Process of designing robust, dependable, safe and secure software for medical devices: Point of care testing device as a case study

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Copyright © 2013 Sivanesan Tulasidas et al. This paper presents a holistic methodology for the design of medical device software, which encompasses of a new way of eliciting requirements, system design process, security design guideline, cloud architecture design, combinatorial testing process and agile project management. The paper uses point of care diagnostics as a case study where the software and hardware must be robust, reliable to provide accurate diagnosis of diseases. As software and software intensive systems are becoming increasingly complex, the impact of failures can lead to significant property damage, or damage to the environment. Within the medical diagnostic device software domain such failures can result in misdiagnosis leading to clinical complications and in some cases death. Software faults can arise due to the interaction among the software, the hardware, third party software and the operating environment. Unanticipated environmental changes and latent coding errors lead to operation faults despite of the fact that usually a significant effort has been expended in the design, verification and validation of the software system. It is becoming increasingly more apparent that one needs to adopt different approaches, which will guarantee that a complex software system meets all safety, security, and reliability requirements, in addition to complying with standards such as IEC 62304. There are many initiatives taken to develop safety and security critical systems, at different development phases and in different contexts, ranging from infrastructure design to device design. Different approaches are implemented to design error free software for safety critical systems. By adopting the strategies and processes presented in this paper one can overcome the challenges in developing error free software for medical devices (or safety critical systems).Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Security Implementation of Mission Control System for ESTCube-1 Satellite

Lühikokkuvõte ESTCube-1 on Eesti esimene satelliit ja ühtlasi onta ehitatud tervenisti üliõpilaste poolt. ESTCube-1 paljudestallsüsteemidest on üks osa missioonijuhtimissüsteemist (ingl. k.Mission Control System- MCS). Missioonijuhtimise tarkvara on modulaarne, moodulid võivad asuda erinevates serverites. Praeguses seadistusestöötab enamik moodulitest vaikimisi konfiguratsiooniseadetes ja mõnel juhul ei ole andmed piisavalt kaitstud – näiteks suhtlevad osad komponendidilma turvalise võrguühenduseta. Käesoleva töö eesmärk on süstemaatiliselt läheneda missioonijuhtimise süsteemi kui terviku turvalisusele ja leida lahendus senisest paremini turvatud süsteemi seadistamiseks. Töö koosneb järgnevatest sammudest:kirjeldada ESTCube-1 missioonijuhtimissüsteemi arhitektuuri, analüüsida kõikide süsteemi moodulite turvalahenduste võimalusi, rakendada leitud terviklahendus missioonijuhtimissüsteemi turvalahendustetestkeskkonnas, katsetadaja kontrollida süsteemi tööd uues seadistuses. Töös valitud lahendus võimaldab turvalisiühendusi erinevate moodulite vahel ja krüpteerib salvestatud andmed. Andmetele juurdepääsu saab piirata ka kasutajapõhiselt. Kokkuvõttes võib missioonijuhtimissüsteemi tarkvara panna tööle avatud ligipääsuga üle Interneti. Seni kasutatud lahendus tugines VPN ja SSH tunnelitele, mis on küll sobiliksüsteemi arenduseks, aga käesolev lahendus võimaldab süsteemile turvalise ligipääsu satelliidi opereerimise igapäevatöös. Võtmesõnad: ESTCube-1, Mission Control System, CubeSat, Hummingbird, Atlassian Crowd, Mongodb, Oracle 11g, Apache ActiveMQ, Jetty Web ServerAbstract: ESTCube-1 is Estonia’s first satellite project built by university students. ESTCube-1 Mission Control System (MCS) software is also developed as part of this educational project. Mission Control System is a modular system, comprised of various components in multiple servers, of which most of them are running on default or basic security configuration settings and in some cases, data is not protected well enough in the present state. Some of the components communicate over unsecured network thereby making its data vulnerable. As this thesis title “Security Implementation of Mission Control System for ESTCube-1 Satellite” implies, there is need for a systematic approach about the entire data security of the mission and my aim is to improve the security of ESTCube-1 Mission Control System. The following steps are taken in the thesis: establish a good understanding ESTCube-1 MCS architecture, understand the possibilities of security configurations of all used technologies, analyse the effect of a possible selection of security methods, implement the chosen solutions in a sandbox environment, test and verify the operating of the complete MCS with the implemented solution. The results shows security implementations done on the various components allows the connection between components are secure and data in motion are encrypted. Access to the data at rest are restricted, some are encrypted and only privileged users can gain access. Mission Control System accessibility over the Internet is more secure and access to the hardware tightened. In conclusion, the Mission Control System can certainly be accessed via the Internet securely as long as the user has valid certificates. Other access means are through other means like VPN and SSH Tunnelling. The original system configuration providedESTCube-1 MCS with just adequate security that would be befitting for a production environment, with the security solution found in current thesis, the system could be elevated for enterprise-level usage. Keywords: ESTCube-1, Mission Control System, CubeSat, Hummingbird, Atlassian Crowd, Mongodb, Oracle 11g, Apache ActiveMQ, Jetty Web Serve

