Privacy-Preserving Data in IoT-based Cloud Systems: A Comprehensive Survey with AI Integration

As the integration of Internet of Things devices with cloud computing proliferates, the paramount importance of privacy preservation comes to the forefront. This survey paper meticulously explores the landscape of privacy issues in the dynamic intersection of IoT and cloud systems. The comprehensive literature review synthesizes existing research, illuminating key challenges and discerning emerging trends in privacy preserving techniques. The categorization of diverse approaches unveils a nuanced understanding of encryption techniques, anonymization strategies, access control mechanisms, and the burgeoning integration of artificial intelligence. Notable trends include the infusion of machine learning for dynamic anonymization, homomorphic encryption for secure computation, and AI-driven access control systems. The culmination of this survey contributes a holistic view, laying the groundwork for understanding the multifaceted strategies employed in securing sensitive data within IoT-based cloud environments. The insights garnered from this survey provide a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers navigating the complex terrain of privacy preservation in the evolving landscape of IoT and cloud computingComment: 33 page

Securing industrial control system environments: the missing piece

Cyberattacks on industrial control systems (ICSs) are no longer matters of anticipation. These systems are continually subject to malicious attacks without much resistance. Network breaches, data theft, denial of service, and command and control functions are examples of common attacks on ICSs. Despite available security solutions, safety, security, resilience, and performance require both private public sectors to step-up strategies to address increasing security concerns on ICSs. This paper reviews the ICS security risk landscape, including current security solution strategies in order to determine the gaps and limitations for effective mitigation. Notable issues point to a greater emphasis on technology security while discounting people and processes attributes. This is clearly incongruent with; emerging security risk trends, the biased security strategy of focusing more on supervisory control and data acquisition systems, and the emergence of more sector-specific solutions as against generic security solutions. Better solutions need to include approaches that follow similar patterns as the problem trend. These include security measures that are evolutionary by design in response to security risk dynamics. Solutions that recognize and include; people, process and technology security enhancement into asingle system, and addressing all three-entity vulnerabilities can provide a better solution for ICS environments

Issues and Challenges for Network Virtualisation

In recent years, network virtualisation has been of great interest to researchers, being a relatively new and major paradigm in networking. This has been reflected in the IT industry where many virtualisation solutions are being marketed as revolutionary and purchased by enterprises to exploit these promised performances. Adversely, there are certain drawbacks like security, isolation and others that have conceded the network virtualisation. In this study, an investigation of the different state-of-the-art virtualisation technologies, their issues and challenges are addressed and besides, a guideline for a quintessential Network Virtualisation Environment (NVE) is been proposed. A systematic review was effectuated on selectively picked research papers and technical reports. Moreover a comparative study is performed on different Network Virtualisation technologies which include features like security, isolation, stability, convergence, outlay, scalability, robustness, manageability, resource management, programmability, flexibility, heterogeneity, legacy Support, and ease of deployment. The virtualisation technologies comprise Virtual Private Network (VPN), Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). Conclusively the results exhibited the disparity as to the gaps of creating an ideal network virtualisation model which can be circumvented using these as a benchmark

Hybrid SDN Evolution: A Comprehensive Survey of the State-of-the-Art

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an evolutionary networking paradigm which has been adopted by large network and cloud providers, among which are Tech Giants. However, embracing a new and futuristic paradigm as an alternative to well-established and mature legacy networking paradigm requires a lot of time along with considerable financial resources and technical expertise. Consequently, many enterprises can not afford it. A compromise solution then is a hybrid networking environment (a.k.a. Hybrid SDN (hSDN)) in which SDN functionalities are leveraged while existing traditional network infrastructures are acknowledged. Recently, hSDN has been seen as a viable networking solution for a diverse range of businesses and organizations. Accordingly, the body of literature on hSDN research has improved remarkably. On this account, we present this paper as a comprehensive state-of-the-art survey which expands upon hSDN from many different perspectives

Smart grid architecture for rural distribution networks: application to a Spanish pilot network

