Securing Marine Data Networks in an IoT Environment

With the huge proliferation of sensory applications, the Internet of Things (IoT) is promising connectivity capacity far beyond the conventional computing platforms, with an ultimate goal of connecting all everyday objects. Sensory applications in the marine environment are foreseen to be an integral part of this connected world, forming the Internet of Marine Things (IoMaT). While some efforts that aim to establish network connectivity in such a sparse environment exist, securing these networks is still an unreached goal. This paper introduces a secure Mobile Ad-hoc/Delay Tolerant routing protocol (S-MADNET) for the marine environment over VHF equipment available on the majority of ships. The proposed secure network is designed to use the existing Automatic Identification System (AIS) that ships use for positioning and navigation aid. An IoMaT routing module that forwards marine sensory data using the proposed secure protocol is also presented, taking the AIS system level considerations into account. Furthermore, a new AIS message format with IoMaT support is proposed that accommodates the requirements of the secure routing protocol. Evaluation results show that the proposed S-MADNET routing protocol outperforms its counterparts in terms of packet delivery rates and packet duplication rates, while maintaining data security

A Smart Modular Wireless System for Condition Monitoring Data Acquisition

Smart sensors, big data, the cloud and distributed data processing are some of the most interning changes in the way we collect, manage and treat data in recent years. These changes have not significantly influenced the common practices in condition monitoring for shipping. In part this is due to the reduced trust in data security, data ownership issues, lack of technological integration and obscurity of direct benefit. This paper presents a method of incorporating smart sensor techniques and distributed processing in data acquisition for condition monitoring to assist decision support for maintenance actions addressing these inhibitors

A Framework for Prediction and Storage of Battery Life in IoT Devices using DNN and Blockchain

As digitization increases, the need to automate various entities becomes crucial for development. The data generated by the IoT devices need to be processed accurately and in a secure manner. The basis for the success of such a scenario requires blockchain as a means of unalterable data storage to improve the overall security and trust in the system. By providing trust in an automated system, with real-time data updates to all stakeholders, an improved form of implementation takes the stage and can help reduce the stress of adaptability to complete automated systems. This research focuses on a use case with respect to the real time Internet of Things (IoT) network which is deployed at the beach of Chicago Park District. This real time data which is collected from various sensors is then used to design a predictive model using Deep Neural Networks for estimating the battery life of IoT sensors that is deployed at the beach. This proposed model could help the government to plan for placing orders of replaceable batteries before time so that there can be an uninterrupted service. Since this data is sensitive and requires to be secured, the predicted battery life value is stored in blockchain which would be a tamper-proof record of the data.Comment: Accepted for presentation at IEEE GLOBECOM 202

MARINE: Man-in-the-middle attack resistant trust model IN connEcted vehicles

Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET), a novel technology holds a paramount importance within the transportation domain due to its abilities to increase traffic efficiency and safety. Connected vehicles propagate sensitive information which must be shared with the neighbors in a secure environment. However, VANET may also include dishonest nodes such as Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) attackers aiming to distribute and share malicious content with the vehicles, thus polluting the network with compromised information. In this regard, establishing trust among connected vehicles can increase security as every participating vehicle will generate and propagate authentic, accurate and trusted content within the network. In this paper, we propose a novel trust model, namely, Man-in-the-middle Attack Resistance trust model IN connEcted vehicles (MARINE), which identifies dishonest nodes performing MiTM attacks in an efficient way as well as revokes their credentials. Every node running MARINE system first establishes trust for the sender by performing multi-dimensional plausibility checks. Once the receiver verifies the trustworthiness of the sender, the received data is then evaluated both directly and indirectly. Extensive simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance and accuracy of MARINE rigorously across three MiTM attacker models and the bench-marked trust model. Simulation results show that for a network containing 35% MiTM attackers, MARINE outperforms the state of the art trust model by 15%, 18%, and 17% improvements in precision, recall and F-score, respectively.N/A

Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions

Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers, involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems. SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems

Cross Domain IW Threats to SOF Maritime Missions: Implications for U.S. SOF

As cyber vulnerabilities proliferate with the expansion of connected devices, wherein security is often forsaken for ease of use, Special Operations Forces (SOF) cannot escape the obvious, massive risk that they are assuming by incorporating emerging technologies into their toolkits. This is especially true in the maritime sector where SOF operates nearshore in littoral zones. As SOF—in support to the U.S. Navy— increasingly operate in these contested maritime environments, they will gradually encounter more hostile actors looking to exploit digital vulnerabilities. As such, this monograph comes at a perfect time as the world becomes more interconnected but also more vulnerable