Requirements and operational guidelines for secure and sustainable digital phenotyping:Design and development study

Background: Digital phenotyping, the measurement of human behavioral phenotypes using personal devices, is rapidly gaining popularity. Novel initiatives, ranging from software prototypes to user-ready research platforms, are innovating the field of biomedical research and health care apps. One example is the BEHAPP project, which offers a fully managed digital phenotyping platform as a service. The innovative potential of digital phenotyping strategies resides among others in their capacity to objectively capture measurable and quantitative components of human behavior, such as diurnal rhythm, movement patterns, and communication, in a real-world setting. The rapid development of this field underscores the importance of reliability and safety of the platforms on which these novel tools are operated. Large-scale studies and regulated research spaces (eg, the pharmaceutical industry) have strict requirements for the software-based solutions they use. Security and sustainability are key to ensuring continuity and trust. However, the majority of behavioral monitoring initiatives have not originated primarily in these regulated research spaces, which may be why these components have been somewhat overlooked, impeding the further development and implementation of such platforms in a secure and sustainable way.Objective: This study aims to provide a primer on the requirements and operational guidelines for the development and operation of a secure behavioral monitoring platform.Methods: We draw from disciplines such as privacy law, information, and computer science to identify a set of requirements and operational guidelines focused on security and sustainability. Taken together, the requirements and guidelines form the foundation of the design and implementation of the BEHAPP behavioral monitoring platform.Results: We present the base BEHAPP data collection and analysis flow and explain how the various concepts from security and sustainability are addressed in the design.Conclusions: Digital phenotyping initiatives are steadily maturing. This study helps the field and surrounding stakeholders to reflect upon and progress toward secure and sustainable operation of digital phenotyping–driven research

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LoRaWAN device security and energy optimization

Resource-constrained devices are commonly connected to a network and become things that make up the Internet of Things (IoT). Many industries are interested in cost-effective, reliable, and cyber secure sensor networks due to the ever-increasing connectivity and benefits of IoT devices. The full advantages of IoT devices are seen in a long-range and remote context. However, current IoT platforms show many obstacles to achieve a balance between power efficiency and cybersecurity. Battery-powered sensor nodes can reliably send data over long distances with minimal power draw by adopting Long-Range (LoRa) wireless radio frequency technology. With LoRa, these devices can stay active for many years due to a low data bit rate and low power draw during device sleep states. An improvement built on top of LoRa wireless technology, Long-Range Wide Area Networks (LoRaWAN), introduces integrity and confidentiality of the data sent within the IoT network. Although data sent from a LoRaWAN device is encrypted, protocol and implementation vulnerabilities still exist within the network, resulting in security risks to the whole system. In this research, solutions to these vulnerabilities are proposed and implemented on a LoRaWAN testbed environment that contains devices, gateways, and servers. Configurations that involve the transmission of data using AES Round Reduction, Join Scheduling, and Metadata Hiding are proposed in this work. A power consumption analysis is performed on the implemented configurations, resulting in a LoRaWAN system that balances cybersecurity and battery life. The resulting configurations may be harnessed for usage in the safe, secure, and efficient provisioning of LoRaWAN devices in technologies such as Smart-Industry, Smart-Environment, Smart-Agriculture, Smart-Universities, Smart-Cities, et

