Ali E. Abdallah | Birmingham City University (original) (raw)
Papers by Ali E. Abdallah
Springer eBooks, 2005
This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communicating Se... more This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communicating Sequential Processes in the 1978 August issue of the Communications of ACM. The British Computer Society's specialist group Formal Aspects of Computing Science organized a meeting on July 7-8, 2004, in London, to mark the occasion of 25 years of CSP. The 19 carefully reviewed and revised full papers by leading researchers celebrate, reflect upon, and look beyond the first quarter-century of CSP's contributions to computer science ...
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Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 1998
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Over the last few years, cyber defense strategies in large organizations have gradually shifted f... more Over the last few years, cyber defense strategies in large organizations have gradually shifted from being reactive to being increasingly pro-active. In the latter mode threats are anticipated and corresponding mitigations are actionable. An essential component of this strategy is the ability to share threat intelligence from multiple sources ranging from crowd sourcing to closed circles of trusted stakeholders and their supply chains. This paper presents a collaborative platform that supports sharing of cyber threat intelligence in which anonymity is a key component. The component has been compared to existing threat intelligence sharing solutions. The design of the component is examined and a prototype of the supporting tool has been implemented.
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Big Data Analytics, 2016
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Springer eBooks, 2011
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Workflows involve actions and decision making at the level of each participant. Trusted generatio... more Workflows involve actions and decision making at the level of each participant. Trusted generation, collection and storage of evidence is fundamental for these systems to assert accountability in case of disputes. Ensuring the security of audit systems requires reliable protection of evidence in order to cope with its confidentiality, its integrity at generation and storage phases, as well as its availability. Collusion with an audit authority is a threat that can affect all these security aspects, and there is room for improvement in existent approaches that target this problem.
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This paper describes a systematic way of constructing correct prototypes in a functional language... more This paper describes a systematic way of constructing correct prototypes in a functional language such as Miranda or Haskell from Z specifications. A formal relationship between Z specifications and functional prototypes is established. This relationship is based on model refinement in the sense of specification refinement in the model-oriented specification style. To reduce the number of proofs required in model refinement, we have defined a set of rules that allow us to derive a prototype from a specification. The use of such a set of rules implicitly guarantees the correctness of the derivation.
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This paper attempts to accurately model security requirements for computational grid environments... more This paper attempts to accurately model security requirements for computational grid environments with particular focus on authentication. We introduce the Audited Credential Delegation (ACD) architecture as a solution to some of the virtual organisations (VO) identity management usability problems. The approach uses two complementary models: one is state based, described in Z no-tation, and the other is event-based, expressed in the Process Algebra of Hoares Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP). The former will be used to capture the state of the VO and to model “back-end ” operations on it whereas the latter will be used to model behavior, and in particular, “front-end ” interactions and communications. The modelling helps to clearly and precisely under-stand functional and security requirements and provide a basis for verifying that the system meets its intended requirements. 1
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ABSTRACT This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communi... more ABSTRACT This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communicating Sequential Processes in the 1978 August issue of the Communications of ACM. The British Computer Society's specialist group Formal Aspects of Computing Science organized a meeting on July 7-8, 2004, in London, to mark the occasion of 25 years of CSP. The 19 carefully reviewed and revised full papers by leading researchers celebrate, reflect upon, and look beyond the first quarter-century of CSP's contributions to computer science. The papers explore the impact of CSP on many areas ranging from semantics and logic, through the design of parallel programming languages to applications varying from distributed software and parallel computing to information security, Web services, and concurrent hardware circuits.
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Existing electricity feedback systems provide home occupants with real-time consumption data to e... more Existing electricity feedback systems provide home occupants with real-time consumption data to enable them to control their consumption. However, these systems provide abstract consumption data that is not related to the occupants surrounding. Although there are some attempts to enrich consumption data with some context information, the presented feedback is not enough to inform decisions of how to conserve electricity. Therefore, this paper provides a rich definition of electricity consumption context, which can be used to provide sensible feedback to users. The obtained context elements can be categorized into three context types: User Context, Appliances Context, and Environment Context. Finally, different implications for the application of a context-aware feedback system are presented showing how the obtained context definition could be used to provide understandable feedback.
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The main purpose of this paper is to present a functional view of the fundamentals of the compute... more The main purpose of this paper is to present a functional view of the fundamentals of the computer graphics process based on the classic polygonal model. There are several advantages for adopting such an approach. Firstly. the functional view is a natural abstraction of the problem. Secondly. many well known computer graphics optimization techniques can be directly obtained from the original specification by applying general and well understood transformational programming algebraic laws on functional expressions. Thirdly, a number of highly parallel implementations suited for various parallel architectures can be derived from the initial specification by a systematic application of general transformation strategies for parallelizing functional programs.
