Guaranteeing the authenticity of location information

A comprehensive definition of location authentication and a review of its threats and possible solutions help provide a better understanding of this young security requirement.Publicad

Secure Data Provenance in Home Energy Monitoring Networks

Smart grid empowers home owners to efficiently manage their smart home appliances within a Home Area Network (HAN), by real time monitoring and fine-grained control. However, it offers the possibility for a malicious user to intrude into the HAN and deceive the smart metering system with fraudulent energy usage report. While most of the existing works have focused on how to prevent data tampering in HAN's communication channel, this paper looks into a relatively less studied security aspect namely data provenance. We propose a novel solution based on Shamir's secret sharing and threshold cryptography to guarantee that the reported energy usage is collected from the specific appliance as claimed at a particular location, and that it reflects the real consumption of the energy. A byproduct of the proposed security solution is a guarantee of data integrity. A prototype implementation is presented to demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of the proposed solution

Traceability perception of beef: a comparison between Spanish and Italian consumers

Nowadays, the increasing demand by customers and consumers for information on food quality and safety determines, to a certain degree, the structure of the food chain. Traceability is considered as a tool to reach and keep consumers' confidence, which became a central issue to restore consumers' confidence in beef safety after the BSE crisis that strongly affected the EU market. Numerous researches have been carried out to determine consumers' preferences related to quality and food safety. However, the consumer perception of beef traceability has not yet been studied enough. In this paper we want to investigate the perception of Italian and Spanish consumers on this issue by analysing the results of six focus groups carried out in both countries, in the framework of an EU project (TRACE- Tracing the origin of food) funded through the Food and Quality Priority of the EU Framework VI research programme. The differences and similarities in consumers' perception are analysed on the basis of the different product valorisation approach followed by the national supply chain in order to promote beef quality and safety. Finally, the paper shows the necessity to organise the supply chain product development and differentiation strategies in a consumer - based way.traceability, focus group, beef market, supply chain valorisation strategies, consumer perception, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Providing Physical Layer Security for Mission Critical Machine Type Communication

The design of wireless systems for Mission Critical Machine Type Communication (MC-MTC) is currently a hot research topic. Wireless systems are considered to provide numerous advantages over wired systems in industrial applications for example. However, due to the broadcast nature of the wireless channel, such systems are prone to a wide range of cyber attacks. These range from passive eavesdropping attacks to active attacks like data manipulation or masquerade attacks. Therefore it is necessary to provide reliable and efficient security mechanisms. One of the most important security issue in such a system is to ensure integrity as well as authenticity of exchanged messages over the air between communicating devices in order to prohibit active attacks. In the present work, an approach on how to achieve this goal in MC-MTC systems based on Physical Layer Security (PHYSEC), especially a new method based on keeping track of channel variations, will be presented and a proof-of-concept evaluation is given

A Security Framework for JXTA-Overlay

En l'actualitat, la maduresa del camp de la investigació P2P empès a través de nous problemes, relacionats amb la seguretat. Per aquesta raó, la seguretat comença a convertir-se en una de les qüestions clau en l'avaluació d'un sistema P2P, i és important proporcionar mecanismes de seguretat per a sistemes P2P. El projecte JXTAOverlay fa un esforç per utilitzar la tecnologia JXTA per proporcionar un conjunt genèric de funcions que poden ser utilitzades pels desenvolupadors per desplegar aplicacions P2P. No obstant això, encara que el seu disseny es va centrar en qüestions com ara l'escalabilitat o el rendiment general, no va tenir en compte la seguretat. Aquest treball proposa un marc de seguretat, adaptat específicament a la idiosincràsia del JXTAOverlay.At present time, the maturity of P2P research field has pushed through new problems such us those related with security. For that reason, security starts to become one of the key issues when evaluating a P2P system and it is important to provide security mechanisms to P2P systems. The JXTAOverlay project is an effort to use JXTA technology to provide a generic set of functionalities that can be used by developers to deploy P2P applications. However, since its design focused on issues such as scalability or overall performance, it did not take security into account. This work proposes a security framework specifically suited to JXTAOverlay¿s idiosyncrasies.En la actualidad, la madurez del campo de la investigación P2P empujado a través de nuevos problemas, relacionados con la seguridad. Por esta razón, la seguridad comienza a convertirse en una de las cuestiones clave en la evaluación de un sistema P2P, y es importante proporcionar mecanismos de seguridad para sistemas P2P. El proyecto JXTAOverlay hace un esfuerzo por utilizar la tecnología JXTA para proporcionar un conjunto genérico de funciones que pueden ser utilizadas por los desarrolladores para desplegar aplicaciones P2P. Sin embargo, aunque su diseño se centró en cuestiones como la escalabilidad o el rendimiento general, no tuvo en cuenta la seguridad. Este trabajo propone un marco de seguridad, adaptado específicamente a la idiosincrasia del JXTAOverlay

Beyond East-West : marginality and national dignity in Finnish identity construction

Since the end of the Cold War it has become common for Finnish academics and politicians alike to frame debates about Finnish national identity in terms of locating Finland somewhere along a continuum between East and West (e.g., Harle and Moisio 2000). Indeed, for politicians properly locating oneself (and therefore Finland) along this continuum has often been seen as central to the winning and losing of elections. For example, the 1994 referendum on EU membership was largely interpreted precisely as an opportunity to relocate Finland further to the West (Jakobson 1998, 111; Arter 1995). Indeed, the tendency to depict Finnish history in terms of a series of ‘westernising’ moves has been notable, but has also betrayed some of the politicised elements of this view (Browning 2002). However, this framing of Finnish national identity discourse is not only sometimes politicised, but arguably is also too simplified and results in blindness towards other identity narratives that have also been important through Finnish history, and that are also evident (but rarely recognised) today as well. In this article we aim to highlight one of these that we argue has played a key role in locating Finland in the world and in formulating notions of what Finland is about, what historical role and mission it has been understood as destined to play, and what futures for the nation have been conceptualised as possible and as providing a source of subjectivity and national dignity. The focus of this article is therefore on the relationship between Finnish nationalism and ideas of ‘marginality’ through Finnish history