, Han Seong
2016-01-01
Some research teams performed related works on cyber-physical system which is a system that cyber-attack can lead to serious consequences including product loss, damage, injury and death when it is attacked. They investigated the physical impact on cyber-physical system due to the cyber-attack. But it is hard to find the research about NPP cyber security considering the physical impact or safety. In this paper, to investigate the relationship between physical impact and cyber-attack, level 1 PSA results are utilized in chapter 2 and cyber-attack analysis is performed in chapter 3. The cyber security issue on NPP is inevitable issue. Unlike general cyber security, cyber-physical system like NPP can induce serious consequences such as core damage by cyber-attack. So in this paper, to find how hacker can attack the NPP, (1) PSA results were utilized to find the relationship between physical system and cyber-attack and (2) vulnerabilities on digital control systems were investigated to find how hacker can implement the possible attack. It is expected that these steps are utilized when establishing penetration test plans or cyber security drill plans
Classification of cyber attacks in South Africa
CSIR Research Space (South Africa)
Van Heerden, R
2016-05-01
Full Text Available various ATM's throughout South Africa. Two criminals, Motsoane and Masoleng, were arrested in February 2012 and both sentenced to 15 years in jail [36, 37]. 3.10 2013: IOL DDoS Anonymous Africa claimed responsibility for launching a Distributed Denial... of Service (DDoS) attack on the Independent Newspaper web site iol.co.za. The attack was in response to claims that the IOL group supports Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. The following taunt was sent to boast about the attack: “IOL bad boys bad boys...
A Review Of Recent Cyber-Attacks In Fiji
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Neeraj A. Sharma
2015-08-01
Full Text Available Computing technology has evolved in such dramatic ways that a child can use such technology and their features. Internet is one such technology which allows peripheral devices to be connected to each other creating a network to share information. In the same way information can be attacked. In this paper we will be discussing the different types of cyber-attack that recently took place in Fiji. Common attacks discussed in this review paper are phishing email scams website defacement and skimming. Apart from common preventative methods some novel recommendations have been made. We believe the Fiji experiences and recommendations will assist technology users prepare better against such attacks.
Research on high power intra-channel crosstalk attack in optical networks
Ren, Shuai; Zhang, Yinfa; Wang, Jingyu; Zhang, Jumei; Rao, Xuejun; Fang, Yuanyuan
2017-02-01
The mechanism of high power intra-channel crosstalk attack is analyzed theoretically and the conclusion that power of attack signal and crosstalk coefficient of optical switch are the main factors for which high power intra-channel have destructive effect on quality of legitimate signals is drawn. Effects of high power intra-channel crosstalk attack on quality of legitimate signals and its capability of attack propagation are investigated quantitatively by building the simulation system in VPI software. The results show that legitimate signals through the first and the second stage optical switch are affected by attack and legitimate signal through the third stage optical switch is almost unaffected by attack when power of original attack signal (OAS) is above 20dB more than that of legitimate signals and crosstalk coefficient of optical switch is -20dB at optical cross connect 1 (OXC1). High power intra-channel crosstalk attack has a certain capability of attack propagation. Attack capability of OAS can be propagated to OXC3 when power of OAS is 27dB more than that of legitimate signals and crosstalk coefficient of optical switch is -20dB. We also find that the secondary attack signal (SAS) does not have capability of attack propagation.
Ability to Categorize Food Predicts Hypothetical Food Choices in Head Start Preschoolers.
Nicholson, Jody S; Barton, Jennifer M; Simons, Ali L
2018-03-01
To investigate whether preschoolers are able to identify and categorize foods, and whether their ability to classify food as healthy predicts their hypothetical food choice. Structured interviews and body measurements with preschoolers, and teacher reports of classroom performance. Six Head Start centers in a large southeastern region. A total of 235 preschoolers (mean age [SD], 4.73 [0.63] years; 45.4% girls). Teachers implemented a nutrition education intervention across the 2014-2015 school year in which children were taught to identify and categorize food as sometimes (ie, unhealthy) and anytime (ie, healthy). Preschooler responses to a hypothetical snack naming, classifying, and selection scenario. Hierarchical regression analyses to examine predictors of child hypothetical food selection. While controlling for child characteristics and cognitive functioning, preschoolers who were better at categorizing food as healthy or unhealthy were more likely to say they would choose the healthy food. Low-contrast food pairs in which food had to be classified based on multiple dimensions were outside the cognitive abilities of the preschoolers. Nutrition interventions may be more effective in helping children make healthy food choices if developmental limitations in preschoolers' abilities to categorize food is addressed in their curriculum. Classification of food into evaluative categories is challenging for this age group. Categorizing on multiple dimensions is difficult, and dichotomous labeling of food as good or bad is not always accurate in directing children toward making food choices. Future research could evaluate further preschoolers' developmental potential for food categorization and nutrition decision making and consider factors that influence healthy food choices at both snack and mealtime. Copyright © 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gutting, Bradford W; Rukhin, Andrey; Mackie, Ryan S; Marchette, David; Thran, Brandolyn
2015-05-01
The application of the exponential model is extended by the inclusion of new nonhuman primate (NHP), rabbit, and guinea pig dose-lethality data for inhalation anthrax. Because deposition is a critical step in the initiation of inhalation anthrax, inhaled doses may not provide the most accurate cross-species comparison. For this reason, species-specific deposition factors were derived to translate inhaled dose to deposited dose. Four NHP, three rabbit, and two guinea pig data sets were utilized. Results from species-specific pooling analysis suggested all four NHP data sets could be pooled into a single NHP data set, which was also true for the rabbit and guinea pig data sets. The three species-specific pooled data sets could not be combined into a single generic mammalian data set. For inhaled dose, NHPs were the most sensitive (relative lowest LD50) species and rabbits the least. Improved inhaled LD50 s proposed for use in risk assessment are 50,600, 102,600, and 70,800 inhaled spores for NHP, rabbit, and guinea pig, respectively. Lung deposition factors were estimated for each species using published deposition data from Bacillus spore exposures, particle deposition studies, and computer modeling. Deposition was estimated at 22%, 9%, and 30% of the inhaled dose for NHP, rabbit, and guinea pig, respectively. When the inhaled dose was adjusted to reflect deposited dose, the rabbit animal model appears the most sensitive with the guinea pig the least sensitive species. © 2014 Society for Risk Analysis.
Evaluation of Crosstalk Attacks in Access Networks
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Wagner, Christoph; Eiselt, Michael; Grobe, Klaus
2016-01-01
WDM-PON systems regained interest as low-cost solution for metro and access networks. We present a comparative analysis of resilience of wavelength-selective and wavelength-routed architectures against crosstalk attackers. We compare the vulnerability of these architectures against attacks...
Optimal counterterrorism and the recruitment effect of large terrorist attacks
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Jensen, Thomas
2011-01-01
We analyze a simple dynamic model of the interaction between terrorists and authorities. Our primary aim is to study optimal counterterrorism and its consequences when large terrorist attacks lead to a temporary increase in terrorist recruitment. First, we show that an increase in counterterrorism...... makes it more likely that terrorist cells plan small rather than large attacks and therefore may increase the probability of a successful attack. Analyzing optimal counterterrorism we see that the recruitment effect makes authorities increase the level of counterterrorism after large attacks. Therefore......, in periods following large attacks a new attack is more likely to be small compared to other periods. Finally, we analyze the long-run consequences of the recruitment effect. We show that it leads to more counterterrorism, more small attacks, and a higher sum of terrorism damage and counterterrorism costs...
Quantitative Verification and Synthesis of Attack-Defence Scenarios Conference
Aslanyan, Zaruhi; Nielson, Flemming; Parker, David
Attack-defence trees are a powerful technique for formally evaluating attack-defence scenarios. They represent in an intuitive, graphical way the interaction between an attacker and a defender who compete in order to achieve conflicting objectives. We propose a novel framework for the formal
'Cryptogenic Drop Attacks' revisited: evidence of overlap with functional neurological disorder.
Hoeritzauer, Ingrid; Carson, Alan J; Stone, Jon
2018-02-07
In their 1973 BMJ paper 'Cryptogenic Drop Attacks', Stevens and Matthews described 40, mostly middle-aged, female patients with drop attacks of unknown cause. Although clinically common, there has been little on this topic since. We aimed to determine clinical features, comorbidity and outcome of patients with drop attacks. We carried out a retrospective review of patients with cryptogenic drop attacks seen consecutively by one clinician (JS) between 2006 and 2016. Demographics, phenomenology, duration and frequency of attacks, attack description and comorbid diagnoses were recorded. Patients were followed up with a notes review. 83 patients with cryptogenic drop attacks were predominantly female (89%, n=79), mean age 44 years. The majority (93%, n=77) could not remember the fall itself and almost half (43%, n=36) experienced prodromal dissociative symptoms. Mechanical trips or syncope preceded drop attacks, historically, in 24% (n=20) of cases. Persistent fatigue (73%, n=61), chronic pain (40%, n=33), functional limb weakness (31%,n=26) and dissociative (non-epileptic) attacks 28% (n=23) were common, with the latter usually preceding or emerging from drop attacks. At follow-up (88%, mean 38 months), 28% (n=23) had resolution of their drop attacks. Predisposing (but non-causative) disease comorbidity was found at baseline (n=12) and follow-up (n=5). Cryptogenic drop attacks are associated with high frequency of comorbid functional somatic and functional neurological disorders. Patients commonly have prodromal dissociative symptoms and in some there was a clear relationship with prior or subsequent dissociative (non-epileptic) attacks. Some cryptogenic drop attacks may be best understood as phenomena on the spectrum of dissociative attacks. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.
