Three Decades of Deception Techniques in Active Cyber Defense -- Retrospect and Outlook

Deception techniques have been widely seen as a game changer in cyber defense. In this paper, we review representative techniques in honeypots, honeytokens, and moving target defense, spanning from the late 1980s to the year 2021. Techniques from these three domains complement with each other and may be leveraged to build a holistic deception based defense. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has not been a work that provides a systematic retrospect of these three domains all together and investigates their integrated usage for orchestrated deceptions. Our paper aims to fill this gap. By utilizing a tailored cyber kill chain model which can reflect the current threat landscape and a four-layer deception stack, a two-dimensional taxonomy is developed, based on which the deception techniques are classified. The taxonomy literally answers which phases of a cyber attack campaign the techniques can disrupt and which layers of the deception stack they belong to. Cyber defenders may use the taxonomy as a reference to design an organized and comprehensive deception plan, or to prioritize deception efforts for a budget conscious solution. We also discuss two important points for achieving active and resilient cyber defense, namely deception in depth and deception lifecycle, where several notable proposals are illustrated. Finally, some outlooks on future research directions are presented, including dynamic integration of different deception techniques, quantified deception effects and deception operation cost, hardware-supported deception techniques, as well as techniques developed based on better understanding of the human element.Comment: 19 page

Cyber Defense Remediation in Energy Delivery Systems

The integration of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has resulted in increased efficiency and facilitated real-time information acquisition, processing, and decision making. However, the increase in automation technology and the use of the internet for connecting, remote controlling, and supervising systems and facilities has also increased the likelihood of cybersecurity threats that can impact safety of humans and property. There is a need to assess cybersecurity risks in the power grid, nuclear plants, chemical factories, etc. to gain insight into the likelihood of safety hazards. Quantitative cybersecurity risk assessment will lead to informed cyber defense remediation and will ensure the presence of a mitigation plan to prevent safety hazards. In this dissertation, using Energy Delivery Systems (EDS) as a use case to contextualize a CPS, we address key research challenges in managing cyber risk for cyber defense remediation. First, we developed a platform for modeling and analyzing the effect of cyber threats and random system faults on EDS\u27s safety that could lead to catastrophic damages. We developed a data-driven attack graph and fault graph-based model to characterize the exploitability and impact of threats in EDS. We created an operational impact assessment to quantify the damages. Finally, we developed a strategic response decision capability that presents optimal mitigation actions and policies that balance the tradeoff between operational resilience (tactical risk) and strategic risk. Next, we addressed the challenge of management of tactical risk based on a prioritized cyber defense remediation plan. A prioritized cyber defense remediation plan is critical for effective risk management in EDS. Due to EDS\u27s complexity in terms of the heterogeneous nature of blending IT and OT and Industrial Control System (ICS), scale, and critical processes tasks, prioritized remediation should be applied gradually to protect critical assets. We proposed a methodology for prioritizing cyber risk remediation plans by detecting and evaluating critical EDS nodes\u27 paths. We conducted evaluation of critical nodes characteristics based on nodes\u27 architectural positions, measure of centrality based on nodes\u27 connectivity and frequency of network traffic, as well as the controlled amount of electrical power. The model also examines the relationship between cost models of budget allocation for removing vulnerabilities on critical nodes and their impact on gradual readiness. The proposed cost models were empirically validated in an existing network ICS test-bed computing nodes criticality. Two cost models were examined, and although varied, we concluded the lack of correlation between types of cost models to most damageable attack path and critical nodes readiness. Finally, we proposed a time-varying dynamical model for the cyber defense remediation in EDS. We utilize the stochastic evolutionary game model to simulate the dynamic adversary of cyber-attack-defense. We leveraged the Logit Quantal Response Dynamics (LQRD) model to quantify real-world players\u27 cognitive differences. We proposed the optimal decision making approach by calculating the stable evolutionary equilibrium and balancing defense costs and benefits. Case studies on EDS indicate that the proposed method can help the defender predict possible attack action, select the related optimal defense strategy over time, and gain the maximum defense payoffs. We also leveraged software-defined networking (SDN) in EDS for dynamical cyber defense remediation. We presented an approach to aid the selection security controls dynamically in an SDN-enabled EDS and achieve tradeoffs between providing security and Quality of Service (QoS). We modeled the security costs based on end-to-end packet delay and throughput. We proposed a non-dominated sorting based multi-objective optimization framework which can be implemented within an SDN controller to address the joint problem of optimizing between security and QoS parameters by alleviating time complexity at O(MN2). The M is the number of objective functions, and N is the population for each generation, respectively. We presented simulation results that illustrate how data availability and data integrity can be achieved while maintaining QoS constraints

Ensemble Feature Learning-Based Event Classification for Cyber-Physical Security of the Smart Grid

