3,058 research outputs found
Overcoming Data Breaches and Human Factors in Minimizing Threats to Cyber-Security Ecosystems
This mixed-methods study focused on the internal human factors responsible for data breaches that could cause adverse impacts on organizations. Based on the Swiss cheese theory, the study was designed to examine preventative measures that managers could implement to minimize potential data breaches resulting from internal employees\u27 behaviors. The purpose of this study was to provide insight to managers about developing strategies that could prevent data breaches from cyber-threats by focusing on the specific internal human factors responsible for data breaches, the root causes, and the preventive measures that could minimize threats from internal employees. Data were collected from 10 managers and 12 employees from the business sector, and 5 government managers in Ivory Coast, Africa. The mixed methodology focused on the why and who using the phenomenological approach, consisting of a survey, face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions, and a questionnaire to extract the experiences and perceptions of the participants about preventing the adverse consequences from cyber-threats. The results indicated the importance of top managers to be committed to a coordinated, continuous effort throughout the organization to ensure cyber security awareness, training, and compliance of security policies and procedures, as well as implementing and upgrading software designed to detect and prevent data breaches both internally and externally. The findings of this study could contribute to social change by educating managers about preventing data breaches who in turn may implement information accessibility without retribution. Protecting confidential data is a major concern because one data breach could impact many people as well as jeopardize the viability of the entire organization
Information Security Principles for Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Systems
A growing number of healthcare organizations are replacing their traditional record keeping methods with the electronic medical record (EMR) systems as part of an on-going effort toward the digitization of healthcare. With the growing use of this digital information system, concerns about the state of security for the EMR systems have also increased. In recent years, a large number of academic and non-academic research activities are directed toward the use and implementation of EMR, however, very few of these studies are focused on the issue of security within the EMR systems. This paper explores the basics of computer security and proposes security principles that should be considered as guidelines at the time of EMR systems implementations. Our analysis of the literature and theory provides new insight for researchers and assists healthcare practitioners with increased security for EMR adoption
Exploring Current Trends and Challenges in Cybersecurity: A Comprehensive Survey
Cyber security is the process of preventing unauthorized access, theft, damage, and interruption to computers, servers, networks, and data. It entails putting policies into place to guarantee the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of information and information systems. Cyber security seeks to protect against a variety of dangers, including as hacking, data breaches, malware infections, and other nefarious actions. Cyber security has grown to be a major worry as a result of the quick development of digital technology and the growing interconnection of our contemporary society. In order to gain insight into the constantly changing world of digital threats and the countermeasures put in place to address them, this survey seeks to study current trends and issues in the area of cyber security. The study includes responses from end users, business executives, IT administrators, and experts across a wide variety of businesses and sectors. The survey gives insight on important problems such the sorts of cyber threats encountered, the efficacy of current security solutions, future technology influencing cyber security, and the human elements leading to vulnerabilities via a thorough analysis of the replies. The most important conclusions include an evaluation of the most common cyber dangers, such as malware, phishing scams, ransom ware, and data breaches, as well as an investigation of the methods and tools used to counter these threats. The survey explores the significance of staff education and awareness in bolstering cyber security defenses and pinpoints opportunities for development in this area. The survey also sheds insight on how cutting-edge technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are affecting cyber security practices. It analyses the advantages and disadvantages of using these technologies while taking into account issues like data privacy, infrastructure security, and the need for specialized skills. The survey also looks at the compliance environment, assessing how industry norms and regulatory frameworks affect cyber security procedures. The survey studies the obstacles organizations encounter in attaining compliance and assesses the degree of knowledge and commitment to these requirements. The results of this cyber security survey help to better understand the current status of cyber security and provide organizations and individual’s useful information for creating effective policies to protect digital assets. This study seeks to promote a proactive approach to cyber security, allowing stakeholders to stay ahead of threats and build a safe digital environment by identifying relevant trends and concerns
Keys in the Clouds: Auditable Multi-device Access to Cryptographic Credentials
Personal cryptographic keys are the foundation of many secure services, but
storing these keys securely is a challenge, especially if they are used from
multiple devices. Storing keys in a centralized location, like an
Internet-accessible server, raises serious security concerns (e.g. server
compromise). Hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) are a
well-known solution for protecting sensitive data in untrusted environments,
and are now becoming available on commodity server platforms.