Optimal Patrol to Detect Attacks at Dispersed Heterogeneous Locations
2013-12-01
solution RALP Random-attacker linear program SALP Strategic-attacker linear program SMDP Semi-Markov decision process SP Shortest path SPR1 Shortest...average cost per attack among all vertices, which we refer to as the strategic-attacker linear program ( SALP ): min x zOPT (3.1a) subject to ∑ (k,l)∈A c...the SALP is indicated by zOPT. The lower bound that is obtained from using the LBLP is indicated by zLB. Solutions obtained from using a heuristic
Detecting Distributed SQL Injection Attacks in a Eucalyptus Cloud Environment
Kebert, Alan; Barnejee, Bikramjit; Solano, Juan; Solano, Wanda
2013-01-01
The cloud computing environment offers malicious users the ability to spawn multiple instances of cloud nodes that are similar to virtual machines, except that they can have separate external IP addresses. In this paper we demonstrate how this ability can be exploited by an attacker to distribute his/her attack, in particular SQL injection attacks, in such a way that an intrusion detection system (IDS) could fail to identify this attack. To demonstrate this, we set up a small private cloud, established a vulnerable website in one instance, and placed an IDS within the cloud to monitor the network traffic. We found that an attacker could quite easily defeat the IDS by periodically altering its IP address. To detect such an attacker, we propose to use multi-agent plan recognition, where the multiple source IPs are considered as different agents who are mounting a collaborative attack. We show that such a formulation of this problem yields a more sophisticated approach to detecting SQL injection attacks within a cloud computing environment.
Can a Copycat Effect be Observed in Terrorist Suicide Attacks?
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Nicholas Farnham
2017-03-01
Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to explore how a copycat effect – established within the field of suicide studies – may manifest itself in terrorist suicide attacks, and takes an exploratory approach in evaluating the prospect of incorporating open-data resources in future counter-terrorism research. This paper explores a possible ‘copycat effect’ in cases of suicide terrorism, which entails a perpetrator being inspired by a preceding attack to carry out a similar attack not long after the original. In the wake of mounting risks of lone wolf terrorist attacks today and due to the general difficulties faced in preventing such attacks, in this paper we explore a potential area of future prevention in media reporting, security and anti-terrorism policies today. Using the START Global Terrorism Database (GTD, this paper investigates terrorist suicide-attack clusters and analyses the relationship between attacks found within the same cluster. Using a mixed-method approach, our analyses did not uncover clear evidence supporting a copycat effect among the studied attacks. These and other findings have numerous policy and future research implications.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Amy eWaldman
2011-11-01
Full Text Available The Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial and subsequent studies have had a tremendous impact on the treatment and prognosis of optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis in adults. The results of these studies have been extrapolated to children; however, pediatric data are sparse. Using the method of prospective preference assessment, the willingness of parents and medical professionals to enroll children in a hypothetical Pediatric Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial was assessed using a mock consent form and questionnaire. A 3-arm trial was proposed: 1 intravenous corticosteroids, 2 high-dose oral corticosteroids, and 3 an oral placebo. The forms were completed by 198 parents and 49 physicians. After reviewing the hypothetical scenario, trial design, risks and benefits, and alternatives to the study, 21% of parents would enroll their children in the trial whereas 98% of medical professionals would enroll their patients. With medical professional recommendation, 43% of parents would enroll their children. The manner in which this hypothetical trial was presented to parents, specifically with respect to the recommendation of their child’s health care team, influenced a parent’s willingness to participate.
Full Text Available ... major stroke. It's important to call 9-1-1 immediately for any stroke symptoms. Popular Topics TIA Cardiac Catheter Cholesterol Heart Attack Stent © 2018, American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited. The content in this ...
THE REPRISAL ATTACKS BY AL-SHABAAB AGAINST KENYA
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
E.O.S.ODHIAMBO
2013-10-01
Full Text Available The incursion of Kenya Defence Forces (KDF into Somalia was met by a series of threats from the Al-Shabaab that it would increase the attacks against Kenya if the troops were not withdrawn. The capture of Kismayu by KDF has weakened the nerve of Al-Shabaab but has not eliminated the imminent danger of a substantive terror attack. Since the incursion by KDF, Kenya has succumbed to a sequence of grenade and Improvised Explosive Devices attacks, roadside bombs, landmines and raids by fighters using small arms and light weapons and Rocket Propelled Grenades against Kenyans mostly in North Eastern, Coastal and Nairobi counties, marking the resurgence of terrorism in the country. We argue that Kenya is more vulnerable to Al-Shabaab terrorists attack than before the KDF incursion by citing the frequencies of reprisal attacks from October 2011 to January 2013. Hence, our troops should be withdrawn and deployed within our boundary.
Thwarting Nonintrusive Occupancy Detection Attacks from Smart Meters
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Dapeng Man
2017-01-01
Full Text Available Occupancy information is one of the most important privacy issues of a home. Unfortunately, an attacker is able to detect occupancy from smart meter data. The current battery-based load hiding (BLH methods cannot solve this problem. To thwart occupancy detection attacks, we propose a framework of battery-based schemes to prevent occupancy detection (BPOD. BPOD monitors the power consumption of a home and detects the occupancy in real time. According to the detection result, BPOD modifies those statistical metrics of power consumption, which highly correlate with the occupancy by charging or discharging a battery, creating a delusion that the home is always occupied. We evaluate BPOD in a simulation using several real-world smart meter datasets. Our experiment results show that BPOD effectively prevents the threshold-based and classifier-based occupancy detection attacks. Furthermore, BPOD is also able to prevent nonintrusive appliance load monitoring attacks (NILM as a side-effect of thwarting detection attacks.
Detecting peripheral-based attacks on the host memory
Stewin, Patrick
2015-01-01
This work addresses stealthy peripheral-based attacks on host computers and presents a new approach to detecting them. Peripherals can be regarded as separate systems that have a dedicated processor and dedicated runtime memory to handle their tasks. The book addresses the problem that peripherals generally communicate with the host via the host’s main memory, storing cryptographic keys, passwords, opened files and other sensitive data in the process – an aspect attackers are quick to exploit. Here, stealthy malicious software based on isolated micro-controllers is implemented to conduct an attack analysis, the results of which provide the basis for developing a novel runtime detector. The detector reveals stealthy peripheral-based attacks on the host’s main memory by exploiting certain hardware properties, while a permanent and resource-efficient measurement strategy ensures that the detector is also capable of detecting transient attacks, which can otherwise succeed when the applied strategy only me...
Why cryptography should not rely on physical attack complexity
Krämer, Juliane
2015-01-01
This book presents two practical physical attacks. It shows how attackers can reveal the secret key of symmetric as well as asymmetric cryptographic algorithms based on these attacks, and presents countermeasures on the software and the hardware level that can help to prevent them in the future. Though their theory has been known for several years now, since neither attack has yet been successfully implemented in practice, they have generally not been considered a serious threat. In short, their physical attack complexity has been overestimated and the implied security threat has been underestimated. First, the book introduces the photonic side channel, which offers not only temporal resolution, but also the highest possible spatial resolution. Due to the high cost of its initial implementation, it has not been taken seriously. The work shows both simple and differential photonic side channel analyses. Then, it presents a fault attack against pairing-based cryptography. Due to the need for at least two indepe...
Multi-Layer Approach for the Detection of Selective Forwarding Attacks.
Alajmi, Naser; Elleithy, Khaled
2015-11-19
Security breaches are a major threat in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs are increasingly used due to their broad range of important applications in both military and civilian domains. WSNs are prone to several types of security attacks. Sensor nodes have limited capacities and are often deployed in dangerous locations; therefore, they are vulnerable to different types of attacks, including wormhole, sinkhole, and selective forwarding attacks. Security attacks are classified as data traffic and routing attacks. These security attacks could affect the most significant applications of WSNs, namely, military surveillance, traffic monitoring, and healthcare. Therefore, there are different approaches to detecting security attacks on the network layer in WSNs. Reliability, energy efficiency, and scalability are strong constraints on sensor nodes that affect the security of WSNs. Because sensor nodes have limited capabilities in most of these areas, selective forwarding attacks cannot be easily detected in networks. In this paper, we propose an approach to selective forwarding detection (SFD). The approach has three layers: MAC pool IDs, rule-based processing, and anomaly detection. It maintains the safety of data transmission between a source node and base station while detecting selective forwarding attacks. Furthermore, the approach is reliable, energy efficient, and scalable.
