225 research outputs found
Improved Performance of Secured VoIP Via Enhanced Blowfish Encryption Algorithm
Both the development and the integration of efficient network, open source technology, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications have been increasingly important and gained quick popularity due to new rapidly emerging IP-based network technology. Nonetheless, security and privacy concerns have emerged as issues that need to be addressed. The privacy process ensures that encryption and decryption methods protect the data from being alternate and intercept, a privacy VoIP call will contribute to private and confidential conversation purposes such as telebanking, telepsychiatry, health, safety issues and many more. Hence, this study had quantified VoIP performance and voice quality under security implementation with the technique of IPSec and the enhancement of the Blowfish encryption algorithm. In fact, the primary objective of this study is to improve the performance of Blowfish encryption algorithm. The proposed algorithm was tested with varying network topologies and a variety of audio codecs, which contributed to the impact upon VoIP network. A network testbed with seven experiments and network configurations had been set up in two labs to determine its effects on network performance. Besides, an experimental work using OPNET simulations under 54 experiments of network scenarios were compared with the network testbed for validation and verification purposes. Next, an enhanced Blowfish algorithm for VoIP services had been designed and executed throughout this research. From the stance of VoIP session and services performance, the redesign of the Blowfish algorithm displayed several significant effects that improved both the performance of VoIP network and the quality of voice. This finding indicates some available opportunities that could enhance encrypted algorithm, data privacy, and integrity; where the balance between Quality of Services (QoS) and security techniques can be applied to boost network throughput, performance, and voice quality of existing VoIP services. With that, this study had executed and contributed to a threefold aspect, which refers to the redesign of the Blowfish algorithm that could minimize computational resources. In addition, the VoIP network performance was analysed and compared in terms of end-to-end delay, jitter, packet loss, and finally, sought improvement for voice quality in VoIP services, as well as the effect of the designed enhanced Blowfish algorithm upon voice quality, which had been quantified by using a variety of voice codecs
A Survey on Security and Privacy of 5G Technologies: Potential Solutions, Recent Advancements, and Future Directions
Security has become the primary concern in many telecommunications industries today as risks can have high consequences. Especially, as the core and enable technologies will be associated with 5G network, the confidential information will move at all layers in future wireless systems. Several incidents revealed that the hazard encountered by an infected wireless network, not only affects the security and privacy concerns, but also impedes the complex dynamics of the communications ecosystem. Consequently, the complexity and strength of security attacks have increased in the recent past making the detection or prevention of sabotage a global challenge. From the security and privacy perspectives, this paper presents a comprehensive detail on the core and enabling technologies, which are used to build the 5G security model; network softwarization security, PHY (Physical) layer security and 5G privacy concerns, among others. Additionally, the paper includes discussion on security monitoring and management of 5G networks. This paper also evaluates the related security measures and standards of core 5G technologies by resorting to different standardization bodies and provide a brief overview of 5G standardization security forces. Furthermore, the key projects of international significance, in line with the security concerns of 5G and beyond are also presented. Finally, a future directions and open challenges section has included to encourage future research.European CommissionNational Research Tomsk Polytechnic UniversityUpdate citation details during checkdate report - A
A Framework for Facilitating Secure Design and Development of IoT Systems
The term Internet of Things (IoT) describes an ever-growing ecosystem of physical objects
or things interconnected with each other and connected to the Internet. IoT devices
consist of a wide range of highly heterogeneous inanimate and animate objects. Thus, a
thing in the context of the IoT can even mean a person with blood pressure or heart rate
monitor implant or a pet with a biochip transponder. IoT devices range from ordinary
household appliances, such as smart light bulbs or smart coffee makers, to sophisticated
tools for industrial automation. IoT is currently leading a revolutionary change in many
industries and, as a result, a lot of industries and organizations are adopting the paradigm
to gain a competitive edge. This allows them to boost operational efficiency and optimize
system performance through real-time data management, which results in an optimized
balance between energy usage and throughput. Another important application area is
the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which is the application of the IoT in industrial
settings. This is also referred to as the Industrial Internet or Industry 4.0, where Cyber-
Physical Systems (CPS) are interconnected using various technologies to achieve wireless
control as well as advanced manufacturing and factory automation. IoT applications
are becoming increasingly prevalent across many application domains, including smart
healthcare, smart cities, smart grids, smart farming, and smart supply chain management.
