Efficient sharing of dynamic WSNs

The Ambient middleware supports real-time monitoring and remote maintenance across the Internet via wired and mobile wireless network access technologies. Additionally, the middleware offers easy integration with third-party applications. Ambient Studio utilizes the middleware for remote WSN configuration and monitoring. The ConnectBox utilizes it to monitor and maintain WSNs remotely. This paper describes the Ambient middleware and compares its efficiency with the existing messaging protocols used for instant messaging and web services

Smartphone software for department of computer science

The presented document provides an overview of the Smartphone Software for Department of Computer Science project development through out several phases: analysis of the project proposal, preliminary study of the concepts involved in the project, design decisions and modeling, implementation, experiments and conclusions obtained in the end, as well as a reflection on possible future system improvements. The final version of the system, which was built after the design and implementation decisions made through out the development of the project, is a prototype mainly composed of an application for Android smartphones leaning on a distributed architecture in order to provide all its expected functionalities. Thus, the system is based on a mixture of the two main distributed systems architectural models: client-server and peer-to-peer. The functionalities that lean on the client-server architecture are those whose data are relative to information of general interest and need to be always (ideally) available: consulting news, information and schedules for courses, frequently asked questions, maps and indoors positioning. On the other hand, functionalities such as the chat system and the possibility of contacting with the students of a certain course depend on the availability of the users, so a peer-to-peer architectural model was developed to support them. Regarding the system functionalities, the in-door localization and the chat system were determined as the most relevant ones. With the aim to provide those functionalities, the choice made was to implement an in-door positioning based on the RedPin model and, on the other hand, to make use of an already existing Java solution to build a chat system by means of multicast DNS and DNS Service Discovery: JmDNS

A method for securing online community service: A study of selected Western Australian councils

Since the Internet was made publicly accessible, it has become increasingly popular and its deployment has been broad and global thereby facilitating a range of available online services such as Electronic Mail (email), news or bulletins, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and World Wide Web (WWW). Progressively, other online services such as telephony, video conference, video on demand, Interactive Television (ITV) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have been integrated with the Internet and become publicly available. Presently, Internet broadband communication services incorporating both wired and wireless network technologies has seen the emergence of the concept of a digital community which has been growing and expanding rapidly around the world. Internet and the ever expanding online services to the wider digital community has raised the issue of security of these services during usage. Most local councils throughout Western Australia have resorted to delivering online services such as library, online payments and email accessibility. The provision and usage of these services have inherent security risks. Consequently, this study investigated the concept of a secure digital community in the secure provision and usage of these online services in selected local councils in Western Australia (WA). After an extensive review of existing literature, information security frameworks were derived from the adaptation of various resources, such as the OSSTMM 2.2 Section C: Internet Technology Security benchmark which was used as the main template. In addition, this template was enhanced into a framework model by incorporating other benchmarks such as NIST, CIS, ISSAF as well as other sources of information. These included information security related books, related ICT network and security websites such as CERT, CheckPoint, Cisco, GFI, Juniper, MS, NESSUS and NMAP together with journals and personal interviews. The proposed information security frameworks were developed to enhance the level of security strength of the email and online web systems as well as to increase the level of confidence in the system security within the selected local councils in WA. All the investigative studies were based upon the available selected local councils’ data and the associated analyses of the results as obtained from the testing software. In addition, the interpretive multiple-case study principles were used during the investigation to achieve or fulfil the purpose of this study. The findings from this study were then abstracted for use in a framework and made available for use as a model for possible adaptation and implementation to other similarly structured councils or organisations. As a result, the study confirmed that the proposed information security frameworks have the capability and potential to improve the level of security strength. In addition, the level of satisfaction and confidence of council staff of the selected local councils in WA in the system security would also be increased due to the application of these frameworks. Although these information security frameworks may be recommended as practical and supporting tools for local councils, the findings from this study were specific only to the selected local councils used in this study. Further research using other councils, may be necessary in order for the information security frameworks to be adopted within a wider range of councils or organisations in WA or elsewhere

Mitigating Distributed Denial of Service Attacks in an Anonymous Routing Environment: Client Puzzles and Tor

Online intelligence operations use the Internet to gather information on the activities of U.S. adversaries. The security of these operations is paramount, and one way to avoid being linked to the Department of Defense (DoD) is to use anonymous communication systems. One such system, Tor, makes interactive TCP services anonymous. Tor uses the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol and is thus vulnerable to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that can significantly delay data traversing the Tor network. This research uses client puzzles to mitigate TLS DDoS attacks. A novel puzzle protocol, the Memoryless Puzzle Protocol (MPP), is conceived, implemented, and analyzed for anonymity and DDoS vulnerabilities. Consequently, four new secondary DDoS and anonymity attacks are identified and defenses are proposed. Furthermore, analysis of the MPP identified and resolved two important shortcomings of the generalized client puzzle technique. Attacks that normally induce victim CPU utilization rates of 80-100% are reduced to below 70%. Also, the puzzle implementation allows for user-data latency to be reduced by close to 50% during a large-scale attack .Finally, experimental results show successful mitigation can occur without sending a puzzle to every requesting client. By adjusting the maximum puzzle strength, CPU utilization can be capped at 70% even when an arbitrary client has only a 30% chance of receiving a puzzle

VoIP in Jabber Client

Práce se zabývá možnostmi implementace VoIP do existujícího XMPP programu se sdílenou tabulí. Analyzuje možnosti využití současných technologií pro podporu VoIP.  Cílem je nahrazení stávajících komunikačních knihoven klienta za telepathy. Dále také přidání VoIP.This thesis tackles the issues of implementing a VoIP support into an XMPP based IM application. The state of the art is analyzed to find a suitable technology to base the VoIP on. The work's goal is to port the existing client application to network framework telepathy and implentation of VoIP.

Application Adaptive Bandwidth Management Using Real-Time Network Monitoring.

Application adaptive bandwidth management is a strategy for ensuring secure and reliable network operation in the presence of undesirable applications competing for a network’s crucial bandwidth, covert channels of communication via non-standard traffic on well-known ports, and coordinated Denial of Service attacks. The study undertaken here explored the classification, analysis and management of the network traffic on the basis of ports and protocols used, type of applications, traffic direction and flow rates on the East Tennessee State University’s campus-wide network. Bandwidth measurements over a nine-month period indicated bandwidth abuse of less than 0.0001% of total network bandwidth. The conclusion suggests the use of the defense-in-depth approach in conjunction with the KHYATI (Knowledge, Host hardening, Yauld monitoring, Analysis, Tools and Implementation) paradigm to ensure effective information assurance