CURRENCY AUTHENTICATION USING MATLAB

Today the ubiquitous distribution of high technology scanning and printing equipment enables the "home" user to make counterfeits of high value documents like checks, tickets, licenses, identification cards and other secure documents. High value documents have been and will continue to be forged as long as the value realized from the counterfeiting is higher than the cost of duplicating the original. There are no perfect counterfeits, and there are no p erfect d esigns fully immune to counterfeiting. In the past, the hands of craftsman and a perfect eye were required to make a high quality counterfeit. Today, highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art reprographic systems do not require skilled professionals to operate them. They are widely available to the general public. These devices are generally simple to use and create an "opportunity" for the "home counterfeiter". It is becoming i ncreasingly difficult to spot alterations or counterfeits using only human sensory evaluation. There is an ever-increasing demand for new technologies and methods of counterfeit detection and forensic analysis to safeguard the integrity of high value documents. This is where process of authentication comes in. The aim of the project is to produce a reliable system that offers an easy and effective authentication technique of a currency. The objectives of Currency Authentication are to design a system that will be able to evaluate the integrity of currency contents relative to the original and of being able to detect, in an automatic way, malevolent currency modifications. For these purposes system software must be developed based on current available techniques and mechanisms

CURRENCY AUTHENTICATION USING MATLAB

Today the ubiquitous distribution of high technology scanning and printing equipment enables the "home" user to make counterfeits of high value documents like checks, tickets, licenses, identification cards and other secure documents. High value documents have been and will continue to be forged as long as the value realized from the counterfeiting is higher than the cost of duplicating the original. There are no perfect counterfeits, and there are no p erfect d esigns fully immune to counterfeiting. In the past, the hands of craftsman and a perfect eye were required to make a high quality counterfeit. Today, highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art reprographic systems do not require skilled professionals to operate them. They are widely available to the general public. These devices are generally simple to use and create an "opportunity" for the "home counterfeiter". It is becoming i ncreasingly difficult to spot alterations or counterfeits using only human sensory evaluation. There is an ever-increasing demand for new technologies and methods of counterfeit detection and forensic analysis to safeguard the integrity of high value documents. This is where process of authentication comes in. The aim of the project is to produce a reliable system that offers an easy and effective authentication technique of a currency. The objectives of Currency Authentication are to design a system that will be able to evaluate the integrity of currency contents relative to the original and of being able to detect, in an automatic way, malevolent currency modifications. For these purposes system software must be developed based on current available techniques and mechanisms

Security and Privacy for Modern Wireless Communication Systems

The aim of this reprint focuses on the latest protocol research, software/hardware development and implementation, and system architecture design in addressing emerging security and privacy issues for modern wireless communication networks. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following: deep-learning-based security and privacy design; covert communications; information-theoretical foundations for advanced security and privacy techniques; lightweight cryptography for power constrained networks; physical layer key generation; prototypes and testbeds for security and privacy solutions; encryption and decryption algorithm for low-latency constrained networks; security protocols for modern wireless communication networks; network intrusion detection; physical layer design with security consideration; anonymity in data transmission; vulnerabilities in security and privacy in modern wireless communication networks; challenges of security and privacy in node–edge–cloud computation; security and privacy design for low-power wide-area IoT networks; security and privacy design for vehicle networks; security and privacy design for underwater communications networks

Comparison of Radio Frequency Distinct Native Attribute and Matched Filtering Techniques for Device Discrimination and Operation Identification

The research presented here provides a comparison of classification, verification, and computational time for three techniques used to analyze Unintentional Radio- Frequency (RF) Emissions (URE) from semiconductor devices for the purposes of device discrimination and operation identification. URE from ten MSP430F5529 16-bit microcontrollers were analyzed using: 1) RF Distinct Native Attribute (RFDNA) fingerprints paired with Multiple Discriminant Analysis/Maximum Likelihood (MDA/ML) classification, 2) RF-DNA fingerprints paired with Generalized Relevance Learning Vector Quantized-Improved (GRLVQI) classification, and 3) Time Domain (TD) signals paired with matched filtering. These techniques were considered for potential applications to detect counterfeit/Trojan hardware infiltrating supply chains and to defend against cyber attacks by monitoring executed operations of embedded systems in critical Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) networks

Mustererkennungsbasierte Verteidgung gegen gezielte Angriffe

The speed at which everything and everyone is being connected considerably outstrips the rate at which effective security mechanisms are introduced to protect them. This has created an opportunity for resourceful threat actors which have specialized in conducting low-volume persistent attacks through sophisticated techniques that are tailored to specific valuable targets. Consequently, traditional approaches are rendered ineffective against targeted attacks, creating an acute need for innovative defense mechanisms. This thesis aims at supporting the security practitioner in bridging this gap by introducing a holistic strategy against targeted attacks that addresses key challenges encountered during the phases of detection, analysis and response. The structure of this thesis is therefore aligned to these three phases, with each one of its central chapters taking on a particular problem and proposing a solution built on a strong foundation on pattern recognition and machine learning. In particular, we propose a detection approach that, in the absence of additional authentication mechanisms, allows to identify spear-phishing emails without relying on their content. Next, we introduce an analysis approach for malware triage based on the structural characterization of malicious code. Finally, we introduce MANTIS, an open-source platform for authoring, sharing and collecting threat intelligence, whose data model is based on an innovative unified representation for threat intelligence standards based on attributed graphs. As a whole, these ideas open new avenues for research on defense mechanisms and represent an attempt to counteract the imbalance between resourceful actors and society at large.In unserer heutigen Welt sind alle und alles miteinander vernetzt. Dies bietet mächtigen Angreifern die Möglichkeit, komplexe Verfahren zu entwickeln, die auf spezifische Ziele angepasst sind. Traditionelle Ansätze zur Bekämpfung solcher Angriffe werden damit ineffektiv, was die Entwicklung innovativer Methoden unabdingbar macht. Die vorliegende Dissertation verfolgt das Ziel, den Sicherheitsanalysten durch eine umfassende Strategie gegen gezielte Angriffe zu unterstützen. Diese Strategie beschäftigt sich mit den hauptsächlichen Herausforderungen in den drei Phasen der Erkennung und Analyse von sowie der Reaktion auf gezielte Angriffe. Der Aufbau dieser Arbeit orientiert sich daher an den genannten drei Phasen. In jedem Kapitel wird ein Problem aufgegriffen und eine entsprechende Lösung vorgeschlagen, die stark auf maschinellem Lernen und Mustererkennung basiert. Insbesondere schlagen wir einen Ansatz vor, der eine Identifizierung von Spear-Phishing-Emails ermöglicht, ohne ihren Inhalt zu betrachten. Anschliessend stellen wir einen Analyseansatz für Malware Triage vor, der auf der strukturierten Darstellung von Code basiert. Zum Schluss stellen wir MANTIS vor, eine Open-Source-Plattform für Authoring, Verteilung und Sammlung von Threat Intelligence, deren Datenmodell auf einer innovativen konsolidierten Graphen-Darstellung für Threat Intelligence Stardards basiert. Wir evaluieren unsere Ansätze in verschiedenen Experimenten, die ihren potentiellen Nutzen in echten Szenarien beweisen. Insgesamt bereiten diese Ideen neue Wege für die Forschung zu Abwehrmechanismen und erstreben, das Ungleichgewicht zwischen mächtigen Angreifern und der Gesellschaft zu minimieren

Innovative polymer nanoparticles for energy storage and anti-counterfeiting applications

La nanociencia y la nanotecnología representan uno de los campos más interesantes de la ciencia moderna, con un carácter altamente multi- e interdisciplinar, ya que combina diferentes disciplinas como la química, la biología, la física y la ingeniería, aprovechando sus principios y procesos. Los nanomateriales han estado presentes en la naturaleza y en la vida desde tiempos ancestrales. Sin embargo, no es hasta la revolución industrial cuando se desarrollan nuevas herramientas tecnológicas que propiciarán en el futuro un gran interés por el estudio de los nanomateriales. Una de las grandes características de los nanomateriales es que presentan propiedades diferentes al disminuir su tamaño a nivel nanométrico ya que poseen una mayor área superficial. Las nanopartículas poliméricas (PNPs) han recibido recientemente mucho interés y tienen un papel clave en diversas áreas como fotónica, electrónica, sensores, medicina, control de la contaminación y tecnología ambiental. La transformación del polímero disponible a granel en un material polimérico de tamaño nanométrico ha proporcionado la aparición de propiedades nuevas e interesantes sin cambiar la composición del polímero. Con el fin de desarrollar nuevos dispositivos de alta tecnología para diversas aplicaciones, los investigadores necesitan controlar mejor la estructura y la función de las nanopartículas poliméricas comprendiendo el papel del tamaño, la forma y la composición. La interfaz de investigación en la que las nanopartículas poliméricas se encuentran con la química analítica, la biomedicina, la construcción, la electroquímica y otros campos ofrece ricas oportunidades para revelar nuevas propiedades químicas, médicas y biológicas de los nanomateriales y descubrir muchas funciones y aplicaciones nuevas de estos materiales. Las nanopartículas poliméricas, por tanto, representan una plataforma para poder desarrollar nuevas aplicaciones, estudiando nuevas rutas sintéticas para obtener las propiedades óptimas para cada aplicación deseada. En la tesis, se describen los avances recientes en la síntesis de nuevas nanopartículas poliméricas con propiedades avanzadas mediante diferentes estrategias. Las estrategias sintéticas incluyen la síntesis química y física para la producción controlada de nanopartículas poliméricas con morfologías bien definidas. En concreto, se desarrollaron diferentes tipos de nanopartículas con altas prestaciones en aplicaciones en almacenamiento de energía y en el campo de la antifalsificación. Los beneficios tecnológicos que se han desarrollado en la tesis doctoral residen en el diseño de los nuevos nanomateriales con potenciales aplicaciones que además pueden aportar valor a tecnologías y productos ya existentes, como además dar soluciones a problemas medioambientales y sociales actuales. Estas nuevas rutas sintéticas y pruebas de concepto creadas en la presente tesis doctoral generan nuevo conocimiento que da valor tanto a nivel académico como industrial.