| 1. |
- Ademuyiwa, Adesoji O., et al.
(författare)
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Determinants of morbidity and mortality following emergency abdominal surgery in children in low-income and middle-income countries
- 2016
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Ingår i: BMJ Global Health. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2059-7908. ; 1:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Child health is a key priority on the global health agenda, yet the provision of essential and emergency surgery in children is patchy in resource-poor regions. This study was aimed to determine the mortality risk for emergency abdominal paediatric surgery in low-income countries globally.Methods: Multicentre, international, prospective, cohort study. Self-selected surgical units performing emergency abdominal surgery submitted prespecified data for consecutive children aged <16 years during a 2-week period between July and December 2014. The United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI) was used to stratify countries. The main outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality, analysed by multilevel logistic regression.Results: This study included 1409 patients from 253 centres in 43 countries; 282 children were under 2 years of age. Among them, 265 (18.8%) were from low-HDI, 450 (31.9%) from middle-HDI and 694 (49.3%) from high-HDI countries. The most common operations performed were appendectomy, small bowel resection, pyloromyotomy and correction of intussusception. After adjustment for patient and hospital risk factors, child mortality at 30 days was significantly higher in low-HDI (adjusted OR 7.14 (95% CI 2.52 to 20.23), p<0.001) and middle-HDI (4.42 (1.44 to 13.56), p=0.009) countries compared with high-HDI countries, translating to 40 excess deaths per 1000 procedures performed.Conclusions: Adjusted mortality in children following emergency abdominal surgery may be as high as 7 times greater in low-HDI and middle-HDI countries compared with high-HDI countries. Effective provision of emergency essential surgery should be a key priority for global child health agendas.
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| 2. |
- Alawadi, Sadi, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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A Federated Interactive Learning IoT-Based Health Monitoring Platform
- 2021
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Ingår i: New Trends in Database and Information Systems. - Cham : Springer. ; , s. 235-246, s. 235-246
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Remote health monitoring is a trend for better health management which necessitates the need for secure monitoring and privacy-preservation of patient data. Moreover, accurate and continuous monitoring of personal health status may require expert validation in an active learning strategy. As a result, this paper proposes a Federated Interactive Learning IoT-based Health Monitoring Platform (FIL-IoT-HMP) which incorporates multi-expert feedback as ‘Human-in-the-loop’ in an active learning strategy in order to improve the clients’ Machine Learning (ML) models. The authors have proposed an architecture and conducted an experiment as a proof of concept. Federated learning approach has been preferred in this context given that it strengthens privacy by allowing the global model to be trained while sensitive data is retained at the local edge nodes. Also, each model’s accuracy is improved while privacy and security of data has been upheld.
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| 3. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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A Data-Centric Anomaly-Based Detection System for Interactive Machine Learning Setups
- 2022
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - WEBIST. - : SciTePress. - 9789897586132 ; , s. 182-189
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A major concern in the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in general is their reliability in the presence of security threats and cyberattacks. Particularly, there is a growing recognition that IoT environments featuring virtual sensing and interactive machine learning may be subject to additional vulnerabilities when compared to traditional networks and classical batch learning settings. Partly, this is as adversaries could more easily manipulate the user feedback channel with malicious content. To this end, we propose a data-centric anomaly-based detection system, based on machine learning, that facilitates the process of identifying anomalies, particularly those related to poisoning integrity attacks targeting the user feedback channel of interactive machine learning setups. We demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed system in a case study involving a smart campus setup consisting of different smart devices, namely, a smart camera, a climate sensmitter, smart lighting, a smart phone, and a user feedback channel over which users could furnish labels to improve detection of correct system states, namely, activity types happening inside a room. Our results indicate that anomalies targeting the user feedback channel can be accurately detected at 98% using the Random Forest classifier.
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| 4. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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A Privacy-Centered System Model for Smart Connected Homes
- 2020
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Ingår i: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops. - : IEEE. - 9781728147161
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Smart connected homes are integrated with heterogeneous Internet-connected devices interacting with the physical environment and human users. While they have become an established research area, there is no common understanding of what composes such a pervasive environment making it challenging to perform a scientific analysis of the domain. This is especially evident when it comes to discourse about privacy threats. Recognizing this, we aim to describe a generic smart connected home, including the data it deals with in a novel privacy-centered system model. Such is done using concepts borrowed from the theory of Contextual Integrity. Furthermore, we represent privacy threats formally using the proposed model. To illustrate the usage of the model, we apply it to the design of an ambient-assisted living use-case and demonstrate how it can be used for identifying and analyzing the privacy threats directed to smart connected homes.
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| 5. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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An Analysis of Malicious Threat Agents for the Smart Connected Home
- 2017
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Ingår i: Proceeding of 2017 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops). - : IEEE.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Smart connected home systems aim to enhance the comfort, convenience, security, entertainment, and health of the householders and their guests. Despite their advantages, their interconnected characteristics make smart home devices and services prone to various cybersecurity and privacy threats. In this paper, we analyze six classes of malicious threat agents for smart connected homes. We also identify four different motives and three distinct capability levels that can be used to group the different intruders. Based on this, we propose a new threat model that can be used for threat profiling. Both hypothetical and real-life examples of attacks are used throughout the paper. In reflecting on this work, we also observe motivations and agents that are not covered in standard agent taxonomies.
