Analyzing the usage of character groups and keyboard patterns in password creation

Purpose Using passwords to keep account and data safe is very common in modern computing. The purpose of this paper is to look into methods for cracking passwords as a means of increasing security, a practice commonly used in penetration testing. Further, in the discipline of digital forensics, password cracking is often an essential part of a computer examination as data has to be decrypted to be analyzed. This paper seeks to look into how users that actively encrypt data construct their passwords to benefit the forensics community. Design/methodology/approach The study began with an automated analysis of over one billion passwords in 22 different password databases that leaked to the internet. The study validated the result with an experiment were passwords created on a local website was analyzed during account creation. Further a survey was used to gather data that was used to identify differences in password behavior between user that actively encrypt their data and other users. Findings The result of this study suggests that American lowercase letters and numbers are present in almost every password and that users seem to avoid using special characters if they can. Further, the study suggests that users that actively encrypt their data are more prone to use keyboard patterns as passwords than other users. Originality/value This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge around password behavior and suggests that password-guessing attacks should focus on American letters and numbers. Further, the paper suggests that forensics experts should consider testing patterns-based passwords when performing password-guessing attacks against encrypted data.

Development of a scale measuring the psychic income associated with hosting the Olympic Games

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure the legacy of psychic income associated with the Olympic Games. Design/methodology/approach Using the 2008 Beijing Games as an example, data were collected from Beijing residents through structured questionnaires. A scale of measuring psychic income (SPI) was developed through conducting a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) based on a sample of 375. Findings In the CFA estimation, a seven-factor SPI was identified with 24 pertinent items retained. This seven-factor model displays good fit to the data, construct validity, and reliability. Originality/value Despite the importance of psychic income widely recognized in the existing literature, there has been a lack of valid scales to measure major sports events psychic income in general and Olympic psychic income in particular. This paper develops a multidimensional scale from the host community perspective, which can provide academics and local organizers with a reliable and valid tool to assess Olympic psychic income.

A description logic based approach to formalizing the information bearing capability of paths in ER schemata

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how description logics (DLs) can be applied to formalizing the information bearing capability (IBC) of paths in entity-relationship (ER) schemata. Design/methodology/approach – The approach follows and extends the idea presented in Xu and Feng (2004), which applies DLs to classifying paths in an ER schema. To verify whether the information content of a data construct (e.g. a path) covers a semantic relation (which formulates a piece of information requirement), the principle of IBC under the source-bearer-receiver framework is presented. It is observed that the IBC principle can be formalized by constructing DL expressions and examining constructors (e.g. quantifiers). Findings – Description logic can be used as a tool to describe the meanings represented by paths in an ER schema and formalize their IBC. The criteria for identifying data construct distinguishability are also discovered by examining quantifiers in DL expressions of paths of an ER schema. Originality/value – This paper focuses on classifying paths in data schemas and verifying their formalized IBC by using DLs and the IBC principle. It is a new point of view for evaluation of data representation, which looks at the information borne by data but not data dependencies.

Total Object Unified Model Driven Architecture Method for Manufacturing Information Management

The purpose of this study was to provide a unified modelling framework of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Firstly, the paper presented a Total Object Unified Model(TOUM) method which was used to abstract the concepts of manufacturing domain, format the meta-model of manufacturing data, construct the data model of PLM; Secondly, this paper presented three kinds of architectures based on TOUM to unify and simplify model, which are development architecture, deployment architecture and application architecture. At last, a model instance applied in a PLM product-CAXA V5 was shown based on the method of TOUM to confirm the validity of this method. This paper has provided a reference operation model and method for Product Lifecycle Management.

Comparing Kisses

Middle grades students should be given ample opportunities to explore probability and statistics topics. In particular, students should be encouraged to collect, organize, and describe data; construct appropriate charts and graphs to summarize the data; make predictions and conclusions based on the data; and test these predictions and conclusions (NCTM 1989, 2000). In this article, we describe three activities, all of which involve materials that students are certain to enjoy—Hershey's Kisses candies.

The Professional Socialization of Undergraduate Social Work Students

This article compares the early interest in social work students' professional development to the early professional socialization studies in allied professions. Disparity is noted between the early holistic inquiries in other disciplines and social work's predominantly narrow empirical focus on only one dimension of professional socialization—value acquisition. The author also reports the findings of a grounded case study exploring the process of professional socialization and the influence of role models, as experienced by undergraduate social work students. Data construct a process of six phases spanning from “expectation” to “affirmation” with regard to differential experiences based on gender, race, and age. Implications for further research and professional education are noted.

Daily Activites for Data Analysis

Statistics, tables, charts, and graphs abound in our daily world. We see them in advertisements, in newspapers, and on televised weather forecasts. However, many students are not exposed in school to experiences using statistics and graphing. One goal of the NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989) is to give students experiences that allow them to “collect, organize, and describe data: construct, read, and interpret displays of data; formulate and solve problems that involve collecting and analyzing data” (p. 54). Children develop mathematical concepts by seeing them in a variety of settings. Our challenge is to find many ways to help our students understand these concepts. The following activities enable students to understand the power and usefulness of data analysis.

Beliefs About the Consequences of Maternal Employment for Children

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Beliefs About the Consequences of Maternal Employment (BACMEC) scale in a sample of 570 pregnant women and 550 of their husbands/partners. Both the costs and benefits subscales showed excellent internal consistency reliability. The two subscales emerged as two separate factors in factor analyses, both for the mothers' data and for the fathers' data. Construct validity was indicated by moderate correlations with a scale assessing traditional versus egalitarian sex-role attitudes. The two subscales significantly differentiated a group of mothers who favored early entry into childcare from a group who favored later entry. Fathers' scores were quite close to those of mothers, indicating that they have similar beliefs about the consequences of maternal employment for children.