Similarly, IoT is currently transforming the way people live and work, and hence
the demand for smart consumer products among people is also increasing steadily. Thus,
many big industry giants, as well as startup companies, are competing to dominate the
market with their new IoT products and services, and hence unlocking the business value
of IoT.
Despite its increasing popularity, potential benefits, and proven capabilities, IoT is still in
its infancy and fraught with challenges. The technology is faced with many challenges, including
connectivity issues, compatibility/interoperability between devices and systems,
lack of standardization, management of the huge amounts of data, and lack of tools for
forensic investigations. However, the state of insecurity and privacy concerns in the IoT
are arguably among the key factors restraining the universal adoption of the technology.
Consequently, many recent research studies reveal that there are security and privacy issues
associated with the design and implementation of several IoT devices and Smart Applications
(smart apps). This can be attributed, partly, to the fact that as some IoT device
makers and smart apps development companies (especially the start-ups) reap business
value from the huge IoT market, they tend to neglect the importance of security. As a
result, many IoT devices and smart apps are created with security vulnerabilities, which
have resulted in many IoT related security breaches in recent years.
This thesis is focused on addressing the security and privacy challenges that were briefly
highlighted in the previous paragraph. Given that the Internet is not a secure environ ment even for the traditional computer systems makes IoT systems even less secure due
to the inherent constraints associated with many IoT devices. These constraints, which are
mainly imposed by cost since many IoT edge devices are expected to be inexpensive and
disposable, include limited energy resources, limited computational and storage capabilities,
as well as lossy networks due to the much lower hardware performance compared
to conventional computers. While there are many security and privacy issues in the IoT
today, arguably a root cause of such issues is that many start-up IoT device manufacturers
and smart apps development companies do not adhere to the concept of security by
design. Consequently, some of these companies produce IoT devices and smart apps with
security vulnerabilities.
In recent years, attackers have exploited different security vulnerabilities in IoT infrastructures
which have caused several data breaches and other security and privacy incidents
involving IoT devices and smart apps. These have attracted significant attention
from the research community in both academia and industry, resulting in a surge of proposals
put forward by many researchers. Although research approaches and findings may
vary across different research studies, the consensus is that a fundamental prerequisite for
addressing IoT security and privacy challenges is to build security and privacy protection
into IoT devices and smart apps from the very beginning. To this end, this thesis investigates
how to bake security and privacy into IoT systems from the onset, and as its main
objective, this thesis particularly focuses on providing a solution that can foster the design
and development of secure IoT devices and smart apps, namely the IoT Hardware Platform
Security Advisor (IoT-HarPSecA) framework. The security framework is expected to
provide support to designers and developers in IoT start-up companies during the design
and implementation of IoT systems. IoT-HarPSecA framework is also expected to facilitate
the implementation of security in existing IoT systems.
To accomplish the previously mentioned objective as well as to affirm the aforementioned
assertion, the following step-by-step problem-solving approach is followed. The first step
is an exhaustive survey of different aspects of IoT security and privacy, including security requirements in IoT architecture, security threats in IoT architecture, IoT application domains
and their associated cyber assets, the complexity of IoT vulnerabilities, and some
possible IoT security and privacy countermeasures; and the survey wraps up with a brief
overview of IoT hardware development platforms. The next steps are the identification of
many challenges and issues associated with the IoT, which narrowed down to the abovementioned
fundamental security/privacy issue; followed by a study of different aspects of
security implementation in the IoT. The remaining steps are the framework design thinking
process, framework design and implementation, and finally, framework performance
evaluation.
IoT-HarPSecA offers three functionality features, namely security requirement elicitation security best practice guidelines for secure development, and above all, a feature that recommends
specific Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithms (LWCAs) for both software and
hardware implementations. Accordingly, IoT-HarPSecA is composed of three main components,
namely Security Requirements Elicitation (SRE) component, Security Best Practice
Guidelines (SBPG) component, and Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithms Recommendation
(LWCAR) component, each of them servicing one of the aforementioned features.
The author has implemented a command-line tool in C++ to serve as an interface
between users and the security framework. This thesis presents a detailed description,
design, and implementation of the SRE, SBPG, and LWCAR components of the security
framework. It also presents real-world practical scenarios that show how IoT-HarPSecA
can be used to elicit security requirements, generate security best practices, and recommend
appropriate LWCAs based on user inputs. Furthermore, the thesis presents performance
evaluation of the SRE, SBPG, and LWCAR components framework tools, which
shows that IoT-HarPSecA can serve as a roadmap for secure IoT development.O termo Internet das coisas (IoT) é utilizado para descrever um ecossistema, em expansão,
de objetos físicos ou elementos interconetados entre si e à Internet. Os dispositivos
IoT consistem numa gama vasta e heterogénea de objetos animados ou inanimados e,
neste contexto, podem pertencer à IoT um indivíduo com um implante que monitoriza a
frequência cardíaca ou até mesmo um animal de estimação que tenha um biochip. Estes
dispositivos variam entre eletrodomésticos, tais como máquinas de café ou lâmpadas inteligentes,
a ferramentas sofisticadas de uso na automatização industrial. A IoT está a
revolucionar e a provocar mudanças em várias indústrias e muitas adotam esta tecnologia
para incrementar as suas vantagens competitivas. Este paradigma melhora a eficiência
operacional e otimiza o desempenho de sistemas através da gestão de dados em tempo
real, resultando num balanço otimizado entre o uso energético e a taxa de transferência.
Outra área de aplicação é a IoT Industrial (IIoT) ou internet industrial ou Indústria 4.0,
ou seja, uma aplicação de IoT no âmbito industrial, onde os sistemas ciberfísicos estão interconectados
a diversas tecnologias de forma a obter um controlo de rede sem fios, bem
como fabricações avançadas e automatização fabril. As aplicações da IoT estão a crescer
e a tornarem-se predominantes em muitos domínios de aplicação inteligentes como sistemas
de saúde, cidades, redes, agricultura e sistemas de fornecimento. Da mesma forma,
a IoT está a transformar estilos de vida e de trabalho e assim, a procura por produtos inteligentes
está constantemente a aumentar. As grandes indústrias e startups competem
entre si de forma a dominar o mercado com os seus novos serviços e produtos IoT, desbloqueando
o valor de negócio da IoT.
Apesar da sua crescente popularidade, benefícios e capacidades comprovadas, a IoT está
ainda a dar os seus primeiros passos e é confrontada com muitos desafios. Entre eles,
problemas de conectividade, compatibilidade/interoperabilidade entre dispositivos e sistemas,
falta de padronização, gestão das enormes quantidades de dados e ainda falta de
ferramentas para investigações forenses. No entanto, preocupações quanto ao estado de
segurança e privacidade ainda estão entre os fatores adversos à adesão universal desta
tecnologia. Estudos recentes revelaram que existem questões de segurança e privacidade
associadas ao design e implementação de vários dispositivos IoT e aplicações inteligentes
(smart apps.), isto pode ser devido ao facto, em parte, de que alguns fabricantes e empresas
de desenvolvimento de dispositivos (especialmente startups) IoT e smart apps., recolham
o valor de negócio dos grandes mercados IoT, negligenciando assim a importância
da segurança, resultando em dispositivos IoT e smart apps. com carências e violações de
segurança da IoT nos últimos anos.
Esta tese aborda os desafios de segurança e privacidade que foram supra mencionados.
Visto que a Internet e os sistemas informáticos tradicionais são por vezes considerados inseguros,
os sistemas IoT tornam-se ainda mais inseguros, devido a restrições inerentes a tais dispositivos. Estas restrições são impostas devido ao custo, uma vez que se espera que
muitos dispositivos de ponta sejam de baixo custo e descartáveis, com recursos energéticos
limitados, bem como limitações na capacidade de armazenamento e computacionais,
e redes com perdas devido a um desempenho de hardware de qualidade inferior, quando
comparados com computadores convencionais. Uma das raízes do problema é o facto
de que muitos fabricantes, startups e empresas de desenvolvimento destes dispositivos e
smart apps não adiram ao conceito de segurança por construção, ou seja, logo na conceção,
não preveem a proteção da privacidade e segurança. Assim, alguns dos produtos e
dispositivos produzidos apresentam vulnerabilidades na segurança.