This paper presents a novel architecture for rural distribution grids. This architecture is designed to modernize traditional rural networks into new Smart Grid ones. The architecture tackles innovation actions on both the power plane and the management plane of the system. In the power plane, the architecture focuses on exploiting the synergies between telecommunications and innovative technologies based on power electronics managing low scale electrical storage. In the management plane, a decentralized management system is proposed based on the addition of two new agents assisting the typical Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system of distribution system operators. Altogether, the proposed architecture enables operators to use more effectively—in an automated and decentralized way—weak rural distribution systems, increasing the capability to integrate new distributed energy resources. This architecture is being implemented in a real Pilot Network located in Spain, in the frame of the European Smart Rural Grid project. The paper also includes a study case showing one of the potentialities of one of the principal technologies developed in the project and underpinning the realization of the new architecture: the so-called Intelligent Distribution Power Router.Postprint (published version

Access Management in Lightweight IoT: A Comprehensive review of ACE-OAuth framework

With the expansion of Internet of Things (IoT), the need for secure and scalable authentication and authorization mechanism for resource-constrained devices is becoming increasingly important. This thesis reviews the authentication and authorization mechanisms in resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) environments. The thesis focuses on the ACE-OAuth framework, which is a lightweight and scalable solution for access management in IoT. Traditional access management protocols are not well-suited for the resource-constrained environment of IoT devices. This makes the lightweight devices vulnerable to cyber-attacks and unauthorized access. This thesis explores the security mechanisms and standards, the protocol flow and comparison of ACE-OAuth profiles. It underlines their potential risks involved with the implementation. The thesis delves into the existing and emerging trends technologies of resource-constrained IoT and identifies limitations and potential threats in existing authentication and authorization methods. Furthermore, comparative analysis of ACE profiles demonstrated that the DTLS profile enables constrained servers to effectively handle client authentication and authorization. The OSCORE provides enhanced security and non-repudiation due to the Proof-of-Possession (PoP) mechanism, requiring client to prove the possession of cryptographic key to generate the access token. The key findings in this thesis, including security implications, strengths, and weaknesses for ACE OAuth profiles are covered in-depth. It shows that the ACE-OAuth framework’s strengths lie in its customization capabilities and scalability. This thesis demonstrates the practical applications and benefits of ACE-OAuth framework in diverse IoT deployments through implementation in smart home and factory use cases. Through these discussions, the research advances the application of authentication and authorization mechanisms and provides practical insights into overcoming the challenges in constrained IoT settings

Internet of Things and Intelligent Technologies for Efficient Energy Management in a Smart Building Environment

Internet of Things (IoT) is attempting to transform modern buildings into energy efficient, smart, and connected buildings, by imparting capabilities such as real-time monitoring, situational awareness and intelligence, and intelligent control. Digitizing the modern day building environment using IoT improves asset visibility and generates energy savings. This dissertation provides a survey of the role, impact, and challenges and recommended solutions of IoT for smart buildings. It also presents an IoT-based solution to overcome the challenge of inefficient energy management in a smart building environment. The proposed solution consists of developing an Intelligent Computational Engine (ICE), composed of various IoT devices and technologies for efficient energy management in an IoT driven building environment. ICE’s capabilities viz. energy consumption prediction and optimized control of electric loads have been developed, deployed, and dispatched in the Real-Time Power and Intelligent Systems (RTPIS) laboratory, which serves as the IoT-driven building case study environment. Two energy consumption prediction models viz. exponential model and Elman recurrent neural network (RNN) model were developed and compared to determine the most accurate model for use in the development of ICE’s energy consumption prediction capability. ICE’s prediction model was developed in MATLAB using cellular computational network (CCN) technique, whereas the optimized control model was developed jointly in MATLAB and Metasys Building Automation System (BAS) using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and logic connector tool (LCT), respectively. It was demonstrated that the developed CCN-based energy consumption prediction model was highly accurate with low error % by comparing the predicted and the measured energy consumption data over a period of one week. The predicted energy consumption values generated from the CCN model served as a reference for the PSO algorithm to generate control parameters for the optimized control of the electric loads. The LCT model used these control parameters to regulate the electric loads to save energy (increase energy efficiency) without violating any operational constraints. Having ICE’s energy consumption prediction and optimized control of electric loads capabilities is extremely useful for efficient energy management as they ensure that sufficient energy is generated to meet the demands of the electric loads optimally at any time thereby reducing wasted energy due to excess generation. This, in turn, reduces carbon emissions and generates energy and cost savings. While the ICE was tested in a small case-study environment, it could be scaled to any smart building environment