Although the idea of protecting keys using a server-side TEE is
straight-forward, in this paper we validate this approach and show that it
enables new desirable functionality. We describe the design, implementation,
and evaluation of a TEE-based Cloud Key Store (CKS), an online service for
securely generating, storing, and using personal cryptographic keys. Using
remote attestation, users receive strong assurance about the behaviour of the
CKS, and can authenticate themselves using passwords while avoiding typical
risks of password-based authentication like password theft or phishing. In
addition, this design allows users to i) define policy-based access controls
for keys; ii) delegate keys to other CKS users for a specified time and/or a
limited number of uses; and iii) audit all key usages via a secure audit log.
We have implemented a proof of concept CKS using Intel SGX and integrated this
into GnuPG on Linux and OpenKeychain on Android. Our CKS implementation
performs approximately 6,000 signature operations per second on a single
desktop PC. The latency is in the same order of magnitude as using
locally-stored keys, and 20x faster than smart cards.Comment: Extended version of a paper to appear in the 3rd Workshop on
Security, Privacy, and Identity Management in the Cloud (SECPID) 201
Insider Threats: Risk to Organization
Information security is an essential component and assets for any organization, whether it is commercial government or proprietary business. Report after report keeps pointing to the “insider threat†as one of the greatest information security risks within the modern organization. But what exactly is the insider threat and how we can help reduce this risk? This paper analyzes the importance of information security, benefits of it and how the information can be protected by the various threats which are inside the organization, and may leads to information loss. The aim of this paper is to allow businesses, administrators, developers and designers to produce and provide with some methods or techniques to secure such information so that the risk associated with the information loss can be minimized. In this paper we will break down the various attributes of the insider threat, and suggest some methods have been suggested which can help an organization to secure the sensitive and crucial information
Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey
This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh
network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user
privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various
possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for
WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the
security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application
layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols,
user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation
protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the
chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms
and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible
attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with
regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed,
use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved
etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management
approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly
becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open
problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed
before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the
author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are
some text overlaps with the previous submissio
A Privacy-Preserving, Context-Aware, Insider Threat prevention and prediction model (PPCAITPP)
The insider threat problem is extremely challenging to address, as it is committed by insiders who are
trusted and authorized to access the information resources of the organization. The problem is further
complicated by the multifaceted nature of insiders, as human beings have various motivations and
fluctuating behaviours. Additionally, typical monitoring systems may violate the privacy of insiders.
Consequently, there is a need to consider a comprehensive approach to mitigate insider threats. This
research presents a novel insider threat prevention and prediction model, combining several approaches,
techniques and tools from the fields of computer science and criminology. The model is a Privacy-
Preserving, Context-Aware, Insider Threat Prevention and Prediction model (PPCAITPP). The model is
predicated on the Fraud Diamond (a theory from Criminology) which assumes there must be four elements
present in order for a criminal to commit maleficence. The basic elements are pressure (i.e. motive),
opportunity, ability (i.e. capability) and rationalization. According to the Fraud Diamond, malicious
employees need to have a motive, opportunity and the capability to commit fraud. Additionally, criminals
tend to rationalize their malicious actions in order for them to ease their cognitive dissonance towards
maleficence. In order to mitigate the insider threat comprehensively, there is a need to consider all the
elements of the Fraud Diamond because insider threat crime is also related to elements of the Fraud
Diamond similar to crimes committed within the physical landscape.
The model intends to act within context, which implies that when the model offers predictions about threats,
it also reacts to prevent the threat from becoming a future threat instantaneously. To collect information
about insiders for the purposes of prediction, there is a need to collect current information, as the motives
and behaviours of humans are transient. Context-aware systems are used in the model to collect current
information about insiders related to motive and ability as well as to determine whether insiders exploit any
opportunity to commit a crime (i.e. entrapment). Furthermore, they are used to neutralize any
rationalizations the insider may have via neutralization mitigation, thus preventing the insider from
committing a future crime. However, the model collects private information and involves entrapment that
will be deemed unethical. A model that does not preserve the privacy of insiders may cause them to feel
they are not trusted, which in turn may affect their productivity in the workplace negatively. Hence, this
thesis argues that an insider prediction model must be privacy-preserving in order to prevent further
cybercrime. The model is not intended to be punitive but rather a strategy to prevent current insiders from
being tempted to commit a crime in future.
The model involves four major components: context awareness, opportunity facilitation, neutralization
mitigation and privacy preservation. The model implements a context analyser to collect information related
to an insider who may be motivated to commit a crime and his or her ability to implement an attack plan.
The context analyser only collects meta-data such as search behaviour, file access, logins, use of keystrokes
and linguistic features, excluding the content to preserve the privacy of insiders. The model also employs
keystroke and linguistic features based on typing patterns to collect information about any change in an
insider’s emotional and stress levels. This is indirectly related to the motivation to commit a cybercrime.
Research demonstrates that most of the insiders who have committed a crime have experienced a negative
emotion/pressure resulting from dissatisfaction with employment measures such as terminations, transfers
without their consent or denial of a wage increase. However, there may also be personal problems such as a
divorce. The typing pattern analyser and other resource usage behaviours aid in identifying an insider who
may be motivated to commit a cybercrime based on his or her stress levels and emotions as well as the
change in resource usage behaviour. The model does not identify the motive itself, but rather identifies those
individuals who may be motivated to commit a crime by reviewing their computer-based actions. The model
also assesses the capability of insiders to commit a planned attack based on their usage of computer
applications and measuring their sophistication in terms of the range of knowledge, depth of knowledge and
skill as well as assessing the number of systems errors and warnings generated while using the applications.
The model will facilitate an opportunity to commit a crime by using honeypots to determine whether a
motivated and capable insider will exploit any opportunity in the organization involving a criminal act.
Based on the insider’s reaction to the opportunity presented via a honeypot, the model will deploy an
implementation strategy based on neutralization mitigation. Neutralization mitigation is the process of
nullifying the rationalizations that the insider may have had for committing the crime. All information about
insiders will be anonymized to remove any identifiers for the purpose of preserving the privacy of insiders.
The model also intends to identify any new behaviour that may result during the course of implementation.
This research contributes to existing scientific knowledge in the insider threat domain and can be used as a
point of departure for future researchers in the area. Organizations could use the model as a framework to
design and develop a comprehensive security solution for insider threat problems. The model concept can
also be integrated into existing information security systems that address the insider threat problemInformation ScienceD. Phil. (Information Systems
Analysis of Secure Routing Scheme for MANET
Mobile ad hoc networks pose various kinds of security problems, caused by their nature of collaborative and open systems and by limited availability of resources. In our work we look at AODV in detail, study and analyses various attacks that can be possible on it. Then we look into some existing mechanism for securing AODV protocol. Our proposed work is an extension to Adaptive-SAODV of the secure AODV protocol extension, which includes tuning strategies aimed at improving its performance. In A-SAODV an intermediate node makes an adaptive reply decision for an incoming request that helps to balance its load that is over-burdened by signing and verification task of incoming messages. Namely, we propose a modification to adaptive mechanism that tunes SAODV behavior. In our paper we have proposed an extension to Adaptive-SAODV of the secure AODV protocol extension, which includes further filtering strategies aimed at further improving its network performance. We have analyzed the how our proposed algorithm can help in further improvement of performance in adaptive SAODV and also compared its performance with existing mechanisms using simulation
- …