MSIT Theses and Dissertations (2010)

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Browsing MSIT Theses and Dissertations (2010) by Subject "Computer Virus"

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    Agent-based modeling of spread of computer virus in a college campus.
    (Strathmore University, 2010) Odunga, Nelson Ochieng
    Computer and data resources are critical assets to every organization. There is need to provide confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation for these resources. Computer virus presents a threat to the provision of these requirements. Due to the increased complexity of computer virus code, there is need to study how viruses propagate in complex networks so that effective countermeasures can be developed. Of particular concern to this study was the impact of user awareness and vigilance on computer virus spread. The study aimed to come up with an agent-based computer simulation model to explain the influence of computer user awareness in controlling computer virus spread and a control framework based on this model. A questionnaire survey done for Strathmore University community revealed that users were ill-aware of computer virus and countermeasures necessary to control their spread. This information was used to calibrate the proposed model and also indicated the importance of explicitly incorporating user awareness as a parameter in any models to explain computer virus spread. The study came up with the conclusion that user awareness and vigilance (defined as the proportion of users that practice safe computing) helps control computer virus spread but only up to about 40%. Beyond that, the additional investment incurred in training users does not pay off. Based on that finding, the proposed control framework suggested training users on computer virus awareness and vigilance and also deliberately protecting network nodes within particular groups within Strathmore University community that are deemed to be important (based on their nodal degree).
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    Continuous data protection : reducing data recovery time in Kenyan firms.
    (Strathmore University, 2010) Mugoh, Leon M.
    In today's world of intense competition. businesses cannot afford to lose critical data for the loss of data has become too costly to businesses. Unfortunately information is now exposed to a growing number and a wider variety of threats and vulnerabilities and any loss or destruction of data can result in horrific consequences for an organization. Due to the competitive and regulatory pressures and the high demands and dependence placed on data, there is need for higher data availability and a faster means of recovering the data in case it becomes inaccessible in any way from data corruption to data loss. The main focus of this research was on the problem of the time taken to recover data from a backup media by Kenyan firms as the research seeks to investigate the major reason behind the long / high data recovery times and to provide a solution that attempts to help reduce the data recovery times in Kenyan firms. This study has shown that data is critical to businesses in Kenya and that threats to data do exist which can lead to loss or corruption of data. This loss or corruption has negative consequences to businesses proving too costly as businesses tend to be increasingly dependent on data which means there is a need for a faster means of recovering lost data. It was found that the time taken to recover data in Kenyan firms was high because of the type of media that was used for backing up data, which was the magnetic data tape as it takes a long time to retrieve data from magnetic tapes as compared to other media like disks and DVDs. In an attempt to solve the problem of high data recovery times in Kenyan firms the research proposed the use of Continuous Data Protection (CDP) as an important component of a well-rounded backup and recovery strategy to complement the existing backup strategy as CDP is a disk based backup solution which ensures that data is retrieved at a much faster rate. The research further introduces a concept called Intelligent Restore (Intelli-Restore) where CDP complemented with Intelli-Restore hopes to ftirther reduce data recovery time as it attempts to eliminate the human involvement in data recovery by having the system automatically detect the data loss or corruption and instantly request the backup server to restore the data.