The Proceedings of 15th Australian Information Security Management Conference, 5-6 December, 2017, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia

Conference Foreword The annual Security Congress, run by the Security Research Institute at Edith Cowan University, includes the Australian Information Security and Management Conference. Now in its fifteenth year, the conference remains popular for its diverse content and mixture of technical research and discussion papers. The area of information security and management continues to be varied, as is reflected by the wide variety of subject matter covered by the papers this year. The papers cover topics from vulnerabilities in “Internet of Things” protocols through to improvements in biometric identification algorithms and surveillance camera weaknesses. The conference has drawn interest and papers from within Australia and internationally. All submitted papers were subject to a double blind peer review process. Twenty two papers were submitted from Australia and overseas, of which eighteen were accepted for final presentation and publication. We wish to thank the reviewers for kindly volunteering their time and expertise in support of this event. We would also like to thank the conference committee who have organised yet another successful congress. Events such as this are impossible without the tireless efforts of such people in reviewing and editing the conference papers, and assisting with the planning, organisation and execution of the conference. To our sponsors, also a vote of thanks for both the financial and moral support provided to the conference. Finally, thank you to the administrative and technical staff, and students of the ECU Security Research Institute for their contributions to the running of the conference

Teleoperation of passivity-based model reference robust control over the internet

This dissertation offers a survey of a known theoretical approach and novel experimental results in establishing a live communication medium through the internet to host a virtual communication environment for use in Passivity-Based Model Reference Robust Control systems with delays. The controller which is used as a carrier to support a robust communication between input-to-state stability is designed as a control strategy that passively compensates for position errors that arise during contact tasks and strives to achieve delay-independent stability for controlling of aircrafts or other mobile objects. Furthermore the controller is used for nonlinear systems, coordination of multiple agents, bilateral teleoperation, and collision avoidance thus maintaining a communication link with an upper bound of constant delay is crucial for robustness and stability of the overall system. For utilizing such framework an elucidation can be formulated by preparing site survey for analyzing not only the geographical distances separating the nodes in which the teleoperation will occur but also the communication parameters that define the virtual topography that the data will travel through. This survey will first define the feasibility of the overall operation since the teleoperation will be used to sustain a delay based controller over the internet thus obtaining a hypothetical upper bound for the delay via site survey is crucial not only for the communication system but also the delay is required for the design of the passivity-based model reference robust control. Following delay calculation and measurement via site survey, bandwidth tests for unidirectional and bidirectional communication is inspected to ensure that the speed is viable to maintain a real-time connection. Furthermore from obtaining the results it becomes crucial to measure the consistency of the delay throughout a sampled period to guarantee that the upper bound is not breached at any point within the communication to jeopardize the robustness of the controller. Following delay analysis a geographical and topological overview of the communication is also briefly examined via a trace-route to understand the underlying nodes and their contribution to the delay and round-trip consistency. To accommodate the communication channel for the controller the input and output data from both nodes need to be encapsulated within a transmission control protocol via a multithreaded design of a robust program within the C language. The program will construct a multithreaded client-server relationship in which the control data is transmitted. For added stability and higher level of security the channel is then encapsulated via an internet protocol security by utilizing a protocol suite for protecting the communication by authentication and encrypting each packet of the session using negotiation of cryptographic keys during each session