Multi-Layer Approach for the Detection of Selective Forwarding Attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Naser Alajmi
2015-11-01
Full Text Available Security breaches are a major threat in wireless sensor networks (WSNs. WSNs are increasingly used due to their broad range of important applications in both military and civilian domains. WSNs are prone to several types of security attacks. Sensor nodes have limited capacities and are often deployed in dangerous locations; therefore, they are vulnerable to different types of attacks, including wormhole, sinkhole, and selective forwarding attacks. Security attacks are classified as data traffic and routing attacks. These security attacks could affect the most significant applications of WSNs, namely, military surveillance, traffic monitoring, and healthcare. Therefore, there are different approaches to detecting security attacks on the network layer in WSNs. Reliability, energy efficiency, and scalability are strong constraints on sensor nodes that affect the security of WSNs. Because sensor nodes have limited capabilities in most of these areas, selective forwarding attacks cannot be easily detected in networks. In this paper, we propose an approach to selective forwarding detection (SFD. The approach has three layers: MAC pool IDs, rule-based processing, and anomaly detection. It maintains the safety of data transmission between a source node and base station while detecting selective forwarding attacks. Furthermore, the approach is reliable, energy efficient, and scalable.
Adversarial Feature Selection Against Evasion Attacks.
Zhang, Fei; Chan, Patrick P K; Biggio, Battista; Yeung, Daniel S; Roli, Fabio
2016-03-01
Pattern recognition and machine learning techniques have been increasingly adopted in adversarial settings such as spam, intrusion, and malware detection, although their security against well-crafted attacks that aim to evade detection by manipulating data at test time has not yet been thoroughly assessed. While previous work has been mainly focused on devising adversary-aware classification algorithms to counter evasion attempts, only few authors have considered the impact of using reduced feature sets on classifier security against the same attacks. An interesting, preliminary result is that classifier security to evasion may be even worsened by the application of feature selection. In this paper, we provide a more detailed investigation of this aspect, shedding some light on the security properties of feature selection against evasion attacks. Inspired by previous work on adversary-aware classifiers, we propose a novel adversary-aware feature selection model that can improve classifier security against evasion attacks, by incorporating specific assumptions on the adversary's data manipulation strategy. We focus on an efficient, wrapper-based implementation of our approach, and experimentally validate its soundness on different application examples, including spam and malware detection.
Trojan-horse attacks on quantum-key-distribution systems
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Gisin, N.; Fasel, S.; Kraus, B.; Zbinden, H.; Ribordy, G.
2006-01-01
General Trojan-horse attacks on quantum-key-distribution systems, i.e., attacks on Alice or Bob's system via the quantum channel, are analyzed. We illustrate the power of such attacks with today's technology and conclude that all systems must implement active counter measures. In particular, all systems must include an auxiliary detector that monitors any incoming light. We show that such counter measures can be efficient, provided that enough additional privacy amplification is applied to the data. We present a practical way to reduce the maximal information gain that an adversary can gain using Trojan-horse attacks. This does reduce the security analysis of the two-way plug-and-play implementation to those of the standard one-way systems
12 CFR 308.17 - Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding.
2010-01-01
... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding... PRACTICE RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE Uniform Rules of Practice and Procedure § 308.17 Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding. If an interlocutory appeal or collateral attack is brought in any...
12 CFR 19.17 - Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding.
2010-01-01
... 12 Banks and Banking 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding... OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE Uniform Rules of Practice and Procedure § 19.17 Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding. If an interlocutory appeal or collateral attack is brought in any court concerning all...
Drammer : Deterministic Rowhammer attacks on mobile platforms
Van Der Veen, Victor; Fratantonio, Yanick; Lindorfer, Martina; Gruss, Daniel; Maurice, Clémentine; Vigna, Giovanni; Bos, Herbert; Razavi, Kaveh; Giuffrida, Cristiano
2016-01-01
Recent work shows that the Rowhammer hardware bug can be used to craft powerful attacks and completely subvert a system. However, existing efforts either describe probabilistic (and thus unreliable) attacks or rely on special (and often unavailable) memory management features to place victim objects
A Comprehensive Taxonomy and Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 Attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Yasmin M. Amin
2016-01-01
Full Text Available The IEEE 802.15.4 standard has been established as the dominant enabling technology for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs. With the proliferation of security-sensitive applications involving WSNs, WSN security has become a topic of great significance. In comparison with traditional wired and wireless networks, WSNs possess additional vulnerabilities which present opportunities for attackers to launch novel and more complicated attacks against such networks. For this reason, a thorough investigation of attacks against WSNs is required. This paper provides a single unified survey that dissects all IEEE 802.15.4 PHY and MAC layer attacks known to date. While the majority of existing references investigate the motive and behavior of each attack separately, this survey classifies the attacks according to clear metrics within the paper and addresses the interrelationships and differences between the attacks following their classification. The authors’ opinions and comments regarding the placement of the attacks within the defined classifications are also provided. A comparative analysis between the classified attacks is then performed with respect to a set of defined evaluation criteria. The first half of this paper addresses attacks on the IEEE 802.15.4 PHY layer, whereas the second half of the paper addresses IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer attacks.
The accountability problem of flooding attacks in service-oriented architectures
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Jensen, Meiko; Schwenk, Jörg
2009-01-01
The threat of Denial of Service attacks poses a serious problem to the security of network-based services in general. For flooding attacks against service-oriented applications, this threat is dramatically amplified with potentially much higher impact and very little effort on the attacker's side....... Additionally, due to the high distribution of a SOA application's components, fending such attacks becomes a far more complex task. In this paper, we present the problem of accountability, referring to the issue of resolving the attacker in a highly distributed service-oriented application. Using a general...
Attack Helicopter Operations: Art or Science
1991-05-13
ATTACK HELICOPTER OPERATIONS: ART OR SCIENCE ? BY LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAN CALLEN United States Army DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: Approved for public release...TASK IWORK UNIT ELEMENT NO. NO. NO. ACCESSION NC 11. TITLE (Include Socurity Classification) Attack Helicopter Operations: Art or Science ? 12. PERSONAL...OPERATIONS: ART OR SCIENCE ? AN INDIVIDUAL STUDY PROJECT by Lieutenant Colonel Jan Callen United States Army Colonel Greg Snelgrove Project Adviser U.S
2006-01-01
tut quiz present Tutorial Quiz Presentation Interactive Media Element This interactive tutorial the two sub-classes of computer attackers: amateurs and professionals. It provides valuable insight into the nature of necessary protection measure for information assets. CS3600 Information Assurance: Introduction to Computer Security Course
A Secure Localization Approach against Wormhole Attacks Using Distance Consistency
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Lou Wei
2010-01-01
Full Text Available Wormhole attacks can negatively affect the localization in wireless sensor networks. A typical wormhole attack can be launched by two colluding attackers, one of which sniffs packets at one point in the network and tunnels them through a wired or wireless link to another point, and the other relays them within its vicinity. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the wormhole attack on the localization and propose a novel distance-consistency-based secure localization scheme against wormhole attacks, which includes three phases of wormhole attack detection, valid locators identification and self-localization. The theoretical model is further formulated to analyze the proposed secure localization scheme. The simulation results validate the theoretical results and also demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.
Extended Password Recovery Attacks against APOP, SIP, and Digest Authentication
Sasaki, Yu; Wang, Lei; Ohta, Kazuo; Kunihiro, Noboru
In this paper, we propose password recovery attacks against challenge-response authentication protocols. Our attacks use a message difference for a MD5 collision attack proposed in IEICE 2008. First, we show how to efficiently find a message pair that collides with the above message difference. Second, we show that a password used in authenticated post office protocol (APOP) can be recovered practically. We also show that the password recovery attack can be applied to a session initiation protocol (SIP) and digest authentication. Our attack can recover up to the first 31 password characters in a short time and up to the first 60 characters faster than the naive search method. We have implemented our attack and confirmed that 31 characters can be successfully recovered.
12 CFR 747.17 - Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding.
2010-01-01
... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding... INVESTIGATIONS Uniform Rules of Practice and Procedure § 747.17 Collateral attacks on adjudicatory proceeding. If an interlocutory appeal or collateral attack is brought in any court concerning all or any part of an...
Phase-remapping attack in practical quantum-key-distribution systems
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Fung, Chi-Hang Fred; Qi, Bing; Lo, Hoi-Kwong; Tamaki, Kiyoshi
2007-01-01
Quantum key distribution (QKD) can be used to generate secret keys between two distant parties. Even though QKD has been proven unconditionally secure against eavesdroppers with unlimited computation power, practical implementations of QKD may contain loopholes that may lead to the generated secret keys being compromised. In this paper, we propose a phase-remapping attack targeting two practical bidirectional QKD systems (the 'plug-and-play' system and the Sagnac system). We showed that if the users of the systems are unaware of our attack, the final key shared between them can be compromised in some situations. Specifically, we showed that, in the case of the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol with ideal single-photon sources, when the quantum bit error rate (QBER) is between 14.6% and 20%, our attack renders the final key insecure, whereas the same range of QBER values has been proved secure if the two users are unaware of our attack; also, we demonstrated three situations with realistic devices where positive key rates are obtained without the consideration of Trojan horse attacks but in fact no key can be distilled. We remark that our attack is feasible with only current technology. Therefore, it is very important to be aware of our attack in order to ensure absolute security. In finding our attack, we minimize the QBER over individual measurements described by a general POVM, which has some similarity with the standard quantum state discrimination problem
Effectiveness of the Call in Beach Volleyball Attacking Play
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Künzell Stefan
2014-12-01
Full Text Available In beach volleyball the setter has the opportunity to give her or his hitter a “call”. The call intends that the setter suggests to her or his partner where to place the attack in the opponent’s court. The effectiveness of a call is still unknown. We investigated the women’s and men’s Swiss National Beach Volleyball Championships in 2011 and analyzed 2185 attacks. We found large differences between female and male players. While men called in only 38.4% of attacks, women used calls in 85.5% of attacks. If the male players followed a given call, 63% of the attacks were successful. The success rate of attacks without any call was 55.8% and 47.6% when the call was ignored. These differences were not significant (χ2(2 = 4.55, p = 0.103. In women’s beach volleyball, the rate of successful attacks was 61.5% when a call was followed, 35% for attacks without a call, and 42.6% when a call was ignored. The differences were highly significant (χ2(2 = 23.42, p < 0.0005. Taking into account the findings of the present study, we suggested that the call was effective in women’s beach volleyball, while its effect in men’s game was unclear. Considering the quality of calls we indicate that there is a significant potential to increase the effectiveness of a call.
Shilling Attacks Detection in Recommender Systems Based on Target Item Analysis.
Zhou, Wei; Wen, Junhao; Koh, Yun Sing; Xiong, Qingyu; Gao, Min; Dobbie, Gillian; Alam, Shafiq
2015-01-01
Recommender systems are highly vulnerable to shilling attacks, both by individuals and groups. Attackers who introduce biased ratings in order to affect recommendations, have been shown to negatively affect collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms. Previous research focuses only on the differences between genuine profiles and attack profiles, ignoring the group characteristics in attack profiles. In this paper, we study the use of statistical metrics to detect rating patterns of attackers and group characteristics in attack profiles. Another question is that most existing detecting methods are model specific. Two metrics, Rating Deviation from Mean Agreement (RDMA) and Degree of Similarity with Top Neighbors (DegSim), are used for analyzing rating patterns between malicious profiles and genuine profiles in attack models. Building upon this, we also propose and evaluate a detection structure called RD-TIA for detecting shilling attacks in recommender systems using a statistical approach. In order to detect more complicated attack models, we propose a novel metric called DegSim' based on DegSim. The experimental results show that our detection model based on target item analysis is an effective approach for detecting shilling attacks.
Shilling Attacks Detection in Recommender Systems Based on Target Item Analysis
Zhou, Wei; Wen, Junhao; Koh, Yun Sing; Xiong, Qingyu; Gao, Min; Dobbie, Gillian; Alam, Shafiq
2015-01-01
Recommender systems are highly vulnerable to shilling attacks, both by individuals and groups. Attackers who introduce biased ratings in order to affect recommendations, have been shown to negatively affect collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms. Previous research focuses only on the differences between genuine profiles and attack profiles, ignoring the group characteristics in attack profiles. In this paper, we study the use of statistical metrics to detect rating patterns of attackers and group characteristics in attack profiles. Another question is that most existing detecting methods are model specific. Two metrics, Rating Deviation from Mean Agreement (RDMA) and Degree of Similarity with Top Neighbors (DegSim), are used for analyzing rating patterns between malicious profiles and genuine profiles in attack models. Building upon this, we also propose and evaluate a detection structure called RD-TIA for detecting shilling attacks in recommender systems using a statistical approach. In order to detect more complicated attack models, we propose a novel metric called DegSim’ based on DegSim. The experimental results show that our detection model based on target item analysis is an effective approach for detecting shilling attacks. PMID:26222882
Collaborative Attack Mitigation and Response: A survey
Steinberger, Jessica; Sperotto, Anna; Baier, Harald; Pras, Aiko
2015-01-01
Over recent years, network-based attacks have become to one of the top causes of network infrastructure and service outages. To counteract a network-based attack, an approach is to move mitigation from the target network to the networks of Internet Service Providers (ISP). However, it remains
A Unique Fatal Moose Attack Mimicking Homicide.
Gudmannsson, Petur; Berge, Johan; Druid, Henrik; Ericsson, Göran; Eriksson, Anders
2018-03-01
Fatalities caused by animal attacks are rare, but have the potential to mimic homicide. We present a case in which a moose attacked and killed a woman who was walking her dog in a forest. Autopsy showed widespread blunt trauma with a large laceration on one leg in which blades of grass were embedded. Flail chest was the cause of death. The case was initially conceived as homicide by means of a riding lawn mower. A review of the case by moose experts and analyses of biological trace material that proved to originate from moose, established the true source of injury. The dog probably provoked a moose, which, in response, stomped and gored the victim to death. The injuries resembled those previously reported from attacks by cattle and water buffalo. Fatal moose attacks constitute an extremely rare threat in boreal areas, but can be considered in traumatic deaths of unknown cause. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
The role of sleep in migraine attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Elaine Inamorato
1993-11-01
Full Text Available Migraine attacks may be precipitated by sleep deprivation or excessive sleep and sleep is also associated with relief of migraine attacks. In view of this variable relationship we studied the records of 159 consecutive outpatients of our Headache Unit. In 121 records there was reference to sleep involvement, in 55% by a single form and in 45% by more than one form. When only one form was related, relief was most common (70%. 30% of that group of patients had the migraine attack precipitated by sleep, 24% by deprivation and 6% by sleep excess. When the effects of sleep were multiple, these effects were as expected logically in 65%: «in accordance» group (e.g attack precipitated by sleep deprivation and relieved by sleep onset. In a second group, («conflicting» where the involvement was not logical, there were three different combinations of sleep involvement, possibly due to more than one pathophysiological mechanism.
Changes in vestibular evoked myogenic potentials after Meniere attacks.
Kuo, Shih-Wei; Yang, Ting-Hua; Young, Yi-Ho
2005-09-01
The aim of this study was to apply videonystagmography (VNG) and vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) tests to patients with Meniere attacks, to explore the mechanics of where saccular disorders may affect the semicircular canals. From January 2001 to December 2003, 12 consecutive patients with unilateral definite Meniere's disease with vertiginous attacks underwent VNG for recording spontaneous nystagmus, as well as VEMP tests. At the very beginning of the Meniere attack, the spontaneous nystagmus beat toward the lesion side in 5 patients (42%) and toward the healthy side in 7 patients (58%). Twenty-four hours later, only 6 patients (50%) showed spontaneous nystagmus beating toward the healthy side. Nevertheless, spontaneous nystagmus subsided in all patients within 48 hours. The VEMP test was performed within 24 hours of a Meniere attack; the VEMPs were normal in 4 patients and abnormal in 8 patients (67%). After 48 hours, 4 patients with initially abnormal VEMPs had resolution and return to normal VEMPs, and the other 4 patients still had absent VEMPs. Most patients (67%) with Meniere attacks revealed abnormal VEMPs, indicating that the saccule participates in a Meniere attack. This is an important idea that stimulates consideration of the mechanism of Meniere attacks.
Messaging Attacks on Android: Vulnerabilities and Intrusion Detection
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Khodor Hamandi
2015-01-01
Full Text Available Currently, Android is the leading mobile operating system in number of users worldwide. On the security side, Android has had significant challenges despite the efforts of the Android designers to provide a secure environment for apps. In this paper, we present numerous attacks targeting the messaging framework of the Android system. Our focus is on SMS, USSD, and the evolution of their associated security in Android and accordingly the development of related attacks. Also, we shed light on the Android elements that are responsible for these attacks. Furthermore, we present the architecture of an intrusion detection system (IDS that promises to thwart SMS messaging attacks. Our IDS shows a detection rate of 87.50% with zero false positives.
Can a Repeated Opt-Out Reminder mitigate hypothetical bias in discrete choice experiments?
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Alemu, Mohammed Hussen; Olsen, Søren Bøye
2018-01-01
In this paper, we test whether a Repeated Opt-Out Reminder (ROOR) can mitigate hypothetical bias in stated discrete choice experiments (DCE). The data originate from a field experiment concerning consumer preferences for a novel food product made from cricket flour. Utilising a between...