The power grids are transforming into the cyber-physical smart grid with increasing two-way communications and abundant data flows. Despite the efficiency and reliability promised by this transformation, the growing threats and incidences of cyber attacks targeting the physical power systems have exposed severe vulnerabilities. To tackle such vulnerabilities, intrusion detection systems (IDS) are proposed to monitor threats for the cyber-physical security of electrical power and energy systems in the smart grid with increasing machine-to-machine communication. However, the multi-sourced, correlated, and often noise-contained data, which record various concurring cyber and physical events, are posing significant challenges to the accurate distinction by IDS among events of inadvertent and malignant natures. Hence, in this research, an ensemble learning-based feature learning and classification for cyber-physical smart grid are designed and implemented. The contribution of this research are (i) the design, implementation and evaluation of an ensemble learning-based attack classifier using extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) to effectively detect and identify attack threats from the heterogeneous cyber-physical information in the smart grid; (ii) the design, implementation and evaluation of stacked denoising autoencoder (SDAE) to extract highlyrepresentative feature space that allow reconstruction of a noise-free input from noise-corrupted perturbations; (iii) the design, implementation and evaluation of a novel ensemble learning-based feature extractors that combine multiple autoencoder (AE) feature extractors and random forest base classifiers, so as to enable accurate reconstruction of each feature and reliable classification against malicious events. The simulation results validate the usefulness of ensemble learning approach in detecting malicious events in the cyber-physical smart grid

Data based identification and prediction of nonlinear and complex dynamical systems

We thank Dr. R. Yang (formerly at ASU), Dr. R.-Q. Su (formerly at ASU), and Mr. Zhesi Shen for their contributions to a number of original papers on which this Review is partly based. This work was supported by ARO under Grant No. W911NF-14-1-0504. W.-X. Wang was also supported by NSFC under Grants No. 61573064 and No. 61074116, as well as by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Beijing Nova Programme.Peer reviewedPostprin

SYNERGY OF BUILDING CYBERSECURITY SYSTEMS

The development of the modern world community is closely related to advances in computing resources and cyberspace. The formation and expansion of the range of services is based on the achievements of mankind in the field of high technologies. However, the rapid growth of computing resources, the emergence of a full-scale quantum computer tightens the requirements for security systems not only for information and communication systems, but also for cyber-physical systems and technologies. The methodological foundations of building security systems for critical infrastructure facilities based on modeling the processes of behavior of antagonistic agents in security systems are discussed in the first chapter. The concept of information security in social networks, based on mathematical models of data protection, taking into account the influence of specific parameters of the social network, the effects on the network are proposed in second chapter. The nonlinear relationships of the parameters of the defense system, attacks, social networks, as well as the influence of individual characteristics of users and the nature of the relationships between them, takes into account. In the third section, practical aspects of the methodology for constructing post-quantum algorithms for asymmetric McEliece and Niederreiter cryptosystems on algebraic codes (elliptic and modified elliptic codes), their mathematical models and practical algorithms are considered. Hybrid crypto-code constructions of McEliece and Niederreiter on defective codes are proposed. They can significantly reduce the energy costs for implementation, while ensuring the required level of cryptographic strength of the system as a whole. The concept of security of corporate information and educational systems based on the construction of an adaptive information security system is proposed. ISBN 978-617-7319-31-2 (on-line)ISBN 978-617-7319-32-9 (print) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to Cite: Yevseiev, S., Ponomarenko, V., Laptiev, O., Milov, O., Korol, O., Milevskyi, S. et. al.; Yevseiev, S., Ponomarenko, V., Laptiev, O., Milov, O. (Eds.) (2021). Synergy of building cybersecurity systems. Kharkiv: РС ТЕСHNOLOGY СЕNTЕR, 188. doi: http://doi.org/10.15587/978-617-7319-31-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Indexing:                    Розвиток сучасної світової спільноти тісно пов’язаний з досягненнями в області обчислювальних ресурсів і кіберпростору. Формування та розширення асортименту послуг базується на досягненнях людства у галузі високих технологій. Однак стрімке зростання обчислювальних ресурсів, поява повномасштабного квантового комп’ютера посилює вимоги до систем безпеки не тільки інформаційно-комунікаційних, але і до кіберфізичних систем і технологій. У першому розділі обговорюються методологічні основи побудови систем безпеки для об'єктів критичної інфраструктури на основі моделювання процесів поведінки антагоністичних агентів у систем безпеки. У другому розділі пропонується концепція інформаційної безпеки в соціальних мережах, яка заснована на математичних моделях захисту даних, з урахуванням впливу конкретних параметрів соціальної мережі та наслідків для неї. Враховуються нелінійні взаємозв'язки параметрів системи захисту, атак, соціальних мереж, а також вплив індивідуальних характеристик користувачів і характеру взаємовідносин між ними. У третьому розділі розглядаються практичні аспекти методології побудови постквантових алгоритмів для асиметричних криптосистем Мак-Еліса та Нідеррейтера на алгебраїчних кодах (еліптичних та модифікованих еліптичних кодах), їх математичні моделі та практичні алгоритми. Запропоновано гібридні конструкції криптокоду Мак-Еліса та Нідеррейтера на дефектних кодах. Вони дозволяють істотно знизити енергетичні витрати на реалізацію, забезпечуючи при цьому необхідний рівень криптографічної стійкості системи в цілому. Запропоновано концепцію безпеки корпоративних інформаційних та освітніх систем, які засновані на побудові адаптивної системи захисту інформації. ISBN 978-617-7319-31-2 (on-line)ISBN 978-617-7319-32-9 (print) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Як цитувати: Yevseiev, S., Ponomarenko, V., Laptiev, O., Milov, O., Korol, O., Milevskyi, S. et. al.; Yevseiev, S., Ponomarenko, V., Laptiev, O., Milov, O. (Eds.) (2021). Synergy of building cybersecurity systems. Kharkiv: РС ТЕСHNOLOGY СЕNTЕR, 188. doi: http://doi.org/10.15587/978-617-7319-31-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Індексація:                 &nbsp