Reviewing effectivity in security approaches towards strengthening internet architecture

The usage of existing Internet architecture is shrouded by various security loopholes and hence is highly ineffective towards resisting potential threats over internet. Hence, it is claimed that future internet architecture has been evolved as a solution to address this security gaps of existing internet architecture. Therefore, this paper initiates its discussion by reviewing the existing practices of web security in conventional internet architecture and has also discussed about some recent solutions towards mitigating potentially reported threats e.g. cross-site scripting, SQL inject, and distributed denial-of-service. The paper has also discussed some of the recent research contribution towards security solution considering future internet architecture. The proposed manuscripts contributes to showcase the true effectiveness of existing approaches with respect to advantages and limitation of existing approaches along with explicit highlights of existing research problems that requires immediate attention

Security risk assessment in cloud computing domains

Cyber security is one of the primary concerns persistent across any computing platform. While addressing the apprehensions about security risks, an infinite amount of resources cannot be invested in mitigation measures since organizations operate under budgetary constraints. Therefore the task of performing security risk assessment is imperative to designing optimal mitigation measures, as it provides insight about the strengths and weaknesses of different assets affiliated to a computing platform. The objective of the research presented in this dissertation is to improve upon existing risk assessment frameworks and guidelines associated to different key assets of Cloud computing domains - infrastructure, applications, and users. The dissertation presents various informal approaches of performing security risk assessment which will help to identify the security risks confronted by the aforementioned assets, and utilize the results to carry out the required cost-benefit tradeoff analyses. This will be beneficial to organizations by aiding them in better comprehending the security risks their assets are exposed to and thereafter secure them by designing cost-optimal mitigation measures --Abstract, page iv

Firmware enhancements for BYOD-aware network security

In today’s connected world, users migrate within a complex set of networks, including, but not limited to, 3G and 4G (LTE) services provided by mobile operators, Wi-Fi hotspots in private and public places, as well as wireless and/or wired LAN access in business and home environments. Following the widely expanding Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach, many public and educational institutions have begun to encourage customers and students to use their own devices at all times. While this may be cost-effective in terms of decreased investments in hardware and consequently lower maintenance fees on a long-term basis, it may also involve some security risks. In particular, many users are often connected to more than one network and/or communication service provider at the same time, for example to a 3G/4G mobile network and to a Wi-Fi. In a BYOD setting, an infected device or a rogue one can turn into an unwanted gateway, causing a security breach by leaking information across networks. Aiming at investigating in greater detail the implications of BYOD on network security in private and business settings we are building a framework for experiments with mobile routers both in home and business networks. This is a continuation of our earlier work on communications and services with enhanced security for network appliances

A testbed to simulate cyber attacks on nuclear power plants

Nuclear power plants are critical infrastructures that must be safe and secure from undesirable intrusions: these intrusions are both physical and cyber. The increasing usage of digital control and computer systems, for supervisory control and data acquisition in the control rooms of new generation nuclear reactors, has introduced several cyber security issues that must be addressed. One of the most significant problems is that this new technology has increased the vulnerability of the nuclear power plant to cyber security threats. Furthermore, this exposed vulnerability is one of the main reasons that the transition to digital control rooms connected to enterprise network (or the internet) has been slow and hesitant. In order to address these issues and ensure that a digital control system is safe and secure from undesirable intrusions, the system must go through extensive tests and validation. These tests will verify that systems are safe and properly functioning. The vulnerabilities of a nuclear power plant can be determined through conducting cyber security exercises, cyber security attacks scenarios, and simulated attacks. All these events can be performed using the control room in the nuclear power plant, but it is a complicated and hampered process because of the complex hardware and software interactions that must be considered. Control rooms are also not ideal places to test various cyber attacks and scenarios because any mishap can lead to detrimental impacts on the nearby surroundings. This research attempts to present our approach to build a comparative testbed that captures the relevant complexity of a nuclear power plant. A testbed is developed and designed to assess the vulnerabilities that are introduced by using public networks for communications. The testbed is also used to simulate different cyber attack scenarios and it will serve to present detection mechanisms that are based on the understanding of the controlled physical system

Towards automated incident handling: how to select an appropriate response against a network-based attack?

The increasing amount of network-based attacks evolved to one of the top concerns responsible for network infrastructure and service outages. In order to counteract these threats, computer networks are monitored to detect malicious traffic and initiate suitable reactions. However, initiating a suitable reaction is a process of selecting an appropriate response related to the identified network-based attack. The process of selecting a response requires to take into account the economics of an reaction e.g., risks and benefits. The literature describes several response selection models, but they are not widely adopted. In addition, these models and their evaluation are often not reproducible due to closed testing data. In this paper, we introduce a new response selection model, called REASSESS, that allows to mitigate network-based attacks by incorporating an intuitive response selection process that evaluates negative and positive impacts associated with each countermeasure. We compare REASSESS with the response selection models of IE-IRS, ADEPTS, CS-IRS, and TVA and show that REASSESS is able to select the most appropriate response to an attack in consideration of the positive and negative impacts and thus reduces the effects caused by an network-based attack. Further, we show that REASSESS is aligned to the NIST incident life cycle. We expect REASSESS to help organizations to select the most appropriate response measure against a detected network-based attack, and hence contribute to mitigate them