Defending networks against denial-of-service attacks
Gelenbe, Erol; Gellman, Michael; Loukas, George
2004-11-01
Denial of service attacks, viruses and worms are common tools for malicious adversarial behavior in networks. Experience shows that over the last few years several of these techniques have probably been used by governments to impair the Internet communications of various entities, and we can expect that these and other information warfare tools will be used increasingly as part of hostile behavior either independently, or in conjunction with other forms of attack in conventional or asymmetric warfare, as well as in other forms of malicious behavior. In this paper we concentrate on Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS) where one or more attackers generate flooding traffic and direct it from multiple sources towards a set of selected nodes or IP addresses in the Internet. We first briefly survey the literature on the subject, and discuss some examples of DDoS incidents. We then present a technique that can be used for DDoS protection based on creating islands of protection around a critical information infrastructure. This technique, that we call the CPN-DoS-DT (Cognitive Packet Networks DoS Defence Technique), creates a self-monitoring sub-network surrounding each critical infrastructure node. CPN-DoS-DT is triggered by a DDoS detection scheme, and generates control traffic from the objects of the DDoS attack to the islands of protection where DDOS packet flows are destroyed before they reach the critical infrastructure. We use mathematical modelling, simulation and experiments on our test-bed to show the positive and negative outcomes that may result from both the attack, and the CPN-DoS-DT protection mechanism, due to imperfect detection and false alarms.
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Wider, H.; Cametti, J.; Clusaz, A.; Devos, J.; VanGoethem, G.; Nguyen, H.; Sola, A.
1985-01-01
One aspect of fast reactor safety analysis consists of calculating the strongly coupled system of physical phenomena which contribute to the reactivity balance in hypothetical whole-core accidents: these phenomena are neutronics, fuel behaviour and heat transfer together with coolant thermohydraulics in single- and two-phase flow. Temperature variations in fuel, coolant and neighbouring structures induce, in fact, thermal reactivity feedbacks which are added up and put in the neutronics calculation to predict the neutron flux and the subsequent heat generation in the reactor. At this point a whole-core analysis code is necessary to examine for any hypothetical transient whether the various feedbacks result effectively in a negative balance, which is the basis condition to ensure stability and safety. The European Accident Code (EAC), developed at the Joint Research Centre of the CEC at Ispra (Italy), fulfills this objective. It is a modular informatics structure (quasi 2-D multichannel approach) aimed at collecting stand-alone computer codes of neutronics, fuel pin mechanics and hydrodynamics, developed both in national laboratories and in the JRC itself. EAC makes these modules interact with each other and produces results for these hypothetical accidents in terms of core damage and total energy release. 10 refs
Hypothetical Case and Scenario Description for International Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Williams, Adam David [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Osborn, Douglas [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Jones, Katherine A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Kalinina, Elena Arkadievna [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Cohn, Brian [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Thomas, Maikael A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Parks, Mancel Jordan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Parks, Ethan Rutledge [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Mohagheghi, Amir H. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2017-12-01
To support more rigorous analysis on global security issues at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), there is a need to develop realistic data sets without using "real" data or identifying "real" vulnerabilities, hazards or geopolitically embarrassing shortcomings. In response, an interdisciplinary team led by subject matter experts in SNL's Center for Global Security and Cooperation (CGSC) developed a hypothetical case description. This hypothetical case description assigns various attributes related to international SNF transportation that are representative, illustrative and indicative of "real" characteristics of "real" countries. There is no intent to identify any particular country and any similarity with specific real-world events is purely coincidental. To support the goal of this report to provide a case description (and set of scenarios of concern) for international SNF transportation inclusive of as much "real-world" complexity as possible -- without crossing over into politically sensitive or classified information -- this SAND report provides a subject matter expert-validated (and detailed) description of both technical and political influences on the international transportation of spent nuclear fuel. [PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Lu, Yichen; Friedman, Rachel; Kushner, Nicholas; Doling, Amy; Thomas, Lawrence; Touzjian, Neal; Starnbach, Michael; Lieberman, Judy
2000-07-01
Bacillus anthrax lethal toxin can be engineered to deliver foreign proteins to the cytosol for antigen presentation to CD8 T cells. Vaccination with modified toxins carrying 8-9 amino acid peptide epitopes induces protective immunity in mice. To evaluate whether large protein antigens can be used with this system, recombinant constructs encoding several HIV antigens up to 500 amino acids were produced. These candidate HIV vaccines are safe in animals and induce CD8 T cells in mice. Constructs encoding gag p24 and nef stimulate gag-specific CD4 proliferation and a secondary cytotoxic T lymphocyte response in HIV-infected donor peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro. These results lay the foundation for future clinical vaccine studies.
Svetoch, E A; Borzilov, A I; Eruslanov, B V; Korobova, O V; Kombarova, T I; Levchuk, V P; Teĭmurazov, M G; Stepanshin, Iu G; Marinin, L I; Diatlov, I A
2011-01-01
The therapeutic efficacy of enterocin S760, a broad spectrum antimicrobial peptide produced by Enterococcus faecium LWP760 was tested on mice infected with Bacillus anthracis M-71 to induce anthrax (second Tsenkovsky's vaccine). Intraperitoneal four-, two- or one-fold administration of the peptide in a dose of 25 mg/kg for 10 days for prophylactic (1 hour after the contamination) and therapeutic (24 hours after the contamination) purposes prevented or cured the infection in 90-100% of the mice versus the 100-percent lethality in the control (untreated animals). The antimicrobial activity of enterocin S760 against B. anthracis M-71 in vivo correlated with activity in vitro. Enterocin S760 is considered a novel promising antimicrobial for the treatment of grampositive and gramnegative infections.
Performance Improvement of Power Analysis Attacks on AES with Encryption-Related Signals
Lee, You-Seok; Lee, Young-Jun; Han, Dong-Guk; Kim, Ho-Won; Kim, Hyoung-Nam
A power analysis attack is a well-known side-channel attack but the efficiency of the attack is frequently degraded by the existence of power components, irrelative to the encryption included in signals used for the attack. To enhance the performance of the power analysis attack, we propose a preprocessing method based on extracting encryption-related parts from the measured power signals. Experimental results show that the attacks with the preprocessed signals detect correct keys with much fewer signals, compared to the conventional power analysis attacks.
Mass casualty response in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Roy, Nobhojit; Kapil, Vikas; Subbarao, Italo; Ashkenazi, Isaac
2011-12-01
The November 26-29, 2008, terrorist attacks on Mumbai were unique in its international media attention, multiple strategies of attack, and the disproportionate national fear they triggered. Everyone was a target: random members of the general population, iconic targets, and foreigners alike were under attack by the terrorists. A retrospective, descriptive study of the distribution of terror victims to various city hospitals, critical radius, surge capacity, and the nature of specialized medical interventions was gathered through police, legal reports, and interviews with key informants. Among the 172 killed and 304 injured people, about four-fifths were men (average age, 33 years) and 12% were foreign nationals. The case-fatality ratio for this event was 2.75:1, and the mortality rate among those who were critically injured was 12%. A total of 38.5% of patients arriving at the hospitals required major surgical intervention. Emergency surgical operations were mainly orthopedic (external fixation for compound fractures) and general surgical interventions (abdominal explorations for penetrating bullet/shrapnel injuries). The use of heavy-duty automatic weapons, explosives, hostages, and arson in these terrorist attacks alerts us to new challenges to medical counterterrorism response. The need for building central medical control for a coordinated response and for strengthening public hospital capacity are lessons learned for future attacks. These particular terrorist attacks had global consequences, in terms of increased security checks and alerts for and fears of further similar "Mumbai-style" attacks. The resilience of the citizens of Mumbai is a critical measure of the long-term effects of terror attacks.
1994 Attack Team Workshop: Phase II - Full-Scale Offensive Fog Attack Tests
National Research Council Canada - National Science Library
Scheffey, Joseph
1997-01-01
.... This report demonstrates the benefits of using a medium angle fog stream to control the overhead fire threat when conducting a direct attack on a growing/steady state fire where the sea of the fire is obstructed...
Network overload due to massive attacks
Kornbluth, Yosef; Barach, Gilad; Tuchman, Yaakov; Kadish, Benjamin; Cwilich, Gabriel; Buldyrev, Sergey V.
2018-05-01
We study the cascading failure of networks due to overload, using the betweenness centrality of a node as the measure of its load following the Motter and Lai model. We study the fraction of survived nodes at the end of the cascade pf as a function of the strength of the initial attack, measured by the fraction of nodes p that survive the initial attack for different values of tolerance α in random regular and Erdös-Renyi graphs. We find the existence of a first-order phase-transition line pt(α ) on a p -α plane, such that if p pt , pf is large and the giant component of the network is still present. Exactly at pt, the function pf(p ) undergoes a first-order discontinuity. We find that the line pt(α ) ends at a critical point (pc,αc) , in which the cascading failures are replaced by a second-order percolation transition. We find analytically the average betweenness of nodes with different degrees before and after the initial attack, we investigate their roles in the cascading failures, and we find a lower bound for pt(α ) . We also study the difference between localized and random attacks.
