Recently security researchers have started to look into automated generation of attack trees from socio-technical system models. The obvious next step in this trend of automated risk analysis is automating the selection of security controls to treat the detected threats. However, the existing socio-technical models are too abstract to represent all security controls recommended by practitioners...

Defence in depth is a comprehensive and systematic approach to safety that has been developed by the nuclear power community to assure with high confidence that the public and the environment are protected from any hazards posed by the use of nuclear power for the generation of electricity. Moreover, the concepts of defence in depth and safety culture have served the nuclear power community wel...

The paper presents a generalized model of damage caused to a complex multistate series-parallel system by intentional attacks. The model takes into account the defence strategy that presumes separation and protection of system elements and deployment of false targets. The defence strategy optimization methodology is suggested, based on the assumption that the attacker tries to maximize the expe...

This paper considers the ‘failing firm defence’. Under this principle, found in most antitrust jurisdictions, a merger that would otherwise be blocked due to its adverse effect on competition is permitted when the firm to be acquired is a failing firm, and an alternative, less detrimental merger is unavailable. Competition authorities have shown considerable reluctance to accept the failing fir...

the effective and sustainable environmental performance of a business is a result of various factors and most important the integrated outcome of the environmental management. likewise, the integration of environmental protection into the armed forces functions has also gain interest for the military sector internationally. therefore, the environmental management system (ems) is recognized as o...

In a seminal contribution, Fisher argued how distastefulness could incrementally evolve in a prey species that was distributed in family groups. Many defended prey species occur in aggregations, but did aggregation facilitate the evolution of defence as Fisher proposed or did the possession of a defence allow individuals to enjoy the benefits of group living? Contemporary theory suggests that i...

The effective and sustainable environmental performance of a business is a result of various factors and most important the integrated outcome of the environmental management. Likewise, the integration of environmental protection into the armed forces functions has also gain interest for the military sector internationally. Therefore, the environmental management system (EMS) is recognized as o...

Nest-defence behaviour of passerines is a form of parental investment. Parents are selected, therefore, to vary the intensity of their nest defence with respect to the value of their offspring. Great tit, Parus major, males were tested for their defence response to both a nest predator and playback of a great tit chick distress call. The results from the two trials were similar; males gave more...

Genes encoding plant antibiotic peptides show expression patterns that are consistent with a defence role. Transgenic over-expression of defence peptide genes is potentially useful to engineer resistance of plants to relevant pathogens. Pathogen mutants that are sensitive to plant peptides in vitro have been obtained and a decrease of their virulence in planta has been observed, which is consis...

To investigate the mechanisms whereby treatment with chitosan (CHN) is observed to increase the capacity of plants to resist pathogens, CHNs of different molecular weights (MWs) prepared by enzyme hydrolysis were used to treat rice cells in suspension culture and also rice seedlings. The results obtained with cultured cells showed that in this material CHN treatment could trigger a set of defen...