SAVing the Internet: Measuring the adoption of Source Address Validation (SAV) by network providers

IP spoofing is the act of forging source IP addresses assigned to a host machine. Spoofing provides users the ability to hide their identity and impersonate another machine. Malicious users use spoofing to invoke a variety of attacks. Examples are Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, policy evasion and a range of application-level...

Investment planning for flexibility sources and transmission lines in the presence of renewable generation

Environmental and political factors determine long-term development for renewable generation around the world. The rapid growth of renewable generation requires timely changes in power systems operation planning, investments in additional flexible assets and transmission capacity. The development trends of restructured power systems suggest that...

Evaluating Hosting Provider Security Through Abuse Data and the Creation of Metrics

Hosting providers are theoretically in a key position to combat cybercrime as they are often the entities renting out the resources that end up being abused by miscreants. Yet, notwithstanding hosting providers' current security measures to combat abuse, their responses vary widely. In many cases the response is ineffective, as empirical...

The Role of Hosting Providers in Web Security: Understanding and Improving Security Incentives and Performance via Analysis of Large-scale Incident Data

In theory, hosting providers can play an important role in fighting cybercrime and misuse. This is because many online threats, be they high-profile or mundane, use online storage infrastructure maintained by hosting providers at the core of their criminal operations. <br/>However, in practice, we see large differences in the security measures...

Regulatory Design of Capacity Remuneration Mechanisms in Regional and Low-Carbon Electric Power Markets

Capacity remuneration mechanisms (CRMs) are “climbing” regulatory agendas in all liberalised power sectors, especially in the European Union. CRMs are introduced to improve system reliability and to minimise power shortages to an economically efficient extent. These schemes will have a central role in future power systems. This PhD thesis...

User contribution in peer-to-peer communities

Reverse Stackelberg Games: Theory and Applications in Traffic Control

One of the major challenges in optimization-based control of large-scale intelligent infrastructural networks such as traffic networks is to find efficient multilevel optimization schemes through which decisions can be made by agents or controllers of different interacting layers. The hierarchical game on which this dissertation is focused can...

Online Networks as Societies: User Behaviors and Contribution Incentives

Online networks like email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, eBay, and BitTorrent-like Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems have become popular and powerful infrastructures for communication. They involve potentially large numbers of humans with their collective inputs and decisions, and they often rely on the cooperation and the contribution of their users...

Peer-to-Peer System Design: A Socioeconomic approach

It has gradually become clear that Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems should not be conceived in the manner of conventional computing systems. Consequently, over the years, ideas from social science in general and economics in particular have made their way to P2P systems to deal with the novel challenges that such systems throw up. In Chapter 2 of this...

On Stackelberg and Inverse Stackelberg Games & Their Applications in the Optimal Toll Design Problem, the Energy Markets Liberalization Problem, and in the Theory of Incentives

This thesis studies the so-called inverse Stackelberg games, that are new in the world of game theory, their properties, and their applications in the optimal toll design problem, the energy markets liberalization problem, and in the theory of incentives.

Contracting Economics of Large Engineering and Construction Projects

Large Engineering and Construction Projects (LECPs) form an important area of economic activity, covering a range of different artefacts. These projects have in common that they are massive undertakings, spanning long time periods and they involve large capital investments. Uncertainty and risk are the ruling paradigms. In the oil, gas and...

Incentive systems for wastewater treatment and reuse in irrigated agriculture in the MENA region: Evidence from Jordan and Tunisia

As a result of chronic water scarcity, the countries of the MENA region (Middle East and Northern Africa) recognize reclaimed wastewater as a non-conventional water resource. Nonetheless, in this region, substantial amounts of the wastewater that are collected are still discharged into the sea or water courses without treatment. Moreover, most...

Water Demand Management. Approaches, Experiences and Application to Egypt