Digital provenance - models, systems, and applications

Data provenance refers to the history of creation and manipulation of a data object and is being widely used in various application domains including scientific experiments, grid computing, file and storage system, streaming data etc. However, existing provenance systems operate at a single layer of abstraction (workflow/process/OS) at which they record and store provenance whereas the provenance captured from different layers provide the highest benefit when integrated through a unified provenance framework. To build such a framework, a comprehensive provenance model able to represent the provenance of data objects with various semantics and granularity is the first step. In this thesis, we propose a such a comprehensive provenance model and present an abstract schema of the model. ^ We further explore the secure provenance solutions for distributed systems, namely streaming data, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and virtualized environments. We design a customizable file provenance system with an application to the provenance infrastructure for virtualized environments. The system supports automatic collection and management of file provenance metadata, characterized by our provenance model. Based on the proposed provenance framework, we devise a mechanism for detecting data exfiltration attack in a file system. We then move to the direction of secure provenance communication in streaming environment and propose two secure provenance schemes focusing on WSNs. The basic provenance scheme is extended in order to detect packet dropping adversaries on the data flow path over a period of time. We also consider the issue of attack recovery and present an extensive incident response and prevention system specifically designed for WSNs

Digital provenance - models, systems, and applications

Data provenance refers to the history of creation and manipulation of a data object and is being widely used in various application domains including scientific experiments, grid computing, file and storage system, streaming data etc. However, existing provenance systems operate at a single layer of abstraction (workflow/process/OS) at which they record and store provenance whereas the provenance captured from different layers provide the highest benefit when integrated through a unified provenance framework. To build such a framework, a comprehensive provenance model able to represent the provenance of data objects with various semantics and granularity is the first step. In this thesis, we propose a such a comprehensive provenance model and present an abstract schema of the model. ^ We further explore the secure provenance solutions for distributed systems, namely streaming data, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and virtualized environments. We design a customizable file provenance system with an application to the provenance infrastructure for virtualized environments. The system supports automatic collection and management of file provenance metadata, characterized by our provenance model. Based on the proposed provenance framework, we devise a mechanism for detecting data exfiltration attack in a file system. We then move to the direction of secure provenance communication in streaming environment and propose two secure provenance schemes focusing on WSNs. The basic provenance scheme is extended in order to detect packet dropping adversaries on the data flow path over a period of time. We also consider the issue of attack recovery and present an extensive incident response and prevention system specifically designed for WSNs

Современные методы обеспечения целостности данных в протоколах управления киберфизических систем

At present, the problem of creating methodological security of cyberphysical systems, in particular, the design and implementation of information security subsystems is acute. At the same time, the landscape of threats and vulnerabilities typical for a wide range of hardware and software technologies used in cyberphysical systems is extremely wide and complex. In this context, the security of application layer protocols is of paramount importance, as these protocols are the basis for interaction between applications and services running on different devices, as well as in cloud infrastructures. With the constant interaction of the systems under study with the real physical infrastructure, the challenge is to determine effective measures to ensure the integrity of the transferred control commands, as disruption of the performed critical processes can affect human life and health. The paper provides an analytical review of the main methods of data integrity assurance in management protocol of cyberphysical systems, as well as an overview of application layer protocols vulnerabilities widely used in cyberphysical systems of different types. Classical methods of data integrity assurance, new methods, in particular, blockchain, as well as the main directions of increasing the efficiency of data integrity protocols in cyberphysical systems are considered. Analysis of application layer vulnerabilities is carried out on the example of the most popular MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, DDS, XMPP specifications and their implementations. It is established that despite the presence of basic security mechanisms in all these protocols, researchers continue to regularly identify vulnerabilities in popular implementations, that often endangers critical infrastructure services. In the course of preparing the review of the existing methods of data integrity assurance for the examined class of systems, the key problems of these methods integration and ways of their solution were defined.В настоящее время остро стоит проблема создания методологического обеспечения безопасности киберфизических систем, в частности проектирования и реализации подсистем информационной безопасности. При этом ландшафт угроз и уязвимостей, характерных для применяемого в киберфизических системах широкого спектра аппаратных и программных технологий, чрезвычайно широк и сложен. В этом контексте безопасность протоколов прикладного уровня имеет первостепенное значение, поскольку эти протоколы лежат в основе взаимодействия между приложениями и службами, работающими на различных устройствах, а также в облачных инфраструктурах. В условиях постоянного взаимодействия исследуемых систем с реальной физической инфраструктурой актуальна проблема определения эффективных мер по обеспечению целостности передаваемых команд управления, поскольку нарушение выполняемых критически важных процессов может затрагивать жизнь и здоровье людей. Представлен обзор основных методов обеспечения целостности данных в протоколах управления киберфизических систем, а также обзор уязвимостей протоколов прикладного уровня, широко используемых в различных киберфизических системах. Рассмотрены классические методы обеспечения целостности и новые методы, в частности блокчейн, а также основные направления повышения эффективности протоколов обеспечения целостности данных в киберфизических системах. Анализ уязвимостей прикладного уровня проведен на примере наиболее популярных спецификаций MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, DDS, XMPP, а также их реализаций. Установлено, что несмотря на наличие во всех перечисленных протоколах базовых механизмов обеспечения безопасности, исследователи продолжают регулярно выявлять уязвимости в популярных реализациях, что зачастую ставит под угрозу сервисы критической инфраструктуры. В ходе подготовки обзора существующих методов обеспечения целостности данных для исследуемого класса систем были определены ключевые проблемы интеграции этих методов и способы их решения

Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2019, nr 1

kwartalni

Data Hiding and Its Applications

Data hiding techniques have been widely used to provide copyright protection, data integrity, covert communication, non-repudiation, and authentication, among other applications. In the context of the increased dissemination and distribution of multimedia content over the internet, data hiding methods, such as digital watermarking and steganography, are becoming increasingly relevant in providing multimedia security. The goal of this book is to focus on the improvement of data hiding algorithms and their different applications (both traditional and emerging), bringing together researchers and practitioners from different research fields, including data hiding, signal processing, cryptography, and information theory, among others

Security protocols suite for machine-to-machine systems

Nowadays, the great diffusion of advanced devices, such as smart-phones, has shown that there is a growing trend to rely on new technologies to generate and/or support progress; the society is clearly ready to trust on next-generation communication systems to face today’s concerns on economic and social fields. The reason for this sociological change is represented by the fact that the technologies have been open to all users, even if the latter do not necessarily have a specific knowledge in this field, and therefore the introduction of new user-friendly applications has now appeared as a business opportunity and a key factor to increase the general cohesion among all citizens. Within the actors of this technological evolution, wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) networks are becoming of great importance. These wireless networks are made up of interconnected low-power devices that are able to provide a great variety of services with little or even no user intervention. Examples of these services can be fleet management, fire detection, utilities consumption (water and energy distribution, etc.) or patients monitoring. However, since any arising technology goes together with its security threats, which have to be faced, further studies are necessary to secure wireless M2M technology. In this context, main threats are those related to attacks to the services availability and to the privacy of both the subscribers’ and the services providers’ data. Taking into account the often limited resources of the M2M devices at the hardware level, ensuring the availability and privacy requirements in the range of M2M applications while minimizing the waste of valuable resources is even more challenging. Based on the above facts, this Ph. D. thesis is aimed at providing efficient security solutions for wireless M2M networks that effectively reduce energy consumption of the network while not affecting the overall security services of the system. With this goal, we first propose a coherent taxonomy of M2M network that allows us to identify which security topics deserve special attention and which entities or specific services are particularly threatened. Second, we define an efficient, secure-data aggregation scheme that is able to increase the network lifetime by optimizing the energy consumption of the devices. Third, we propose a novel physical authenticator or frame checker that minimizes the communication costs in wireless channels and that successfully faces exhaustion attacks. Fourth, we study specific aspects of typical key management schemes to provide a novel protocol which ensures the distribution of secret keys for all the cryptographic methods used in this system. Fifth, we describe the collaboration with the WAVE2M community in order to define a proper frame format actually able to support the necessary security services, including the ones that we have already proposed; WAVE2M was funded to promote the global use of an emerging wireless communication technology for ultra-low and long-range services. And finally sixth, we provide with an accurate analysis of privacy solutions that actually fit M2M-networks services’ requirements. All the analyses along this thesis are corroborated by simulations that confirm significant improvements in terms of efficiency while supporting the necessary security requirements for M2M networks

Wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks promise an unprecedented fine-grained interface between the virtual and the physical world. They are one of the most rapidly developing new information technologies, with applications in a wide range of fields including industrial process control, security and surveillance, environmental sensing, and structural health monitoring. The subject of this project is motivated by the urgent need to provide a comprehensive and organized survey of the field. It shows how the core challenges of energy efficiency, robustness, and autonomy are addressed in these systems by networking techniques across multiple layers. The topics covered include network deployment, wireless characteristics, time synchronization, congestion and error control, medium access, standards, topology control, routing, security, data transfer, transport protocols and new technologies and materials in fabricating sensors

Energy Efficiency in Communications and Networks

The topic of "Energy Efficiency in Communications and Networks" attracts growing attention due to economical and environmental reasons. The amount of power consumed by information and communication technologies (ICT) is rapidly increasing, as well as the energy bill of service providers. According to a number of studies, ICT alone is responsible for a percentage which varies from 2% to 10% of the world power consumption. Thus, driving rising cost and sustainability concerns about the energy footprint of the IT infrastructure. Energy-efficiency is an aspect that until recently was only considered for battery driven devices. Today we see energy-efficiency becoming a pervasive issue that will need to be considered in all technology areas from device technology to systems management. This book is seeking to provide a compilation of novel research contributions on hardware design, architectures, protocols and algorithms that will improve the energy efficiency of communication devices and networks and lead to a more energy proportional technology infrastructure