An unlocked Electronic Product Code (EPC) tag allows for issuance of most commands without the need for any authorization. This means that a system with unlocked tags would allow any attacker to modify tag data at will, whilst also opening the door to a range of other misuse. One possible avenue of active misuse against unlocked tags would be to issue LockID commands and ‘permanently’ lock some...

With the growing expansion of Internet connectivity and usage by consumers and merchants, financial institutions and governmental entities, the requirement for stable and secure software is being elevated to the legislative and judicial levels. No longer can software manufacturers disregard this growing requirement in fulfilling their commercial obligations. The issuance of a patch is the begin...

We propose to leverage accountability mechanisms to deal with trust-related security incidents of certification authorities (CAs) in the SSL/TLS public-key infrastructure (PKI). We argue that, despite recent advances in securing certificate issuance and verification, the TLS PKI does not sufficiently incentivize careful identity verification by CAs during certificate issuance or provide CA acco...

This paper analyses the determinants of variation in the yield spread (credit spread) between government bonds and corporate bonds in Japan's bond market after 1997. The authors conduct empirical tests on the relationship between credit spreads and several economic and financial variables. A key finding is that default risk and the overall financial situation in Japan were the most significant ...

Ž . We examine the pricing of initial public offering IPO and seasoned equity offering Ž . SEO firms using a stochastic frontier methodology. The stochastic frontier framework models the difference between the maximum possible value of the firm and its actual market capitalization at the time of the offering as a function of observable firm characteristics. Using a new data set, we find that co...

This paper endogenizes the cost of external funds and explores the implications on irreversible investments. The investment strategy incorporates equilibrium feedback that result from a bargaining process between the firm and a lender. Contrary to debt issuance, tax benefits and distress costs cannot be internalized by the firm. “Bad news” are less costly for the firm that has incentives to acc...

We propose a generic framework for the development of an off-line peer-to-peer electronic payment system with fixed-value electronic coins. The proposed scheme simulates the issuance, circulation and characteristics of conventional cash and satisfies important security, privacy and usability requirements, offering a comparative advantage over other existing solutions. We exploit the strong secu...

BACKGROUND Medical records are kept in the interest of both the patient and clinician. Proper filing of patient's medical records ensures easy retrieval and contributes to decreased patient waiting time at the hospital and continuity of care. This paper reports on an intervention study to address the issue of misfiling and multiple patient folders in a health facility. DESIGN Intervention stu...