Adaptive Security in ODMAC for Multihop Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks (EH-WSNs) represent an interesting new paradigm where individual nodes forming a network are powered by energy sources scavenged from the surrounding environment. This technique provides numerous advantages, but also new design challenges. Securing the communications under energy constraints represents one of these key challenges. The amount of energy available is theoretically infinite in the long run but highly variable over short periods of time, and managing it is a crucial aspect. In this paper we present an adaptive approach for security in multihop EH-WSNs which allows different nodes to dynamically choose the most appropriate energy-affecting parameters such as encryption algorithm and key size, providing in this way energy savings. In order to provide evidence of the approach's feasibility in a real-world network, we have designed and implemented it as extension of on-demand medium access control (ODMAC), a receiver-initiated (RI) MAC protocol specifically designed and developed to address the foundational energy-related needs of Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

Quantitative Verification and Synthesis of Attack-Defence Scenarios

Attack-defence trees are a powerful technique for formally evaluating attack-defence scenarios. They represent in an intuitive, graphical way the interaction between an attacker and a defender who compete in order to achieve conflicting objectives. We propose a novel framework for the formal analysis of quantitative properties of complex attack-defence scenarios, using an extension of attack-defence trees which models temporal ordering of actions and allows explicit dependencies in the strategies adopted by attackers and defenders. We adopt a game-theoretic approach, translating attack-defence trees to two-player stochastic games, and then employ probabilistic model checking techniques to formally analyse these models. This provides a means to both verify formally specified security properties of the attack-defence scenarios and, dually, to synthesise strategies for attackers or defenders which guarantee or optimise some quantitative property, such as the probability of a successful attack, the expected cost incurred, or some multi-objective trade-off between the two. We implement our approach, building upon the PRISM-games model checker, and apply it to a case study of an RFID goods management system

Security in agile software development: A practitioner survey

Context: Software security engineering provides the means to define, implement and verify security in software products. Software security engineering is performed by following a software security development life cycle model or a security capability maturity model. However, agile software development methods and processes, dominant in the software industry, are viewed to be in conflict with these security practices and the security requirements. Objective: Empirically verify the use and impact of software security engineering activities in the context of agile software development, as practiced by software developer professionals. Method: A survey (N=61) was performed among software practitioners in Finland regarding their use of 40 common security engineering practices and their perceived security impact, in conjunction with the use of 16 agile software development items and activities. Results: The use of agile items and activities had a measurable effect on the selection of security engineering practices. Perceived impact of the security practices was lower than the rate of use would imply: This was taken to indicate a selection bias, caused by e.g. developers’ awareness of only certain security engineering practices, or by difficulties in applying the security engineering practices into an iterative software development workflow. Security practices deemed to have most impact were proactive and took place in the early phases of software development. Conclusion: Systematic use of agile practices conformed, and was observed to take place in conjunction with the use of security practices. Security activities were most common in the requirement and implementation phases. In general, the activities taking place early in the life cycle were also considered most impactful. A discrepancy between the level of use and the perceived security impact of many security activities was observed. This prompts research and methodological development for better integration of security engineering activities into software development processes, methods, and tools.</p

A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis on Social Network Anonymization: Current Approaches and Future Directions

In recent decades, social network anonymization has become a crucial research field due to its pivotal role in preserving users' privacy. However, the high diversity of approaches introduced in relevant studies poses a challenge to gaining a profound understanding of the field. In response to this, the current study presents an exhaustive and well-structured bibliometric analysis of the social network anonymization field. To begin our research, related studies from the period of 2007-2022 were collected from the Scopus Database then pre-processed. Following this, the VOSviewer was used to visualize the network of authors' keywords. Subsequently, extensive statistical and network analyses were performed to identify the most prominent keywords and trending topics. Additionally, the application of co-word analysis through SciMAT and the Alluvial diagram allowed us to explore the themes of social network anonymization and scrutinize their evolution over time. These analyses culminated in an innovative taxonomy of the existing approaches and anticipation of potential trends in this domain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first bibliometric analysis in the social network anonymization field, which offers a deeper understanding of the current state and an insightful roadmap for future research in this domain.Comment: 73 pages, 28 figure