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The paper focuses on the synthesis of a highly parallel reconfigurable hard- ware implementation ... more The paper focuses on the synthesis of a highly parallel reconfigurable hard- ware implementation for the International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA). Cur- rently, IDEA is well known to be a strong encryption algorithm. The use of such an algorithm within critical applications, such as military, requires efficient, highly re- liable and correct hardware implementation. We will stress the affordability of such requirements by adopting a methodology that develops reconfigurable hardware cir- cuits by following a transformational programming paradigm. The development starts from a formal functional specification stage. Then, by using function decomposition and provably correct data refinement techniques, powerful high-order functions are refined into parallel implementations described in Hoare's communicating sequen- tial processes notation(CSP). The CSP descriptions are very closely associated with Handle-C hardware description language (HDL) program fragments. This descrip- tio...
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We present the transformational derivations of several efficient, scalable, message-passing paral... more We present the transformational derivations of several efficient, scalable, message-passing parallel algorithms from clear functional specifications. The starting algorithms rely on some commonly used combinatorial list generator functions such as tails, inits, splits and cp (Cartesian product) for generating useful intermediate results. This paper provides generic parallel algorithms for efficiently implementing a small library of useful combinatorial list generator functions. It also provides a frame- work for relating key higher order functions such as map, reduce, and scan with communicating processes with different configurations. The parallelisation of many interesting functional algorithms can then be systematically synthesized by taking an "off the shelf" parallel implementation of the list generator and composing it with ap- propriate parallel implementations of instances of higher order functions. Efficiency in the final message-passing algorithms is achieved by ...
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Foundations and Practice of Security
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2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA)
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Information Security Practice and Experience
Cyber threat intelligence sharing is an imperative process to survive current and future attacks.... more Cyber threat intelligence sharing is an imperative process to survive current and future attacks. The received information may protect stakeholders from being attacked by utilizing the course of action to remedy on-site vulnerabilities. Automating this process has shown to be challenging because several processes have to be synchronized and orchestrated to achieve the goal of automated information sharing. Organizations are inundated with threat information generated on site and received through crowd sourcing. This work presents a novel component for automated sharing, i.e. the content relevance filter.
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2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA)
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2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA), Mar 1, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA), Mar 1, 2017
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Springer eBooks, 2005
This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communicating Se... more This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communicating Sequential Processes in the 1978 August issue of the Communications of ACM. The British Computer Society's specialist group Formal Aspects of Computing Science organized a meeting on July 7-8, 2004, in London, to mark the occasion of 25 years of CSP. The 19 carefully reviewed and revised full papers by leading researchers celebrate, reflect upon, and look beyond the first quarter-century of CSP's contributions to computer science ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 1998
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Over the last few years, cyber defense strategies in large organizations have gradually shifted f... more Over the last few years, cyber defense strategies in large organizations have gradually shifted from being reactive to being increasingly pro-active. In the latter mode threats are anticipated and corresponding mitigations are actionable. An essential component of this strategy is the ability to share threat intelligence from multiple sources ranging from crowd sourcing to closed circles of trusted stakeholders and their supply chains. This paper presents a collaborative platform that supports sharing of cyber threat intelligence in which anonymity is a key component. The component has been compared to existing threat intelligence sharing solutions. The design of the component is examined and a prototype of the supporting tool has been implemented.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Big Data Analytics, 2016
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Springer eBooks, 2011
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Workflows involve actions and decision making at the level of each participant. Trusted generatio... more Workflows involve actions and decision making at the level of each participant. Trusted generation, collection and storage of evidence is fundamental for these systems to assert accountability in case of disputes. Ensuring the security of audit systems requires reliable protection of evidence in order to cope with its confidentiality, its integrity at generation and storage phases, as well as its availability. Collusion with an audit authority is a threat that can affect all these security aspects, and there is room for improvement in existent approaches that target this problem.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This paper describes a systematic way of constructing correct prototypes in a functional language... more This paper describes a systematic way of constructing correct prototypes in a functional language such as Miranda or Haskell from Z specifications. A formal relationship between Z specifications and functional prototypes is established. This relationship is based on model refinement in the sense of specification refinement in the model-oriented specification style. To reduce the number of proofs required in model refinement, we have defined a set of rules that allow us to derive a prototype from a specification. The use of such a set of rules implicitly guarantees the correctness of the derivation.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This paper attempts to accurately model security requirements for computational grid environments... more This paper attempts to accurately model security requirements for computational grid environments with particular focus on authentication. We introduce the Audited Credential Delegation (ACD) architecture as a solution to some of the virtual organisations (VO) identity management usability problems. The approach uses two complementary models: one is state based, described in Z no-tation, and the other is event-based, expressed in the Process Algebra of Hoares Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP). The former will be used to capture the state of the VO and to model “back-end ” operations on it whereas the latter will be used to model behavior, and in particular, “front-end ” interactions and communications. The modelling helps to clearly and precisely under-stand functional and security requirements and provide a basis for verifying that the system meets its intended requirements. 1
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
ABSTRACT This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communi... more ABSTRACT This book commemorates the work done by Tony Hoare and published under the title Communicating Sequential Processes in the 1978 August issue of the Communications of ACM. The British Computer Society's specialist group Formal Aspects of Computing Science organized a meeting on July 7-8, 2004, in London, to mark the occasion of 25 years of CSP. The 19 carefully reviewed and revised full papers by leading researchers celebrate, reflect upon, and look beyond the first quarter-century of CSP's contributions to computer science. The papers explore the impact of CSP on many areas ranging from semantics and logic, through the design of parallel programming languages to applications varying from distributed software and parallel computing to information security, Web services, and concurrent hardware circuits.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Existing electricity feedback systems provide home occupants with real-time consumption data to e... more Existing electricity feedback systems provide home occupants with real-time consumption data to enable them to control their consumption. However, these systems provide abstract consumption data that is not related to the occupants surrounding. Although there are some attempts to enrich consumption data with some context information, the presented feedback is not enough to inform decisions of how to conserve electricity. Therefore, this paper provides a rich definition of electricity consumption context, which can be used to provide sensible feedback to users. The obtained context elements can be categorized into three context types: User Context, Appliances Context, and Environment Context. Finally, different implications for the application of a context-aware feedback system are presented showing how the obtained context definition could be used to provide understandable feedback.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The main purpose of this paper is to present a functional view of the fundamentals of the compute... more The main purpose of this paper is to present a functional view of the fundamentals of the computer graphics process based on the classic polygonal model. There are several advantages for adopting such an approach. Firstly. the functional view is a natural abstraction of the problem. Secondly. many well known computer graphics optimization techniques can be directly obtained from the original specification by applying general and well understood transformational programming algebraic laws on functional expressions. Thirdly, a number of highly parallel implementations suited for various parallel architectures can be derived from the initial specification by a systematic application of general transformation strategies for parallelizing functional programs.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The paper focuses on the synthesis of a highly parallel reconfigurable hard- ware implementation ... more The paper focuses on the synthesis of a highly parallel reconfigurable hard- ware implementation for the International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA). Cur- rently, IDEA is well known to be a strong encryption algorithm. The use of such an algorithm within critical applications, such as military, requires efficient, highly re- liable and correct hardware implementation. We will stress the affordability of such requirements by adopting a methodology that develops reconfigurable hardware cir- cuits by following a transformational programming paradigm. The development starts from a formal functional specification stage. Then, by using function decomposition and provably correct data refinement techniques, powerful high-order functions are refined into parallel implementations described in Hoare's communicating sequen- tial processes notation(CSP). The CSP descriptions are very closely associated with Handle-C hardware description language (HDL) program fragments. This descrip- tio...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
We present the transformational derivations of several efficient, scalable, message-passing paral... more We present the transformational derivations of several efficient, scalable, message-passing parallel algorithms from clear functional specifications. The starting algorithms rely on some commonly used combinatorial list generator functions such as tails, inits, splits and cp (Cartesian product) for generating useful intermediate results. This paper provides generic parallel algorithms for efficiently implementing a small library of useful combinatorial list generator functions. It also provides a frame- work for relating key higher order functions such as map, reduce, and scan with communicating processes with different configurations. The parallelisation of many interesting functional algorithms can then be systematically synthesized by taking an "off the shelf" parallel implementation of the list generator and composing it with ap- propriate parallel implementations of instances of higher order functions. Efficiency in the final message-passing algorithms is achieved by ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Foundations and Practice of Security
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA)
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Information Security Practice and Experience
Cyber threat intelligence sharing is an imperative process to survive current and future attacks.... more Cyber threat intelligence sharing is an imperative process to survive current and future attacks. The received information may protect stakeholders from being attacked by utilizing the course of action to remedy on-site vulnerabilities. Automating this process has shown to be challenging because several processes have to be synchronized and orchestrated to achieve the goal of automated information sharing. Organizations are inundated with threat information generated on site and received through crowd sourcing. This work presents a novel component for automated sharing, i.e. the content relevance filter.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA)
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA), Mar 1, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
2017 31st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops (WAINA), Mar 1, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact