As one of the states within the Federation of Malaysia, Sabah has inherited the characteristics of a
developing country’s security management. The threats are not only driven by external but also from
internal sources. As such, this article analyzes threats to Sabah's security predicaments. By using the
National Security Theory of Developing Countries and Securitization Theory as the basis for
discussion, the article explores and discusses how Sabah's security management have been influenced
by several variables such as local political influences, federal-state relations, and societal’s state
loyalty. The article concludes that Sabah’s security threats have been securitised by local political and
community leaders. But, the success of securitising the threats depend on how security actors at the
federal level are convinced with the omnipresent threats.
In face-to-face communications, to avoid sanctions and disapproval from others, people are more likely to hide negative aspects of their true self (such as socially undesirable personalities, minds, beliefs and consciousness) to avoid conflict with social norms and laws. The anonymity of cyberspace provides people a unique environment to behave more freely and openly with less restraint from the real word. Existing research related to online true self expression has mainly explored true self as an independent aspect of self. Regarding true self as a two-dimensional concept, this study investigates true self from the perspective of individuals' self-guide and identity reconstruction in both online and offline world. Using qualitative research methods, the current study investigates 57 participants through interviews and questionnaires. Content analysis reveals four factors that motivate people to express more true self (especially negative true self) when reconstructing their online identity and involve true self as a part of their self-guide in anonymous environment. By incorporating true self as an important part of individuals' self-guide and identity online, the current study advances self-discrepancy theory, making it more comprehensive for cyberspace. The results are also interpreted based on self-determination theory. The theoretical contributions of this study are discussed and practical implications are also presented.
This paper discussed security of medical images and reviewed some work done regarding them. A fragile watermarking scheme was then proposed that could detect tamper and subsequently recover the image. Our scheme required a secret key and a public chaotic mixing algorithm to embed and recover a tampered image. The scheme was also resilient to VQ attack. The purposes were to verify the integrity and authenticity of medical images. We used 800 x 600 x 8 bits ultrasound (US) greyscale images in our experiment. We tested our algorithm for up to 50% tampered block and obtained 100% recovery for spread-tampered block.
Disaster can strike at any time on a small or large scale, but if an institution is prepared, the damage may be reduced or avoided. A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources. Disasters are often classified according to their speed of onset (sudden or ‘slow burning’), or according to their cause (natural or man-made). There is no single and specific method in handling a disaster. The application and method of disaster management do not only depend on types, location and levels of disaster, but also depend on the effectiveness and good system of management as well as the total commitment of first responders and disaster managers involved in handling a disaster. National Security Council Directive No. 20 is both a proactive and reactive generic plan to manage disasters in Malaysia. It is an integrated disaster management plan in mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
Bunting is a medium to promote advertisements or programs that are widely used in Universiti Putra Malaysia in conjunction with the programs. There are two types of bunting that are commonly used; indoor and outdoor bunting. Outdoor bunting is a bunting that is installed outside of a building and it is usually installed at the street lamp poles, fence or at dedicated space. In UPM, outdoor buntings usually installed at the street lamp poles, around the campus. Issues faced by staff when installing and uninstalling the outdoor buntings are; method used, number of staff needed, time consuming and securities issues. All these factors lead UPM to hire external contractor for installing the outdoor buntings. These issues are also faced by other universities/institutions and external contractors. Several initiatives have been identified in order to mitigate this issues including the implementation of ‘Program Bebas Dawai’, an improvement of Standard Operating Procedure for bunting installation and creation of a new innovation called SkytiderTM. SkytiderTM is an installation tool for outdoor buntings that will expedite method without using ladder, minimize time, improve security measures and save costs by hiring less external contractor. SkytiderTM protected under industrial design, trademark and copyright protection. SkytiderTM is widely used in Serdang Campus, Selangor, Bintulu, Sarawak and Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.
Scientists and policy makers issuing predictions and warnings of impending natural disaster are faced with two major challenges, that is, failure to warn and issuing a false alarm. The consequences of failure to warn can be serious for society overall, for example, significant economic losses, heavy infrastructure and environmental damage, large number of human casualties, and social disruption. Failure to warn can also have serious for specific individuals, for example, legal proceedings against disaster research scientists, as in the L'Aquila earthquake affair. The consequences of false alarms may be less serious. Nevertheless, false alarms may violate the principle of nonmaleficence (do no harm), affect individual autonomy (eg, mandatory evacuations), and may result in the "cry wolf" effect. Other ethical issues associated with natural disasters include the promotion of global justice through international predisaster technical assistance and postdisaster aid. Social justice within a particular country is promoted through greater postdisaster aid allocation to the less privileged.
In medical systems for patient's authentication, keeping biometric data secure is a general problem. Many studies have presented various ways of protecting biometric data especially finger vein biometric data. Thus, It is needs to find better ways of securing this data by applying the three principles of information security aforementioned, and creating a robust verification system with high levels of reliability, privacy and security. Moreover, it is very difficult to replace biometric information and any leakage of biometrics information leads to earnest risks for example replay attacks using the robbed biometric data. In this paper presented criticism and analysis to all attempts as revealed in the literature review and discussion the proposes a novel verification secure framework based confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) standard in triplex blockchain-particle swarm optimization (PSO)-advanced encryption standard (AES) techniques for medical systems patient's authentication. Three stages are performed on discussion. Firstly, proposes a new hybrid model pattern in order to increase the randomization based on radio frequency identification (RFID) and finger vein biometrics. To achieve this, proposed a new merge algorithm to combine the RFID features and finger vein features in one hybrid and random pattern. Secondly, how the propose verification secure framework are followed the CIA standard for telemedicine authentication by combination of AES encryption technique, blockchain and PSO in steganography technique based on proposed pattern model. Finally, discussed the validation and evaluation of the proposed verification secure framework.
Soft biometrics can be used as a prescreening filter, either by using single trait or by combining several traits to aid the performance of recognition systems in an unobtrusive way. In many practical visual surveillance scenarios, facial information becomes difficult to be effectively constructed due to several varying challenges. However, from distance the visual appearance of an object can be efficiently inferred, thereby providing the possibility of estimating body related information. This paper presents an approach for estimating body related soft biometrics; specifically we propose a new approach based on body measurement and artificial neural network for predicting body weight of subjects and incorporate the existing technique on single view metrology for height estimation in videos with low frame rate. Our evaluation on 1120 frame sets of 80 subjects from a newly compiled dataset shows that the mentioned soft biometric information of human subjects can be adequately predicted from set of frames.
Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attack, many countries are considering the use of smart national identity card (SNIC) which has the ability to identify terrorists due to its biometric verification function. However, there are many ergonomics issues in the use of SNIC, e.g. card credibility. This research presents a case study survey of Malaysian users. Although most citizens (>96%) own MyKad (Malaysia SNIC), many do not carry it around and use its applications. This defeats one of its main purposes, i.e. combating terrorism. Thus, the research investigates ergonomics issues affecting the citizens' Intention to Use (ITU) MyKad for homeland security by using an extended technology acceptance model. Five hundred questionnaires were collected and analysed using structural equation modelling. Results show that perceived credibility and performance expectancy are the key issues. The findings provide many countries with insights into methods of addressing ergonomics issues and increasing adoption of SNIC for homeland security.
This report documents an emerging trend of identification of Megalocytivirus-like inclusions in a range of ornamental fish species intercepted during quarantine detention at the Australian border. From September 2012 to February 2013, 5 species of fish that had suffered mortality levels in excess of 25% whilst in the post-entry quarantine and had Megalocytivirus-like inclusion bodies in histological sections were examined by PCR. The fish had been imported from Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Ninety-seven of 111 individual fish from affected tanks of fish tested were positive for the presence of Megalocytivirus by PCR. Sequence analysis of representative PCR products revealed an identical sequence of 621 bp in all cases which was identical to a previously characterized Megalocytivirus (Sabah/RAA1/2012 strain BMGIV48). Phylogenetic analysis of available Megalocytivirus major capsid protein (MCP) sequences confirmed the existence of 3 major clades of Megalocytivirus. The virus detected in this study was identified as a member of Genotype II. The broad host range and pathogenicity of megalocytiviruses, coupled to the documented spread of ornamental fish into the environment, render this a significant and emerging biosecurity threat to Australia.
In the peace-loving, moderate and progressive country of Muslim-dominated Malaysia, violence generally is alien to the culture. Terrorism initially took shape during the post-independence, communist era by jungle recalcitrant actions. In recent years, this has been superceded by a more internationally related trend of violence. Only very few incidents were based locally, while the majority were linked to international groups or organizations abroad, including the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Kidnapping with ransom seemed to have been the most commone modus operandi, while killing and robbery accounted for very few of these incidents. The number of victims in each event so far has been small, and smaller for those physically harmed or killed. This pattern of terrorist attacks suggests that the current level of provision of emergency medical services is sufficient to handle such incidents. Recent advances in local emergency medicine also have witnessed the establishment of various teaching and training modules, a pivotal role played by university hospitals and supported by the Ministry of Health. However, the spate of ongoing events of mass destruction such as the conflict in Israel/Palestine, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the World Trade Center and Pentagon tragedies of 11 September 2001, and the Bali bombing in Indonesia, remain as great concerns to Malaysians. Both the government and the people of Malaysia abhor such unjustified uses of terror, and take every measure to curtail them. The National Security Council policies of Arahan No. 18 and Arahan No. 20 detail specific roles and responsibilities of various agencies in managing terrorism and disasters respectively, while the use of the stern Internal Security Act that allows indefinite detention without trial, evidently has been an efficient intelligence and security apparatus. With more recent developments of terrorist events regionally and globally, Malaysia continues to face an ongoing threat from such activities. Various measures have been and will be actively undertaken both by government and non-governmental agencies in facing these challenges.