Novel mechanism of network protection against the new generation of cyber attacks
Milovanov, Alexander; Bukshpun, Leonid; Pradhan, Ranjit
2012-06-01
A new intelligent mechanism is presented to protect networks against the new generation of cyber attacks. This mechanism integrates TCP/UDP/IP protocol stack protection and attacker/intruder deception to eliminate existing TCP/UDP/IP protocol stack vulnerabilities. It allows to detect currently undetectable, highly distributed, low-frequency attacks such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, coordinated attacks, botnet, and stealth network reconnaissance. The mechanism also allows insulating attacker/intruder from the network and redirecting the attack to a simulated network acting as a decoy. As a result, network security personnel gain sufficient time to defend the network and collect the attack information. The presented approach can be incorporated into wireless or wired networks that require protection against known and the new generation of cyber attacks.
2008-01-01
suicide attacks may include the use of Sarin gas, Anthrax, or Polonium 210 . Incidental events such as the postal letter to Senator Daschle that...occurred in Washington, D.C. in October 2001 and the use of Polonium 210 against Alexander Litvinenko in November 2006 show the potential of future...the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and proven to be effective in stopping life-threatening hemorrhage at the time of the publication of the
Software test attacks to break mobile and embedded devices
Hagar, Jon Duncan
2013-01-01
Address Errors before Users Find Them Using a mix-and-match approach, Software Test Attacks to Break Mobile and Embedded Devices presents an attack basis for testing mobile and embedded systems. Designed for testers working in the ever-expanding world of ""smart"" devices driven by software, the book focuses on attack-based testing that can be used by individuals and teams. The numerous test attacks show you when a software product does not work (i.e., has bugs) and provide you with information about the software product under test. The book guides you step by step starting with the basics. It
Modeling attacking of high skills volleyball players
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Vladimir Gamaliy
2014-12-01
Full Text Available Purpose: to determine the model indicators of technical and tactical actions in the attack highly skilled volleyball players. Material and Methods: the study used statistical data of major international competitions: Olympic Games – 2012 World Championships – 2010, World League – 2010–2014 European Championship – 2010–2014. A total of 130 analyzed games. Methods were used: analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature, analysis of competitive activity highly skilled volleyball players, teacher observation, modeling technical and tactical actions in attacking highly skilled volleyball players. Results: it was found that the largest volume application of technical and tactical actions in the attack belongs to the group tactics «supple movement», whose indicator is 21,3%. The smallest amount of application belongs to the group tactics «flight level» model whose indicators is 5,4%, the efficiency of 3,4%, respectively. It is found that the power service in the jump from model parameters used in 51,6% of cases, the planning targets – 21,7% and 4,4% planning to reduce. Attacks performed with the back line, on model parameters used in the amount of 20,8% efficiency –13,7%. Conclusions: we prove that the performance of technical and tactical actions in the attack can be used as model in the control system of training and competitive process highly skilled volleyball players
Sleep Deprivation Attack Detection in Wireless Sensor Network
Bhattasali, Tapalina; Chaki, Rituparna; Sanyal, Sugata
2012-01-01
Deployment of sensor network in hostile environment makes it mainly vulnerable to battery drainage attacks because it is impossible to recharge or replace the battery power of sensor nodes. Among different types of security threats, low power sensor nodes are immensely affected by the attacks which cause random drainage of the energy level of sensors, leading to death of the nodes. The most dangerous type of attack in this category is sleep deprivation, where target of the intruder is to maxi...
Calcium Supplements: A Risk Factor for Heart Attack?
... factor for heart attack? I've read that calcium supplements may increase the risk of heart attack. ... D. Some doctors think it's possible that taking calcium supplements may increase your risk of a heart ...
Using the Domain Name System to Thwart Automated Client-Based Attacks
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Taylor, Curtis R [ORNL; Shue, Craig A [ORNL
2011-09-01
On the Internet, attackers can compromise systems owned by other people and then use these systems to launch attacks automatically. When attacks such as phishing or SQL injections are successful, they can have negative consequences including server downtime and the loss of sensitive information. Current methods to prevent such attacks are limited in that they are application-specific, or fail to block attackers. Phishing attempts can be stopped with email filters, but if the attacker manages to successfully bypass these filters, then the user must determine if the email is legitimate or not. Unfortunately, they often are unable to do so. Since attackers have a low success rate, they attempt to compensate for it in volume. In order to have this high throughput, attackers take shortcuts and break protocols. We use this knowledge to address these issues by implementing a system that can detect malicious activity and use it to block attacks. If the client fails to follow proper procedure, they can be classified as an attacker. Once an attacker has been discovered, they will be isolated and monitored. This can be accomplished using existing software in Ubuntu Linux applications, along with our custom wrapper application. After running the system and seeing its performance on three popular Web browsers Chromium, Firefox and Internet Explorer as well as two popular email clients, Thunderbird and Evolution, we found that not only is this system conceivable, it is effective and has low overhead.
Analysis of initial events following hypothetical criticality of a transport flask
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Barbry, F.; Bonhomme, C.; Brown, M.L.; Hague, P.; Mather, D.J.; Shaw, P.M.
1984-01-01
This report deals with the estimation of possible consequences, eg energy release, temperatures reached etc, of such a hypothetical accident in a particular notional transport package design. This particular study examines the situation if criticality occurs during unloading or refilling of a PWR flask. In the first instance, an idealised model has been chosen in order to develop the calculational techniques; it is not initself a realistic accident representation
Multilevel Modeling of Distributed Denial of Service Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Katarzyna Mazur
2016-01-01
Full Text Available The growing popularity of wireless sensor networks increases the risk of security attacks. One of the most common and dangerous types of attack that takes place these days in any electronic society is a distributed denial of service attack. Due to the resource constraint nature of mobile sensors, DDoS attacks have become a major threat to its stability. In this paper, we established a model of a structural health monitoring network, being disturbed by one of the most common types of DDoS attacks, the flooding attack. Through a set of simulations, we explore the scope of flood-based DDoS attack problem, assessing the performance and the lifetime of the network under the attack condition. To conduct our research, we utilized the Quality of Protection Modeling Language. With the proposed approach, it was possible to examine numerous network configurations, parameters, attack options, and scenarios. The results of the carefully performed multilevel analysis allowed us to identify a new kind of DDoS attack, the delayed distributed denial of service, by the authors, referred to as DDDoS attack. Multilevel approach to DDoS attack analysis confirmed that, examining endangered environments, it is significant to take into account many characteristics at once, just to not overlook any important aspect.
DeTrano, Alexander; Karimi, Naghmeh; Karri, Ramesh; Guo, Xiaofei; Carlet, Claude; Guilley, Sylvain
2015-01-01
Masking countermeasures, used to thwart side-channel attacks, have been shown to be vulnerable to mask-extraction attacks. State-of-the-art mask-extraction attacks on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm target S-Box recomputation schemes but have not been applied to scenarios where S-Boxes are precomputed offline. We propose an attack targeting precomputed S-Boxes stored in nonvolatile memory. Our attack targets AES implemented in software protected by a low entropy masking scheme and recovers the masks with 91% success rate. Recovering the secret key requires fewer power traces (in fact, by at least two orders of magnitude) compared to a classical second-order attack. Moreover, we show that this attack remains viable in a noisy environment or with a reduced number of leakage points. Eventually, we specify a method to enhance the countermeasure by selecting a suitable coset of the masks set. PMID:26491717
Quick Reference: Cyber Attacks Awareness and Prevention Method for Home Users
Haydar Teymourlouei
2015-01-01
It is important to take security measures to protect your computer information, reduce identify theft, and prevent from malicious cyber-attacks. With cyber-attacks on the continuous rise, people need to understand and learn ways to prevent from these attacks. Cyber-attack is an important factor to be considered if one is to be able to protect oneself from malicious attacks. Without proper security measures, most computer technology would hinder home users more than such t...
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Meyer, P.D.
1993-12-01
This report provides an analysis of infiltration and percolation at a hypothetical low-level waste (LLW) disposal facility was carried out. The analysis was intended to illustrate general issues of concern in assessing the performance of LLW disposal facilities. Among the processes considered in the analysis were precipitation, runoff, information, evaporation, transpiration, and redistribution. The hypothetical facility was located in a humid environment characterized by frequent and often intense precipitation events. The facility consisted of a series of concrete vaults topped by a multilayer cover. Cover features included a sloping soil surface to promote runoff, plant growth to minimize erosion and promote transportation, a sloping clay layer, and a sloping capillary barrier. The analysis within the root zone was carried out using a one-dimensional, transient simulation of water flow. Below the root zone, the analysis was primarily two-dimensional and steady-state
Structure of the conserved hypothetical protein MAL13P1.257 from Plasmodium falciparum
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Holmes, Margaret A.; Buckner, Frederick S.; Van Voorhis, Wesley C.; Mehlin, Christopher; Boni, Erica; Earnest, Thomas N.; DeTitta, George; Luft, Joseph; Lauricella, Angela; Anderson, Lori; Kalyuzhniy, Oleksandr; Zucker, Frank; Schoenfeld, Lori W.; Hol, Wim G. J.; Merritt, Ethan A.