Foundations of Information-Flow Control and Effects

In programming language research, information-flow control (IFC) is a technique for enforcing a variety of security aspects, such as confidentiality of data,on programs. This Licenciate thesis makes novel contributions to the theory and foundations of IFC in the following ways: Chapter A presents a new proof method for showing the usual desired property of noninterference; Chapter B shows how to securely extend the concurrent IFC language MAC with asynchronous exceptions; and, Chapter C presents a new and simpler language for IFC with effects based on an explicit separation of pure and effectful computations

Development of Secure Software : Rationale, Standards and Practices

The society is run by software. Electronic processing of personal and financial data forms the core of nearly all societal and economic activities, and concerns every aspect of life. Software systems are used to store, transfer and process this vital data. The systems are further interfaced by other systems, forming complex networks of data stores and processing entities.This data requires protection from misuse, whether accidental or intentional. Elaborate and extensive security mechanisms are built around the protected information assets. These mechanisms cover every aspect of security, from physical surroundings and people to data classification schemes, access control, identity management, and various forms of encryption. Despite the extensive information security effort, repeated security incidents keep compromising our financial assets, intellectual property, and privacy. In addition to the direct and indirect cost, they erode the trust in the very foundation of information security: availability, integrity, and confidentiality of our data. Lawmakers at various national and international levels have reacted by creating a growing body of regulation to establish a baseline for information security. Increased awareness of information security issues has led to extend this regulation to one of the core issues in secure data processing: security of the software itself. Information security contains many aspects. It is generally classified into organizational security, infrastructure security, and application security. Within application security, the various security engineering processes and techniques utilized at development time form the discipline of software security engineering. The aim of these security activities is to address the software-induced risk toward the organization, reduce the security incidents and thereby lower the lifetime cost of the software. Software security engineering manages the software risk by implementing various security controls right into the software, and by providing security assurance for the existence of these controls by verification and validation. A software development process has typically several objectives, of which security may form only a part. When security is not expressly prioritized, the development organizations have a tendency to direct their resources to the primary requirements. While producing short-term cost and time savings, the increased software risk, induced by a lack of security and assurance engineering, will have to be mitigated by other means. In addition to increasing the lifetime cost of software, unmitigated or even unidentified risk has an increased chance of being exploited and cause other software issues. This dissertation concerns security engineering in agile software development. The aim of the research is to find ways to produce secure software through the introduction of security engineering into the agile software development processes. Security engineering processes are derived from extant literature, industry practices, and several national and international standards. The standardized requirements for software security are traced to their origins in the late 1960s, and the alignment of the software engineering and security engineering objectives followed from their original challenges to the current agile software development methods. The research provides direct solutions to the formation of security objectives in software development, and to the methods used to achieve them. It also identifies and addresses several issues and challenges found in the integration of these activities into the development processes, providing directly applicable and clearly stated solutions for practical security engineering problems. The research found the practices and principles promoted by agile and lean software development methods to be compatible with many security engineering activities. Automated, tool-based processes and the drive for efficiency and improved software quality were found to directly support the security engineering techniques and objectives. Several new ways to integrate software engineering into agile software development processes were identified. Ways to integrate security assurance into the development process were also found, in the form of security documentation, analyses, and reviews. Assurance artifacts can be used to improve software design and enhance quality assurance. In contrast, detached security engineering processes may create security assurance that serves only purposes external to the software processes. The results provide direct benefits to all software stakeholders, from the developers and customers to the end users. Security awareness is the key to more secure software. Awareness creates a demand for security, and the demand gives software developers the concrete