Nos últimos anos, hackers maliciosos têm explorado diferentes vulnerabilidades de segurança
nas infraestruturas da IoT, causando violações de dados e outros incidentes de
privacidade envolvendo dispositivos IoT e smart apps. Estes têm atraído uma atenção significativa
por parte das comunidades académica e industrial, que culminaram num grande
número de propostas apresentadas por investigadores científicos. Ainda que as abordagens
de pesquisa e os resultados variem entre os diferentes estudos, há um consenso e
pré-requisito fundamental para enfrentar os desafios de privacidade e segurança da IoT,
que buscam construir proteção de segurança e privacidade em dispositivos IoT e smart
apps. desde o fabrico. Para esta finalidade, esta tese investiga como produzir segurança
e privacidade destes sistemas desde a produção, e como principal objetivo, concentra-se
em fornecer soluções que possam promover a conceção e o desenvolvimento de dispositivos
IoT e smart apps., nomeadamente um conjunto de ferramentas chamado Consultor
de Segurança da Plataforma de Hardware da IoT (IoT-HarPSecA). Espera-se que o conjunto
de ferramentas forneça apoio a designers e programadores em startups durante a
conceção e implementação destes sistemas ou que facilite a integração de mecanismos de
segurança nos sistemas préexistentes.
De modo a alcançar o objetivo proposto, recorre-se à seguinte abordagem. A primeira fase
consiste num levantamento exaustivo de diferentes aspetos da segurança e privacidade na
IoT, incluindo requisitos de segurança na arquitetura da IoT e ameaças à sua segurança,
os seus domínios de aplicação e os ativos cibernéticos associados, a complexidade das
vulnerabilidades da IoT e ainda possíveis contramedidas relacionadas com a segurança e
privacidade. Evolui-se para uma breve visão geral das plataformas de desenvolvimento
de hardware da IoT. As fases seguintes consistem na identificação dos desafios e questões
associadas à IoT, que foram restringidos às questões de segurança e privacidade. As demais
etapas abordam o processo de pensamento de conceção (design thinking), design e
implementação e, finalmente, a avaliação do desempenho.
O IoT-HarPSecA é composto por três componentes principais: a Obtenção de Requisitos
de Segurança (SRE), Orientações de Melhores Práticas de Segurança (SBPG) e a recomendação
de Componentes de Algoritmos Criptográficos Leves (LWCAR) na implementação de software e hardware. O autor implementou uma ferramenta em linha de comandos
usando linguagem C++ que serve como interface entre os utilizadores e a IoT-HarPSecA.
Esta tese apresenta ainda uma descrição detalhada, desenho e implementação das componentes
SRE, SBPG, e LWCAR. Apresenta ainda cenários práticos do mundo real que
demostram como o IoT-HarPSecA pode ser utilizado para elicitar requisitos de segurança,
gerar boas práticas de segurança (em termos de recomendações de implementação) e recomendar
algoritmos criptográficos leves apropriados com base no contributo dos utilizadores.
De igual forma, apresenta-se a avaliação do desempenho destes três componentes,
demonstrando que o IoT-HarPSecA pode servir como um roteiro para o desenvolvimento
seguro da IoT
MedLAN: Compact mobile computing system for wireless information access in emergency hospital wards
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.As the need for faster, safer and more efficient healthcare delivery increases, medical consultants seek new ways of implementing a high quality telemedical system, using innovative technology. Until today, teleconsultation (the most common application of Telemedicine) was performed by transferring the patient from the Accidents and Emergency ward, to a specially equipped room, or by moving large and heavy machinery to the place where the patient resided. Both these solutions were unpractical, uneconomical and potentially dangerous. At the same time wireless networks became increasingly useful in point-of-care areas such as hospitals, because of their ease of use, low cost of installation and increased flexibility.