2006-01-01
The crystal structure of a conserved hypothetical protein, MAL13P1.257 from P. falciparum, has been determined at 2.17 Å resolution. The structure represents a new protein fold and is the first structural representative for Pfam sequence family PF05907. The structure of a conserved hypothetical protein, PlasmoDB sequence MAL13P1.257 from Plasmodium falciparum, Pfam sequence family PF05907, has been determined as part of the structural genomics effort of the Structural Genomics of Pathogenic Protozoa consortium. The structure was determined by multiple-wavelength anomalous dispersion at 2.17 Å resolution. The structure is almost entirely β-sheet; it consists of 15 β-strands and one short 3 10 -helix and represents a new protein fold. The packing of the two monomers in the asymmetric unit indicates that the biological unit may be a dimer.
A Strategic Analysis of Information Sharing Among Cyber Attackers
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kjell Hausken
2015-10-01
Full Text Available We build a game theory model where the market design is such that one firm invests in security to defend against cyber attacks by two hackers. The firm has an asset, which is allocated between the three market participants dependent on their contest success. Each hacker chooses an optimal attack, and they share information with each other about the firm’s vulnerabilities. Each hacker prefers to receive information, but delivering information gives competitive advantage to the other hacker. We find that each hacker’s attack and information sharing are strategic complements while one hacker’s attack and the other hacker’s information sharing are strategic substitutes. As the firm’s unit defense cost increases, the attack is inverse U-shaped and reaches zero, while the firm’s defense and profit decrease, and the hackers’ information sharing and profit increase. The firm’s profit increases in the hackers’ unit cost of attack, while the hackers’ information sharing and profit decrease. Our analysis also reveals the interesting result that the cumulative attack level of the hackers is not affected by the effectiveness of information sharing between them and moreover, is also unaffected by the intensity of joint information sharing. We also find that as the effectiveness of information sharing between hackers increases relative to the investment in attack, the firm’s investment in cyber security defense and profit are constant, the hackers’ investments in attacks decrease, and information sharing levels and hacker profits increase. In contrast, as the intensity of joint information sharing increases, while the firm’s investment in cyber security defense and profit remain constant, the hackers’ investments in attacks increase, and the hackers’ information sharing levels and profits decrease. Increasing the firm’s asset causes all the variables to increase linearly, except information sharing which is constant. We extend
Strengthening Crypto-1 Cipher Against Algebraic Attacks
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Farah Afianti
2015-08-01
Full Text Available In the last few years, several studies addressed the problem of data security in Mifare Classic. One of its weaknesses is the low random number quality. This causes SAT solver attacks to have lower complexity. In order to strengthen Crypto-1 against SAT solver attacks, a modification of the feedback function with better cryptographic properties is proposed. It applies a primitive polynomial companion matrix. SAT solvers cannot directly attack the feedback shift register that uses the modified Boolean feedback function, the register has to be split into smaller groups. Experimental testing showed that the amount of memory and CPU time needed were highest when attacking the modified Crypto-1 using the modified feedback function and the original filter function. In addition, another modified Crypto-1, using the modified feedback function and a modified filter function, had the lowest percentage of revealed variables. It can be concluded that the security strength and performance of the modified Crypto-1 using the modified feedback function and the modified filter function are better than those of the original Crypto-1.
A Stochastic Framework for Quantitative Analysis of Attack-Defense Trees
Jhawar, Ravi; Lounis, Karim; Mauw, Sjouke
2016-01-01
Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly complex, practically sophisticated and organized. Losses due to such attacks are important, varying from the loss of money to business reputation spoilage. Therefore, there is a great need for potential victims of cyber attacks to deploy security solutions
Vulnerability of water supply systems to cyber-physical attacks
Galelli, Stefano; Taormina, Riccardo; Tippenhauer, Nils; Salomons, Elad; Ostfeld, Avi
2016-04-01
The adoption of smart meters, distributed sensor networks and industrial control systems has largely improved the level of service provided by modern water supply systems. Yet, the progressive computerization exposes these critical infrastructures to cyber-physical attacks, which are generally aimed at stealing critical information (cyber-espionage) or causing service disruption (denial-of-service). Recent statistics show that water and power utilities are undergoing frequent attacks - such as the December power outage in Ukraine - , attracting the interest of operators and security agencies. Taking the security of Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) as domain of study, our work seeks to characterize the vulnerability of WDNs to cyber-physical attacks, so as to conceive adequate defense mechanisms. We extend the functionality of EPANET, which models hydraulic and water quality processes in pressurized pipe networks, to include a cyber layer vulnerable to repeated attacks. Simulation results on a medium-scale network show that several hydraulic actuators (valves and pumps, for example) can be easily attacked, causing both service disruption - i.e., water spillage and loss of pressure - and structural damages - e.g., pipes burst. Our work highlights the need for adequate countermeasures, such as attacks detection and reactive control systems.
Security Measurement for Unknown Threats Based on Attack Preferences
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Lihua Yin
2018-01-01
Full Text Available Security measurement matters to every stakeholder in network security. It provides security practitioners the exact security awareness. However, most of the works are not applicable to the unknown threat. What is more, existing efforts on security metric mainly focus on the ease of certain attack from a theoretical point of view, ignoring the “likelihood of exploitation.” To help administrator have a better understanding, we analyze the behavior of attackers who exploit the zero-day vulnerabilities and predict their attack timing. Based on the prediction, we propose a method of security measurement. In detail, we compute the optimal attack timing from the perspective of attacker, using a long-term game to estimate the risk of being found and then choose the optimal timing based on the risk and profit. We design a learning strategy to model the information sharing mechanism among multiattackers and use spatial structure to model the long-term process. After calculating the Nash equilibrium for each subgame, we consider the likelihood of being attacked for each node as the security metric result. The experiment results show the efficiency of our approach.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Peko Vujović
2013-07-01
Full Text Available The subject of this paper is the recording of predefined hypothetical significant predictors for achieving goals in modern football. Concretely, the object of this study is the mode of play of top teams and individual characteristics of ellite players and comparative analysis of the last two world championships. The aim of the research was to determine the qualitative and quantitative differences between the successfully completed attacks on the World Cup in Germany in 2006 and South Africa in 2010, using a pre-defined variables. Task of the paper is to identify the set of variables that represent a good predictor for efficacy in attack phase, and which tendencies of play can be seen using of variables recorded on the sample matches in the last two world championships. The steps of work are the followers. To determine whether there are a significant differences in the positions of the players in the team, who scored a goals and assisted on two observed world championships. To determine whether there are a significant differences in the time intervals in which the goals was scored in the two above-mentioned competition. To determine whether there are a significant differences in the number of contacts with the ball at players just before successfuly implementation of attack on the mentioned competitions. And to determine whether there are a significant differences in the positions on the ground from which the goal has been scored, and from which is assisted for the goal. On the basis on the processed variables, the conclusions which have a foothold in the relevant and reliable parameters were drawn.
The Need for Situational Awareness in a CBRNE Attack
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jordan Nelms
2011-02-01
Full Text Available Six years before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and eight years before the United States went to war with Saddam Hussein for his alleged concealment of chemical and biological weapons caches, Japan's Tokyo subway was struck by one of the most vicious terror attacks in modern history. The 1995 Sarin terrorist attack represents an important case study for post-9/11 emergency managers because it highlights the key issues first responders and public health officials face when confronted with a CBRNE ('C'hemical, 'B'iological, 'R'adiological, 'N'uclear, 'E'xplosive mass-casualty attack.
Cyber attack analysis on cyber-physical systems: Detectability, severity, and attenuation strategy
Kwon, Cheolhyeon
Security of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) against malicious cyber attacks is an important yet challenging problem. Since most cyber attacks happen in erratic ways, it is usually intractable to describe and diagnose them systematically. Motivated by such difficulties, this thesis presents a set of theories and algorithms for a cyber-secure architecture of the CPS within the control theoretic perspective. Here, instead of identifying a specific cyber attack model, we are focused on analyzing the system's response during cyber attacks. Firstly, we investigate the detectability of the cyber attacks from the system's behavior under cyber attacks. Specifically, we conduct a study on the vulnerabilities in the CPS's monitoring system against the stealthy cyber attack that is carefully designed to avoid being detected by its detection scheme. After classifying three kinds of cyber attacks according to the attacker's ability to compromise the system, we derive the necessary and sufficient conditions under which such stealthy cyber attacks can be designed to cause the unbounded estimation error while not being detected. Then, the analytical design method of the optimal stealthy cyber attack that maximizes the estimation error is developed. The proposed stealthy cyber attack analysis is demonstrated with illustrative examples on Air Traffic Control (ATC) system and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) navigation system applications. Secondly, in an attempt to study the CPSs' vulnerabilities in more detail, we further discuss a methodology to identify potential cyber threats inherent in the given CPSs and quantify the attack severity accordingly. We then develop an analytical algorithm to test the behavior of the CPS under various cyber attack combinations. Compared to a numerical approach, the analytical algorithm enables the prediction of the most effective cyber attack combinations without computing the severity of all possible attack combinations, thereby greatly reducing the
Consciousness in Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder
Reuber, M.; Kurthen, M.
