Advances in the Convergence of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence

Blockchain (BC) and artificial intelligence (AI) are currently two of the hottest computer science topics and their future seems bright. However, their convergence is not straightforward, and more research is needed in both fields. Thus, this book presents some of the latest advances in the convergence of BC and AI, gives useful guidelines for future researchers on how BC can help AI and how AI can become smarter, thanks to the use of BC. This book specifically analyzes the past of BC through the history of Bitcoin and then looks into the future: from massive internet-of-things (IoT) deployments, to the so-called metaverse, and to the next generation of AI-powered BC-based cyber secured applications

Ethical and Unethical Hacking

The goal of this chapter is to provide a conceptual analysis of ethical, comprising history, common usage and the attempt to provide a systematic classification that is both compatible with common usage and normatively adequate. Subsequently, the article identifies a tension between common usage and a normativelyadequate nomenclature. ‘Ethical hackers’ are often identified with hackers that abide to a code of ethics privileging business-friendly values. However, there is no guarantee that respecting such values is always compatible with the all-things-considered morally best act. It is recognised, however, that in terms of assessment, it may be quite difficult to determine who is an ethical hacker in the ‘all things considered’ sense, while society may agree more easily on the determination of who is one in the ‘business-friendly’ limited sense. The article concludes by suggesting a pragmatic best-practice approach for characterising ethical hacking, which reaches beyond business-friendly values and helps in the taking of decisions that are respectful of the hackers’ individual ethics in morally debatable, grey zones

Best Practices and Recommendations for Cybersecurity Service Providers

This chapter outlines some concrete best practices and recommendations for cybersecurity service providers, with a focus on data sharing, data protection and penetration testing. Based on a brief outline of dilemmas that cybersecurity service providers may experience in their daily operations, it discusses data handling policies and practices of cybersecurity vendors along the following five topics: customer data handling; information about breaches; threat intelligence; vulnerability-related information; and data involved when collaborating with peers, CERTs, cybersecurity research groups, etc. There is, furthermore, a discussion of specific issues of penetration testing such as customer recruitment and execution as well as the supervision and governance of penetration testing. The chapter closes with some general recommendations regarding improving the ethical decision-making procedures of private cybersecurity service providers

The Ethics of Cybersecurity

This open access book provides the first comprehensive collection of papers that provide an integrative view on cybersecurity. It discusses theories, problems and solutions on the relevant ethical issues involved. This work is sorely needed in a world where cybersecurity has become indispensable to protect trust and confidence in the digital infrastructure whilst respecting fundamental values like equality, fairness, freedom, or privacy. The book has a strong practical focus as it includes case studies outlining ethical issues in cybersecurity and presenting guidelines and other measures to tackle those issues. It is thus not only relevant for academics but also for practitioners in cybersecurity such as providers of security software, governmental CERTs or Chief Security Officers in companies

A multifaceted formal analysis of end-to-end encrypted email protocols and cryptographic authentication enhancements

Largely owing to cryptography, modern messaging tools (e.g., Signal) have reached a considerable degree of sophistication, balancing advanced security features with high usability. This has not been the case for email, which however, remains the most pervasive and interoperable form of digital communication. As sensitive information (e.g., identification documents, bank statements, or the message in the email itself) is frequently exchanged by this means, protecting the privacy of email communications is a justified concern which has been emphasized in the last years. A great deal of effort has gone into the development of tools and techniques for providing email communications with privacy and security, requirements that were not originally considered. Yet, drawbacks across several dimensions hinder the development of a global solution that would strengthen security while maintaining the standard features that we expect from email clients. In this thesis, we present improvements to security in email communications. Relying on formal methods and cryptography, we design and assess security protocols and analysis techniques, and propose enhancements to implemented approaches for end-to-end secure email communication. In the first part, we propose a methodical process relying on code reverse engineering, which we use to abstract the specifications of two end-to-end security protocols from a secure email solution (called pEp); then, we apply symbolic verification techniques to analyze such protocols with respect to privacy and authentication properties. We also introduce a novel formal framework that enables a system's security analysis aimed at detecting flaws caused by possible discrepancies between the user's and the system's assessment of security. Security protocols, along with user perceptions and interaction traces, are modeled as transition systems; socio-technical security properties are defined as formulas in computation tree logic (CTL), which can then be verified by model checking. Finally, we propose a protocol that aims at securing a password-based authentication system designed to detect the leakage of a password database, from a code-corruption attack. In the second part, the insights gained by the analysis in Part I allow us to propose both, theoretical and practical solutions for improving security and usability aspects, primarily of email communication, but from which secure messaging solutions can benefit too. The first enhancement concerns the use of password-authenticated key exchange (PAKE) protocols for entity authentication in peer-to-peer decentralized settings, as a replacement for out-of-band channels; this brings provable security to the so far empirical process, and enables the implementation of further security and usability properties (e.g., forward secrecy, secure secret retrieval). A second idea refers to the protection of weak passwords at rest and in transit, for which we propose a scheme based on the use of a one-time-password; furthermore, we consider potential approaches for improving this scheme. The hereby presented research was conducted as part of an industrial partnership between SnT/University of Luxembourg and pEp Security S.A