Security Protocol Suite for Preventing Cloud-based Denial-of-Service Attacks

Cloud systems, also known as cloud services, are among the primary solutions of the information technology domain. Cloud services are accessed through an identity authentication process. These authentication processes have become increasingly vulnerable to adversaries who may perform denial-of-service (DoS) attacks to make cloud services inaccessible. Several strong authentication protocols have been employed to protect conventional network systems. Nevertheless, they can cause a DoS threat when implemented in the cloud-computing system. This is because the comprehensive verification process may exhaust the cloud resources and shut down cloud’s services. This thesis proposes a novel cloud-based secure authentication (CSA) protocol suite that provides a smart authentication approach not only for verifying the users’ identities but also for building a strong line of defense against the DoS attacks. CSA protocol suite offers two modules, CSAM-1 and CSAM-2. The decision of which module of CSA to be utilized depends on the deployment nature of the cloud computing. CSAM-1 is designed to prevent external risks of DoS attacks in private and community cloud computing. CSAM-1 utilizes multiple techniques that include the client puzzle problem and utilization of unique encrypted text (UET). Therefore, these techniques can distinguish between a legitimate user’s request and an attacker’s attempt. CSAM-2 is designed to prevent internal risks of DoS attacks in public and hybrid cloud computing. CSAM-2 combines an extended unique encrypted text (EUET) application, client puzzle problem, and deadlock avoidance algorithm to prevent DoS risks that occur from inside cloud computing systems. The authentication process in both modules is designed so that the cloud-based servers become footprint-free and fully able to detect the signs of DoS attacks. The reliability and scalability of these two modules have been measured through a number of experiments using the GreenCloud simulation tool. The experiments’ results have shown that the CSA protocol suite is practically applicable as a lightweight authentication protocol. These experiments have verified the ability of the CSA to protect the cloud-based system against DoS attacks with an acceptable mean time to failure while still having the spare capacity to handle a large number of user requests

Towards Cyber Security for Low-Carbon Transportation: Overview, Challenges and Future Directions

In recent years, low-carbon transportation has become an indispensable part as sustainable development strategies of various countries, and plays a very important responsibility in promoting low-carbon cities. However, the security of low-carbon transportation has been threatened from various ways. For example, denial of service attacks pose a great threat to the electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid networks. To minimize these threats, several methods have been proposed to defense against them. Yet, these methods are only for certain types of scenarios or attacks. Therefore, this review addresses security aspect from holistic view, provides the overview, challenges and future directions of cyber security technologies in low-carbon transportation. Firstly, based on the concept and importance of low-carbon transportation, this review positions the low-carbon transportation services. Then, with the perspective of network architecture and communication mode, this review classifies its typical attack risks. The corresponding defense technologies and relevant security suggestions are further reviewed from perspective of data security, network management security and network application security. Finally, in view of the long term development of low-carbon transportation, future research directions have been concerned.Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures, accepted by journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review

A Design Approach to IoT Endpoint Security for Production Machinery Monitoring

The Internet of Things (IoT) has significant potential in upgrading legacy production machinery with monitoring capabilities to unlock new capabilities and bring economic benefits. However, the introduction of IoT at the shop floor layer exposes it to additional security risks with potentially significant adverse operational impact. This article addresses such fundamental new risks at their root by introducing a novel endpoint security-by-design approach. The approach is implemented on a widely applicable production-machinery-monitoring application by introducing real-time adaptation features for IoT device security through subsystem isolation and a dedicated lightweight authentication protocol. This paper establishes a novel viewpoint for the understanding of IoT endpoint security risks and relevant mitigation strategies and opens a new space of risk-averse designs that enable IoT benefits, while shielding operational integrity in industrial environments