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| 6. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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An Empirical Analysis of Smart Connected Home Data
- 2018
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Ingår i: Internet of Things – ICIOT 2018. - Cham : Springer. ; , s. 134-149
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The increasing presence of heterogeneous Internet of Things devices inside the home brings with it added convenience and value to the householders. At the same time, these devices tend to be Internet-connected and continuously monitor and collect data about the residents and their daily lifestyle activities. Such data can be of a sensitive nature, given that the house is the place where privacy is naturally expected. To gain insight into this state of affairs, we empirically investigate the privacy policies of 87 different categories of commercial smart home devices in terms of data being collected. This is done using a combination of manual and data mining techniques. The overall contribution of this work is a model that identifies and categorizes smart connected home data in terms of its collection mode, collection method, and collection phase. Our findings bring up several implications for smart connected home privacy, which include the need for better security controls to safeguard the privacy of the householders.
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| 7. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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An Investigation of Vulnerabilities in Smart Connected Cameras
- 2018
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Ingår i: 2018 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops). - : IEEE. - 9781538632277 - 9781538632284 ; , s. 656-661
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Internet of Things is enabling innovative ser-vices promising added convenience and value in various domains such as the smart home. Increasingly, households, office envi-ronments and cities, are being fitted with smart camera systems aimed to enhance the security of citizens. At the same time, sev-eral systems being deployed suffer from weak security implemen-tations. Recognizing this, and to understand the extent of this situation, in this study we perform a global vulnerability assess-ment using the Shodan search engine and the Common Vulnera-bilities and Exposures database. This is done to detect smart con-nected cameras exposed on the Internet alongside their sensitive, potentially private, data being broadcasted. Furthermore, we discuss whether the discovered data can be used to compromise the safety and privacy of individuals, and identify some mitiga-tions that can be adopted. The results indicate that a significant number of smart cameras are indeed prone to diverse security and privacy vulnerabilities.
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| 8. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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Functional Classification and Quantitative Analysis of Smart Connected Home Devices
- 2018
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Ingår i: 2018 Global Internet of Things Summit (GIoTS). - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). ; , s. 144-149
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The home environment is rapidly becoming more complex with the introduction of numerous and heterogeneous Internet of Things devices. This development into smart connected homes brings with it challenges when it comes to gaining a deeper understanding of the home environment as a socio-technical system. A better understanding of the home is essential to build robust, resilient, and secure smart home systems. In this regard, we developed a novel method for classifying smart home devices in a logical and coherent manner according to their functionality. Unlike other approaches, we build the categorization empirically by mining the technical specifications of 1,193 commercial devices. Moreover, we identify twelve capabilities that can be used to characterize home devices. Alongside the classification, we also quantitatively analyze the entire spectrum of commercial smart home devices in accordance to their functionality and capabilities. Overall, the categorization and analysis provide a foundation for identifying opportunities of generalizations and common solutions for the smart home.
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| 9. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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Green Intelligent Homes : A Perspective on the Future of Smart Homes and Their Implications
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security (IoTBDS 2023).. - Portugal. - 9789897586439 ; , s. 186-193
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The smart home technology market is witnessing rapid growth due to the advent of more advanced, intuitive, and affordable solutions. As the adoption of these technologies becomes more prevalent, there is a need for research to explore potential avenues for pervasive smart living. This study aims to review the available literature and industry studies, along with our own experiences in the field, to identify and discuss potential future research in the smart home. We observe that the future of the smart home will likely be focused on improving the user experience, with a greater emphasis on personalization, automation, and Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technologies, leading to what we call the "Green Intelligent Home". Through this analysis, this study aims to offer insights into how the development of smart homes could shape society in the future and the potential implications of such a development. This study concludes by suggesting a framework for knowledge development in the smart home domain.
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| 10. |
- Bugeja, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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IoTSM : An End-to-end Security Model for IoT Ecosystems
- 2019
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Ingår i: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops). - : IEEE. - 9781538691519
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Internet of Things (IoT) market is growing rapidly, allowing continuous evolution of new technologies. Alongside this development, most IoT devices are easy to compromise, as security is often not a prioritized characteristic. This paper proposes a novel IoT Security Model (IoTSM) that can be used by organizations to formulate and implement a strategy for developing end-to-end IoT security. IoTSM is grounded by the Software Assurance Maturity Model (SAMM) framework, however it expands it with new security practices and empirical data gathered from IoT practitioners. Moreover, we generalize the model into a conceptual framework. This approach allows the formal analysis for security in general and evaluates an organization’s security practices. Overall, our proposed approach can help researchers, practitioners, and IoT organizations, to discourse about IoT security from an end-to-end perspective.
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