objectives and the rationale for the security work. This also creates a demand for new security tools, processes and controls to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of software security engineering. At first, this demand is created by increased security regulation. The main pressure for change will emanate from the people and organizations utilizing the software: security is a mandatory requirement, and software must provide it. This dissertation addresses these new challenges. Software security continues to gain importance, prompting for new solutions and research.Ohjelmistot ovat keskeinen osa yhteiskuntamme perusinfrastruktuuria. Merkittävä osa sosiaalisesta ja taloudellisesta toiminnastamme perustuu tiedon sähköiseen käsittelyyn, varastointiin ja siirtoon. Näitä tehtäviä suorittamaan on kehitetty merkittävä joukko ohjelmistoja, jotka muodostavat mutkikkaita tiedon yhteiskäytön mahdollistavia verkostoja. Tiedon suojaamiseksi sen ympärille on kehitetty lukuisia suojamekanismeja, joiden tarkoituksena on estää tiedon väärinkäyttö, oli se sitten tahatonta tai tahallista. Suojausmekanismit koskevat paitsi ohjelmistoja, myös niiden käyttöympäristöjä ja käyttäjiä sekä itse käsiteltävää tietoa: näitä mekanismeja ovat esimerkiksi tietoluokittelut, tietoon pääsyn rajaaminen, käyttäjäidentiteettien hallinta sekä salaustekniikat. Suojaustoimista huolimatta tietoturvaloukkaukset vaarantavat sekä liiketoiminnan ja yhteiskunnan strategisia tietovarantoj että henkilökohtaisia tietojamme. Taloudellisten menetysten lisäksi hyökkäykset murentavat luottamusta tietoturvan kulmakiviin: tiedon luottamuksellisuuteen, luotettavuuteen ja sen saatavuuteen. Näiden tietoturvan perustusten suojaamiseksi on laadittu kasvava määrä tietoturvaa koskevia säädöksiä, jotka määrittävät tietoturvan perustason. Lisääntyneen tietoturvatietoisuuden ansiosta uusi säännöstö on ulotettu koskemaan myös turvatun tietojenkäsittelyn ydintä,ohjelmistokehitystä. Tietoturva koostuu useista osa-alueista. Näitä ovat organisaatiotason tietoturvakäytännöt, tietojenkäsittelyinfrastruktuurin tietoturva, sekä tämän tutkimuksen kannalta keskeisenä osana ohjelmistojen tietoturva. Tähän osaalueeseen sisältyvät ohjelmistojen kehittämisen aikana käytettävät tietoturvatekniikat ja -prosessit. Tarkoituksena on vähentää ohjelmistojen organisaatioille aiheuttamia riskejä, tai poistaa ne kokonaan. Ohjelmistokehityksen tietoturva pyrkii pienentämään ohjelmistojen elinkaarikustannuksia määrittämällä ja toteuttamalla tietoturvakontrolleja suoraan ohjelmistoon itseensä. Lisäksi kontrollien toimivuus ja tehokkuus osoitetaan erillisten verifiointija validointimenetelmien avulla. Tämä väitöskirjatutkimus keskittyy tietoturvatyöhön osana iteratiivista ja inkrementaalista ns. ketterää (agile) ohjelmistokehitystä. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on löytää uusia tapoja tuottaa tietoturvallisia ohjelmistoja liittämällä tietoturvatyö kiinteäksi osaksi ohjelmistokehityksen prosesseja. Tietoturvatyön prosessit on johdettu alan tieteellisestä ja teknillisestä kirjallisuudesta, ohjelmistokehitystyön vallitsevista käytännöistä sekä kansallisista ja kansainvälisistä tietoturvastandardeista. Standardoitujen tietoturvavaatimusten kehitystä on seurattu aina niiden alkuajoilta 1960-luvulta lähtien, liittäen ne ohjelmistokehityksen tavoitteiden ja haasteiden kehitykseen: nykyaikaan ja ketterien menetelmien valtakauteen saakka. Tutkimuksessa esitetään konkreettisia ratkaisuja ohjelmistokehityksen tietoturvatyön tavoitteiden asettamiseen ja niiden saavuttamiseen. Tutkimuksessa myös tunnistetaan ongelmia ja haasteita tietoturvatyön ja ohjelmistokehityksen menetelmien yhdistämisessä, joiden ratkaisemiseksi tarjotaan toimintaohjeita ja -vaihtoehtoja. Tutkimuksen perusteella iteratiivisen ja inkrementaalisen ohjelmistokehityksen käytäntöjen ja periaatteiden yhteensovittaminen tietoturvatyön toimintojen kanssa parantaa ohjelmistojen laatua ja tietoturvaa, alentaen täten kustannuksia koko ohjelmiston ylläpitoelinkaaren aikana. Ohjelmistokehitystyön automatisointi, työkaluihin pohjautuvat prosessit ja pyrkimys tehokkuuteen sekä korkeaan laatuun ovat suoraan yhtenevät tietoturvatyön menetelmien ja tavoitteiden kanssa. Tutkimuksessa tunnistettiin useita uusia tapoja yhdistää ohjelmistokehitys ja tietoturvatyö. Lisäksi on löydetty tapoja käyttää dokumentointiin, analyyseihin ja katselmointeihin perustuvaa tietoturvan todentamiseen tuotettavaa materiaalia osana ohjelmistojen suunnittelua ja laadunvarmistusta. Erillisinä nämä prosessit johtavat tilanteeseen, jossa tietoturvamateriaalia hyödynnetään pelkästään ohjelmistokehityksen ulkopuolisiin tarpeisiin. Tutkimustulokset hyödyttävät kaikkia sidosryhmiä ohjelmistojen kehittäjistä niiden tilaajiin ja loppukäyttäjiin. Ohjelmistojen tietoturvatyö perustuu tietoon ja koulutukseen. Tieto puolestaan lisää kysyntää, joka luo tietoturvatyölle konkreettiset tavoitteet ja perustelut jo ohjelmistokehitysvaiheessa. Tietoturvatyön painopiste siirtyy torjunnasta ja vahinkojen korjauksesta kohti vahinkojen rakenteellista ehkäisyä. Kysyntä luo tarpeen myös uusille työkaluille, prosesseille ja tekniikoille, joilla lisätään tietoturvatyön tehokkuutta ja vaikuttavuutta. Tällä hetkellä kysyntää luovat lähinnä lisääntyneet tietoturvaa koskevat säädökset. Pääosa muutostarpeesta syntyy kuitenkin ohjelmistojen tilaajien ja käyttäjien vaatimuksista: ohjelmistojen tietoturvakyvykkyyden taloudellinen merkitys kasvaa. Tietoturvan tärkeys tulee korostumaan entisestään, lisäten tarvetta tietoturvatyölle ja tutkimukselle myös tulevaisuudessa

Principled Flow Tracking in IoT and Low-Level Applications

Significant fractions of our lives are spent digitally, connected to and dependent on Internet-based applications, be it through the Web, mobile, or IoT. All such applications have access to and are entrusted with private user data, such as location, photos, browsing habits, private feed from social networks, or bank details.In this thesis, we focus on IoT and Web(Assembly) apps. We demonstrate IoT apps to be vulnerable to attacks by malicious app makers who are able to bypass the sandboxing mechanisms enforced by the platform to stealthy exfiltrate user data. We further give examples of carefully crafted WebAssembly code abusing the semantics to leak user data.We are interested in applying language-based technologies to ensure application security due to the formal guarantees they provide. Such technologies analyze the underlying program and track how the information flows in an application, with the goal of either statically proving its security, or preventing insecurities from happening at runtime. As such, for protecting against the attacks on IoT apps, we develop both static and dynamic methods, while for securing WebAssembly apps we describe a hybrid approach, combining both.While language-based technologies provide strong security guarantees, they are still to see a widespread adoption outside the academic community where they emerged.In this direction, we outline six design principles to assist the developer in choosing the right security characterization and enforcement mechanism for their system.We further investigate the relative expressiveness of two static enforcement mechanisms which pursue fine- and coarse-grained approaches for tracking the flow of sensitive information in a system.\ua0Finally, we provide the developer with an automatic method for reducing the manual burden associated with some of the language-based enforcements