This thesis presents an integrated system called MedLAN dedicated for use inside the A&E hospital wards. Its purpose is to wirelessly support high-quality live video, audio, high-resolution still images and networks support from anywhere there is WLAN coverage. It is capable of transmitting all of the above to a consultant residing either inside or outside the hospital, or even to an external place, thorough the use of the Internet. To implement that, it makes use of the existing IEEE 802.11b wireless technology.
Initially, this thesis demonstrates that for specific scenarios (such as when using WLANs), DICOM specifications should be adjusted to accommodate for the reduced WLAN bandwidth. Near lossless compression has been used to send still images through the WLANs and the results have been evaluated by a number of consultants to decide whether they retain their diagnostic value.
The thesis further suggests improvements on the existing 802.11b protocol. In particular, as the typical hospital environment suffers from heavy RF reflections, it suggests that an alternative method of modulation (OFDM) can be embedded in the 802.11b hardware to reduce the multipath effect, increase the throughput and thus the video quality sent by the MedLAN system.
Finally, realising that the trust between a patient and a doctor is fundamental this thesis proposes a series of simple actions aiming at securing the MedLAN system. Additionally, a concrete security system is suggested, that encapsulates the existing WEP security protocol, over IPSec
Symmetry-Adapted Machine Learning for Information Security
Symmetry-adapted machine learning has shown encouraging ability to mitigate the security risks in information and communication technology (ICT) systems. It is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that relies on the principles of processing future events by learning past events or historical data. The autonomous nature of symmetry-adapted machine learning supports effective data processing and analysis for security detection in ICT systems without the interference of human authorities. Many industries are developing machine-learning-adapted solutions to support security for smart hardware, distributed computing, and the cloud. In our Special Issue book, we focus on the deployment of symmetry-adapted machine learning for information security in various application areas. This security approach can support effective methods to handle the dynamic nature of security attacks by extraction and analysis of data to identify hidden patterns of data. The main topics of this Issue include malware classification, an intrusion detection system, image watermarking, color image watermarking, battlefield target aggregation behavior recognition model, IP camera, Internet of Things (IoT) security, service function chain, indoor positioning system, and crypto-analysis
Multimedia
The nowadays ubiquitous and effortless digital data capture and processing capabilities offered by the majority of devices, lead to an unprecedented penetration of multimedia content in our everyday life. To make the most of this phenomenon, the rapidly increasing volume and usage of digitised content requires constant re-evaluation and adaptation of multimedia methodologies, in order to meet the relentless change of requirements from both the user and system perspectives. Advances in Multimedia provides readers with an overview of the ever-growing field of multimedia by bringing together various research studies and surveys from different subfields that point out such important aspects. Some of the main topics that this book deals with include: multimedia management in peer-to-peer structures & wireless networks, security characteristics in multimedia, semantic gap bridging for multimedia content and novel multimedia applications
Protocol security for third generation telecommunication systems
In this thesis, a novel protocol stack architecture is presented. The Future Core Networks System (FCNS) forms a secure reference model for use in packet-switched structures, with its applicability ranging from computer to telecommunication networks. An insight on currently used network protocol systems is given, analysing standardised sets of communication rules with respect to the security they afford to the messages exchanged. The lack of protection schemes for the internal protocol stack messages and the implementation pitfalls of their security architectures are described, in relation to the effects they have on the communication process. The OSI security model is also considered, with disadvantages identified in the placement of security functionality and its management. The drawbacks depicted for currently used systems form the motivation behind this work. The analysis of the FCNS follows, which is composed of three parts. In the first part, the FCNS communication layers are examined, with respect to the mechanisms used to establish, maintain and tear down a connection between peer entities. In the second part, the security mechanisms of the proposed reference architecture are given, including details on the FCNS keystream generator used for the security of the internal FCNS messages. Finally, the FCNS Error Protocol is depicted, illustrating the modes of operation and advantages it exhibits over currently used systems. The work then moves into presenting details of the software FCNS implementation, followed by the presentation of the results and measurements obtained by the case studies created. Comparisons are given in relation to the TCP/IP suite, to provide the means of identifying the FCNS applicability in various network environments. The work is concluded by presenting the FCNS functionality in delivering information for the UMTS, together with further work that may enhance the flexibility and use of the proposed architecture
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