Digital environment evolution modelling and simulation
- Authors: Bengis, Merrick Kenna
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Computer science , Computer simulation , Information technology
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/458387 , uj:40713
- Description: Ph.D. (Computer Science and Software Engineering) , Abstract: The concurrent growth of the human population and advancement in technology, together with ever-changing social interaction, has led to the creation of a large, abstract and complex entity known as the Digital Environment. In the current world, the Digital Environment, which is continually growing and ever-evolving, is now almost unrecognisable from what it started off as nearly 50 years ago. The human population has grown rapidly in the past century, growing to nearly 8 billion people in 2019, already double the population from 1975. This has created a world with more people than ever before, all of whom have a need to communicate with others, share information and form communities. Technology also experienced unprecedented advancements in this time, with important inventions such as electricity, computational machines, and communication networks. These technologies grew and allowed for people around the world to communicate as if they were next to each other, facilitated by the advent of the Internet. Presently, people all around the world are creating, sharing, and consuming information, while forming online communities, and also growing the physical footprint of the Internet and all connected devices. The intersection of these events formed the Digital Environment: an amalgamation of the physical, digital and cyber worlds. It is evident how rapidly and completely the Digital Environment has evolved in the past few decades, so what is in store for the future? Can people prepare for what the Digital Environment is to become and possibly even change its course? This thesis proposes a novel model for the simulation and prediction of the evolution of the Digital Environment: the Digital Environment Evolution Modelling and Simulation model or DEEv-MoS. The DEEv-MoS model proposes a method that makes use of well-developed and commonly used fields of research to create a holistic simulation of the Digital Environment and its many parts. Through the use of intelligent agents, entity component systems and machine learning, accurate simulations can be run to determine how the future digital landscape will grow and change. This allows researchers to further understand what the future holds and prepare for any eventualities, whether they are positive or negative...
- Full Text:
VAIS : a virtual distributed artificial immune system for the protection of critical information infrastructure
- Authors: Bengis, Merrick Kenna
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Artificial immune systems , Multiagent systems , Computer security , Data protection
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/84369 , uj:19211
- Description: Abstract: Critical Information Infrastructure is an important part of any country’s functioning. It includes most if not all of the country’s important systems and subsystems that allow the country to operate effectively and provide critical services to its citizens. These services comprise important infrastructure such as telecommunications and energy, without which the country would grind to a halt and fall into chaos. The advent and widespread use of the Internet has created a world in which information is made easily accessible worldwide. Much of this information is private however, and needs to be protected from exploitation. Criminals have devised means to circumvent the privacy of information so as to interfere with the information, with the intention of possibly damaging or making this information unavailable. This poses a great threat with regard to the security of Critical Infrastructures, as attacks on these infrastructures may cause significant damage to them. Malware and other threats can be used by criminals to compromise a targeted system in various ways. Critical Information Infrastructure Protection is aimed at the protection of a country’s valuable Critical Infrastructure and must be focused on a comprehensive approach that aims to protect CIs as a single system made up of various smaller subsystems. A possible approach for achieving this protection is the creation of an artificial immune system capable of acting like the biological immune system in terms of detecting potential threats. This AIS would need to make use of various immunological models to detect and deal with unknown threats, and be made up of learning agents capable of adaption and learning, thus allowing the system to react to new threats and remember old ones. The AIS would have to be implemented in a manner allowing it to operate independently of the operating system so that it is itself protected from attacks and infection. In this dissertation, the VAIS model is introduced for the creation of an AIS capable of protecting a computer system from both known and unknown threats. The VAIS model is designed to be deployed across a massively distributed computer system for the protection of critical information infrastructures. The VAIS model is a layered model broken up into three main layers: the Immune Process layer, the Immune Agent layer, and the Distributed Agent Management Network. These three layers are designed to work together to define the basis of creating a distributed AIS, covering all aspects from the definition of the immune processes and functions that will be simulated, to the creation of specifically tasked agents and the management thereof. , M.Sc. (Computer Science)
- Full Text: