Browsing by Subject "flexibility"

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    On the Vulnerability of Smart Card Transactions
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Tang, Lai Man
    Abstract: The number of non-cash transactions is increasing every year at a rapid pace because of the underlying flexibility in the payment mechanism and the improved reliability and protection offered by many networks and debit and credit card issuers and acquirers. According to a study by Capgemini, the growth of the number of non-cash-based transactions per inhabitant in the United States increased by 40% from 2012 to 2013. This clearly indicates a strong shift towards a cashless society. However, the above trend is also coupled with an increasing trend in card fraud schemes ranging from gas pump skimmers to application fraud. Even the most recent chip and pin technology has been the victim of fraud as detailed in performing a man-in-the-middle attack by inserting a programmed chip called FUN card. In this study, we investigate the functionalities of smart cards and their susceptibility to fraud based on interference at the hardware level. We specifically analyze processor cards with a cryptographic processors and research the possibility to change the behavior of the hardware either in offline or online transactions in way that may be able to reveal the private key used to authenticate the transaction between the acquirer and the issuer. The results of these investigations can be used to enhance the current encryption as well as the authentication mechanisms used in card transactions.
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    Workplace chronotype bias, flexible scheduling, and performance beliefs
    (2018-06) Gilmer, Declan O.; Stockdale, Margaret S.
    Workers who request a flexible schedule to accommodate their biologically-determined sleep-wake cycle (chronotype) may face prejudice if supervisors perceive them, particularly “night owls”, as lazy or unconscientious. Such bias may be exacerbated in organizational cultures characterized by stability and control. Thus, chronotype bias was examined in a 2 (rigid vs. flexible organizational norms) X 3 (morningness chronotype, eveningness chronotype, educational pursuit/control as reason for a flexible schedule request) online scenario study. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (N=398) and were instructed to act as managers to decide whether to approve a fictitious employee’s request for a flexible schedule. Organizational culture and reason for schedule request were orthogonally manipulated in the scenarios. Ps completed measures of schedule approval (including an open-ended justification item), beliefs about the employee’s performance (job-specific task performance, contextual performance, personal discipline, and conscientiousness), and manipulation checks, as well as measures of their own chronotype. Ps were less likely to approve a flexible schedule request for employees with chronotype-based requests (both morningness and eveningness) compared to control (educational pursuit/control request). Task performance beliefs mediated the effect. Organizational norms had both a direct and moderating effect on schedule approval, such that approval was higher and chronotype bias was weakened in the flexible norm condition compared to the rigid norm condition. Ps’ own chronotype had no direct or moderating effect on schedule approval. Qualitative content analysis of Ps’ justification for the schedule approval decision revealed that Ps justified their decision on the impact of schedule approval on the organization.