A cloud architecture to integrate a multi-agent smart parking system

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do ParanáSmart parking systems are becoming a solution to recurring issues as the number of vehicles in traffic rises in major cities, which can be related to vehicle traffic congestion, unnecessary time spent searching for parking spots, and, consequently, environmental issues. The purpose of these systems is to help drivers who are searching for available parking spaces or who want to reserve for a specified period of time, quickly and, if possible, near the desired location. In this context, there are several modules within smart parking systems that may include cyber-physical systems, multi-agent systems, dynamic pricing and artificial intelligence. This dissertation presents the development of a smart parking system architecture, using Cloud-based technology to integrate a multiagent system into a scalable, decentralized, adaptable and safe environment. The proposed architecture was tested using, as a case study, a web system developed for the management and analysis of smart parking lots, as well as an application for mobile devices, which allows users to interact with multiple functionalities available in this system. Results obtained demonstrate that the implementation of the proposed architecture offers an efficient communication between users who use parking resources and the multi-agent system responsible for the autonomy and intelligence of the parking system.Os sistemas inteligentes de estacionamento estão se tornando uma solução para problemas recorrentes à medida que aumenta o número de veículos em trânsito nas grandes cidades, os quais podem estar relacionados ao congestionamento no tráfego de veículos, tempo desnecessário gasto na busca por vagas e, consequentemente, questões ambientais. O objetivo desses sistemas é auxiliar os motoristas que buscam por vagas disponíveis ou que desejam reservar por determinado período de tempo, de forma rápida e, se possível, próximo ao local desejado. Neste contexto, existem vários módulos dentro dos sistemas inteligentes de estacionamento que podem incluir sistemas ciberfísicos, sistemas multi-agentes, precificação dinâmica e inteligência artificial. Esta dissertação apresenta o desenvolvimento de uma arquitetura para sistemas inteligentes de estacionamento, utilizando tecnologia baseada em Nuvem para integrar um sistema multi-agentes em um ambiente escalável, descentralizado, adaptável e seguro. A arquitetura proposta foi testada utilizando, como um caso de estudo, um sistema web desenvolvido para gestão e análise de estacionamentos inteligentes, bem como uma aplicação para dispositivos móveis, que permite ao usuário interagir com as múltiplas funcionalidades disponibilizadas neste sistema. Resultados obtidos demonstram que a implementação da arquitetura proposta oferece uma comunicação eficiente entre usuários que utilizam os recursos e o sistema multi-agentes responsável pela autonomia e inteligência de um sistema de estacionamento

Learning Management System (LMS) Using C#, ASP.Net and SQL SERVER

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for delivery and management of educational courses. It is a client-server type solution, typically web-based, used to handle student registration, delivery of course content, administration of tests and assignments, and related record keeping. An LMS is particularly useful for fully online courses or training programs. The objective of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, we provide an overview of learning management systems, their architecture, and other features. This summary enables us to identify the software requirements specifications for a new LMS. The second objective of this paper is to describe the creation of our own LMS. This new LMS, named LearningMadeEasy4U (LME4U), implements the requirements identified. The main features of LME4U include file uploading, messaging, course registration, course creation, quiz generation, and downloading capability. Various types of files can be uploaded or downloaded, making it convenient to submit assignments and upload lessons. LME4U’s messaging system enables timely communication between instructor and learner. The system generates quizzes and also has an assessment engine. Login functions are activated for students and instructors. LME4U is capable of serving a wide range of students. It is customizable, and a number of applications can be integrated with it

Survey and Analysis of Android Authentication Using App Locker

Android Smart phones have gained immense popularity over the years and is undoubtedly more popular than other operating system phones. Following the similar lines android wear was introduced. Steadily android wear is making its way into our daily lives. It helps keep track of the sleep you have, helps you reach fitness goals, keeps track of phone and helps users have easy authentication. Due to the usage of smart lock which enables phone to be unlocked as long as connected to the android wear, this leads to almost no security on both the ends as android wear before Android 5.0 has no lock. We aim to produce the existing authentication methods in android phones and wear and the threats that plague both kinds of devices. As authentication is one of the major building blocks of security, through research we aim at designing a system for android phones which will be able to protect the sensitive data on devices which will be at risk through smart lock using encryption techniques. In this proposed system, the user would be able to decide which applications are needed to be secured when he is using smart lock. This application will enable lock for those user chosen applications as soon as the smart phone device is connected to android wear and similarly disables the lock when connection is disabled between the devices and communication between devices is made secure using encryption algorithms. This application does not interfere with easy phone authentication which users demand but it makes sure data is protected and users are authenticated with the help of multiple authentication layering

An overview of machine learning and 5G for people with disabilities

Currently, over a billion people, including children (or about 15% of the world’s population), are estimated to be living with disability, and this figure is going to increase to beyond two billion by 2050. People with disabilities generally experience poorer levels of health, fewer achievements in education, fewer economic opportunities, and higher rates of poverty. Artificial intelligence and 5G can make major contributions towards the assistance of people with disabilities, so they can achieve a good quality of life. In this paper, an overview of machine learning and 5G for people with disabilities is provided. For this purpose, the proposed 5G network slicing architecture for disabled people is introduced. Different application scenarios and their main benefits are considered to illustrate the interaction of machine learning and 5G. Critical challenges have been identified and addressed.This work has been supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain under project PID2019-108713RB-C51 MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033.Postprint (published version