2011-01-01
Non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD) is one of the most important differential diagnoses of epilepsy. Impairment of\\ud consciousness is the key feature of non-epileptic attacks (NEAs). The first half of this review summarises the clinical research\\ud literature featuring observations relating to consciousness in NEAD. The second half places this evidence in the wider context\\ud of the recent discourse on consciousness in neuroscience and the philosophy of mind. We argue that studies of consci...
Gait biometrics under spoofing attacks: an experimental investigation
Hadid, Abdenour; Ghahramani, Mohammad; Kellokumpu, Vili; Feng, Xiaoyi; Bustard, John; Nixon, Mark
2015-11-01
Gait is a relatively biometric modality which has a precious advantage over other modalities, such as iris and voice, in that it can be easily captured from a distance. Although it has recently become a topic of great interest in biometric research, there has been little investigation into gait spoofing attacks where a person tries to imitate the clothing or walking style of someone else. We recently analyzed for the first time the effects of spoofing attacks on silhouette-based gait biometric systems and showed that it was indeed possible to spoof gait biometric systems by clothing impersonation and the deliberate selection of a target that has a similar build to the attacker. To gain deeper insight into the performance of current gait biometric systems under spoofing attacks, we provide a thorough investigation on how clothing can be used to spoof a target and evaluate the performance of two state-of-the-art recognition methods on a gait spoofing database recorded at the University of Southampton. Furthermore, we describe and evaluate an initial solution coping with gait spoofing attacks. The obtained results are very promising and point out interesting findings which can be used for future investigations.
Learning from history: The Glasgow Airport terrorist attack.
Crichton, Gillies
Glasgow Airport was the target of a terrorist attack on 30th June, 2007. Many people within Scotland had come to believe that Scotland was immune from terrorism. This perception was in large part informed by Scotland's experience during the protracted Troubles in Northern Ireland, during which the Provisional Irish Republican Army's mainland bombing campaign focused on targets in England, sparing both Scotland and Wales. While Glasgow Airport did not expect such an attack to take place, meticulous planning, organising and testing of plans had taken place to mitigate the unlikely event of such an attack. The attack stands up as a shining example of robust business continuity management, where the airport reopened for business as usual in less than 24 hours from the time of the attack. Little is known about how the airport handled the situation in conjunction with other responding agencies as people tend to want to focus on high-profile disasters only. Yet countless such incidents are happening worldwide on a daily basis, in which there are excellent learning opportunities, and, taken in the spirit of converting hindsight into foresight, the likelihood of similar incidents could potentially be reduced in the future.
Heart Attack Payment - Hospital
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Payment for heart attack patients measure – provider data. This data set includes provider data for payments associated with a 30-day episode of care for heart...
Stability Analysis of an Advanced Persistent Distributed Denial-of-Service Attack Dynamical Model
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Chunming Zhang
2018-01-01
Full Text Available The advanced persistent distributed denial-of-service (APDDoS attack is a fairly significant threat to cybersecurity. Formulating a mathematical model for accurate prediction of APDDoS attack is important. However, the dynamical model of APDDoS attack has barely been reported. This paper first proposes a novel dynamical model of APDDoS attack to understand the mechanisms of APDDoS attack. Then, the attacked threshold of this model is calculated. The global stability of attack-free and attacked equilibrium are both proved. The influences of the model’s parameters on attacked equilibrium are discussed. Eventually, the main conclusions of the theoretical analysis are examined through computer simulations.
Interpersonal deviance and consequent social impact in hypothetically schizophrenia-prone men.
Zborowski, M J; Garske, J P
1993-08-01
Interpersonal deviance is central to the theory of and research on schizotypal psychopathology. The present study investigated interpersonal deviance and its corresponding impact among hypothetically schizotypic, or schizophrenia-prone, men, defined by high scores on the Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation (Per-Mag) Scale. In a videotaped interview, high-scoring Ss relative to control Ss were rated as more odd (p scale and suggest that interpersonal factors may influence the eventual adjustment of high-scoring individuals.
Inflammation and neuropathic attacks in hereditary brachial plexus neuropathy
Klein, C; Dyck, P; Friedenberg, S; Burns, T; Windebank, A; Dyck, P
2002-01-01
Objective: To study the role of mechanical, infectious, and inflammatory factors inducing neuropathic attacks in hereditary brachial plexus neuropathy (HBPN), an autosomal dominant disorder characterised by attacks of pain and weakness, atrophy, and sensory alterations of the shoulder girdle and upper limb muscles. Methods: Four patients from separate kindreds with HBPN were evaluated. Upper extremity nerve biopsies were obtained during attacks from a person of each kindred. In situ hybridisation for common viruses in nerve tissue and genetic testing for a hereditary tendency to pressure palsies (HNPP; tomaculous neuropathy) were undertaken. Two patients treated with intravenous methyl prednisolone had serial clinical and electrophysiological examinations. One patient was followed prospectively through pregnancy and during the development of a stereotypic attack after elective caesarean delivery. Results: Upper extremity nerve biopsies in two patients showed prominent perivascular inflammatory infiltrates with vessel wall disruption. Nerve in situ hybridisation for viruses was negative. There were no tomaculous nerve changes. In two patients intravenous methyl prednisolone ameliorated symptoms (largely pain), but with tapering of steroid dose, signs and symptoms worsened. Elective caesarean delivery did not prevent a typical postpartum attack. Conclusions: Inflammation, probably immune, appears pathogenic for some if not all attacks of HBPN. Immune modulation may be useful in preventing or reducing the neuropathic attacks, although controlled trials are needed to establish efficacy, as correction of the mutant gene is still not possible. The genes involved in immune regulation may be candidates for causing HBPN disorders. PMID:12082044
Heart Attack Payment - National
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Payment for heart attack patients measure – national data. This data set includes national-level data for payments associated with a 30-day episode of care for heart...
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Payment for heart attack patients measure – state data. This data set includes state-level data for payments associated with a 30-day episode of care for heart...
Choosing What to Protect When Attacker Resources and Asset Valuations are Uncertain
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kjell Hausken
2014-01-01
Full Text Available The situation has been modelled where the attacker's resources are unknown to the defender. Protecting assets presupposes that the defender has some information on the attacker's resource capabilities. An attacker targets one of two assets. The attacker's resources and valuations of these assets are drawn probabilistically. We specify when the isoutility curves are upward sloping (the defender prefers to invest less in defense, thus leading to higher probabilities of success for attacks on both assets or downward sloping (e.g. when one asset has a low value or high unit defense cost. This stands in contrast to earlier research and results from the uncertainty regarding the level of the attacker's resources. We determine which asset the attacker targets depending on his type, unit attack costs, the contest intensity, and investment in defense. A two stage game is considered, where the defender moves first and the attacker moves second. When both assets are equivalent and are treated equivalently by both players, an interior equilibrium exists when the contest intensity is low, and a corner equilibrium with no defense exists when the contest intensity is large and the attacker holds large resources. Defense efforts are inverse U shaped in the attacker's resources. (original abstract
Development of Cyber-attack Risk Assessment Model for Nuclear Power Plants
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Park, Jong Woo; Lee, Seung Jun
2017-01-01
In this work, a risk evaluation method to identify significant cyber-attack scenarios and important components which should be defensed was proposed based on the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) method which is widely used for evaluating risk of NPPs. NPPs adopting digital systems have been facing the risk of cyber-attacks. To develop efficient and reasonable defense strategy, it is required to identify significant cyber-attack scenarios and important components because there are huge number of critical digital assets in an NPP. By evaluating the risk of cyber-attack, the risk-informed defense strategies against cyber-attack could be suggested. In this work, the method to identify important cyber-attack scenarios and to evaluate the quantitative risk caused by cyber-attacks was proposed. For a future study, more feasible scenarios will be analyzed and additional modifications will be made in the model if necessary.
Analysis of Network Vulnerability Under Joint Node and Link Attacks
Li, Yongcheng; Liu, Shumei; Yu, Yao; Cao, Ting
2018-03-01
The security problem of computer network system is becoming more and more serious. The fundamental reason is that there are security vulnerabilities in the network system. Therefore, it’s very important to identify and reduce or eliminate these vulnerabilities before they are attacked. In this paper, we are interested in joint node and link attacks and propose a vulnerability evaluation method based on the overall connectivity of the network to defense this attack. Especially, we analyze the attack cost problem from the attackers’ perspective. The purpose is to find the set of least costs for joint links and nodes, and their deletion will lead to serious network connection damage. The simulation results show that the vulnerable elements obtained from the proposed method are more suitable for the attacking idea of the malicious persons in joint node and link attack. It is easy to find that the proposed method has more realistic protection significance.
Semantic Identification Attacks on Web Browsing
Guha, Neel
2016-01-01
We introduce a Semantic Identification Attack, in which an adversary uses semantic signals about the pages visited in one browsing session to identify other browsing sessions launched by the same user. This attack allows an adver- sary to determine if two browsing sessions originate from the same user regardless of any measures taken by the user to disguise their browser or network. We use the MSNBC Anonymous Browsing data set, which contains a large set of user visits (labeled by category) t...